Abolition from the Inside Out: National Work Stoppage in the U.S.

• In Event: Roundtable: Penal Abolition Research and the Politics of “Crime” and Justice

Abstract

In this presentation we highlight the burgeoning prisoner resistance movement as a tool to advance abolition. In the U.S., everyday prison logistics and operations rely on the compliance of prisoners. From cooperation with the routines of confinement, to maintenance of the facilities, to outsourcing prisoner labor to others, prison coerces its captives in maintaining and enabling their own captivity. The prison regime extracts both labor and compliance in abusive conditions for very little pay. The Free Alabama Movement (FAM), in conjunction with IWW labor activists and other prisoners, supporters and organizers, have called for a national work stoppage across prisons and detention facilities to disrupt the prison industries and to demand fair wages and fair working conditions. The presenters are outside supporters and are helping to coordinate a national work stoppage on September 9th, of 2016. We will reflect on the lessons learned from pursuing prison abolition now and first, by helping prisoners to make their continued captivity impossible through direct action. We will additionally argue that an increasingly ungovernable prison rebel population can create an internal crisis, disrupting the logics and routines of punishment to render prisons unworkable and to move us closer to our goal of penal abolition.

Authors

• Colleen Hackett, Colorado State University - Pueblo

• Ben Turk, Support Prisoner Resistance and Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee