THE NEED FOR DUALITY IN THE STRUGGLE
Most people see the activism that surrounds the anti-death penalty movement in a very narrow scope. They think that marching in the streets with a sign or standing in front of the building where an execution takes place with a candle is enough. While these activities are well-meant, and do play a role, they alone are not adequate to face off against this killing machine.
The death penalty has many facets to it: political, social, economical and religious. And because life and death are at hand it’s very much like a war. In a war you don’t just see planes and helicopters deployed; you see tanks, foot soldiers and a multitude of offensive and defensive tactics applied. This same theory MUST be applied to fighting capital punishment.
Death Row conditions (internally and externally) vary from state to state. I cannot give an accurate description of each one, but internal wise we know there is a wide range of disparity. On one end of the spectrum you have contact visits (like in Florida), whereas on the other end you have prisoners being handcuffed in visitation booths while they visit their loved ones (like in Pennsylvania). While Texas does neither, there is an extensive list of unjust and inhumane conditions that do exist which allows Texas to stand out, as one of, if not the, worst.
To understand Texas’ Death Row, and the totalitarian politics that surround it, you have to understand the politicians that administer them. If Texas wasn’t already overtly oppressive to its prisoners it soon became so, mainly for death row, after the 1998 escape of 7 death row prisoners (6 never made it over the fence, one did but later drowned in a river). Texas, never the one to be made a stooge of (keep in mind its motto: “Don’t mess with Texas”), allowed this event, even after death row was transferred in 1999 and 2000 from Ellis 1 to the more secure Polunsky Unit, to open the flood gates to a barrage of vengeful regimens that would push the faces of death row deep into the dirt, or as they would like to see it – the grave. It was then that Texas’ Death Row became grudgingly political and placed upon a repressive pedestal unmatched by other death rows. This is a factor that can never be overlooked as long as anti-death penalty activism exists in Texas. You can never face an enemy on half-wits otherwise you face being outwitted.
As Steve Biko, freedom fighter against colonialism in Africa noted: “Grounds for revolution is always fertile in the presence of absolute desolation”. Texas’ Death Row gave life to those words, thus the current insurrection on its hands. With a steady decline in its conditions and privileges, Texas’ Death Row has forced the men here to struggle for nothing more than the integrity in which to be called humans. When you strip a man of his home you find two results: either he will cling to his blanket in defeat or he will cling to your neck in defense.
Death Row has become a transit of vainglorious political recognition. Continuously Texas’ Death Row is stacked with staff members who carry extremely indifferent attitudes towards prisoners. Time and time again they are ushered in, never to act as problem solvers, but simply act as momentary dictators. Many of these staff members have come to Death Row and left to attain higher ranks – as if to say: “I got these stripes going through Death Row.” This is the greatest Institutional Tourist Attraction in the state. I’ve seen correctional officers doing on job training pointing at certain cells citing the prisoners notorious cases or nickname all to have the trainee peering into the cage with an agape mouth and boggled eyes like a kid at a circus looking at the 2-headed man spectacle.
For Texas, with its unique status, the struggle must be brought into a clearer view if it’s to progress toward a moratorium, and even more the almighty abolition of the death penalty. One of the biggest things that Texas activists are neglecting is the roles that death row prisoners, ESPECIALLY the ones with political consciousness, must play in the direct attack to end the death penalty. This is more than sending a brochure. What good does that do if the prisoner can’t read or doesn’t have the slightest inclination towards activism? It’s more than offering a free pen-pal webpage. What’s needed is hands on interaction, and this cannot be done when no bridge exist between prisoner and activist. Some of the greatest political minds are confined within these walls. They are great thinkers and mobilizers. They have ideas to share – ideas that can advance the cause. Once the wheat is separated from the chaff amongst prisoners who propagate righteous endeavors there should be no subservience rather bonds of equality that allow prisoner/activist relations to surge forth as a vehicle for progressive movement.
Moreover, if you have a demoralized prisoner population (a widespread ailment of Texas’ Death Row) then you have complacency, and complacency is the enemy of progress. If prisoners are participating and revelling in their own self-murder there’s no way to expect advancement beyond fatalism. So, the anti-death penalty struggle must be internal as well as external.
For a state like Texas, where the death row conditions are purposely oppressive, fighting the situation on the inside is just as important as fighting for the overall abolishment of capital punishment. If the people allow men to languish in filth and sensory deprived housing, how do you think this affects the morale and behaviors of the prisoner? Undoubtedly, it further abuses him and stirs anger within. To allow men to live in decaying conditions is to work against the process of trying to revive these men. TDCJ board members have decided to make a sort of extremist statement against Death Row. To fight for better conditions is to lift the self-hate, inmate on inmate aggression (which is on the rise) and raise the morale of those you’re fighting for. In the meantime, as the entire death penalty is being fought against, fair and decent conditions should be fought for so that the men of death row do not fall deeper into the traps of recidivism that the system has laid for them.
Currently, the internal struggle has been left to neglect and the external one is mediocre at best. In 2004 when I and three other prisoner activists (Tony Egbuna Ford, Hasan Shakur and Randy Arroyo) brought The Welfare Poets (a band of poets/musicians and revolutionary activists) down to Texas from New York to perform at the 5th annual march to end the death penalty in Austin, I was told there was a mix of excitement and shock at these young men powerfully pushing lyrics about change and struggle. It baffled me to think that people would entertain the though that passivity would be successful against a system that practices genocide. We can avoid reality but we cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. As Frederick Douglas stated: “Power has never conceded to anything without a demand, and never will.” When passionate request fails (as moratorium and abolition requests have done for over 30 years now), you have to stop begging and start battling.
And this highlights another point – there’s a wide gap between anti-death penalty activists and the young generation. We must find better ways to reach our up-and-coming leaders, activists, business people, etc. Getting groups like The Welfare Poets involved is imperative as it creates a link of relation. To mobilize any group of people you must first understand them – even if you don’t agree with them, their trends or culture. By getting artists, musicians, rappers, poets involved you will attract the young legs and minds that are waiting to leave their mark on the world. If the audience for anti-death penalty activism is secluded to just college students or middle-class type settings, then you are in essence, abandoning the prime areas in which the death penalty effects people the most – poor and working class people; many of whom are minorities. We don’t need celebrities to bring victory to our causes; sincere grassroots strugglers will do more for the struggle any day than ones who are more concerned with what publicity they get or what donations are tax-deductible.
These were all things that DRIVE strugglers came to realize. At a time of a conscientious alignment, so to speak, several diverse minds found each other and found one thing, if nothing else, in common: the love for struggle and refusal to give up on, or surrender, life. That alone was the spark to make the pot boil. In our lifetime we come across groups/events, if only short-lived, that carry an enormous social impact and whose legacy lives on even longer than their life span, for e.g. the Weathermen, SNCC, Attica and the Soledad Brothers, to name a few.
One of the objectives of DRIVE was to rekindle the position of the need to have internal activism. What we’ve come to see is the activist community getting stuck on rallying around only a handful of prominent cases, thus ending up wounding the overall struggle. While respect and solidarity are extended to our elder political prisoners, we cannot allow the new and blooming conscious minds to be neglected for these are the ones that will lead the path of activism into the future.
A very important thing that needs to be done is that activists must step up in propagating the positive, reformed and intelligent voices of men on death row. Be it through individual newsletters, email, networking, forum postings or a collective magazine done by anti-death penalty groups, it must be done. If the monster and non-rehabilitative images are steadily bombarding the minds in society, the actuality of the death penalty being a process that can never be error-proof, nor a deterrent, will never be proven. Mainstream media is more mind trick than fact. It’s hard for the death penalty to be a social deterrent when society as a whole, doesn’t directly witness executions. The death penalty is absorbed more by word of mouth than anything - it’s the art of deceptive politics (does “weapons of mass destruction” ring a bell?). So, we need to have more educating words coming out our mouths.
In Texas, there is a lack of one-on-one meetings with activists and prisoners. This renders the movement vulnerable for it: 1) disconnects the unity, trust and understanding between the prisoner and activist, both of whom are fighting for the same thing; 2) prevents activists from getting firsthand accounts of what’s going on on the inside; 3) prevents activist from being able to ENTER the unit where face-to-face confrontations can be had with the staff when problems exist (phone calls can be ignored). They don’t have to come to the outside of the unit to talk to you. By visiting prisoners, you are in a stronger position to be heard, thus more effective.
Last but not least, activists in Texas (individually and collectively) need to realize that the movement is not about competition. There has to be less ego, personal agendas and favouritism. More unity is the call of the day. Even more importantly, activists must not wait until the last 5 minutes to expose cases. When activism comes at the last minute it comes off not only as procrastination, but exploitation. These two issues combined are mortally wounding our movement. Regardless if you’re grassrooted or mainstream, radical or religious, we must function as one team. We have to learn how to allow diversity to be our greatest asset – the same way a professional sports team will use diverse players (whom are extremely effective in their specific role) to win a championship. Our differences are only problematic when we allow them to be. They can either be stumbling blocks or stepping stones.
There’s a consciousness that comes with activism which must be attained. It’s one that allows you to see the full perimeter of the object you’re facing. To ignore any side is to become exposed to assault. When we look at the body of the anti-death penalty movement, and our effectiveness, ask ourselves – are we suffering from any wounds?
The fact that a “DRIVE” even has to exist is self-evident to that question. DRIVE exists, in its combative mode, because humanity has been stripped away and it has to be fought for to be retrieved. These circumstances exist because our movement is not carrying out its full capabilities. When a man will get pepper sprayed in the face in a protest, it’s not because he has nothing to live for, but because he HAS found something to live for. The sacrifice of the individual is for the advancement of the whole. There must be a collective synchronization of activism – which we’re lacking. There’s urgency in that call and it’s an urgency that if not answered immediately will leave us struggling to stay afloat in the middle of this tidal wave of capital punishment.
We’re on a DRIVE
A Luta, Continue
Kenneth “Haramia” Foster
D.R.I.V.E.
DEATH Row INNER-COMMUNALIST VANGUARD ENGAGEMENT
