Abolition Now!: Ten Years of Strategy and Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex

by The CR10 Publications Collective

Overview

“As new and more virulent articulations of imprisonment, policing, and surveillance have grown over the past decade, one thing remains clear: the prison industrial complex must be abolished. Critical Resistance is a leading voice in the movement for abolition and the pieces in this collection are powerful tools for both long-time activists and those brand new to the movement for abolition now!”—Angela Y. Davis, author of Are Prisons Obsolete?

The number of people in prison in the United States has risen 400 percent in the last twenty years—the world’s highest incarceration rate. Over seven million people currently live under the control of US jail, prison, probation, or parole systems—the vast majority of them people of color and young people. Policing at all levels is increasingly militarized and demands more and more resources.

For a decade, Critical Resistance has organized to abolish the reliance on imprisonment, policing, and surveillance, seeing the prison industrial complex (PIC) not as a broken system to be fixed, but a well-oiled machine that must be eliminated entirely.

Published in honor of Critical Resistance’s tenth anniversary, Abolition Now! reflects the organization’s themes: Dismantle, Change, and Build. It presents bold strategies to create a stronger movement of people committed to PIC abolition and building stronger, safer, healthier communities, not more elaborate forms of repression.

The CR10 Publications Collective is a national grassroots organization with thousands of members and supporters working toward reducing the current prison population, stopping construction of new prisons, and developing alternative public safety models.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904859963
Publisher:	AK PR INC
Publication date:	11/01/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	709,906
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Critical Resistance is a national grassroots organization with thousands of members and supporters working toward reducing the current prison population, stopping construction of new prisons, and developing alternative public safety models. They produce two prisoner newsletters and a radio program, and have released four documentaries and two books: Instead of Prisons and Critical Resistance to the Prison Industrial Complex.

Table of Contents

01 Introduction xi

Section 1 Dismantle

02 Perspectives on Critical Resistance Edited by Liz Samuels David Stein 1

03 The Critical Resistance INCITE! Statement on Gender Violence and The Prison Industrial Complex INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence and Critical Resistance 15

04 A System within the System: The Prison Industrial Complex and Imperialism David Gilbert 31

05 COPS and the Visual Economy of Punishment Ofelia Ortiz Cuevas 41

06 Autobiography @ 33 Eddy Zheng 49

07 Black Burden Jimi Marshall 53

Section 2 Change

08 No One Is Criminal Martha Escobar 57

09 Safer Cities Unplugged Pete White of the Los Angeles Community Action Network 71

10 A Canadian Journey into Abolition Kim Pate 77

11 Surviving Warfare, Practicing Resistance Pilar Maschi interviewed by David Stein 87

12 Warfare and the Terms of Engagement Dylan Rodriguez 91

13 Toxic Connections: Coalition Strategies against Jail Expansion Damien Domenack Rachael Leiner 103

14 Prickly Coalitions: Moving Prison Abolitionism Forward Alexander Lee 109

15 Can You Understand? Souligma Phothong 113

Section 3 Build

16 Carceral Landscape in Hawai'i: The Politics of Empire, the Commodification of Bodies, and a Way Home RaeDeen Keahiolalo-Karasuda 121

17 Prison Abolition in Practice: The LEAD Project, The Politics of Healing, and "A New Way of Life" Setsu Shigematsu Gwen D'Arcangelis Melissa Burch 137

18 Freedom Seeds: Growing Abolition in Durham, North Carolina Alexis Pauline Gumbs 145

19 Can You Hear Anonymous 157