Fuck my… life!!! Goddamn TDCJ is like a scorned woman. I have single handedly penetrated the minds of every sorry motherfucker in TDCJ-CID. Yessir! Peep this y’all: Due to high volume amounts of mailroom retaliation and discrimination on my being an anarchist/abolitionist with Industrial Workers of the World Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, Officer Garcia, Estrada, Williams and Reyes did the dirty deed of opening media mail. Ms. Ford, mailroom clerk and supervisor, was allowing it, amongst other things. Naughty, naughty! However, on 12/18/20, they sent me a denial of an outgoing media mail packet addressed to ABC affiliate The Final Straw Radio. Now I’ve been retaliated on like this since October, then for successfully agitating with my outside facilitators. Asst. Warden Angela Chevalier set me up with Lt. Lott and Captain Cooper and ad.seg’d me for reporting to the public 13+ suicides under Warden Powers, Warden Armstrong, Major Pharr, Captain Cooper and Lt. Lott’s watch.
In September 2020 two suicides occurred back-to-back. After this, I began organizing and got another bullshit case for that. Now, mind you – they punch. I punch back. After receiving this bullshit case, I went to court. All I asked was for Captain Cooper not to touch my commissary, being that there’s a pandemic and all. No phone calls, no visits, poor feeding in ad.seg areas, you know? No dice! I get bammed! Right on! Now check this: I said mailroom was doing regular fuck shit, but what caught me off guard is why is Intelligence surveilling me? Hmmm. Oh yeah, because I got sick of the Warden’s corruption scheme that is taking down inmates for shit officers are setting them up with. These tactics mirror what happened on Ramsey One, with Powers and Captain Gilbert, who is now a Sgt. On Darrington. I sent a transcript of my interview with The Final Straw Radio from 4/23/20 to the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Narcotics Dept. to report mailroom entrapment scheme by Sgt. Estrada, Williams, Garcia and Reyes. The motherfucking Sheriffs did not call Darrington. No, instead, it spooked the shit out of them by contacting Huntsville. So Huntsville is running a statewide corruption scheme and are scrambling right now to hide their fucking crimes. Whoops! Did I do that? I am being blocked access to courts. I can’t mail my boards out.
Officers Obaseki, Sandoval, Reyes and Penny raided my cell on 1/11/21 at 3:20-3:40pm. On camera, Ms. Ford comes to drop off legal mail that I sent to State Counsel for Offenders attorney Charles Martin. She made a spectacle of opening my mail on camera, showing every single article, which included two emails, two #PrisonsKill essays, one WPO First Amendment Rights disclaimer and a Fire Ant Collective disclaimer. Seconds after receiving the letter, that was photo copied in Huntsville by attorneys for the State, the shakedown team comes to tell me that Warden Armstrong wants the letter because I am an anarchist. Penny’s big mouth said it loud and proud. Did I mention that First Amendment Rights disclaimer was in that envelope? The very next day, I get an attorney phone call. It was perfect timing. I proceeded to report all the illegal activity by this administration by order of “01” Bruce “Dirty Deeds” Armstrong.
The mailrooms across Texas are violating your First Amendment Rights, and Wardens are allowing their Intelligence Officers to set you up by allowing their own traceable contraband, that is a federal crime, to knowingly and intentionally introduce K2, meth, and SIM cards through the mail so they can set you up. More than likely it’s coming from the evidence rooms at Sheriff’s offices near your unit. Do you see those cameras on the walls? That’s not an eye because you see it. It’s an eye because it sees you!
TDCJ is running a statewide mailroom corruption scheme to continue receiving your families tax payer money to keep you in prison. Stay tuned to mongoosedistro.com (Texas Anarchist news). Please contact your family and sue the fuck out of your oppressors. Fuck TDCJ. By no means does this mean the fight is over.
Big update on Eric–> he has been placed on mail restriction yet again- for 6 months.https://t.co/uveqnLmpYW Eric needs your help as he deals with this, recovering from COVID-19 and a trial in April. pic.twitter.com/RTawALSwxE
The following is an interview with Eric conducted through snail mail by the Seattle-Tacoma chapter of Black and Pink, a queer/trans abolitionist group that focuses on building community across prison walls.
Black and Pink Seattle-Tacoma:How would you characterize FCI-Englewood’s response to COVID-19?
Eric King: Dreadful! At least in the SHU. People were brought in without being tested, staff was never tested. Our tiers were not cleaned more than once a week, we were only given 3 showers a week. No bleach was used anywhere. We were given masks, but staff/admin was so slack with their usage. Now we have a massive outbreak. The entire SHU was ill and staff refused to acknowledge or test us, until on Thanksgiving when things were so bad a med officer had no choice but to test 3 of us… all positive. A few days later they test everyone else, ALL positives. Then, AFTER we all are very sick, they institute a SHU lockdown, they start bleaching the showers between use, etc. Warden Greilick failed. None of us have been given anything for it, not even info about symptoms and how to make it less. Greilick failed, 600+ cases, all preventable.
B&P:What’s something about being in prison that you feel like people outside don’t understand, and need to know? Were there expectations you had about prison that shifted once you were incarcerated?
EK: I’m not sure people realize or care about the amount of psych games these people play. It is violent. Withholding mail for weeks or months claiming you don’t have any, searching your cell and vandalizing your family photos. Placing you intentionally around people who wish to harm you. I’ve seen cops lie and tell a group a certain person is a rat just to get that person fucked up. Happens all the time and isn’t limited just to unit cops. Medical will see you on your death bed and say you just need more water. People die because of this gaslighting. You file your grievances as you’re supposed to and get told they never got filed, that YOU are lying. It’s a miracle there aren’t staff murders every day. Instead people internalize this bullshit and give up, or turn anger on fellow convicts instead of toward the system baring down on them. It’s an effective spirit breaker. I honestly thought in prison it’d be “us vs. them” … it isn’t… it’s us vs. us while they laugh and manipulate us. Devastating.
B&P:What do you notice about how different populations in the prison are treated? How has your position affected your treatment?
EK: Different groups get treated different for sure, usually to stir resentment and violence. Gay and transgender people get treated abysmally by all races/gangs AND staff. They are demonized and treated as less than scum, often left vulnerable to attack or staff harassment.
My position as an anti-racist / anti-fascist person has been used to create divisions and separation. At USP-McCreary while in the SHU, staff mocked my “Antifa” face tattoo and assured me they were going to get me jumped… and they did. Mail is ALWAYS horribly delayed and often arbitrarily rejected, email has to be read and approved before being sent out – which can take days. I’ve been denied phone calls for 2 years after a website posted about me and my wife was denied visiting access due to her “ideology.” Staff talks big shit trying to instigate violence, subject you to a large amount of searches and property confiscation… you get targeted.
B&P:What sustains you while you’re inside? What support are you getting that is really making you feel supported?
EK: The support that feels the “most,” is when people/groups do things outside of me, on their own. Things like banner drops, fundraising, getting writings or info published to various sources. Being kept relevant and alive. In the near future it will be trial support: either showing up, posting about it, encouraging others to come, things like that. I have an amazing family who is outlandishly loving and supportive, I am very present in their lives. I have great friends and supporters who look out for me super tough. These things sustain me. Also, I am very secure in myself. My ethics and my belief in myself, in my future. These things carry me throughout the day. They won’t beat me.
B&P:What is the relationship between your incarceration and your political education? How has the experience of being incarcerated changed how you think about the world?
EK: Prison has reaffirmed all my anarchist beliefs and helped teach me further about what oppression really is. Prison has shown me, just like Congress or insurance companies have shown me, that governments do not give a shit about marginalized people, that our come-up will be through solidarity and unity. I lived in a bubble, knowing racism, homo/transphobia existed and needed to be fought, but surrounding myself with like-minded people, having the privilege to encounter these things on my terms, at rallies or fights. Prison has introduced me to new levels of hate, bigotry and violence. It has taught me the fear I face in prison for being different politically, is similar to what folks feel like in their homes or communities and this is devastating.
B&P:What did your life look like day-to-day before COVID? What does it look like now?
The people in charge of the prisons are bad people, it’s important folks know this. They are pieces of shit who need to be publicly outed as enemies of the people. J.E. Krueger – Regional Director wouldn’t let tests be taken to keep numbers low. Put him (and his office) on blast! Now-retired Warden Greilick and his lackey Ms. Thomas ensured pre-trial prisoners have no access to their lawyers. Our “rights” are toilet paper to these bastards.
B&P:How important has it been to have people writing you while you are in prison?
EK: Letter writing is beautiful for a plethora of reasons, including showing the prison that we aren’t invisible, we are loved and supported. It also helps us to stay human, having real friendships in the world. That said, for prison support groups, or abolitionists, letter writing should never be the end-all. We need real support. We need phone-call ins, we need fundraisers for legal support or just so we can write you back or call our families. We need people to get our words out there, to spread awareness, we need books or magazines, we need people to look in on our families, to protest for us, to act in solidarity, to dox our torturers, to write about us, to keep us alive and vibrant out there. Support is support. Letter writing as a means to show kindness or build friendship on an individual basis is a beautiful thing, though; it’s a way to maintain reality and a sense of who we are as people, instead of “King 27090045.”
Much love to the FireAnt Collective, Rob, Nadiya, M. Kimble, J. Rose, S. Swan, Thomas, and all anarchist and revolutionaries inside. Comrades, we are together. Fight 2 win. Thank you 2 all those who fight 4 us: Certain Days, all the ABC and ABCFs, B&P, all those fighting for us.
Eric has new lawyers from the Civil Liberties Defense Center and you can support his legal defense efforts by donating at https://cldc.org/donate/. Please earmark your donation on the website”Eric King legal defense.”
Like every Proud Boy across America, Bruce “Dirty Deeds” Armstrong believed Trump’s reelection by insurrection, by attempting to silence democracy. I am in solitary by order of the warden. Lt. Demsey stated that her slave master wants to send a message that it’s a white world and that slaves are not human, but animals. Even the pay wage slaves aren’t worth 6 inches of bullshit, unless they’re doing his bidding in his corruption team.
Increased assaults on the slaves to psychologically deceive into believing TDCJ still holds the same hold on its populations. None of their criminology implemented crowd control tools are active, like “good time/work time”. It’s not profitable. You can’t vote; you are not even considered human. How many graduates of the bible college are getting released? How many of them are receiving any incentive to attend school? How many letters of recommendation are sent to BPP? Zero! Commodities are a meal ticket and I refuse to feed the racist machine. Sabotage cat will bite, and sabotage cat feeds on solidarity. Your class war is a weak and dying breed. Face it, you lose, Republican traitor.
“We will now discuss in a little more detail the struggle for existence.”
-Charles Darwin
Like comrades in the struggle, my anarchist ideology is now, after 10 months of direct action on this unit, elevated. Their disbelief in an indigent, abandoned prisoner is now their worst nightmare, for exposing corruption in: mailroom and farm, schemes of entrapment, torture, inadequate mental health, which is vital in a crumbling torture chamber, with the worst drinking water in Texas, roach infestation, blackouts in Summer time, no hot water in ad seg areas in Winter, no air conditioning in dayrooms, no safety equipment. Officers get two masks per day, sanitizer, A/C in offices, dining rooms, new clothes, new caps, new key chains, new vests, new dogs, new drug test kits, new shoes, new communication tools, new tractors, new 18-wheelers, new parts for silos, new cars, new officers and tons of pepper spray for the ignorant slave that speaks his mind to acknowledge that what they are doing is wrong. If that slave refuses to be quiet he is assaulted, bloodied and shipped off to the unit to hide the assault from the families and courts.
Covid-19 deaths were staved off because of direct action by outside facilitators from IWW-IWOC. Suicides were down too. As soon as they believed no one was watching they continued to flood the unit with their tools of entrapment. Sgt. Estrada, Sgt. Williams, Ms. Ford, Lt. Wilcox, Captain Cooper are all corrupt. It’s no secret, this is why grievance process is useless. This is why no staff or officers exercise their freedom of speech, because TDCJ is an authoritarian communist agency. “Cease to speak or cease to breathe”. This is beyond cleanliness and proper storage. TDCJ is earning $90 million per year on free labor, and all the Kim Jong Un’s of TDCJ want more. They want absolute supreme power over the black and brown communities.
I am glad we got rid of two corrupt wardens. Now I want people to call in an outside investigation by the City of Houston. Of course I know any politician or council member would not dare talk to me, fo we know that second class, non-voters are still judged, even after paying debts to so called “society”. But I do encourage those who are able and willing to contract these individuals an demonstrate solidarity for men living in an inhabitable prison that is outdated and a structural liability. Again, is brown water safe to drink? My new campaign with abolitionist army is to bring a demonstration to Huntsville and to shut down corruption camps in Brazoria and Angleton and Beaumont. Again, I ask Wobblies to raise awareness about officers’ contraband scheme. All and any interviews are welcome.
PS – I am requesting legal assistance for First Amendment Rights violations. Contact Officer of Inspector General at Huntsville, Texas to report corruption on Warden Armstrong’s slave farm. Officer Garcia and Intelligence Officers opened privileged media mail on December 18th, 2020 that was addressed to c/0 Bursts O’Goodness, The Final Straw Radio.
“When the peace you are continuously urged to return to looks like powerlessness, humiliation, poverty, boredom and violence, it shouldn’t be a surprise many choose to fight and to witness the ferocity with which some of us flight, it’s almost as if we’ve been waiting for this moment our entire lives.”
-Dispatches from Ferguson, Vol. 1
“Government has never been a tool to change people’s lives; it’s always been a force which organizes them for the interests of the wealthy and powerful. A state is a collection of hierarchical apparatus that holds a monopoly of violence in a given territory and has the ability to enforce it’s power through policing. States exist to ensure that the divisions that exist within society make the overall power structure fall apart. No matter who is in government, government has its own logic. The fact that this society is divided into classes opposing interests means that is is always at risk of tearing itself apart. The government is there to make sure that doesn’t happen. Whether the government is a dictatorship or a democracy, it holds all the guns and will use them against its own population to make sure that we keep going to work. But liberals paint a much different picture. They instead present a democratic state as a neutral institution that simply needs enough good people to become involved in it.”
-prole.info in ‘Work Community Politics War’
“There is an immense system of violence and domination in place over us that keeps the wheels of this system running. While it appears we have a hand in shaping our lives, in reality there are clear systems of control and management in place to make sure that the overall structure of this society is not threatened. No matter who is elected, no matter what political party you join, the appearance of popular control, of democracy, is a total illusion. But a state isn’t a neutral coming together of human beings; it is instead an instrument of colonial and class dictatorship. This is how the American state has always been organized. America is a settler nation created out of colonies managed by imperial powers. As one of the founding fathers, John Jay put it, “The people who own the country ought to govern it”. The reasons that every day working class and poor people can’t get ahead in politics is not because not enough people don’t get involved in changing or participating within the state, but because the people that run this government have invested interest in keeping the status-quo. This has not been any more clear than with the election of Donald Trump, as the entirety of the political class lines up to work with a fascist in order to preserve the social peace. The state is designed to ensure the ability to govern and police a territory through force and violence for the interest of those in power; it is not a means in which our lives can be changed for the better.”
-From ‘After Bern: An Open Letter to the Newly Disheartened’
People have been saying this for years; I’ve done the same. By the amount of retaliation I’ve been getting by Warden Armstrong is to continue the amount of retaliation I’ve been getting by Assistant Warden Angelo Chevalier, so those of you who know and understand administration in prison know that this power move was to attempt to silence me, and now that Asst. Warden Chevalier is not here I am going to make sure wherever she goes we have Wobblies in place to watch her every move. This way, TDCJ will force her into an early retirement too. She’s a liability, just as Warden Bruce Armstrong is a liability, and is more than likely being asked by TDCJ right now to abandon ship, take a job elsewhere.
Well, in this day and age, we can track viruses by phone, am I right? Simply know that, as an anarchist writer, my excitement is because of the current paradigm shift in politics and the nature of society. It’s highly unusual for the politicians to agree with us on the dynamic flaws of criminal justice and to acknowledge mass incarceration, prison slavery and the prison industrial complex. Right now, it’s the movement of the people that are changing the face of the criminal justice system. As an organizer within, I can give direct knowledge of the “evil empire” that prides itself on slaving black and brown people. Only difference is they call it Policy. It’s written on toilet paper, so they have to rewrite Policy every day and instill the “We Win, You Lose” mentality. I am not accepting that, so if we are all guilty and your disciplinary, classification, UCC is designed for all of us to lose, no matter what, why is TDCJ motto “Do the right thing”? So, your policy is perfection. Am I understanding this correctly? Is retaliation on free thinkers your policy? Is mailroom a tool for administration to to entrap and introduce your own contraband? Since Texas can’t tax your contraband you profit from state funding and the money you sold your cell phones for. That’s some good money. I sure hate to see you lose that, like tire plants’ $4.2 million (tisk tisk). My heart breaks for you.
Now, people of your unit, know that all it takes is to trend an Unconditional Work Stoppage. Give the jobs back to TDCJ and it would look like what? A medical lockdown, that’s it, and it would guarantee law makers to act so fast on parole reform you wouldn’t be able to finish a whole black bag of coffee. What are you scared of, hurting your warden’s feelings? What about your family? What about your freedom? Remove your blinders, comrades. You’ve got a political backing and the backing of the communities in Houston and every surrounding city. Texas Department of Minimal Justice is only hanging on by a thread because of you, the inmate. STOP WORKING – that’s the message coming from the outside world. If your mailrooms are retaliating, do what I did: Report them for illegally allowing contraband in, knowingly and intentionally. Get your hearts right. You want parole. Well, your oppressor is working to keep you here. What are you doing working to save TDCJ?
“Dont save her, she don’t wanna be saved” Every one in Texas units will read this and remember that they are the power. You want changes, demand it. Stop working free, fuck TDCJ. For all the ones who didn’t make it home. Stand up! Rise up! End this shit. Get their heart’s right. Lay it down. The ultimate heart check, for our rights, pay wages, end Texecution parole board is greedy as fuck, just as TDCJ, time is now. Lay it down. Contact your local media. Let them know we want change. It’s called Pay Wages and Parole Reform. Today is my “May Day” and I’m celebrating by speaking to the anarchists and abolitionists of the United States and asking them to flood every unit in Texas with these facts. Easy shit. NO MORE PRISON SLAVERY. Legalize marijuana, decriminalize drugs, whatever you feel is worth fighting for, let it be known. Texas is listening. Join up. Meet the demonstrators half-way. They fightin’ for you- what you doin? Darrington, Unite!
12/18/20 – Officer Garcia and Mailroom Supervisors, Intelligence Officers Sgt. Estrada, Williams and Reyes, illegally opened privileged media mail, directed to The Final Straw Radio and wrote a disciplinary case for being a member of IWW-IWOC, all by the order of Warden B “Dirty Deeds” Armstrong. They are blocking access to law library, grievance process, and are attempting to suppress my voice. They are stopping at nothing, even if it’s against the law.
1/11/21 – Monday sometime between 3:20-3:40pm, again, by order of “01” as the officers stated, theft of mail occurred on B-Line, 2 row, 8 cell, by Officers Sandoval, Obaseki, Penny and Reyes. Ms. Ford comes to my cell door and opens up legal mail and flipping through each article of content in view of camera she drops mail on the floor and runs off. Minutes later, Officers Obaseki and Penny roll the door and begin to ask me, “Where’s it at? Do you know what we are looking for?” Of course I did not. Officer Sandoval was searching my cell as Officer Penny held me in handcuffs, asking me, “So you’re an anarchist, huh? Give us the letter.” I said, “What letter? My legal team?” Sandoval said, “Yes, he wants it. Warden sent us for it! Give it to us and we won’t tear up your shit.” Penny then let me out of my handcuffs and I reached into an envelope with two disclaimers, one from Fire Ant Collective and the other from Bumpin My Music newsletter, also two print outs of #PrisonsKill for my Dirty Darrington essays with officers’ names in them and also a First Amendment Rights disclaimer. As the officers gathered up their stolen mail, I made sure I told them that it’s been scanned by Huntsville and my attorney and furthermore, I personally sent Warden Bruce Armstrong my essays so that he cannot ever accuse me of hiding who I am or what I do.
However, federal crimes are being committed against me. I need help. Dirty Darrington has blocked access to courts, access to grievance process, will not pick up my outgoing artwork to mail out and are refusing to preserve any video surveillance. As I mentioned in my writings on #PrisonsKill, TDCJ does not use these cameras for safety. It’s to fuck over people. They call it policy, I call it corruption. Huntsville is blocking my friends from putting money on my books and more plans to set me up are in progress now. I have already contacted attorney Charles Martin at the State Counsel for Offenders to report misconduct and also the office of Inspector General multiple times. I’ve gone to ACLU, NAACP, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and I am still fighting for prisoners’ rights.
Thank you comrades, for getting us Covid-19 tested again! The day after I got raided for my disclaimer and legal mail, the same officers came to test me for Covid, not even knowing it is I that agitated for it with the abolitionists, for painting H-Line dayroom, for spraying for water bugs in chow hall, farm safety, mailroom oppression/suppression. Again, they never denied mailroom corruption. They are trying to suppress it because I have intentionally thrown myself into their path of deceitful corruption. Huntsville quickly jumped in to defend their corruption scheme because as I’ve told the whole world this is going on all over Texas mailrooms, not just here. 100 units have their greedy, racist fingers in the cookie jar. You wanted truths, now you got it. Approach it with fury and without mercy. This is what Texas Department of Minimal Justice is doing to me for exposing what Houston Chronicle’s Dylan McGuiness wrote on November 24 and December 3, 2020.
I am under attack by Huntsville and administration y’all. I need Civil Rights attorneys to begin reaching out to me. TDCJ has blocked my due process avenues. Black and red flag is waving, calling in air support.
Action must be taken, risk must be taken, creativity must be invoked. Right now, people are pushing the “Revolutionary” tag, but our words have never moved walls. We need creative attention-grabbing protests against the Bureau’s benefactors, companies like Keefe, Bob Barker Co., etc. Shame them into divesting, shame companies from making money off our slave labour. We need coordinated big protests at regional and national headquarters along with massive strikes and occupations inside. We need to set up blockades to prison entrances, we need to occupy headquarters with sit-ins or get armed and fucking take them (like we saw yesterday). On a county jail level, 20 people will take the jail and open every door. On a BOP level, if coordinated right, it could happen. Maybe this is my “Harper’s Ferry” and my own doom, but these are not pipe dreams, these are not fantasy ideas. Coordination, direct action, mass protest, media attention – they dont like these suggestions ’cause they require action. It also requires hard work and having solutions. We need to have solutions for how to implicate other forms of justice. There are savage monsters inside who will kill/rape someone for a stamp. How do we handle that? We need ideas and action. I’m telling you though, I’ve been in prisons that could be taken easily, and that’s a step, one of many that are needed. We can’t abolish prisons without abolishing courts and prosecutors. We have many enemies in this fight.
On January 5th, 2021, Eric was once again placed on a 6- month communication restriction in response to a New Year’s Eve noise demo that was held outside of FCI Englewood by various groups in Denver, a demo that happens every single year at prisons worldwide. After being accused of organizing the demo, the BOP finally admitted that they are aware that Eric had nothing to do with the noise demo. Despite this fact, the BOP North Central Regional office instructed Englewood to restrict Eric’s communication.
Apparently, in the BOP prisoners will be held responsible for anything anyone may do. It is interesting though that in 2017 when the right-wing Bundy family attempted to force their way into the prison to visit a prisoner they stood in solidarity with, driving around the parking lot, evading guards, blasting music… there were no disciplinary actions or restrictions enforced on the prisoner. This must be another special BOP rule that only applies to anti-fascists.
Eric can no longer correspond with anyone outside his family and lawyer. He is again cut off from communication from anyone that might offer him support and strength and solidarity during a global pandemic. He is again isolated from all contact with friends that matter deeply to him.
If folks want to help, he can receive books. These can be a great distraction for him and all of the prisoners he passes them onto, especially during this next level federal lock-down. Eric’s Booklist
Donations to the bad ass lawfirm who has stepped up for him in a real way can be made, to help ensure they have the resources to continue to stand behind folks who are fighting oppression in real ways. Donate to the Civil Liberties Defense Center
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
Mongoose Distro 