GLOS1919: Abolition Now: Imagining New Futures in a Time of Crisis

Abolish Police! Abolish Prisons! Abolish ICE! Abolish Borders! You have probably encountered these slogans at protests, in street art, or in popular media. But what do they mean? And what exactly is contemporary abolitionism? As you will learn in GLOS 1919, abolitionism isn?t one thing, but what unites abolitionists is a belief that our current systems and institutions can?t be reformed because they were built to strengthen and reproduce racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, radical income and power inequality, etc. In other words, our systems (of policing, of prisons, of immigration, etc) are not broken; they are working exactly as intended. But abolitionists know that you can?t tear down the walls of prisons tomorrow or pretend that the borders between nation states don?t exist. An often overlooked part of abolitionist thinking and organizing focuses on imagining and creating new futures?of establishing new communities and systems that exist outside, but also alongside, the existing order. Mutual aid, transformative justice, and radical sanctuary movements are examples of abolitionist thinking in action. In GLOS 1919, you will learn more about abolitionism and abolitionist movements alongside organizers and activists from the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, Communities United Against Police Brutality, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, and other local organizations. Readings are likely to include work by Angela Davis, Mariame Kaba, Orisanmi Burton, Harsha Walia, Silky Shah, Naomi Paik, and Dean Spade.

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