I remember in Huntington and even in Greene, you know, when I was alone with a guy, talking man-to-man. Guys say, “Listen, I’m a peon, you know. Something happens here, man, they throw me to the dogs,” and I’m like, “Damn, did he just say that?” Yeah. These guys, they know that, you know, but you know, they’re forbidden from really saying that, other than when no one can hear. They believe in the propaganda because it’s profitable to do so. It’s in their economic benefit, right? But, like, a few days ago, I was listening, you know, C-span, and a guy called up, and he was a retiree. He had worked for the DC Department of Corrections for 30 years, and so, you know, now he’s getting a retirement check. And he kept talking about “us,” and you know, “Us correctional officers, we need…” you know “we fight so hard,” blah, blah, blah, and like, dude! He was a black guy. He was in his 60s, and he’s no longer a part of that, but in his mind, he’s still a part of that, you know?
And so, I’m saying that when you — that was the diabolical genius of William Jefferson Clinton. When they gave billions of dollars to the states to build prisons they created a class of people who benefited economically in ways they could not have done otherwise any way in the world, as a rule. And so they’re invested, right, in this system of repression in a way that we know — like you’re a guy, you’re in your 50s, you’re in your 60s, you’re thinking about bringing your son in and then bringing your grandson in and having your wife come in and work as a nurse or a food product , you know, food service provider, or something like that, or guard, because in many parts of the state, like Greene County, like here in Schuylkill County, these are depressed areas of the state’s economy, but if you can get a job, you know, getting this kind of loot, you’re on top of the hill. You know, it may not be that way in Pittsburgh or in Philadelphia, but if you think of these former mining communities like Greene or this one, Schuylkill, I mean, this is like you’re eating cake. You’re eating high on the hog. It feeds the system’s machine, you know, because of economics and social movements, now you have more Black and Brown people involved in these repressive industries.
But, you know, if you look at it like from space or from a high elevation, things are not getting better, they’re getting like, demonstrably worse. That’s why I believe in movement, because I’ve seen movements do things in society. And, you know, I always say movements transform consciousness, but they transform more than that. They transform history, and they transform our vision of the future. I look at the world, and I have fears and hopes, to be quite frankly, because this thing can go either way. It goes the way that people push, not being pushed by it. When people create movements, they create change, but if they sit back and wait for the others to do something that they know they should have done, you’re going the way of repression. So, I mean, it’s really that dialectical, and that kind of, you know, clear. We get what you fight for. What you don’t fight for, you don’t get. It’s that real. So, I believe in movements. I believe in decarceration. I believe in people once they wake up.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Radio.
