STATEMENT OF COMMITMENTS

We are committed to both the structural and internal work needed to engage in action guided by our commitments. As Mariame Kaba reminds us, “When we set out trying to transform society, we must remember that we ourselves will also need to transform.”

We are committed to the abolition of the carceral state, which can be understood as the “formal institutions and operations and economies of the criminal justice system proper, [and the] logics, ideologies, practices, and structures that invest in tangible and sometimes intangible ways in punitive orientations to difference, to poverty, to struggles to social justice and to the crossers of constructed borders of all kinds” (Tapia). In this way, our understanding of the state, broadly speaking, moves beyond a single apparatus, such as “the government,” but is instead an orientation that requires a multi-dimensional approach to be dismantled.

WE ARE FIRMLY ROOTED IN THE TRADITIONS OF ABOLITION FEMINISM, BLACK RADICAL FEMINISM, AND BLACK QUEER FEMINISM

Angela Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie define abolition feminism as a “praxis—a politically informed practice—that demands intentional movement and insightful responses to the violence of systemic oppression.” A Black radical feminist ethos requires that the marginalized be moved to the center (hooks) and Charlene Carruthers defines Black queer feminism as a “political praxis (practice and theory) based in Black feminist and LGBTQ traditions and knowledge, through which people and groups seek to bring their full selves into the process of dismantling all systems of oppression.”

WE ARE FIRMLY ANTI-CARCERAL

We work for the abolition of the prison industrial complex (PIC), which Critical Resistance has defined as “the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social, and political problems. We advocate for non-reformist reforms that chip away at the power of the PIC, rather than legitimize it. Non-reformist reforms weaken the system’s power and resources to jail, surveil, monitor, control, and otherwise punish people. We work to expand paths to freedom for all people, resisting dividing people into categories of “deserving” and “undeserving” (Critical Resistance and Community Justice Exchange). We also understand anti-carcerality as interpersonal and internal. As Sarah Lamble reminds us, we must also address “carceral logics that creep into our daily practices.… If we don’t challenge these carceral logics and practices at the everyday level, it’s hard to challenge them at institutional levels. It’s easy to be an abolitionist in theory. Putting it into practice requires ongoing effort and reflection.”

WE ARE FIRMLY ANTI-CAPITALIST

In their 1977 statement, The Combahee River Collective explains that “the liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political economic systems of capitalism.… [W]ork must be organized for the collective benefit of those who do the work and create the products, and not for the profit of the bosses.” Insisting on an intersectional approach, analyses of class must “take into account the specific class position of Black women who are generally marginalized in the labor force.”  As Claudia Jones argues, the “super exploitation” of poor Black women workers around the world is a system rooted in chattel slavery. We are committed to anti-capitalist worker-led struggles through organizing at the point of production, unionization, strikes, mutual aid, barter systems, and a total reimagining of a dehumanizing and ableist labor system that puts profits over people and the land. 

WE ARE FIRMLY ANTI-IMPERIALIST

Clarissa Rojas and Nadine Naber frame anti-imperialism as “the political vision and  struggle seeking to end ‘US’ colonialism and expansion that sets out to dominate the global political economy by controlling land, resources, and lane through military force and/or political, economic, and cultural control.” They remind us, “engaging in the work of undoing carcerality necessarily beckons the work of undoing a social landscape productive of empire, for carcerality is derivative of and co-constituted by empire.” We are committed to solidarity with our siblings working to end US military occupation, reclaiming Indigenous folks’ land, combatting the theft of resources, and resisting the spread of zionism and empire around the world.

WE ARE FIRMLY COMMITTED TO DISABILITY JUSTICE

Sins Invalid co-founder Patty Berne wrote, “We cannot comprehend ableism without grasping its interrelations with heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, colonialism and capitalism.” Centering sick and disabled folks who are often left out of mainstream disability organizing, disability justice asserts that “...ableism helps make racism, christian supremacy, sexism, and queer- and transphobia possible, and that all those systems of oppression are locked up tight.” (Piepzna-Samarasinha). Through a Disability Justice framework, we recognize that “all bodies are unique and essential, that all bodies have strengths and needs that must be met” (Berne). We are committed to creating more opportunities for access, and removing more barriers, so that all of our siblings can engage with our collective work.

WE ARE FIRMLY COMMITTED TO ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

The environmental justice movement has a history of ignoring social justice, so it is important to understand “the environment is everything: where we live, work, play, go to school, as well as the physical and natural world. We can’t separate the physical environment from the cultural environment” (Schweizer). Environmental justice means that “no community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other” (Carter). Some key tenants of environmental justice are that the praxis “affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction” (People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit). We are committed to solidarity with Indigenous peoples and the fight to reclaim free access to all natural resources and “place Indigenous land back in Indigenous hands” (Bearfoot).

WE ARE FIRMLY COMMITTED TO HEALING JUSTICE

From the Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective, “Healing Justice is a political strategy conceived in 2005, and formally launched in 2006 by the Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective to intervene and respond to generational trauma and systemic oppression, and build community/survivor-led responses rooted in southern traditions of resiliency to sustain our emotional/physical/spiritual/psychic and environmental well being.” Healing justice helps us guide liberation work from the external to the internal and back out into our communities again. We commit to allowing ourselves time and space to self-reflect and engage with unlearning the oppressive ways of being we’ve been taught.

WE ARE FIRMLY COMMITTED TO IM/MIGRANT RIGHTS

As Harsha Walia states, “we are told that immigration policy is about law and order, not racial exclusion in an allegedly post-racial state. While borders are hierarchically organized and [made] permeable for white expats, a handpicked immigrant diaspora, and the rich investor class, [there are millions] who are shut out, immobilized, and expelled.” We remain in solidarity with comrades who are perceived by the state to be occupying American soil without documentation, and are committed to the abolition of carceral institutions, such as “Immigration Customs and Enforcement” (ICE) that participate in their violent deportation and detention.

WE ARE FIRMLY COMMITTED TO LGBTQIA+ LIBERATION

We move in the traditions of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. We recognize the need for gender equity, prison and in-between care, access to gender affirming care in and outside of healthcare, and the freedom to love whomever without systemic, cultural, or interpersonal threats of violence. We resist the attempted disappearing of the LGBTQIA+ community and commit to centering Black and brown queer and trans voices whenever possible. 

WE ARE FIRMLY COMMITTED TO REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

As conceptualized by Loretta Ross and the 12 Black and Brown Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice, reproductive justice is a framework where everyone has a right to bodily autonomy, to have children, to not have children, and to parent the children we already have in a safe and healthy environment. Reproductive justice goes beyond the issue of choice and recognizes that positive liberty does not equate with access. It "examines deep-rooted historical systems of oppression that provide insight into today’s continuing social injustices, (including) slavery, war, colonialism, and genocide” (Thompson). We resist state and interpersonal efforts to strip reproductive rights and to restrict access to the resources, opportunities, and environments needed to create and sustain families.

We are guided by practices of accountability, collectivism, mutual aid, and transformative justice. We expect white comrades to be traitors to white supremacy, cisgender and straight comrades to be traitors to homophobia and transphobia, men comrades to be traitors to patriarchy, financially privileged comrades to be traitors to class hierarchies, able-bodied comrades to be traitors to ableism, and US-born comrades to be traitors to nativism. Living as a traitor to systems of oppression requires everyday action that is intentional, principled, unrelenting, sacrificial, and courageous.

REFERENCES

Bierria, A., Caruthers, J., & Lober, B. (Eds.). (2022). Abolition feminisms vol. 1: Organizing, survival, and transformative practice. Haymarket Books.

Carruthers, C. A. (2018). Unapologetic: A black, queer, and feminist mandate for radical movements. AK Press.

Davis, A. Y., Dent, G., Meiners, E. R., & Richie, B. E. (2022). Abolition. Feminism. Now. Haymarket Books.

Ervin, W., Foran, R., Grace, S., Shehk, M., & Weiss, P. On the road to freedom. (2021). Critical Resistance. https://criticalresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/OnTheRoadToFreedom_FINAL_June2021-compressed.pdf

Hayes, K., & Kaba, M. (2023). Let this radicalize you: Organizing and the revolution of reciprocal care. Haymarket Books.

hooks, b. (2000). All about love. Harper Collins.

Kaba, M. 2020. So you’re thinking about becoming an abolitionist. Medium. https://level.medium.com/so-youre-thinking-about-becoming-an-abolitionist-a436f8e31894

Kindred southern healing justice collective https://kindredsouthernhjcollective.org/

Lamble, S. (2020). Practicing Everyday Abolition. Abolitionist Futures.

Land back: The indigenous fight to reclaim stolen lands. (2022, April 21). KQED. https://www.kqed.org/education/535779/land-back-the-indigenous-fight-to-reclaim-stolen-lands

Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. L. (2018). Care work: Dreaming disability justice. Arsenal Pulp Press.

Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. L., & Dixon, E. (2020). Beyond survival: Strategies and stories from the transformative justice movement. AK Press.

Schweizer, E. (1999). Environmental justice: An interview with Robert Bullard. Earth First!, July. https://www.ejnet.org/ej/bullard.html

Spade, D. (2020). Mutual aid: Building solidarity during this crisis (and the next). Penguin Random House.

The combahee river collective statement. (1977). The Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0028151/

The principles of environmental justice. (1991). Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice. https://detroitenvironmentaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ej-principles.pdf)

Walia, H. (2021). Border and rule: Global migration, capitalism, and the rise of racist nationalism. Haymarket Books.

Yuen Thompson, B. (2017). Centering reproductive justice: Transitioning from abortion rights to social justice. In Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundation, Theory, Practice, Critique. The Feminist Press.