The ARA (Anti-Racist Action www.aranet.org) Networks annual conference
was held recently,
over the weekend of October 16th through the 18th. Among the
many goings on that weekend
was a workshop entitled "the white antifascist prison experince".
The workshop was facilitated
by myself, Joe Rosen, and Grover from Cincinatti.
The workshop went surprisingly well, given the title and the venue,
but I would like to re-cap
some of the points made and issues raised in light of the VERY low
attendance, and make some
additions, since all of us were suffering from sickness and very little
sleep
the preceding week.
The issue of prisons, and specifically the experience of white militants
of our generation
who have survived them holds important lessons, not only for those
who face the possibility
of state oppression and imprisonment, but to the anti-racist struggle
in general.
Joe was the first to speak, relating his experiences in the ohio youth
system which spanned the spectrum of isolation and lonelieness to physical
violence.
One of the most important issues Joe raised was that of motivation
in the antifascist/anti-racist struggle, when he stated that anti-racist
who in effect wanted to "help those poor people" were missing the point
entirely, and that racism and fascism is directly related to each of our
lives, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
Grover spoke next about his time in the ohio state system, where he
spent time for a retaliatory attack upon a nazi bonehead during the fascist/antifascist
skinhead war of the late 80's/early 90's.
Among the issues raised were conditions inside the system, and the
role and experiences of white antifascist in the american prison system.
Shawn Bear in the Stars spoke on his 15 year tour of duty in the ohio state system as well.
My section of the workshop directly followed Grover and preceeded Shawn Bear in the Stars, and I spoke of my experiences in (several joints of) the U.$. Federal prison system, and there was an interesting question and answer period for the panel afterwards.
During my "stint", I witnessed and experienced alot of life changing events. Some for the better, most for the worst.
Within the first month of my incarceration, I was placed in the "terror dome" while awaiting trial. The terror dome was an appropriately named unit of the Jacksonville Florida county jail where inmates between the ages of 18-21 were housed because their behavior was so uncontrollable that they couldn't be housed with older inmates. All were old enough to be tried as men, but certainly none of us WERE men yet, and I would guess some of us still aren't.
In the "terrordome", whites were certainly the minority. I understand (not completely of course, but probably better than most readers) what racism does to people, and while I don't maintain to understand the outcome of generations of oppression, I certainly understand that this has been the case.
Some African American "Politicos" have stated that since whites oppress them in society, that it is their duty to return the favor in the prisons. I doubt anyone in the terror dome could have so succinctly expressed this idea, but it was prevelant, nonetheless.
My experiences in the system as an anti-racist ran the gammut from the obvious loneliness and lack of genuine emotional or physical contact with others, to having all of the ribs on the left side of my body broken for (in effect) creating a bad example by being the only white guy in the "terrordome" who was still eating (I saw a kid collapse after 7 days of *NO* food), to being stabbed four times in the torso by members of the Aryan brotherhood while in holdover in El Reno Ok. during a knife battle with a mexican comrade of mine which ended his life.
This is and was all told to help serious anti-racists understand that their previous lives as leftists or campus activist will carry absolutely no weight whatsoever in prison. If you're unlucky enough to go. My saving grace was having been in reform school as a kid, and coming from a very working poor urban background, and that I was a relative combat veteran on the streets before I ever had a federal number. While I didn't ever know WHAT to do, I always knew what NOT to do.
Prison is of course, a microcosm of all of societies ills, intensified a thousand times over, and the racial dynamics inside of the prison system won't be made better with any simple solutions.
One question posed by an attendee during the question and answer period
was whether or not I had ever experienced any time in prison when this
dynamic didn't apply. There was only one: The BOP (bureau of
prisons) in its wisdom took it upon itself to transfer about a dozen sexual
preditors from USP atlanta into our unit, where they raped a younger follower
of Yahwe ben Yawhe. That day, the situation was remedied, not by
the one other Yahweh disciple, not by the other African Americans in the
unit, but by everyone, because everyone realized that while we were subjected
to miserable conditions by the state, we at least had it in our power to
better our material situation by not having rape gangs roam the unit.
This is important.
Another interesting question posed by an attendee, which I answered as well, was "what did my time in prison teach me?". That one certainly defied an easy answer. However, the one thing that prison made me realize more than anything, is the nature by which we can effectively combat racism.
Being a leftists (and even less of one at that time) and an antifascist,
I tried often in vain to reconcile tensions between other whites, african
americans, and latinos in my unit. Generally, all attempts failed.
All but one. Attempts at citing that we "all bleed the same color",
that our skin is just "earth suits", etc. are wasted in prison, and I would
speculate in society as well.
The only effective measure against it was a class analysis.
While I'm not an economic reductionist, this has simply proven to me through experience to be the only thing that worked effectively.
When predators posed a DIRECT and IMMEDIATE physical threat to inmates
in our unit, race briefly ceased to be an issue, in favor of solidarity
between all of us to fight a common and IMMEDIATE enemy.
I took this lesson to heart, and it completely changed my orientation
to anti-racist work.
It is my opinion, that racism can't be fought effectively outside the context of class struggle. If it could, Jerry Brown and Jesse Jackson would give each other a big wet kiss, and the world would move on to more important things.
People (white people in particular) have to be made to realize that they share a common fate with workers of all races and nationalities. Sound to simple? It may well be, but check out one of several examples:
While working in a T-shirt factory that produced garmets for the auto
racing industry (and you KNOW it's gotta be about as progressive as a treadmill!),
I heard a co-worker who I had grown up with make a fucked up comment about
a black dude who worked with us.
I think the first reaction of alot of "anti-racists" would have been
to get loud, flap their arms around, etc., but I didn't do this partly
because I needed that job REALLY badly, partly because I knew the guy.
I pulled him aside and talked to him for a little while. The conversation
went something like this:
ME: Yo J- how's come you don't like S-?
HIM: Ah, he's alright.
ME: You were calling him a nigger and shit though, hes a cool
guy, I thought you liked him?
HIM: Nah, he's ok, I just don't like niggers. [then he mentions
how some black guys were lurking around his house the other night and he
got mad, etc.]
ME: S- is cool though. You wanna know whats fucked up though
J-? Carl (the boss) looks at you the same way he looks at S-.
We're all here making these fuckin' shirts all day while Carl is sitting
in his office and living in a mansion with his pill addict wife!
We're the ones that make these shirts, and Carl knows it, but he's giving
us maybe 2 thousand bucks all together this week, and expenses are about
that much, and he's gonna make 50 times that!
HIM: Yeah, that's fucked up.
ME: As far as I'm concerned, I got more in common with S-, or
anybody else who isn't white that works the same way I do and tries to
take care of their family than I do with Carls fat white ass who's sitting
in there cashing in on all of us.
HIM: That's kinda true.
ME: As far as Carl cares, you're as much of a nigger (yeah, I
spoke the unspeakable) as S-, and you're both pretty stupid if you don't
realize that.
HIM: Some shit about when we were kids...
ME: But you know what I'm saying, though, right? That when
you do that shit, and make enemies with other people like you, you're only
making your boss, or other rich people, or whoever's job easier, right?
HIM: Yeah, I never though about it like that before, but it's pretty
much true.
Etc.
Believe it or not, It’s a very true story, and he apologized (even though the other guy never heard him) that same day, and while he certainly wasn't the model revolutionary, or chasing the Klan around the country, he got the point, and changed.
If you bring your college textbook discourses on equality out, and brow beat (especially) white working class guys, or give them the load of crap about white people being inherently fucked up, they're going to ignore you, laugh at you, or punch you. I'm one of them, and before I got interested in politics I was every bit as socially and politically backwards as anyone else, and if you came at me talking about "dialectical materialism" you wouldn't have passed go, and would have been more likely to collect a fist in your nose, not 200 dollars.
If you make people realize that all of our fates are tied together, and that racism (at least indirectly) hurts everyone by weakening our leverage against the boss, the rich, the cops, or whomever, people will listen to you. When ruling class tricks a white person into being racist through the whole socialization process, it might not hurt them as directly, badly or immediately as a person of color, but it seriously weakens their position, and allows for them to be treated any old way, as long as it seems like they’re getting treated better than non-whites.
This, in my opinion, is the only real, and effective way that we're going to be able to change society. Having a classless planet won't eliminate racism, no matter how much people would like to think so. The fight to get there might, though.
I would be remiss if I didn't explain also, that I'm advocating a way of changing the minds of middle of the road white (as well as other) working folks who have just grown up in a fucked up society, and have not made the quantum leap to realize who their real enemies are.
Polarized extremists, on the other hand are a completely different story.
Fascism, is by nature inextricably mixed with action, and should be combatted
physically, by ANY means necessary. You don't hit a nazi to change
his mind, but to shut his mouth, so he can't brainwash other vulnerable
people.