WILPF publishes new series on abolition

WILPF is publishing a new long-read series focusing on the harms caused by border imperialism, police brutality, incarceration, weapons and war, and more. These articles demonstrate how each of these rely on and help sustain the interconnected systems of militarism, capitalism, racism, and patriarchy.

As explained in the introductory article, abolition is a political project of promiscuous care – of living in a more expansive way than the capitalist, patriarchal society tells us we can. Abolition of structures of harm is not just about tearing down the system but building it anew, based on cooperation, equity, and justice for all. Abolition is about looking at the root cause of harm and violence and working to build alternatives that prevent this harm, rather than relying on existing structures that only create more harm. Abolition seeks not the destruction, but the transformation of our current world order, including through the disarming, demilitarising, defunding, and disbanding of entities of coercive state power that work against peace and freedom. As Ruth Wilson Gilmore says, “Abolition requires that we change one thing: everything.”