Capitalism and Prison Abeolition Many of us are taught about social injustices ks racis and seiom a disriminatory words and.actions that some people infict on other people. bigger than individual people doing o Saying man and harmul thing. Social injustices are woven into the Tabric of society through sustems which produce inequaiity. THIS IS THE FABRIC OF SOCIETY In order to understand how mean and discriminatory thou actions are produced, we must first understand how social inequality is Pprodced *materially* through systems. Our ideas ;n heavily influmaf bg‘:;‘ material waru.’Fnr example, if a group of le is ically poor, some. e may come to T e T g Today, most waterial inequality s produced by a political and economic system called “capitalism Capitalism puts most of the world’ wealth and. resources into the hands of a very small group of people - less than 1% of the Fuman race! L own a5 much weaith Just = of us own a5 and resources as about mich wealth and 750 million people. resources as 3/2 of the “planet's popuiation. In order to get rich in a capitalist system, you need to sell stuff, or “commodities” All commonitis are made of two main ingredients ) Raw Materials and 2) Labor Labor = Q@e%g@ "My labor wil e oo Watch closely! This s whers the injstice beginst! Raw waterials come from the environment... o, | chin il o S vnforest and frc ook che st peple n order o Pl iy ostont A i patg i workers o mal amotod e whagecr | do pay S wi b i prfs italists to make the most money, they need to exploit eople and the enyironment a5 mch a5 possibe, s & cheaply 4 posible €5 0 competitie sgtem, o 1 “dont ot pecpl o th envronment someone s il The laws of the state back up the capitalist in exploiting the land and people. When we talk about the state, we are not just referring to places like “Colorado” or “New York” A “state’ is a political institution that holds a “monapoly on violence.” That means they get to decide. what kind of violence is okay and what kind of “violence" is not okay. : JIVOITIL, A Hordari fail cross the S borde in 3033, Ery e, many o o G eyt B g o s i S S o et 2008, US, soldiers aid familys horn during the US. invason o common US. imparalst practice. The state’s “monapoly on vioence' i enforeed by the institutions of the police and the military. These institutions answer to the state, and are not accountable to the communities that they patrol. Capitalism needs the state to wmake it possible to “own’” land., people and things as “private property’” and enforce the conditions of inequality. Slave patrols existed in the Us. from 1704-1877 (173 years). There is a direct lineage between these slave patrol institutions and the police.! n The exploitation of peaple for cheap labor divides society into 1) The two main classes: itais elass, o small elite who of the waaith i society, 2) The working clss, who do most. of the actual work in sogiety, and “make up the majority o the ‘popuiation A system which divides the world between handful of bilionaires and Literally Everyone Else is inherently unjust. But inequalties exist within the working class as well. Within the working class, there are different vaces, genders, classes, nationalities, ctc. Social categories like “race” and “gender” are crucial to how capitalism woris The Wecking Class. This zine will review some of the history of the ereation of race, as well as 4 key ways that race is used as a tool within capitalism: 2 @ £, @ To divide workers. o structure labor. To shift blame. To manage and hide unemplogment: et e 5 et Pt e Trce ekl EErr o g el (=3 Robin DG, Kelley Black Maraist scholars like Cedric Robinson and Robin D.G. Kelley argue that capitalism developed as an inherently racialized system, which uses differences between people (iike skin color, for example) to justify exploiting some people over others 1 Since youre v, hardly ven have £ P gou T W e for European peaple who were racialized and discriminated against (ike irish, Jeish and Siavi peaple) orignalyarvived n the Amerias as indentured servants, working in horvid conditions with hardly ang pay or rights. Many of the first Africans came as indentured servants too, though others were stolen and enslaved. Ay Problems began when these exploited laborers banded together o resist or escape their masters. For example, indentured Europeans and enslaved Africans would run away together, or join into Indigenous commanities To solve the problem, European landowning elites gave the people who Tookad ort ke thims oo advontages Sy Aan anc hpirons people, such as the right to own land. They invented the racial categories “white” and "Black” as a divide and conquer strategy to cor resistant, exploited labor force. “The iivention of whiteness allowed people who were now labeled as “white” to identify wore with the capitalist landowning elite, rather than with ather exploited peoples and non-white members of the working class. Good thing we're all white! e have 5000 mch in common! 17 At the same time, the invented category of Blackness was used.to justify the massive and violent transatlantic slave trade, which provided the abor needed.to build the Foundation of a powerful capitalst state. These oppressive structures contnue today, ervting profound mateial and pgcholgical impacts on Aficars and Afrcan dascendants,particularty in the Americas, Europe, and. Western Africa. ~0 comansn SN ) Similar systems of domination are not unique to the Americas, and they can't always be boiled down to light-skinned versus dark-skinned races, though they almost always serve to structure the relationships of labor. Wikle he eale of th tranatiantic lve trade is unmatched, Cvibations eluding Egyptians, Greeks, the Chinese, Vikings, and West African Kingdows also enslaved people from other civilizations, and believed those people to be naturally inferior. Racial systews continue throughout the world today. Rpartheid o i povar. e Ttal s bakad v aring it o ot that v mads any sere. Racio s no I, Conider thi. Shese peopl e aad o bock n St Aic. | dons ey wrs g o scing Vack Theg wers il hinse. Bt ik lans feré werent snoueh CHis people £ darrant dviing & whole parats sTcation. Aporieid dspi i preciion, B knons what 5o it him 5ot govermmant e ity e bl L T Intersstingly,a th same i, Japanc peope ware e a5 it he esson T s s . the St Al sovartonent anid 53 tablh good roatins e e Sapaness i orde 10 fmpors he Fans cas and im0 apaniss peopic e g hororary “whis stauc” whik Cries paapl iad back | s e o imagin being s St African ol s el codint £l the ifortnc buti Chink ond Sapandse bt s Job was o ke sur it peapic of the vrong cotor werent don the wrong g, e s Ason persen eting om & whtes-on bnch, what il he a5” . “He ge off that bench, you Chinaman “Excuse me. tm Japanase.” Ok, 1 apolegie, sir. | dids't mean to be racis. As another example, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Kerala India in 1959 to connect with people's movements abroad. King shared that when he was introduced at a school, the Principle said, “1 would like, o present to you a fellow untouchable® From the United States of America (and for the moment, | was pesved, | was Shocked, that | would be introduced a5 an. untouchable. But pretey soon, my mind o bk crss o Amaricnand 1 Stared Ehinking abou the face that there were 50 mang places that couldn't go because of the color of my skin ] And | had to say o maself, | am an untouchable, and every Negro in the United States is an unbouchable. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. = “Untouchable” refers to the lowest of the Fixed social clssas in the caste system of idia. Caste s detarmined o birth, and cannot bt changed. Journalist 1sabel Wilkerson argues that racial hierarchies in the United States should be thought of as a caste system similar to that n India. ‘She describes, “Caste is the bones, race is the skin. . Caste is Fixed and rigid. Race is flid and superficial, subject to periodic redefinition to meet the needs of the dominant caste in what is now the United. States. 4 justifies different levels of c: Racism not onl il the working class, mak also serves to g B S ey apitalist foitation, but it it harder for people to unite and overthrow the capitalst clas. The Working Cass. Race is also used as a tool to shift blame away From the capitalist system and towards indiidls. For example, wi people in the US. become unemployed due to corporations moving overseas (to exploit cheaper laborers), they are told “immigrants are stealing their o Additionally, race i used as a way to structure labor, separating people into different types of labor and levels of exploitation. Race serves as a way to make these structures seem “natural,” as IF people of certain races were just born to do certain jobs! Often the most diffiult, exhausting, ad dangerous jobs are underpaid and racialized (as well as gendered). Latine people Latin and lack women boise P " eqiual Filds, eaning and doing chidears o bebind oh secne i restaurants A few people are an exception to the rule. Their stories are often Wide used to hide the fact that there is a racially structured society, The racial structuring of labor serves the purpose of fucling race -based igisions within the working clacs. ° i friend achis irated from Foduras nd was mprionad i o 5 detetion Conr or 7 ottt Nachis il that the oy o the Lciriy guards at froysckopind Black, amploged o montor the igrant prionars. Vil Nachis o] e abost the ~ Sirong and-Black | Thi s one xample of how the Gai || i o iy can cas rae- b iy B s ions e people who a o Lot commanity o hald tion O} st nto this, S taceration. 1S i to waintaining the i st e ot PO UASS JONCARCERAVIALY “Mass incarceration” refers to the impri i extreme arount of paple. The Unied Staces e the Hghést navearaion rate in the world. Even though the US accounts for just 5% of the planet’s population, it confines almost 25% of the worlds prionersi Th vast wajorty of these pisoners are ow'income and people of colo U Tncarcera¥ion rates by race 08 put mcararated 09,000 Hhh ) 2 In order to understand the driving forces behind mass incarceration, we st first understand something called “the reserve armsy of labor.~ The st ary oflbor s another way o saging “unemplased peole.” For the capitalist system to function, there must be a pool of people who can i work and are willing to work—but do not have job. Unemplogment is necessary for capitaism because it ensures that all of the eomploged workers are casily replaceable. f workers are replaceable, then they will be scared to demand. Hgher wages, safer conditions, and.better benefits, because their boss could fire ‘them and. hire one of the unemployed people to take their place. “might not pay ik, but 4 IF there werent any extra unarmploged workers, then bosses couldn't fire anyone because there would be o one £o replace them. Workers could demand better conditons without fear, and capitalists coudnt ‘demand such cheap labor. Bt i we lok closer, el e that i the capitalstsstem, th rservs army of labor is based on race. In the US, for example, Latinx people are unemployed more than white people, and the difference is even ‘greater for Black and Indigenous people. e 2a¥tivnynay g Blade st whies | Asin These patters are reproduced. through racialized housing and education systems which funnel youth of color From poor-neighborhoods o underfunded schools to low paid jobs or UNEMPLOYMENT. Often the infrastructure and. quality of lfe can be completely different for people living within 10 miles of each other. You can see this iF you walk From the Upper East Side of Manhattan to East Harlem, or from Berkeley to Richwond California, or Chicago's North Side to the South Side. As mentioned carlier, the racialized nature of the system makes it seem fike uermplogmant i natural tai of the groups o pegpe who re nimploged vather shan o matural persoF e coptbus sppeon Theyve just looki &mg«m “This structure serves to make people of color, particularly black and Indigenous people, more disposable i the eyes of the capitlst sstem and state - all while making the capitalist system look lie it fai for evergone Bt the st can run nto some problems. What hagpers f here e too mang unemploged pople, (the reserve arw of abor is to0 large)? The state may have to start providing more social services than they have money set aside for. the government simply denies social services to unemploged people, it will be even more obvious that the capitalst system values profi¢ over life. There are already about 70,000 people who are houseess i the United States (as of 201.9)1 This number would continue to grow. The state nasds to maks i seem ke captalim s working for the people, but it can't do that if there are huge numbers of poor folks exposing the injustices of the system. IF enough people are struggling to survive under capitalism because. are unable to find work, they will question. the Fairmess of capitalism and could rise up to overthrow it. For this reason the Black Panthers believed that it would be l le who overthrow capitalism. “ “Lumpen” is short for lumpenproletariat, which is a word for unemploged people. The students focus thei rebellions on the campuses, And the Working Class focuses ts rebellions on the factories and. picket lines. But. the ] Lumpen finds tslf in the peculia postion of buing unabl £ fnd & J0b and thercfore is unable o attend the Universtcs The Lurmpen has R0 choice but to manifest its rebellion in the Universiey o the streets ' To maintain order, the state criminalizes poverty. No LoTERING] (NO PEEING] (NO FARE N EVASION, At the same time that capitalism creates poverty, it criminalizes the condition of being poor. Race-based narratives are used. to distract from eh sstens creaing poverty . instad. bame poor peapl and people o Color for their life circumstances. This creates the illusion that capitalist society i Functioning well, except for a category of people who are “disturbing the peace.” Many actions people take to survive poverty are arrestable and jailable “crimes". This means that poor and unemploged people are particularly targeted by the police. People are put behind bars for doing what they must o survive poverty, and the scale of systemic poverty is hidden behind the bars of prisons. imagine if the 2.3 millon people who are currently imprisoned in the US. were instead unsheltered on the streets ~ it would be even more apparent that capitalism is ot serving the needs of the people 1 “Not Normal" Black Maraist scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore has studied and. theorized this relationship deeply. She explains that the 1970's was the first time in US. history that US. corporations began moving their factories to other countries in order to exploit workers at a cheaper cost and increase their profits= As more and wore jobs were outsourced, the nurber of unemploged people in the US. skyrocketed, especially among low-income workers of color who had been working in manufacturing. These newly unemployed people were majoricy Biack, Latnk, ind ndioenous, because capitalism is a fundamentally racial em i which these populations are more likely to hold low-wage, easily outsourced jobs But what would become of these newly unemploged people? Would the government provide them with social support? Would new jobs be created for them? The graph below provides the answer. In respose to the increase in unemplogment of these communities, the incarceration rate increased by 700% between 1970 and 202041 : Milions of these US Tncarcerotion newly unemploged peopl were [easen crimivalized, maving them offthe Serets and into the risons. Sant e e e e e e e e 7 Through this context, we can understand the prison as a WAREHOUSE for unemploged people, who are overwhelmingly Black and Brown. Incarceration gets them off the streets, reduces the risk of a mass uprising of the unemploged, and. replaces state -funded social services like food stamps, unemplogment benefits, and. low - with prison. as a cheaper option. The state justiies the prisons by calling the unemployed people inside the “rivinals” The racialved Rarvatie of the “dangerous Lemial s reinforced through mainstream media, pop culture, books, and movies. 1 SALES SERVICE JVIDED AR RADIO - ANTENMAS The racial structures of society reproduce race-based ideas about groups of people. At the same time, the ideas reproduce the racial structures. Poiice harass and eriminalize S We are categorized: to be associated s b e i o R T LT e ey e care, a good education, and other nacesstis, because the conditions e live i are racialzed. b ar waling, &ting or dping pubic therafor dproportionatly diesting umempioged popi of clor When people of colo are denied access to The state i then able to ustify the nacessitis of Ife, our conditions and. Funding polce surveilance, and responses are lamecl o deas of culture increased criminalization of thise o race, vather than the capialst Same communties Sustim, which benefits unemplogment and mcarcerstion. L2 While most people would agree that this cyele of criminalization o mass incarceration s unjust, many are [eft wondering, “If we get rid of prisons, what do we do about Bk bt do ue bo wurderers and sex offenders?” abovk mordevers and Sen oftenders? Acivist scholrs ke Angla D R wikon Gimore, o Marase Kaba propose Framework 60 grapple e 5 guasion and v, ol Prison Abbiion Prison Abolions S auastion, “How 4o we e prions cmwacesiary n ther words, Fourdo e ranchormsocity 5 moek peopies eeds (nsand o uing ther b0 to prft and erminlic poverts? i do e rase youth so Bty ko how o resco confict it (vt nsead o visoring s Vnlnce? o 4ot tach o % repect the bodis ond the BoT 7ot Gt o g ham a3 sexual cjecy How dokour Carrent ocitycrate e corditons for e very behavios £ crminles? Mariame Some societies around the world are already working towards a vision of prison abolition. For example, in The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (also known as Rojava) — an anti-capitalst, feminist, ecological, multi—ethnie society — conficts and social harms are addressed by community-based Peace and Consensus Committees 1 These committees do not focus on punishment or blawe, but instead work to come to a consensus between conflicting partics. Many cases in the committees are resolved through dialogue and consensus awong all parties and the committee raembers. i Cses o an indiidual hurting other people, the committa wil often seck to understand the conditions that led a person to harm others. They are guided by the question, “How can we eliminate the conditions causing this person €0 harm?" instead of “How can we now harm this person who harmed others?" The Peace and Consensus Committee may vequire the individual to address their harm by doing community work. including working for the people who were hurt by their actions. Other requirements could be e oking n cooperati o dageg pablc sergiscor vt cases, relocation to another community 1 As another example, Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001, treating drug addiction as a medical lssue instead of a crime. Their rate s now x lower than the European average, and the These and other examples show that prison abolition is within reach, so long as we are willing to build societies designed to meet people’s needs and address root causes of harm. This means ending the system of capitalism which requires race and mass incarceration as a means of structuring labor, shifting blawe,diiding peapl, an hiding iy e cnemploge. i the pest, te and was caled “privte roperty” and thee wers peopl atpons caled th polce who were there €5 Kkach most of us aut of . They wold some it s i e ok it \f«-«m i1 anc 1 wa gl st 5t e arethe e who dcde o o " community runs and,bhow we wil take care o cach other, Now we feel in our bones the Freddom of selfdetermination, D o =) e Discussion Questions &) s iekperina e N AR WP o~y vy R Sty genveld, e e imagi ‘people accountable LUK U apiealiom regquires OTE WOt ool orowing socity? at the tims? prions? o awag? Crmamons L8 M, Sly .St Puri. Lav and Vilenc nVirgoi nd he Corlias.rvard sy [2Wha s Racisl Capiam an why s 1t Matr? Presantd by Robin .G, Kl KODK Sestle et rrricgmnb e b o a7 Sl o s~ 21 Nosh, Treor, Bom Crima: Storiss from Sauth Arican Chdhod. v Yok Spigl b G, on i o oo N, 2037 i [4] Dumacracy Now Augis 32, 2030, Accesid A 36, 3030, it oo et eyt i v Adam. . Prion opuation Duars That of ther Nations* Tt e Yok Tomes. Apr 23, ik M U3 s po Mations The e Yok Times. Apri s s o OV AL 25\or amarc 3304 33prisom 13253738 bl (6] Wagnar, Ptur, US: ncarcrason R Compare g That of Othar Founding WATO Mmburs, i ol i, 3038, heps v rsonpoie o3 raph NATO, U5 35185t g e e o ooy e ey i, FL T A T e i e -y —“—— e Bt gy o s vt kit e mentort e ey s oo [0 Busos, Ao, Unioupliuent Rtas i ndion Counry Ouipac th Rt of th ation. Cronkie News, 20 My 3035, vt s om Novs 3554/05/ 01 Lepte-$un. ok st s 130D, Eri. Homtss i it US. 30073034 Sedsta. 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