Download in English / Descargar en Español
“As we mark five years and counting at war in Iraq and consider the manipulation of the poor and of communities of color in the name of the military and prison industrial complexes, we also must look ahead and fortify our continued struggles for the demise of these complexes.” – Rachel Herzing for The Abolitionist Editorial Collective
For the past 10 years here at Critical Resistance, we’ve maintained that the complex inequities and instabilities our most vulnerable populations face cannot be addressed with a single solution; particularly one that causes and exacerbates those same inequities. This spring while the collective was working on this issue of The Abolitionist you’re reading now, we were also reckoning with the harsh reality that it’s been over five years since the United States declared war on Iraq. It seems clear, then, that in mourning five years at war in Iraq, those of us concerned with abolishing the prison industrial complex (PIC), must pay close attention to the continued march of the military industrial complex (MIC) and the symbiotic relationship between the two. In this issue we set out to draw some of those connections. As always, we hope this paper awakens your freedom spirit.
Many thanks to all our contributors and translators!
Love and struggle