Support abolition in Oakland this year-end!

Why Abolition, and Why Now?

“Abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions.” I love coming back to this quote by Ruth Wilson Gilmore (Critical Resistance co-founder) because it sums up why I'm a student of abolition and a proud supporter of Critical Resistance Oakland. To me, abolition in part looks like building a world where:

• life-affirming resources like quality health care, education, jobs, and affordable housing are abundant.
• the prison industrial complex no longer terrorizes the minds, spirits, and bodies of our Black, Indigenous, immigrant, trans, disabled, and poor neighbors.
• we actually tend to the root causes of violence instead of reproducing it through policing, surveillance, and punishment.
• community members have the skills to address harm/conflict and can count on one another to keep each other safe.

Especially amid this year’s global pandemic and social uprisings, now is the time to radically re-envision public safety and well-being. Policing and human caging do little to create safe, healthy, and equitable communities where all of us can thrive, or survive. We’ve seen that reforming these systems only increases their ability to inflict harm--they need to be completely dismantled. “The only solution to the epidemic of policing and its inherent violence is abolition” (Critical Resistance’s “Abolish Policing” Toolkit, p. 3). When we embrace abolition as a present practice and a horizon, we can build healthy communities now and beyond COVID-19.

Why Critical Resistance

For over 20 years, Critical Resistance Oakland has been on the ground dismantling, changing, and building toward the world we want to live in. Below are just some of the many reasons why I love Critical Resistance and am a monthly sustainer:

• The organization’s many brilliant minds continue to radically deepen my analysis of abolition and the prison industrial complex. Among many other ideas, they’ve helped me understand the difference between crime vs. harm, and why “reformist reforms” don’t make policing less violent. CR’s analyses and resources have truly transformed my understanding of strategic organizing and how I relate to my communities.
• Critical Resistance and its partners lead powerful campaigns like Stop Urban Shield, a five-year fight that forced the City of Oakland to stop hosting Urban Shield, a SWAT team training and weapons expo that sought to militarize our local police departments.
• Abolition isn’t viewed as just a long-term goal. CR actively builds new models today that reflect how we want to live in the future. With CR’s guidance, I’m learning that abolition is a daily practice. This knowledge sustains me and keeps me deeply hopeful through uncertain times like these.

Support CR's Work

Thanks to our amazing network of grassroots supporters, Critical Resistance Oakland has been able to build powerful campaigns and projects that chip away at the harms of the prison industrial complex. Your support and belief in abolition keeps us going strong.

To bring it back to Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s quote about presence: the fight for abolition and liberation needs you in it, too! I invite you to help Critical Resistance Oakland reach our year-end goals by sharing a one-time contribution or becoming a monthly sustainer.

Your donation will support organizing necessities like:

• creating outreach materials (e.g., Oakland Power Projects’ flyers on how to address health emergencies without calling the cops)
• securing art supplies for our childcare area at events
• tables and chairs for Critical Resistance Oakland’s new building at 4400 Telegraph
• and so much more!

Every contribution goes a long way toward helping Critical Resistance Oakland build an abolitionist present/future rooted in dignity and community care. Thanks so much for being a part of this vision! I'm so excited to build with you.