Abolitionism Archives | Page 2 of 2

January 13, 2021

From Palestine to Mexico, border walls have got to go!

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” is more than a slogan, it’s the call of a liberation movement. The Palestinian struggle for liberation is international and the fight for socialism begins when we unite to fight imperialism, colonialism and capitalism. The anthology Palestine: A Socialist Introduction published by Haymarket Books, gives us an overview of the possibilities of a better world, starting with Palestinian liberation. Editors Sumaya Awad and brian bean (brian bean is written in lowercase) offer us a succinct historical background of Palestinian liberation and an internationalist framework of socialism from below through which we can view this struggle.

September 8, 2020

by Héctor Rivera

Biking is not a crime: justice for Dijon Kizzee

On Saturday, August 5, protestors blocked all northbound lanes of the 110 Freeway in South Los Angeles to demand justice for Dijon Kizzee, an African American man killed by two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officers.

The protest began at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s station on Imperial Highway, where Black Lives Matter organizers had called a demonstration in solidarity with the Kizzee family. The demonstration got underway with a ritual prayer honoring the lives of those lost to police violence.

July 7, 2020

by Justin Akers Chacón

Growing movement to get cops out of schools

Inspired by the rebellion against police brutality and racism, school boards across the country are being called upon to terminate contracts with local police departments. This is a growing expression of the Black Lives Matter struggle and important step in the movement to defund the police.

Parents and community groups whose children have been victims of abuse or profiling have been pressing school boards to end the practice, but elected officials have been reluctant or unwilling to confront police violence on campuses—until now. By July, there are over fourteen districts that have already terminated contracts, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Madison, Milwaukee, Seattle, Columbus, and Charlottesville. Several other districts are in the process of “reviewing contracts.”

January 23, 2020

by Justin Akers Chacón

Abriendo la frontera a través de la lucha de clases y solidaridad

El capitalismo norteamericano se ha transformado en dos realidades superpuestas, y aun así totalmente contradictorias para el capital y el trabajo. En ninguna parte es esto más evidente que observando lo que ha sucedido entre los Estados Unidos y México en las últimas tres décadas. A través de los auspicios del estado, sus dos principales partidos políticos y sus homólogos menores a través de las fronteras nacionales, la clase capitalista de los Estados Unidos ha transformado la región en una economía singular para el capital sin fronteras.[1]

January 13, 2020

by Justin Akers Chacón

Opening the border through class struggle and solidarity

North American capitalism has been transformed into two over-lapping, yet starkly contradictory realities for capital and labor. Nowhere is this more apparent than through observation of what has taken place between the United States and Mexico over the last three decades. Through the aegis of the state, its two major political parties, and its junior counterparts across national boundaries, the US capitalist class has transformed the region into a singular borderless economy for capital.

Integration in this form has been accomplished through what are mischaracterized as “free-trade agreements” (FTAs). These were imposed under authoritarian conditions. Freedom was conspicuously absent when FTAs were dictated to the Mexican people during economic crisis as conditional in exchange for emergency loans. These “structural adjustment programs” required by outside entities such as the International Monetary