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214 Elham Bayour7. Matiel Mogannam, The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem (London: Hyperion Press,1937), 96.8. JammaI1981,30.9. Nadia Hijab, Womanpower: The Arab Debate on Women at Work (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1988), 146;Mogannam 1937,74-5.10. Julie Peteet, Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Move ment (New York:Columbia University Press, 1991), 53,

II. The fact that peasant women were among the casualties at street demonstrations early inthe Mandate directs our attention to nineteenth-century peasant uprisings-againstOttoman taxes and the first Zionist settlers-in which women certainly took part. See AdelSammara and Rosemary Sayigh, Profile of an Occupation (London and New York: ZedBooks, 1989), ISS.12. Jamma11981,31.13. Peteet 1991,55.14. The name Iameila is used to hon or the Algerian political prisoner, [ameila Bou Heired, whowas tortured to death in the 1950swhen the French colonized Algeria.IS. Personal interview with Khalida Iarrar, director of Addameer Prisoners Support and Huma nRights Association, 2000. Addameer is a nonprofit organization based in Ramullah,Palestine.16. Tamar Mayer (ed), Women and the Israeli Occupation: The Politicsof Change (New YorkandLondon: Routledge, 1994),79.17. Elise Young, Keepers of the History: Women and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (New York:Teachers College Press, 1992), 184.18. Also known as Al-Rarnla prison.19. Rhonda Copelon, "Surfacing Gender: Reconceptualizing Crimes Against Women in Time ofWar," in The Women And War Reader, ed. A. Lorentzen and J. Turpin (New York: New YorkUniversity, 1998),76.20. Amnesty International, "Amnesty International Report on Torture," in The Women and WarReader, ed. A. Lorentzen and J.Turpin (New York: New YorkUniversity Press, 1988).21. Al-Awda News, "Israel killed 176 Palestinian women in two years, 51 had to give birth atIsraeli roadblocks" (March 8, 2003). http://www.miftah.orgiDisplay.cfm?DocId=1839&CategoryId=2. AccessedApril 10,2004.22. Nabila Espanioly, "Palestinian Women in Israel: Identity in the Light of the Occupation," inWomen and the Israeli Occupation: The Politics of Change, ed. T. Mayer (New York andLondon: Routledge, 1994), 116.23. Palestine Monitor, "Palestinia n Prisoners in Israeli Det entions" ( Februar y 2003).http://www.palestinemonitor.org/factsheet/Palestinian_Prisoners.html. Accessed April10,2004.24. Ministry of Prisoners Affairs,"Female Palestinian Prisoners of Al-Rarnla Israeli Prison FaceHarsh Conditions," International Press Center and WAFA (August 17,2003), http://www.ipc-ps .info/ipc e/ipc_e -l/e_News %20Report s/2003/rep orts-024. html. Accessed April 12,2004.25. Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association, "International Women's Day:65 Palestinian women remain in Israeli detention camps:' press release (March 8, 2003).http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/articleI229.shtml. AccessedApril 10, 2004.26. Nawal El Saadawi, The Nawal El Saadawi Reader (Londo n and New York: Zed Books,1997), 16.

CHAPTER 16Playing Global Cop

u.s. Militarism and the Prison-Industrial Complex

LINDA EVANSThe disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the alternative economicsystem embodied in the socialist bloc has allowed the United States to establishabsolute economic and military hegemony. Wielding uncontested power, theUnited States is rapidly recreating the world in its own image, establishing aglobal police state. The purpose of U.S. militarization is to impose a new worldorder: neoliberal capitalism for everyone, whethe r they want it or not. This imposition of global c ~ i ! a J i I D ! . t ? g t . 1 . i r e s the crudest forms of social control, in

~ l u d i n g mass imprisonment, political repression, proxy wars, andolitr'ight. ~ i l i t a r y t a k ~ ~ ~ e r s . W ( ; ~ l e ~ - a r e - a f f e c t e d in a variety of ways by militarization

and i n c r e a s i n g ' ~ e p r e s s i o n , including political surveillance and mass incarceration. This chapter will examine how domestic and external wars waged by the"global policeman" affect women, particularly women of color and womenfrom the global South. It will also explore the connections between militarismand the prison-industrial complex and discuss the ways in which increased surveillance, policing, and mass incarcera tion are milita rizing U.S. society.

Preemptive t r i k e s { ~ ~ ~ n ~ ~ r c _ ~ ~ t i ? ~ ~ ~ ~ _ ~ c i ~ r < ; ~ ~ ~ ~ o l j -Since the onset of the economic restructuring that we now know as globalization, communities of color in the United States have experienced increasing repression. The Nixon years introduced the "war on crime;' outlined in Nixon's1973 State of the Union address. Reagan dramatically increased spending on

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policing and prisons through the intensification of the "war on drugs." Both~he war on crime and the war on drugs scapegoated and targeted poor communities of color. In many ways, these "wars" were preemptive strikes. Aseconomic conditions deteriorate, the strategy for social control is to .rut poorpeople away before they pose a serious threat to social order. The goal is tCJinc j

5arcerate and immobilize p e o p l e . . . Q P ~ l i ~ t i l ~ Q . Q ; i l conditions-thoseat the bottom, the helpless, the h o p e l e s s - b ~ ~ Y _ . Q r g ~ p i z e to demsmd- ~ h ~ n g e . ~ Communities of color that are already ravaged by drug addiction,poverty, and related violence have been further decimated by the war on drugsand mass imprisonment. These social conditions, compounded by intensivepolicing and punitive penal policies, have severelycompromised the ability ofpeople in these communities to organize and take action against economic andsocial injustice.

Successive administ rations from Reagan to Bush Jr. have adopted Dlass incarceration as the primary t r a t ~ I D ' _ t ( ) m a i ! 1 1 ~ ! ! 1 soci.a.! control. This is directly-reflectedin theIa rge n u m b ~ ; ~ of people of co.lC>!-who are currently in prison.Over two million people are in U.S. prisons and jails, most of them poor andpeople of color-African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and immigrants from the global South.' The growth of the prison population in theUnited States has had a devastating impact on women of color. The incarceration rate is increasing even more rapidly for women than for men. Of the approximately 100,000 women now in U.S. prisons and jails, 60 percent arewomen of color.' Thousands of people of color are in prison for violations ofimmigration law, many of them women and the mothers of U.S. citizens.Under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of1996, these women are involuntarily deported after serving prison sentences,permanently separated from their children and families who continue to live inthe United States" Often women are deported to countries where they have noremaining family, cultural ties, or resources. It is no wonder that these womenrisk serial arrests, additional prison sentences, and successivedeportations toreunite with their families.

Punishment for ProfitIn addition to enforcing control over communities of color, continuing prisonexpansion has been adopted as part of a strategy for economic recovery.In the1960s, the military-industrial complex emerged as a partnership between theU.S. military and private corporations that profited from U.S. military incursions around the world. Similarly, the prison-industrial complex is an interweaving of private business and govewment l n ~ ~ extremely profitablewhen the end of the Cold War signaled a decline in military spending.Although the military-industrial complex is reemerging as a result of Bush's

PlayingGlobal Cop 217military agenda, the growth of the prison-industrial complex has been a profitable interim strategy for numerous corporations. Comparing 1998 spendingon crime control ($210 billion) with government spending on defense ($256billion), Nils Christie notes, "The costs of the war against the enemies within isnow approaching the costs against the enemies outside the country. While military spending is going down, the spending on crime is going up. It evensOUt."5In the lull between wars during the last twenty-five years, defense industrygiants such as Westinghouse retooled and lobbied Washington for their shareof the domestic law enforcement market. "Night Enforcer" goggles used in theGulf War, electronic "Hot Wire" fencing ("so hot NATO chose it for high-riskinstallations"), and other equipment once used by the military are now beingmarketed to the criminal justice system. A growing "specialty item" industrysells fencing, handcuffs, drug detectors, protective vests, and other security devices to prisons.With over two million people currently inside U.S. prisons and jails, theconstruction and maintenance of prisons are big business, just like the arms industry and maintenance of armed forces. Increasingly, private correctionscompanies are building and running prisons. One of the largest private prisoncompanies, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), operates internationally with more than sixty-eight facilities in the United States, Puerto Rico,Australia, and the United Kingdom.' Under contract by state and federal governments to run jails and prisons, corporations such as CCA are paid a fixedamount per prisoner, so they operate as cheaply as possible in order to makethe greatest profit. Prison owners are raking in billions of dollars by cuttingcorners, which harms prisoners. Substandard diets, inadequate healthcare, unsafe conditions, and abuses by poorly trained personnel have all been documented in these institutions, which are unabashedly about making profits.'

Communications companies such as AT&T, Sprint, and MCI are also profiting by gouging prisoners and their families with exorbitant phone callingrates-up to six times the normal long-distance charges. Some firms, such asCorrections Communications Corporation, operate phone systems only inprisons and provide systematic surveillance services for prison administrations. These companies are reaping huge profits at the expense of prisoners andtheir families; prisoners are often effectivelycut off from communications because of the excessive cost of phone calls. Because 80 percent of women prisoners are mothers, this makes developing and maintaining relationships withtheir children even more difficult, if not impossible. This is heartbreaking towomen inside and destroys the family and community structures in communities of color.Another source of profit for private companies is prison labor. Companiesthat use prison labor include IBM, Motorola, Compaq, Texas Industries,Honeywell, Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, Victoria's Secret, Revlon, and Pierre

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Cardin.' Nordstrom's departmen t stores market "Prison Blues" jeans as well asT-shirts and jackets made in Oregon prisons. Prisoners around the UnitedStates produce curtains and bedspreads, furniture, electronic components,security glass, stainless steel tanks, and cables and perform computerized telephone messaging, data entry, dental equipment assembly,and many other tasksfor the profit of private industry. They are paid pennies per hour-in UNICOR, the prison industry operated by the federal prison system, wages start attwenty-two cents per hour.

Aswith anyindustry, the prison economy needs rawmaterials.In this casetheraw materials are prisoners, including increasing numbers of women of color.The prison-industrial complex can grow only if more and more people are incarcerated, even if crime rates drop. Increasing corpora te profits has been an incentive for the growth of the prison-industrial complex in the United States.Life Inside a Police StateOver the past two decades, any pretense of r ~ i l i t ' ! t i o n j J l _ ~ i s o I 1 _ s l 1 f l s been r e p l a < : . e c l 1 ? y . p ~ r ~ E p n i s h m e n t and warehousi?g. As a result, these institutions have become the embodiment of a militarized ~ ~ i e t y . Women in U.S.prisons are truly experiencing life inside a police state. As a federal prisonerfrom 1985 to 2001 at FCI-Dublin and othe r prisons and jails, I experienced thismilitarized existence firsthand.

Every action of every day is strictly regimented, with rules enforced by aprison military hierarchy complete with lieutenants and captains. Prisoners'individual identities are purposely diminished: they wear uniforms, move onlyat prescribed times under strict supervision, and are subject to random andsexually abusive pat or strip searches. Women prisoners live in a compoundsurrounded by chain-link fences and razor wire; usually their only view is ofothe r prisons. They are isolated from their communities-prisons are typicallysited on mil itary bases or in remote rural areas, which makes visiting difficultto impossible. Most states have only one women's prison, which virtually guarantees that visitors will have to travel long distances at great expense to visit.Women prisoners are separated from their loved ones for years on end, sometimes literally ripped apart from their children by police or prison guards in thevisiting room. Their compliance is reinforced with behavior modification andharsh punishment, including disciplinary segregation and long periods oftwenty-four-hour lockdown. Rehabilitative vocational and educational programs have virtually disappeared in recent years. Cutbacks in budgets for theseprograms have been severe, while guards' salaries and allocations for increasedsecurity measures continue to rise. For example, in 2003, when Governor GrayDavis of California faced massive protests about budget cuts to social serviceswithout cuts to his prison budget, he responded by firing every teacher in theentire California prison system. This repressive atmosphere leaves life-long

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scars on women, most of whom already suffer from histories of domestic violence and abuse.Besides the permanent damage done to individuals, the mass incarcerationof women has an incalculable cost to our communities. In the United Statestoday, ten million children have one or more parents who have been in prison.'When a mother is imprisoned, children end up in foster care, looked after bygrandmothers or aunts-still more women of color who are suffering realhardships from the expansion of the prison state. Rosalie Davis,for instance, isa sixty-two-year-old African American woman in Oakland, California, raisingher third set of children-her great-grandchildren. o Rosalie's daughter waslocked up in California's prisons when her children were young, and Rosalierescued them from the notorious abuses of the foster care system. Years later,Rosalie's adult granddaughter was murdered, a victim of street violence. SoRosalie stepped in once again, this time to rescue her great-grandchildren.Typical of many African American women in the United States, Rosalie workedtwo jobs while raising her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren asa single mother. Her story reflects just one way in which the voracious expansion of the U.S. prison system affects women of color. This expansion has notmade women in poor ur ban communities any safer.On the contrary, incarceration, racism, and poverty generate a mutually reinforcing cycle of violenceand social disintegration.The Permanent Stigma of ImprisonmentAs attitudes toward criminalized populations have hardened, previously coveTt

"'practices of discrimination have been converted into public policy, Numerousmeasures have been passed that cumUlatively exclude millions of former prisoners from political, social, or economic participation in society. In eighteenstates, women convicted of drug felonies can never again receivewelfare benefits or food stamps." They are ineligible for student loans, denying the m accessto education, one of the most effective deterrents to recidivism. Felons are denied employment in a multitude of occupations that require certification or licensure, such as nursing and other medical professions, teaching, real estate,and the law.People with felony convictions are alsoexcluded from accessto anyjob requiring a security bond, such as nighttime janitor jobs. For example,Rashida Johnson had been employed as an x-ray technician for over ten yearsbefore her arrest and imprisonment. Her felony conviction means that now sheis permanently banned from employment in her chosen profession." Nearlyfour million people have lost their right to vote because of felony convictions-democratic rights are a permanent casualty of the war on crime."Women who have been in prison over fifteen months may permanently losecustody of their children under provisions of the 1997 Adoption and SafeFamilies Act. In many states, women must repay child support payments made

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~ . _ . . t ."', f~ , , ) I '7 'I ,After September 11: The Surveillance State

The militarization of U.S. society and the drive for social control extend beyond mass imprisonment. The gradual erosion of civil rights for people ofcolor over the last thirty years has intensified since the attacks of September 11,2001, through legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting &Strengthening America through Providing Appropriate Tools Required toIntercept and Obstr uct Terrorism). Q?vernn:ent s u r v e ! l l ~ n c e of the populacehas been expanded through the consolidation of existing video surveillancenetworks and widespread installation of new surveillance cameras in publicplaces. New wiretapping laws allow interception of telephone and computercommunications without evidence of criminal activity or even suspicion thatany laws have been broken. A "Total Information Awareness system" is beinginstituted at untold cost by John Poindexter, whose ties to the Iran-Contragatescandal have been officiallyburied. There isnews everyday of more special surveillance apparatus being put into place in cities and small towns all over theUnited States. This expanded repressive apparatus is legitimated by a culture offear fueled by federal terror alerts and reinforced by constant media coverageof "terrorism preparedness."

Expanding the domestic war on terrorism has also required a major expansion of the p ~ i t i c a l police, Just a few months after the September 11 attacks onthe World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Bush administration establishedthe Department of Homeland Security. This Cabinet-level department consolidates surveillance operations of over one hundred government agencies. Itsbudget-$38.1 billion-is 10percent more than the combined budgets of allthe

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agencies it enfolded." This money is desperately needed for social programs,drug rehabilitation, education, and health care, particularly in poor communitiesand communities of color.The FBI'sJoint Terrorism TaskForcehas been expanded to thirty-four cities and includes a full one quarter of the FBI's activepersonnel, with fighting terrorism as its official priority. The definition of "domestic terrorism" has been broadened to include "groups or individuals operating entirely inside the U.S., attempting to influence the U.S. government orpopulation to effect political or social change by engaging in criminal activity?"The pretext of "suspected criminal activity" is no longer a requirement for surveillance of political activists or organizations. The CIA's new mission, which allows it to conduct surveillance against people inside the United States, is asignificant break with previous policy.This heralds the return of the controversial Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) that conducted illegalcovert operations in the 1960s and 1970s against the Black Panther Party, theAmerican Indian Movement, the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, andalso organizations from the socialist left. Prisoner advocates are not immunefrom this renewed drive to police political activism. For example, the New Yorkofficesof Critical Resistance, a prison abolitionist organization, were raided bypolice in November 2003, leading to numerous arrests under spurious charges.Police accountability activists in San Francisco have also been targeted for investigation as part of the antiterrorism drive. These arrests and interrogationsdemonstrate that police powers allowed in the fight against so-called domesticterrori sm will actually be used to suppress political dissent and undermine community efforts to challenge the impunity of the police and prison authorities.Criminalizing ImmigrationThe U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (formerly Immigration andNaturalizations Service, INS), part of the Department of Homeland Security,has also expanded its participation in the "war against terrorism." Practices ofracial profiling such as police stops for "driving while Black and Brown;' oncedenied by law enforcement, have now been expanded and legitimized as public policy, including a requirement that Arab men from over twenty-five nations register and submit to INS interrogation." Arab and Arab Americanwomen have lost their sons, brothers, and husbands with no notice becausethese men have been detained and held incommunicado. Although widespreadresistance resulted in a temporary halt to registration procedures, ArabAmericans and those assumed to be Muslim continue to be profiled, both bylaw enforcement officials and by a general public encouraged to be vigilant insearch of "terrorist" suspects.

The militarization of the U.S. border initiated in the 1990s has been enhanced by the war on terror. At the same time, state border enforcement has

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been supplemented by white supremacist vigilantes who hunt down undocumented immigrants, uninhibited and often encouraged by Border Patrolagents." The fact of being an economic refugee has been criminalized. Womenfrom Mexico, Central America, and South America seeking employment as domestic servants or service sector workers are the invisible victims of the xenophobic drive for secure borders; thousands of these women are arrested andimpri soned every year for illegal border crossings. Border walls complete withinfrared cameras and high-intensity lights have been installed at key bordercrossing points, forcing migrant s to cross at more dangerous locations. This increased militarization of the border has resulted in additional deaths from exposure and dehydration.

"Free trade" has also had significant implications for the criminalization ofimmigrants in the United States. North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) regulations have drastically increased imports of food produced byu.s. agribusiness, destroying traditional agriculture throughout Mexico.Millions of campesinos/as have been drivenfff their land into poverty and theslums surrounding Mexico City. They are rjfugees in their own country, victimized by U.S. policies of free trade that are enforced by the World TradeOrganization. Mexico's economic policies are directly controlled by the U.S.dominate d International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, makingsovereignty an illusion. Mexican women in particular are suffering profoundeconomic insecurity under the neoliberal regime" As a result, more women aredriven to seek work in the United States, many of them crossing illegally andrisking imprisonment, deportation, and death.

The criminalization of immigration is the direct result of economic globalization. Policies dicta ted by the IMF, World Bank, and World TradeOrganization have caused the deterioration of economic sovereignty and of living conditions in developing nations. Racist immigratio n quotas and the difficulty of obtaining legal entry into the United States have forced undocumented workers into dangerous illegal border crossings. Millions of peoplehave migrated from their homelands to the United States, simply struggling forbasic survival for themselves and thei r families.Exporting the War against TerrorismThe expansion of domestic surveillance in the war against terrorism has beenmirrored in the expansion and consolidation of antiter rorism forces worldwide, under the leadership of the Uni ted States. After September II , the UnitedStates was quick to define the terms: "Every nation, in every region, now has adecision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists/,President Bush expounae

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began. They watched the ir children die because medicines were unavailable fora multitude of treatable diseases, including diarrhea, respiratory diseases, andmalnutrition. Thousands of children die from leukemia, cancers, and other effects of depleted uranium left by u.s. missiles and bombs. Even before the 2002invasion of Iraq, one in four Iraqi children was born at under five pounds.These children are part of what foreign medical teams refer to as the "stuntedgeneration," small and vulnerable to disease, their life expectancy reduced by 30percent. 27 In the 2003 invasion, thousand s of Iraqi men, women, and childrenwere killed by the u.s. military, and thousands more will suffer as a result of thewholesale destruction of their society's infrastructure.

I- Enforced by the global policeman, IMF/World Bank structural adjustmentt l o ~ _ n s require the sale of national resources and public utilities to private cor.....---_. porations. This results in incredible hardship for the women of indebted na

tions. Whe n drinking wate r suddenly starts to cost money, women have to walkfarther to get water or risk drinking contaminated water. When electricityprices triple because a public utility is privatized, the price of basic necessitiesincreases. When even elem entary schools starf charging tuition, children, especially girls, do no t learn to read. When hospitals charge for medical care andmedicines, children die. Conditions imposed by structural adjustment loanshave d ~ t i c a l l y cut b a c k K Q . " ~ t : Q r n e _ ~ . - ! hea!!l1.'. s o . ~ i a l service, and education

)udgets, resulting in increases. i ~ . i I ! f ~ ! ! ! J I ! o . J 1 ~ ~ E 2 j ! ! i t e r . a 9 ' and shorteningp e < p . k ~ : J i v e . t i D _ d ~ r l Q 1 2 . i n g nations. Families have been sepa rated by the needfor family members to work in the city or in another country to earn money tosend home. Subsistence agriculture has been taken over by internationalagribusiness, causing families to become landless, hungry, refugees. These conditions have caused people in many countries to resist in every way imaginable.World Bank r i o t ~ have taken place all over Latin America, Africa, and Asia.Massive demonstrations against privatization of public resources are commonplace. Women of color have led many of these struggles-from India toNigeria to Mexico-demanding what their communitie s need for survival andrebirth and resisting the militarization of their societies.

Resistance to U.S. militarism also brings wome n of color into conflict withthe law. In Puerto Rico, the U.S. Navy has enforced its continuing colonialdomination over the island of Vieques by using the island for practice bombing runs, despite a Puerto Rican plebiscite that mandated immediate withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from its territory. Over a thousand men andwomen have been ar rested in the last three years for "trespassing" on lan d thatthe U.S. Navy stole from the islanders, struggling to end the cancers and otherhealth problems related to pollution from these "war games." Nilda Medina,one of the leaders of the Cornite pro el Rescate y Desarollo de Vieques(Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques), has been arrestednumerous times for "trespassing" on the U.S. military bases on the island,

PlayingGlobal Cop. 225

attempting to stop the bombardment of the island with her body and her life.In just two weeks, from January 13 to February 1,2003, over 100 tons of bombswere dropped on the tiny island-bombs that left heavy metals of uraniumoxide and other military toxics." Massive protests succeeded in making military use of the island impractical and unmanageable, and the U.S. Navy abandoned its war games as of May 1,2003. But after May 1,Nilda Medina and otherprotesters were arrested once again.

Conclusion: Building a Feminist Intern ationalist Justice MovementInside the United States and in nations around the world, women are activelyopposing mass incarceration, the growth of the international prison-industrialcomplex, and the imposition of the prison/police state as a model of governance. These phenomena are intricately connected to broader political andeconomic agendas. The imposition of neoliberal capitalism on developing nations, for example, requires intensified social control mechani sms such as increased imprisonment and surveillance of internal resistance movements.Global domina tion by U.S.-led capitalism is constant ly strengthening its hegemony over the people of the world through military, economic, and politicalstrategies. U.S. imperialism has never been stronger. The war on terrorism isanoth er cover for expanding the power of the police state-a sequel to the waron crime and the war on drugs

In order to be effective,women who are fighting for racial justice and to dismantle the prison-industrial complex must base our movement on an understanding of the complex connections between warfare against communities ofcolor inside the United States, international and domestic effects of economicglobalization, and the international war against terrorism. Worldwide resistance to globalization has mandated the political development of the waragainst terrori sm, just as surely as suppressing revolutionary movements in theUnited States during the 1960s and 1970s required mass incarce ration of people of color to ensure social control. The attacks of September 11 simply provided a convenient rationale for imposing previously prepared scenarios ofrepression.

The growth of the global police state is unprecedented, and the survival ofour communities requires an urgent and united response. In the 1960s and1970s, women fought in national liberation movements, successfully challenged the hegemony of U.S.imperialism, and won independence and self-government. Women in the anti-imperialist movement allied ourselves withpeople fighting for thei r freedom and sel f-determination. We emulated the example of women freedom fighters in liberation movements around the world.We participated in arm ed actions against U.S. political and militar y targets, believing that building a revolutionary struggle for socialism could bring about

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equality and liberation for all women. Many women of color were revolutionary leaders-members of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army,Puerto Rican independentistas, members of the American Indian Movementfighting for sovereignty for Native American nations. Some white women wereallies with these struggles, believing that solidarity in action could defeat U.S.empire building. In the course of the struggle, many women were arrested forour actions. We were sentenced to the maximum sentences allowed by law andprosecuted in consecutive trials when the maximum sentences did not guarantee lifeimprisonme nt. Likewomen resistance fighters around the world, webecame political prisoners. Some of us are still in prison, and most of us continueto fight against the imperialist system that oppresses the entire world in theguise of the global policeman. Perhaps the most importa nt lesson we can communicate is that the struggle continues and will continue until our childrenand grandchildren can one day be free. The future awaits us all,but we can winonly if we dare to struggle. And it is imperative that we unite internationally.Capitalist globalization is an international phenomenon, and it requires internationalist resistance. )References

1. Richard Milhous Nixon, "Message on Crim e Control ;' in State of theUnionMessage, 1973.2. Editorial, New York Times,April 9, 2003.3. National Women's Law Center, "Women in Prison," in Walkin' Steel '95, ed. Committee toEnd the Marion Lockdown (Chicago: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown, 1995).4. Center for Lawand SocialPolicyand Community LegalServices,EveryDoorClosed: BarriersFacing Parents with Criminal Records (Washington, D.C.: Center for Law & Social Policy,2002),91-104.5. Nils Christie, Crime Controlas Industry: Towards Gulags, Western Style (London: Routledge,2001),140.6. Avery F. Gordon, "Globalism and the Prison Industrial Complex: An Interview with AngelaDavis;' Raceand Class40 (October 1998-March 1999), 150.7. Judith Green, "Bailing out Private Jails," The American Prospect 12, No.6 (September 10,2001).8. Ibid 149. See also Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans, The Prison-Industrial Complex and theGlobalEconomy (Montreal: Kersplebedeb Publishing, 2003),11-14.9. Charlene Wear Simmons, Childrenof Incarcerated Parents, 7(2) California Research BureauNote 2 (March 2000).10. Adair Lara,"ToGrandmother's House TheyGo;' SanFrancisco Chronicle, December 29, 2002.11. Patricia Allard, LifeSentences: Denying Welfare Benefitsto WomenConvictedofDrug Offenses(Washington, nc . The Sentencing Project, 2002), 3.12. Personal testim ony to the author, January 2004.13. The Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch, Losing the Vote: The Impact of FelonyDisenfranchisement Laws in the United States (Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project,1998), 1.14. Women's Prison Association and Home, Inc., Family to Family: Partnerships betweenCorrections and Child Welfare (New York:Women's Prison Association and Home, 1998),8.

15. Supreme Court, Dep artme nt of Housing and Urban Development v, Rucker,Oakland PublicHousing Authority v, Rucker, #00-1770:00-1781, March 26, 2002.16. Southern California Criminal Justice Consortium, LosAngeles in Lockdown (Los Angeles:Criminal Justice Consortium, 2001).

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17. Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Homeland Security Budget (Washington,D.C.: Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, 2003).18. Federal Bureau of Investigation, "If You Encounter Any of the Following, Call the JointTerrorism Task Force" (Phoenix, AZ: FBI, 2002).19. The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System was announce d on June 6, 2002 byAttorney General Ashcroft. Stating tha t the USA PATRIOTAct called for the establishm entof an entry-exit registration system, Ashcroft announced that men over sixteen, primarilyfrom Muslim countrie s, would be required to register and submit to fingerprin ting and photographs. Co untries affected include Afghanistan, Algeria, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Eritrea,Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman,Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, andYemen. u.s. Department of Justice, Fact Sheet: National Security Entry-Exit RegistrationSystem (Washington, D.C.: Departm ent of Justice, June 6, 2002).20. Border Action Network, Hateor Heroism: Vigilantes on theArizona-MexicoBorder(Tucson:Border Action Network, 2002).21. Lynn Stephen, "Democra cy for Whom? Women's Grassroots Political Activism in the 1990s,Mexico City and Chiapas," in Neoliberalism Revisited: Economic RestructuringandMexico'sPolitical Future, ed. G. Oter o (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996).George W. Bush, "President's speech to Joint Session of Congress;' September 20, 2001.22. 50 YearsIs Enough Network , Economic Justice News (NewYork: 50YearsIs Enough Network,23. October 2001 and January 2004). See also publications of the International Forum onGlobalization.24. Federal Bureau of Investigations, http://www.fbi.gov, accessed February 23, 2003.

25. Working Group on the WTO/MAI, "A Citizen's Guide to the World Trade Organization"(Washington, D.C.: Public Citizen, July 1999), 19-20.26. Internat ional Network of Engineers and Scientists against Proliferation, U.S. DefenseBudgetRequestfor Fiscal Year 2003,Bulletin 19.http://www.inesap.org,accessed November 30, 2003.Ramsey Clark, "Report to the UN Security Council re Ir aq;' January 26, 2000.27. Cornite pro Rescate y Desarollo de Vieques, Press Release,January 26, 2003.www.prorescat28. evieques.org, accessed November 30, 2003.