The Prison Economy is Booming Off the Blood of La Raza!

The state of California is the wealthiest state within the borders of the U.S. It is wealthy because it has surpassed any other state in building more prisons, such as juveniles, jails, state prisons, federal prisons and detention centers. Prisons have been a motor force for other industries, such as construction, electronics, real estate, banking, communications, policing, the stock market and other industries, to grow and prosper 300% or more. The people who have become wealthy have primarily been white northamericans from this boom. Consequently there have been hordes of white people moving into California to prosper as well. In San Jose, CalifAztlan white people are moving into the barrios, where Raza have been relegated to live since the theft of our land. As gavachos move into the barrios they are also kicking la Raza out by way of outrageous rents, the judicial system, police containment, massive imprisonment, the local govts., laws, and the social institutions.

San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzalez stated that he was hiring more police and building "affordable housing", which is double talk for more police for the Raza community and housing for the rich white people. Suddenly schools and community development is an issue because white people stated that the schools and the barrios they are moving into are a disaster. Criminals like Ron Unz, the executive from earth first vegetarian-style Palo Alto, campaigned for the defeat of bilingual education and attacked Mexican children. Ron Unz is a typical northamerican that has welcomed the mass buildup of prisons and detention centers for la Raza. The less we know the more vulnerable our Raza will be to the mass imprisonment.

Just like in the 1845 gold rush, today's fever is the same. Prisons have been an economic boom for most of the northamericans. So voting for three strikes, prop. 21, more prisons, and more police, had to do with white people's comfortable living conditions.

To justify the massive prison buildup in California, drugs, poverty and the criminalization had to be injected into the Mexican and African communities. The economic, social and political conditions for la Raza are worse than they were 30 years ago. In San Jose, there have been countless fires because la gente must live in cramped apartments and houses with 3 to 4 families, because the rents are so expensive. Drugs in the barrios are every where, and so are the police to capture la gente who fall into the U.S. govt. trap of drugs.

There is no question why there is 1 out of 13 of our Raza chained to the prisons. Prisons are serving as factories, manufacturing govt. office furniture to making baby clothes. So, the industry that is rising outside of the prisons is the service industry. The majority of la Raza serve northamericans, all the way from restaurant-serving and cooking to rearing their babies.

Because there is a massive amount of Raza and Africanos inside the prisons the U.S. govt. trains and uses Vietnam war veterans that are psychologically disturbed, people who lost their jobs from closed out army bases, ex-farmers who are competing with the prison-buildup, klu klux klan-type white people (men and women) and vendido Mexicans and Africans as prison guards and police agents in preparation for war. So the brutality and the murder against la Raza and Africanos inside the prisons is rampant. They also operate terrifying la Raza inside and outside with the familias of the people locked up.

The prison economy must survive so long as the people who are the victims do not act. Why, because it is parasitic. It must live off of the suffering and misery of la gente, otherwise it dies. The prison economy is connected to the entire gringo sistema that was born off of the theft of Raza sacred ancestral land and the butchering of la Raza. So it is no wonder why the gringo power forces must act immediately and horrifically.

In Nov/Dec 1999, when the 68 Raza New Folsom Prison hunger strikers organized to protest the horrible conditions inside the prisons, la Raza found out in High Desert, Tracy, Soledad, Pelican Bay and other prisons outside of CalifAztlan. Also familias in the barrios spoke out and organized in defense of their loved ones. The U.S. govt. had to come in to put out this fire before it exploded all over Aztlan. Gov. Gray Davis tried to identify the most vocal and cut the heads off of the leadership, so that the gente couldn't follow the plan of action without political consciousness and knowledge of our history of struggle.

Davis and the director of the prisons immediately shipped 7 of la Raza hunger strikers to the SHUs (security housing units) in Corcoran and Pelican Bay prisons with the intent of slow-killing these courageous Mexicans. SHUs deny all of the five senses and make you go mad. One year later, 6 of them are still in the grave yard SHU, physically and mentally deteriorating, and one was temporarily paroled but they are attempting to capture him once again.

In early December 1999, the Barrio Defense Committee met with the head of the Calif. Dept. of Corrections Steven Cambra, the newly appointed director. He stated in a calculated cold-blooded manner that he would decide on February 6, 2001, if he was to release the hunger strikers from the SHU, but he stated that the SHUs are not programs of torture. He clearly challenged the organizational capacity of la Raza. Even as this newsletter is being written, Steven Cambra is beginning to ship all of the hunger strikers to the Pelican Bay SHU. They started with Eddie Bustamante, one of the hunger strikers.

A humble man once said: "All oppressors are paper tigers. In appearance, the oppressors are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the oppressors but the people who are really powerful." TIERRA Y LIBERTAD! FREE AZTLAN NOW!