I will be heading to Oakland tomorrow for the awesome Critical Resistance 10 conference. I will be liveblogging, so stay tuned for those posts! If you're in the Bay Area the conference is free, so think about checking it out.
In September 1998, thousands gathered in Berkeley, California, for conference that founded Critical Resistance's movement to abolish the prison industrial complex (PIC). Each participant, with their own experiences of oppression and resistance, watched as diverse struggles were unified: by humanity, hope, and the shared vision of a different world. We witnessed a vision of a world with truly safe, healthy, and whole communities; a world with unconditional access to self-determination and dignity for all; and, critically, a world without imprisonment, policing, and other forms of punishment and control.Over the past decade, the movement to eliminate the PIC has faced tremendous challenges. We have witnessed rising levels of imprisonment in the US and around the world. We have endured passage of the USAPATRIOT Act of 2001, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, increasing surveillance and policing in our lives. Meanwhile, US-led wars continue to ravage communities around the globe. We have witnessed the increased repression and criminalization of migrants and immigrants, people of color, young people, and queer communities. We have seen California prepare to embark on the biggest prison building project in history as the Gulf Coast region continues to struggle and to prevail in spite of ongoing neglect and militarization.
We have seen only the beginning of what we can accomplish together. CR10 promises to propel this momentum forward, with united, strategic force.
I'll leave you with one statistic that really struck me and inspired me to go to this conference: The United States accounts for 5% of the world's general population and 25% of the world's prison population.
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Glad people are talking about this, since it's a very serious issue, especially in poor communities like the communities in Oakland.
I was born and raised in the bay area, though I'm going to school in Fresno now (so I won't be there), but alot of the people I knew growing up are now in that prison system, and it's really sad.
The article failed to mention that about 27% of America's federal, state, and county prison population are illegal immigrants. Those are all people that are incarcerated for crimes other than when they entered the country without permission.
Also, there are segments of our society that see time spent in prison as a badge of honor. Not sure what we can do about that.