We are thrilled to announce that our winter issue of The Abolitionist (#34) has gone to print and is currently being mailed out to about 5,000 subscribers, 4500 of whom are imprisoned.
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As our first issue of 2021, Issue 34 invites readers to dive deep into the past and present interrelations between fascism and neoliberalism, and, as outlined in the Letter from the Editors, prompts us to collectively consider these questions:
What are the connections between neoliberalism and fascism, and what do they mean for prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition now and in the future? Are these ideologies truly at odds in the ways we are encouraged to think, especially during the 2020 US presidential election?
With these considerations in mind, Woods Ervin in their feature piece, “Finding Our Way Forward: Past Neoliberalism, Austerity, Fascism, and the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)” charges us with taking seriously the work of the present moment:
“LOOKING FORWARD, WE MUST CONTINUE THE DILIGENT WORK OF ROOTING OUT NEOLIBERALISM, WHITE SUPREMACY, MILITARISM, AND THE PIC FROM OUR COMMUNITIES, AND WE MUST SERIOUSLY CONTEST THEIR LEGITIMACY AND REMOVE THEM FROM POSITIONS OF POWER. WE NEED TO FIND PLACES OF WEAKNESS WITHIN OUR ENEMIES AND WIN OVER THOSE WHO CAN BE WON, DE-PLATFORM THOSE WHO MUST BE DE-PLATFORMED, AND ERADICATE THE STRUCTURES OF POLICING, IMPRISONMENT, AND MILITARISM THAT THREATEN OUR FUTURE. THE WORK OF BUILDING TRUE SAFETY, PEACE, AND LIBERATION THROUGH ABOLITION REMAINS AN EVER-PRESENT NEED FOR US TO TAKE ON WITH RIGOR AND SERIOUSNESS.”
This piece, paired with key term definitions, helps to unify a continuous yet multifaceted argument throughout the paper. At the centerfold, a bilingual photo essay centerfold on the Black Panther Party’s United Front Against Fascism convening courtesy of The Freedom Archives demonstrates the importance of situating current movements in historical struggle. Readers can also look for the second and final installment of Yunuén Torres’ interview on building autonomous community out of a P’urephecha women-led uprising in Cherán, Mexico, and to an illuminating interview with the Brazilian abolitionist group Trama Colectiva on resisting fascism in Brazil. Moving through the issue, we hear from movement makers across the so-called US sharing strategies, building solidarity, collective leadership, and unity for resistance across prison-manufactured racial lines and border walls in borderlands.
Issue 34 also includes a return of the new columns introduced in the Fall of 2020 in Issue 33: ‘9971’ with imprisoned abolitionist and educator Stephen Wilson, the Inside-Outside Fishing Line, the Abby Throwback, and more.
Check out a sneak peek of the issue, the front-page central analysis piece by Woods Ervin here.
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Onward,
– Critical Resistance & The Abolitionist Editorial Collective