Abolition Feminisms Vol. 1: Organizing, Survival, and Transformative Practice

by Alisa Bierria (Editor), Jakeya Caruthers (Editor), Brooke Lober (Editor)

This groundbreaking double-volume engages the theme of abolition feminisms, a political tradition grounded in radical anti-violence organizing, Black feminist and feminist of color rebellion, survivor knowledge production, strategies devised inside and across prison walls, and a full, fierce refusal of race-gender pathology and punitive control. This analysis disrupts the politics of carceral feminism as conversations about the ramifications of the prison-industrial complex continue.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Politics, Race, Gender, Gender Studies, Social Justice

270 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2022

About the author

Alisa Bierria is an assistant professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. A Black feminist philosopher, Alisa's writing and collaborative projects focus on racialized gender violence and critical acts of survival. She is developing a manuscript entitled, Missing in Action: Agency, Race, & Invention, which explores how intentional action is socially imagined in contexts of anti-black racism, carceral reasoning, and gendered violence.

Reviews

[Victoria Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing collection.

I took off one star bc a couple of pieces were extremely academic and I have a hard time getting through them. (Hence why it took 5 months to finish the book)

But all of the pieces, even those that were much harder to read for non-academic me, were extremely insightful and thought provoking.

[Dan Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like in many edited volumes, the individual contributions to Abolition Feminisms Vol 1 vary greatly in quality. There are a few lengthy stinkers that add up to something like 80 pages of the book’s 300. Thankfully, the rest of the book’s essays provide compelling insights into abolitionist feminist organizing both internationally and beyond the traditional prison. Several essays in particular I find especially powerful and perhaps even essential to the corpus of abolitionist literature. Though I don’t think this work should be anyone’s introduction to prison abolition (with or without its vitally feminist inflection), the strong entries make the volume worthwhile for those looking to expand their understanding of carceral structures and histories and methods of resistance.

Let’s start with the bad. Readers would do themselves a favor by ignoring the first essay in the volume, which consists of almost 50 pages of the authors repeating the sound call for an abolitionist movement that has many many adjectives attached: anti-capitalist, feminist, anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, Indigenous-centered, internationalist, etc. Of course the problem is not the argument itself. The problem is that the essay is awash in these signifiers and seems to take them for granted as transparent abstractions. The result is a tiresome slog in which an important political premise is repeated ad nauseum without much development. The essay claims to construct a genealogy of abolition feminism, but you’d be better off reading Abolition. Feminism. Now. for that.

There is another lengthier essay near the end of the book that tries to argue that posting images of femme clothing and bodily adornments with abolitionist slogans on Instagram constitutes “organizing.” Though I find aesthetics an incredibly important tool for creating a field of desire around radical ideas and communities–and an abolitionist bodysuit and acrylic nails that read “FCK ICE” are cool as hell–the breathless extolment of these objects and drawn-out “close readings” had me going cross-eyed. Producing embodied forms of propaganda, while essential, is just not the same as organizing. The author of this essay seems to think that attending Coachella wearing femme abolitionist agitprop (literally the example), with no mention of canvassing or confronting attendees, is a radical act worth spilling several paragraphs over. I want more people to take aesthetics seriously, but there’s no reason to ask of aesthetics what they clearly cannot do (i.e. close prisons).

Complaints about these essays aside, the rest of Abolition Feminisms Vol 1 presents a range of generative materials that excavate experiences of incarceration, histories of colonial violence, and strategies for organizing and community accountability. April Harris’ courageous and harrowing diary recounting her experience of the brutal conditions of COVID quarantine in a California prison lay bare the system’s depravity and torture. A history of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) relates the catalyzing acts of persistent care between incarcerated women that spawns a movement. This movement produces literature for and connections between inside and outside parties that fight for an end to life without parole and better conditions for women in prison. Another essay identifies the economic shifts that produce mass incarceration with the fashion industry’s reliance on sweatshops that put women of color in the global south in conditions comparable to incarceration. Other essays consider the late 20th-century history of migrant detention for queer, trans, and gender non-conforming Cubans and Haitians in light of Trump-era migrant detention and examine the political lives of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons.

The best academic essays, interviews, reproductions of artwork, and personal narratives of Abolition Feminisms present the abstract principles of the volume’s first essay in a much more useful and invigorating form. Together, these contributions form an inspiring work that dutifully constellates abolitionist movements and ideas across space and time.

[Cassidy Yarborough]

Got this book while in ATL :)

[Sarah4socialism · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 for Abolition Feminisms Volume 1, edited by Alisa Bierria, Jakeye Caruthers & Brooke Lober. Published by @haymarket

This book is packed full of stories about fellow organizers, including some centered around folks in prison during COVID-19 when they did not have access to basic supplies and could not call home. In addition, it contains enriching stories from our trans comrades about surviving in the incarceration system when their only “crime” is self-defense against assault.

There are so many different organizations in this uplifting book. It reminds me that people are organizing no matter where we are in the world. I loved googling and researching all the different organizations mentioned in the book to see other ways people organize.

What do we do if we do not have prisons? This book talks about the accountability of our community. We will need to all do work to create a community that places more value on transformative practices rather than punishments. It will take everyone in this movement.

I highly recommend this book! It will give you so many ideas for organizing, and the book is full of resources for you to start implementing different strategies in your local organization.

[Xavier · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting assortment of works that engages Palestinian, indigenous, and trans struggles, pushes back against carceral feminism, and meditates on the meaning of transformative justice and abolition.