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“Prison abolition is an intentional and critical commitment to struggle, but it is also a battle of imagination, creativity, and love. It is about possibilities. It is expanding our mind to imagine a world in which prisons do not exist, one made up of societies and communities that are self-determined, accountable, safe, healthy, and free. To share those ideas with each other by any means necessary. And so, we dream; we read and we write.” – Letter from the Editors
Welcome to Issue 24 of The Abolitionist!
At Critical Resistance we see the prison industrial complex (PIC) as a system of violence that works to manage, defend, and extend social economic, and gender inequity–as well as inhibiting the self-determination of the peoples it targets. We see abolition as framework for us to not only undermine the nature and logic of the PIC, but to also expand our political horizons.
In this issue of The Abolitionist, we had the opportunity to expand our analysis of the connections between education and the PIC — and our resistance struggles. The written pieces and artwork in this issue explore education’s transformative potentials as well as the violences institutions of education can perpetrate against our communities. All this work hopes to illuminate historical and present day struggles to address these important issues.
Many thanks to all our contributors and translators:
This issues features contributions from a diverse array of powerful and though-provoking folks, including: Asar Imhotep, Amern, Rick Ayers, Sam A., Bermudez, Kimonti Carter, Luigi Celentano, Malcolm X, Erica Meiners, Isaac Ontiveros, K.S. Peters, Therese Wuinn, David Stovall, Jordan Thompson, Cat Willett.
Love and struggle