“It’s All One Struggle at Base”: Abolitionist Movement-Building, Organizing across Prison Walls, & Existing Methods of ‘Inside/Outside’ Praxis Dissertation Prospectus, draft submitted September 2019 Well, we’re all familiar with the function of the prison as an institution serving the needs of the totalitarian state. We’ve got to destroy that function; the function has to be no longer … Continue reading Dissertation Project – Research Proposal
Abolitionist Conferences & Convergences of the 90s – 00s: a working archive
1998 Jericho '98 March - Amnesty and Freedom for All Political Prisoners “With Jericho `98 we are pushing for the admission on the part of the United States' government that our political prisoners and prisoners of war do exist inside the prisons of the United States. We are pushing for recognition in the international … Continue reading Abolitionist Conferences & Convergences of the 90s – 00s: a working archive
Black Alert – bulletin of the Anarchist Black Cross – Anti-Repression Network (2003)
The August 2003 third issue of Black Alert was billed as the publication of the Anarchist Black Cross-Anti-Repression Network (ABC-ARN). It included a proposal for a formal multi-tendency / non-sectarian ARN, within which the ABC would continue to produce Black Alert as an ARN publication. By this stage, the ABC was a “member collective” of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (later … Continue reading Black Alert – bulletin of the Anarchist Black Cross – Anti-Repression Network (2003)
The internationalist origins of the Anarchist Black Cross
While there are rightful criticisms of the ABC formations as they are socially formed in North America, particularly in the United States, there is no mistaking the historic influence and political impact that this particularly effective model of "inside/outside" prison abolitionist organization, PP/POW solidarity activism, popular anti-oppression pedagogy, and aspirationally horizontal networks of mutual aid built across … Continue reading The internationalist origins of the Anarchist Black Cross
Working Bibliography
BIBLIOGRAPHY Abu-Jamal, Mumia. Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisons v. the U.S. San Francisco: City Lights, 2009. —. Live from Death Row. New York: Harper Perennial, 1996. Acoli, Sundiata. An Updated History of the New Afrikan Prison Struggle. Jacksonville: Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign & Anarchist Black Cross Federation (1998). —. Bits N Pieces, The Sundiata … Continue reading Working Bibliography
Issue 1
This is the first issue of The Abolitionist, published in Spring of 2005 by Critical Resistance-Oakland.
A Look Back at Critical Resistance South
By Kim Diehl
To understand the power and significance of Critical Resistance South Conference and Strategy Session, we begin with its ending – a funeral for the prison industrial complex in the form of a second line parade. Led by a traditional brass band on a warm Sunday afternoon in April 2003, thousands of conference attendees and residents of Tremé, the oldest Black neighborhood in the U.S. rejoiced, strutted, danced and swayed past Congo Square, the only space where enslaved Africans were allowed to congregate in the 18th and 19th centuries. The second line slowly marched through the heart of New Orleans declaring the end of mass incarceration, suppression and cages.
The second line funeral for the PIC told the
story of CR South: a gathering by and for southerners who organize through the
lens of liberation from enslavement. For it is only by living in the South…
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Conferences as a Vehicle for Abolitionist Organizing
In a December 2018 webinar hosted by Critical Resistance, several co-founding members reflected on their participation in and experience with organizing national PIC abolitionist conferences at the turn of the 21st century. Speakers in the webinar included Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Craig Gilmore, Dylan Rodríguez, Melissa Burch, and Rachel Herzing. The conversation was facilitated by CR … Continue reading Conferences as a Vehicle for Abolitionist Organizing
