To my fellow inmates, brothers and sisters, and to whom it all may concern:
With the upmost respect, thank you all for your time and consideration. For is it not your own freewill who considers your own time? No one else? All the more reason to make this time we have the best imaginable. #TxPaid (Pay American Inmates Their Due) is a movement in progress on Dirty Darrington Unit. The goal is to bring about a positive change, not only for our families wellbeing but for our own well being. A man’s ego will quickly take the shirt off his back for another. His pride on the other hand will stop a man short of asking for a shirt. Ancient teachings suggest that in order to take care of another we must learn to care for ourselves first and foremost. Pay wages for all incarcerated workers, time cuts, time credits and countless amount of demands that you the prisoners want, to live a better life and to ensure we all have a way out. Our only shortcomings are not acting directly upon realistic possibilities. Change is within reach. We can seize the opportunity as a whole! Abolish slave labor in Texas. Get #TxPaid !
Anyone is welcome to write to the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) IWOC (Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee) to support you workers in bringing the laws into effect:
IWW GHQ IWW-KC
PO Box 180195 PO Box 414304
Chicago, IL 60618 Kansas City, MO 64191
As the IWW are famous for doing, they are here for Texas to help and guide us through a statewide Unconditional Work Stoppage until Texas government pays every worker and brings tangible parole guidelines back into effect. We are not alone in here. Believe it or not, there are people out there who are more than willing to fight for prisoners’ human rights who want to go against the prison system. We need to demonstrate to our outside free-world support that we want change for ourselves as much as they want change for us.
If there was ever a time for direct action its right now! The United States of America is at its most vulnerable due to the economic distress the pandemic recently disrupted. Notice how the USA is bending to the will of the people who are organized in unison and solidarity? Look at all the amazing progress various movements are accomplishing in the free world. We inmates inside the penitentiary can accomplish great feats in here as well. Need an example? Take a look at the stimulus check we were recently granted. Want to know how that came to be? Inmates inside the California prison system fought for our rights to claim that check. And won. Did anyone celebrate the victory of convicted felons winning one over on the government? No. Everyone remained blind to the fact that all it takes on our part is a little disruption to lift the fog on what’s really going on. Can you imagine what we inmates in Texas will accomplish if we simply come together as fellow men and women in prisons? I’m talking about getting #TxPaid.
Our enemies (the government) have long since figured out that there is strength in numbers. But our selfishness and apparent difference has kept us from reaching the same conclusion. If we formed an alliance, a union, amongst each other with a mutual respect for obtaining our end goal we will all surely go down in history as one of those moments that changed everything. Laws are passed every odd year. Train oneself to spot opportunities. As they may appear in many forms and fashions. With that being said, this may be the last opportunity of its caliber to present itself.
Think about it. The whole world is changing due to unforeseen circumstances. Why not add another variable to the governments over-all equation? (I bet they’ll never see this #TxPaid movement either!) President Joe Biden has a hell of lot on his plate. Do us all a favor in the penitentiary and don’t hake the spoon on this mofo. Our only chance is to force change. If we all play our cards right, we can force the capitalist hand to work in our favor, the oppressed prison population.
I’m not just talking out the side of my neck (is that even physically possible?), I’m speaking on real life. This very moment is happening right now! Real topics about the Texas penitentiary (National penitentiary as well) are being discussed by real people in and out of Texas prisons. Take into consideration an article from the Houston Chronicle from Tuesday, November 24, 2020 about the Darrington Unit: “TDCJ Loses City Contract Over Unpaid Prison Labor” is the heading. TDCJ was to win the contract with $4.2 million to tread tires in the unit’s tire plant. However, the city redirected the contract to Southern Tire Mart, who TDCJ bidded $750,000 less than. The only other bidder. This was accomplished by requesting new bids using language that required compensation for workers. TDCJ pulled their bid. $4.6 million went to STM. The city stated it doesn’t want to funnel money into an immoral and unjust system, relating the prison labor to slavery. Facts! Did you know that Texas was “convict leasing” convicts to local plantation owners? It was abolished over 100 years ago. Now is the time to abolish slave labor. Facts! Dylan McGuiness wrote a follow up article on December 3, 2020. Please email Dylan for more info.
Texas remains one of the most notoriously stubborn states of them all because the extremely wealthy hasn’t experienced the complete disruption unionism and solidarity of the oppressed prison population can cause in the State of Texas. The old saying “strike at the heart” remains true even till this day. Luckily for us prisoners, the capitalists heart is located inside their pockets! What better way to “hit em where it hurts” than to initiate a statewide Unconditional Work Stoppage. Just stop working. All of us. Until they abolish slave labor in Texas. Until we get #TxPaid. It’s literally that easy! The mind and the ego desire complexity in everything which is why there is surely more to it than that, right? Wrong! Becoming organized is the challenge.
From those who shovel crap out of barns to those who wipe crap out of the warden’s ass. When the timing is called upon, just stop working until we get #TxPaid. Can you fathom the disruption our movement will cause? Are you willing to stand up for your rights? We won’t be alone. Word will spread of our trend. All units all over Texas needs to organize as we are on Dirty Darrington to abolish slave labor. To claim our rights.
People on the outside are working endlessly to demonstrate their solidarity for us prisoners. We only need to meet them halfway! The outcome will be revolutionary! Time and again we inmates allow these oppressors to win their petty battles while it is us who are fully capable of winning the war! In our fight to abolish slave labor there are many more demands that we may voice in our pursuit of happiness. Assuming, that is, you are unhappy about our overall incarceration living conditions. Because I am. I’m not at home with my family. I’m not out playing pool at a bar somewhere. At this very moment I’m right here with you all. Right here, for you all.
Tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. Facts. This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. What you choose to do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. If tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever. In its place is something you have left behind. Let it be something good. Let it be one for the books. For all of us who are tired of being tired of being tired! I’ve always seemed to come up short from the glory in my own personal life. In its place is something I left behind. A memory. A lesson. Something I can look back on and smile. Knowing in my heart that I tried. Using my failures for the fruition of success. What else is there to be afraid of? The prison system will do what they want regardless. Their retaliation will only be temporary, but our impact will be forever. The only wrong action is inaction. Remember, people over profit! Let’s all get #TxPaid together. There’s money out there for everyone to eat. We’re no different. Everybody is adding their puzzle piece to the world’s bigger picture. I believe it’s time to give the world a piece of us. Let’s unionize. Let’s organize. Let’s demonstrate together in solidarity. For all my fellow inmates who have time to do. There may never be a time such as this. Let’s all be a part of today. Fuck you, Pay us! #TxPaid
-Comrade GW
Mongoose Distro 