#Abolition #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #RuthWilsonGilmore #BarbaraRansby
It’s not as snappy as when we fight we win, but it’s what is important. Without the fight we can’t set the table up for a win. As someone who frequently chants those slogans and considers myself to be an abolitionist, I appreciated Ransby and Gilmore’s words. They were sobering but also terrifically inspiring not only to me but to the Chicago community about to face down Trump’s goons. 8/8

#Abolition #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #RuthWilsonGilmore #BarbaraRansby Ransby spoke particularly about communities hard hit by violence in Chicago. She said they are really suffering. We could keep them safe IF we had the resources to do so. But at the moment many communities don’t have the resources. So part of the fight has to be about getting resources so we can keep us safe. On the “when we fight we win” issue, she said when we fight we continue to move the issues further along. 7/8

#Abolition #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #RuthWilsonGilmore #BarbaraRansby One of the other points I appreciated was Gilmore stated abolition activists have to have offer solutions that are practical. She said theory by itself cannot accomplish change. I particularly appreciated this comment because it aligns with what I’ve been saying about people who vote theoretically. She pointed to 1 Million Experiments and Interrupting Criminalization as examples offering concrete practical solutions. 5/8

#Abolition #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #RuthWilsonGilmore #BarbaraRansby She stated that the innocence issue could be tricky when dealing with activists and gave the example of a hard conversation with a DACA activist, who claimed they were innocent. Gilmore said she had to explain why that wasn’t a good argument. It was more that everyone deserved dignity and a system that builds up rather than tears down, whether innocent or not. These were tough words to hear. 4/8

#Abolition #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #RuthWilsonGilmore #BarbaraRansby Gilmore did note that for a while people had stopped asking abolitionists what to do about the rapist/murderer hypo. But she has observed that the question is being resurrected recently, she wasn’t sure why. However, she did say you cannot build an abolitionist theory around the idea of “innocence.” Her position was that either the PIC was wrong or it wasn’t and innocence was not the yard stick to measure its value. 3/8

#Abolition #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #RuthWilsonGilmore #BarbaraRansby Of course Ransby, a dynamite scholar in her own right, took Gilmore through the regular set of questions such as how did she get into abolitionist theory and why she writes about it. She also asked Wilson about her life long membership in the Communist Party, and how she distinguishes the benefits of communism versus socialism. This was a discussion of political theory, not on particular state actors. 2/8