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International Socialist Review Issue 44, November–December 2005
L E T T E R S
If you’d like to write a letter, e-mail us at [email protected], or send a letter to ISR, P.O. Box 258082, Chicago, IL 60625. Please limit your submission to 400 words. We reserve the right to edit for length.
Violence not part of our “design”
Dear ISR,
I’ve been a subscriber to the Socialist Worker and the ISR for over three years now and it’s taken me almost that long to come to embrace socialism and Marxism. More so, I’ve rejected the “know-nothingness” of theological teachings and religious institutions. Still, there is a lot I need to learn in order to contribute productively to my community and the international society upon my release—my ultimate goal is to join and add my energy to the movement.
I’ve been in prison for over twelve years now. I’m thirty-three years old. I am a first generation Puerto Rican born and raised in the Bronx, New York. My mother came as an immigrant in 1961, had me in 1971 (she was nineteen), and I lost her to an accident in 1991. I committed a terrible crime in 1992, and here I’ve been since then.
It took me coming to prison in order to start learning about my history and culture and those of the struggles for justice and equality here in America. My prison journey has been one of loss, grief, shame, remorse, education, and transformation. I went from drug-dealer, to Latin King, to the Nation of Islam, to Catholicism, to Marxist. Quite a journey, huh? The prison system has been my university.
I came to prison with a GED and a reading level somewhere in the junior high school level. When I arrived at my first state facility, I enrolled in the college program and completed—albeit poorly—two semesters before the “good politicians” removed the program (removed the TAP and Pell funds) from the New York State prison system. I continued reading, studying, writing, and participating in prisoner-run programs. I was mentored by some fine men who had college degrees and elevated my level of education somewhat.
It was just recently when I decided to free my mind of all religious thought and embrace objective reality. My desire to exemplify my love for justice and my transformation (by not being silent in the face of oppression) put me at odds with many people. Ultimately, my uncompromising attitude of resistance landed me in the Segregated Housing Unit or “the Box.” (I attempted to expose staff misconduct and I was set up.) All of these events contributed to my education and I’m still hungry for more.
I recently read your article “Genes, evolution, and human nature: Is biology destiny” (ISR 39). I want to learn more about human behavior, biology, and evolution. I don’t want to fall victim to those “sociobiologists” and “evolutionary psychologists” who claim that inequality and conflict are predetermined fixtures in human beings.
I am in the so-called “low IQ” gene pool, and some would believe that I was/am predisposed to violence—and my past, as well as the crime I committed twelve years ago, would support them in their prognosis. I was raised in a drug and alcohol-infested environment where violence was regular. Yet after coming to prison and diving into revolutionary education and authentic purging, I haven’t so much as cursed another person out (not to their face) in over eight years. I haven’t been in a fistfight since 1994–1995, and it has been this way by choice.
I am living proof that violence is not part of our “design.” I’m in prison for manslaughter. I was a drug dealing, gun carrying, drug user, but just a few months ago another prisoner cursed me out and invited me to fight and I ignored him. (Later on I was able to talk to him and resolved our misunderstanding.) “Flexibility,” as you wrote, is “the most important determinant of human consciousness.” I’m living proof.
I’m really interested—no I really need—some books like the ones mentioned at the end of the article, e.g., Peggy Reeves, Female Power and Male Dominance; Robin McKie, Dawn of Man; Roger Lewin, Principles of Human Evolution, etc. I feel like a heel requesting these, but I’m in no position to purchase any at present. Please understand that my intentions are pure and I want to ultimately share what I learn with my peers and children. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
In struggle,
Steven Mangual
If you’d like to contact Steven or send him books, contact the ISR at [email protected]
Radical Jews
Dear ISR,
Michael Smith, in his review of Warschawski’s book On the Border (“An anti-Zionist in Israel,” ISR 43, September–October 2005), perpetuated the myth that Jews cannot become radicals or revolutionaries without shedding their Jewishness (the Deutscher “non-Jewish Jew” thesis.)
But Warschawski himself disagrees:
It was not until the beginning of the 1980s that my comrades and I began the process of reappropriation of Jewish culture and re-rooting a national tradition. For some of us, it was the Bund and the epic of the Jewish working class movement of Eastern Europe that served as a reference; for others it was the Jewish Diaspora in the Arab world; for others yet the Nazi Judeocide. We felt the need to root ourselves in a history...different from that which Zionists wanted to build on the ruins of Palestine and the Jewish Diaspora. In sum, we needed a narrative that would furnish us with the foundations of a collective identity.
Two pages after Smith’s review, we learn about such a Jew from Matt Swagler. Bernard Goldstein, a leader of the Jewish Labor Bund, succeeded in integrating his Jewishness with his anti-fascism and his commitment to a socialist future. So it can be done!
Bennett Muraskin
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