Vol. 71/No. 30      August 20, 2007

Below are excerpts of letters sent to the YS national center from four prisoners locked up across the United States.

June 30, 2007

Dear Young Socialists,

I write in regard of more information regarding the Young Socialists organization. I’m a big fan of socialism. Well not a fan but a believer. I think it’s the only way to make the world a better place. We as believers of socialism need to show the world to understand that socialism is good and capitalism is wrong.

You may wonder how I came about your address, well that question can be easily answered. While reading Revolution in the Congo I ran into your ad. Most of my books are purchased through Pathfinder. Pathfinder helps fellow inmates like me who don’t have much funds to buy books. It offers good discounts to inmates.

Well I would like to find out more on socialism. I hope me being a prisoner won’t affect me in any way. We all make mistakes, but we learn from them.

Sincerely Yours.

A prisoner
Susanville, Georgia

July 2, 2007

I just finished reading the Revolution in the Congo and I found this address on joining the Young Socialists. I would like to join y’all. I’m in prison because of the bad life I was living, but I changed my life, and I study Marxism-Leninism, and I’m interested in this struggle.

Like our brother Che Guevara said that he challenges us to politicize the organizations we belong to and ourselves. That’s what I’m doing.

[Che] challenges us to join the front lines of struggles, small and large, to become a different kind of human being as we strive together with working people of all lands to transform the world. That’s what I’m doing. I’ve been studying a lot for two years already. I have studied the Cuban Revolution a lot.

Please write me back and give me information on this struggle.

Your brother in the struggle,

A prisoner
Midway, Texas

July 8, 2007

Please send more information on the socialist movement. While I would not quite consider myself a “Youth” at my age of 29, I am no doubt an advocate, activist, and comrade in the struggle.

I look forward to hearing from you.

The fight continues,

A prisoner
Oakwood, Virginia

July 8, 2007

To Whom It May Concern:

I’m 23 years young, a prisoner here in Michigan currently serving 35-50 years. I can’t portray myself as some saint whose been “rehabilitated” in these three and a half years I’ve been consigned here. However, through deep introspection, unrelenting solitary time in the hole, and extensive reading, I’ve reached a pinnacle of political and social consciousness which has afforded me the opportunity to really identify and seek out who’s been my enemy for a long time.

I plan on studying other subject matter, but as for now, I’ve been delving into material by George L. Jackson, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Frantz Fanon, Noam Chomsky, Sergei Nechaev, etc. I look for strategy and ideology from these revolutionaries, but at this very moment in solitary confinement, I’ve been using their material as a safety valve to help combat my disgust, and that sense of shallowness prison breeds.

I’m looking to establish strong ties with serious people; if your organization can assist me, whether it be through books, advice, referrals, or comradeship, I would appreciate it immensely.

In love and solidarity,

A prisoner
Munising, Michigan  
 
 
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