Help us make our abolitionist visions a reality!

As a volunteer with Critical Resistance over the last three years, I've been donating my time and energy to help build the movement to abolish the prison industrial complex. I believe in this work because prisons and policing wage war on Black, Brown, poor, queer, trans, disabled and other communities — in other words, people who deserve absolute freedom instead of cages and control.

This summer, I am committing to raising $1,312 for Critical Resistance. Can you help me reach my goal to sustain abolitionist organizing?

Our local campaigns challenge the commonly-held notion that caging people makes us safer, while uplifting the strategies that people use to create safety for their own communities. There have been big victories against gang injunctions in Oakland, the Urban Shield SWAT training and expo, and jail expansion in San Francisco. We also correspond with and support the organizing of imprisoned people all over the country, 6,000 of whom receive The Abolitionist newspaper for free.

CR has pushed me to envision an abolitionist future, and the skills and infrastructure we need to build up to make it a reality. My time in CR has been spent with a collective of brilliant, driven people who not only organize to win years-long campaigns, but also encourage each other to be abolitionists in every aspect of our lives.

Having everyday people donate to CR — in whatever way they can — gives us the material resources we need to do this work without compromising our radical vision of a world without police or prisons.

Though most of us are unpaid for our time, we have access to a reliable office and meeting space, printing, postage, books, and food which make all the difference in being a steady voice for abolition (20 years strong!). Not to mention the four, soon to be eight, paid staff who are able to coordinate projects, attend daytime meetings, and accomplish so many other things that a typical volunteer would not have capacity for!

If you have the means, becoming a monthly sustainer is an even more reliable way to show material support for CR's work. You can also show support in other ways like volunteering to answer prisoner mail, attending our events, reading and sharing our email newsletters, participating in campaigns, or subscribing to the Abolitionist newspaper.

Thank you for your support!