Letter from a Prisoner:

Struggling for a Scientific Understanding of Women's Oppression—and Liberation

March 7, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF) received this letter:

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE! ANYTHING ELSE IS THEFT!

As always, health is foundational for all Humyn happiness. So it is a must i inquire about your health and sincerely hope at the time you receive this (and beyond it) you are of sound Mind, Body, Emotion, and Spirit.

P.E.A.C.E GOD! Last year i decided to study feminism for all of 2018. To come to a more clearer and hopefully attain a scientific understanding of Winmin’s condition and the underlying causes of their condition and their struggle. I understand through the study of Brother B.A. (Bob Avakian) and the book The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, by Frederick Engels that the enslavement, oppression and exploitation of Winmin come into existence as a result of the rise, development, and evolution of private property and the state. The Family is also a consequence of this. Along with its organizational patriarchal structure.

Patriarchy came into existence, destroyed the Liberation, Equality and Justice of Winmin, enjoyed by Winmin prior to the rise of private property and the State. Personally, i have come to see patriarchy as gender hierarchy—a social relation in which men have power and control over Winmin. Under patriarchy Winmin and men are coerced into conforming to certain and set social roles, and are abused, degraded, ostracized, and even murdered for not conforming to the social roles set forth for them by the dynamics of patriarchy.

I have come to see and understand how patriarchy has enmeshed itself in every aspect of our cultural, social, and personal lives. Its devastating impact on Winmin and its negative impact on men. And how the death of patriarchy and the Liberation of Winmin is fundamental and essential to the Liberation of Humynity.

I am writing y’all because I was going over y’all article On the Controversy over Matt Damon’s Comments About the #MeToo Movement, Are we going for retribution or transformation? And it was saying that "every boy and man is, to one or another degree, shaped, trained and ensnared from an early age into a prevailing culture which routinely fosters, encourages, defends, and normalizes the practice of male supremacy in countless forms, from sexist “jokes” to porn to endless daily forms of minor harassment, to outright physical assaults, and rape, the ultimate exercise of power to humiliate, degrade, diminish, and dehumanize. We are ALL drowning in this putrid culture. Don’t we have to deal with the manifestations of such problems via boys and men? All the boys and men, shaped by the patriarchy since earliest childhood, boys and men that include loved ones—fathers, boyfriends, husbands, sons, best friends. There are works on the website from B.A. in particular that get into this, and [other recent] articles began to speak to this, but much more needs to be done." [emphasis added by author]

Is it possible to get some of the works off the website that deal with the above mention? I want to study and analyze it. And anything else you have on patriarchy, its multi-expressions and manifestations, and the conditions and struggles of Winmin.

Thank Y’all In Advance. I truly appreciate it.

Carry On the Tradition of Resistance! With All LOVE & RESPECT,

Sincerely, Signed XXX

P.S.—I am still waiting on a copy of Of Primeval Steps & Future Leaps: An Essay on the Emergence of Human Beings, the Source of Women’s Oppression, and the Road to Emancipation by Ardea Skybreak or/and THE NEW COMMUNISM.

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