Each year in December, Critical Resistance (CR) reflects on the advances we’ve made throughout the year against the prison industrial complex (PIC). From celebrating 25 years of strategy and struggle for PIC abolition, to building more statewide people power in California to close prisons, garnering more support from the New York legislature for the Dignity Not to Detention Act, producing two robust issues of The Abolitionist newspaper, and more, 2023 has been a busy year for CR.
Check out & download a pdf of 2023’s letter here!
Dear friends and supporters of Critical Resistance,
2023 marks 25 years since the founding conference of Critical Resistance (CR), and we are proud to have steadily held the spirit and vision of that conference across our decades of work. In this momentous year, CR has forged ahead building the movement for prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition in our campaigns, projects, and organizing tools – and your support has made this ever-growing work possible! We achieved campaign wins with coalition partners; created and distributed organizing tools; hosted events, workshops, and trainings; strengthened connections with imprisoned comrades and movement partners; and hosted an anniversary celebration where we reflected upon the past 25 years of CR’s ceaseless organizing.
Your generosity is crucial to our campaigns and projects, correspondence across prison walls, the organizing tools we create and distribute, and our power building alongside allied organizations. Will you continue to support CR’s organizing for PIC abolition?
With your help this year, we have:
- Collaborated with California coalition partners to confirm the closure of one state-owned prison and one privately-owned prison – bringing our closure total up to 4 prisons since our campaign to close 10 prisons by 2025 began.
- Organized with New York coalition partners to build up community resistance against immigrant detention and gained support for the Dignity Not Detention Act from four state representatives.
- Corresponded with thousands of imprisoned comrades through our mail programs and phone lines, sharing resources, information, and political dialogue to strengthen organizing across the walls.
- Shared The Abolitionist newspaper Issue #39 on Reproductive Justice with 4,700 people inside prisons, jails, and detention centers for free, and with hundreds of paid subscribers and movement partners. Issue #40 on Control Units is coming this December!
Read and download our full year-end letter here to learn more about the work your donation supports, and make a donation today to sustain us into 2024!
