this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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Abolition of police and prisons

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Abolish is to flourish! Against the prison industrial complex and for transformative justice.

See Critical Resistance's definitions below:

The Prison Industrial Complex

The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.

Through its reach and impact, the PIC helps and maintains the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic and other privileges. There are many ways this power is collected and maintained through the PIC, including creating mass media images that keep alive stereotypes of people of color, poor people, queer people, immigrants, youth, and other oppressed communities as criminal, delinquent, or deviant. This power is also maintained by earning huge profits for private companies that deal with prisons and police forces; helping earn political gains for "tough on crime" politicians; increasing the influence of prison guard and police unions; and eliminating social and political dissent by oppressed communities that make demands for self-determination and reorganization of power in the US.

Abolition

PIC abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment.

From where we are now, sometimes we can't really imagine what abolition is going to look like. Abolition isn't just about getting rid of buildings full of cages. It's also about undoing the society we live in because the PIC both feeds on and maintains oppression and inequalities through punishment, violence, and controls millions of people. Because the PIC is not an isolated system, abolition is a broad strategy. An abolitionist vision means that we must build models today that can represent how we want to live in the future. It means developing practical strategies for taking small steps that move us toward making our dreams real and that lead us all to believe that things really could be different. It means living this vision in our daily lives.

Abolition is both a practical organizing tool and a long-term goal.

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Ultimately, this “generous offer” amounted to turning the West Bank into non-contiguous cantons, crisscrossed by a network of settlements, roads and Israeli areas. Even the supposed “capital” of the Palestinian state would mostly be under Israeli control, with stipulations and conditions that stripped any real sovereignty from any area of the supposed Palestinian “state”. Not even the sky above Palestinian heads would be under their control, nor the water under their feet, as Israel still demanded access to water resources under the West Bank.

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[–] silence7 -5 points 1 year ago (7 children)

They have land. They have people. Both can be lost if they're unable to figure out how to prevent Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and their successors from going on kidnapping and murder rampages.

[–] Excrubulent 6 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Maybe if Israel stopped stealing their land and houses, bombing them, cutting off their supplies of water, food and medicine and generally wasn't actively perpetuating a genocide, and also offered them something real, then they would be more amenable to peace talks.

It's hard to imagine how the Palestinian people would give Israel any benefit of any doubt at this stage. Their genocidal project has been clear for decades.

And no, they won't lose everything. That basically can't be done. It's fascist propaganda to imply there's some complete final solution that can be enacted on a minority group. They'll just keep oppressing and harming them and create a diaspora. It's an endless project, not one that can be completed.

[–] silence7 -5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Would be great. How about Hamas and Islamic Jihad release the people they kidnapped and turn themselves over? It would pretty quickly get rid of Netanyahu's political support for the use of force.

[–] mambabasa 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You misunderstand Netanyahu’s calculus here. He wants genocide. It HAS ALWAYS BEEN genocide from the Nakba. Bombing Gaza is a poor way of rescuing hostages, unless you plan to kill the hostages.

[–] silence7 -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's meant to impose a sufficiently large cost on Hamas and Islamic Jihad that they don't repeat it again. Only way out is for those two groups to surrender, which is what they'd do if they actually cared about Palestinians

[–] mambabasa 5 points 1 year ago

So genocide is a sufficiently large cost? THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN JUSTIFY INDISCRIMINATE BOMBINGS AGAINST CIVILIANS. If Hamas does it, it’s bad, but when Israel does it, suddenly it’s a justified response?

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