In this talk given at Brown University on April 8, 2019, Dr. Joy James (Williams College) outlines two major periods of abolitionism: The revolutionary era (1967-1972) and the reactionary era (1972-present). In this video, James contextualizes abolition within the larger struggle:
"That's the thing about abolition. It was never about the prison. It was about empire in the world [...] And so it is not a national struggle. It is not a prison struggle. It is an international struggle. That said, the prison abolition is just a microcosm and an international struggle against the rise of authoritarian rule, billionaire capitalism, climate control, which is going to push people either into deserts or into cities."
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