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Works of Radical Imagination Books Authors Events Blog Resources About Triangle Square logo Logo for ' children's imprint Triangle Square Search Log In Works of Radical Imagination Abolish!: A Reading List on Police, Prisons, and Protest “Conventional wisdom would have one believe that it is insane to resist this, the mightiest of empires, but what history really shows is that today's empire is tomorrow's ashes; that nothing lasts forever, and that to not resist is to acquiesce in your own oppression. The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist that force that is trying to repress, oppress, and fight down the human spirit.” ―Mumia Abu-Jamal by Angela Davis , Paco Ignacio Taibo II , et al. Against Police Violence: Writers of Conscience Speak Out by Rebecca Stefoff and Bruce Watson Freedom Summer For Young People: The Violent Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy by Huey Newton The New Huey P. Newton Reader by Angela Davis Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture by Mumia Abu-Jamal , Noelle Hanrahan , et al. All Things Censored by Amnesty International The Case of Mumia Abu Jamal: A Life in the Balance by Michael Deibert and Raoul Peck Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti by Paco Ignacio Taibo II '68: The Mexican Autumn of the Tlatelolco Massacre by Paul Robeson Jr. A Black Way of Seeing by Subcomandante Marcos Our Word is Our Weapon: Selected Writings by The Zapatistas Zapatista Encuentro by Hilary Klein Compañeras: Zapatista Women's Stories by Upton Sinclair The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of Social Protest by Alexander Berkman Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander Berkman Reader by Elfriede Jelinek and Ulrike Meinhof Everybody Talks About the Weather . . . We Don't: The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof by Bill Ayers , Bernardine Dohrn , et al. Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiqués of the Weather Underground 1970-1974 by Khary Lazarre-White Passage: A Novel by Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower: A Novel by Octavia Butler Parable of the Talents: A Novel by Aric McBay Full Spectrum Resistance, Volume 1: Building Movements and Fighting to Win by Aric McBay Full Spectrum Resistance, Volume 2: Actions and Strategies for Change by Normand Baillargeon Order Without Power: An Introduction to Anarchism: History and Current Challenges by Anthony Arnove and Howard Zinn Voices of a People's History of the United States: 10th Anniversary Edition by Benjamin Dickson and Sean Michael Wilson Fight the Power!: A Visual History of Protest Among the English Speaking Peoples by Howard Zinn The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy by Howard Zinn Howard Zinn on Race by Thomas Hauser The Trial of Patrolman Thomas Shea by Anthony Alvarado DIY Resistance: 36 Ways to Fight Back! by Giacomo Papi Booked: The Last 150 Years Told through Mug Shots by Innosanto Nagara A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara The Wedding Portrait by Innosanto Nagara M is for Movement by Hal Schrieve Out of Salem by Paco Ignacio Taibo II '68 (Spanish Language): El otoño mexicano de la masacre de Tlatelolco A de activista View all books in collection Sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on Seven Stories new releases, events, and resources. blog — June 23 Abolition is the only way forward Take 50% off digital copies of Are Prisons Obsolete? and Abolition Democracy by Dr. Angela Y. Davis For more writings against the prison industrial complex, check out Abolish!: A Reading List on Police, Prisons, and Protest With her characteristic brilliance, grace and radical audacity, Angela Y. Davis has put the case for the latest abolition movement in American life: the abolition of the prison. As she quite correctly notes, American life is replete with abolition movements, and when they were engaged in these struggles, their chances of success seemed almost unthinkable. For generations of Americans, the abolition of slavery was sheerest illusion. Similarly, the entrenched system of racial segregation seemed to last forever, and generations lived in the midst of the practice, with few predicting its passage from custom. The brutal, exploitative (dare one say lucrative?) convict-lease system that succeeded formal slavery reaped millions to southern jurisdictions (and untold miseries for tens of thousands of men, and women). Few predicted its passing from the American penal landscape. Davis expertly argues how social movements transformed these social, political and cultural institutions, and made such practices untenable. In Are Prisons Obsolete? , Professor Davis seeks to illustrate that the time for the prison is approaching an end. She argues forthrightly for "decarceration," and argues for the transformation of the society as a whole. Revelations about U.S. policies and practices of torture and abuse have captured headlines ever since the breaking of the Abu Ghraib prison story in April 2004. Since then, a debate has raged regarding what is and what is not acceptable behavior for the world's leading democracy. It is within this context that Angela Davis, one of America's most remarkable political figures, gave a series of interviews to discuss resistance and law, institutional sexual coercion, politics and prison. Davis talks about her own incarceration, as well as her experiences as "enemy of the state," and about having been put on the FBI's "most wanted list." She talks about the crucial role that international activism played in her case and the case of many other political prisoners. Throughout these interviews, Davis returns to her critique of a democracy that has been compromised by its racist origins and institutions. Discussing the most recent disclosures about the disavowed "chain of command," and the formal reports by the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch denouncing U.S. violation of human rights and the laws of war in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq, Davis focuses on the underpinnings of prison regimes in the United States. A Free E-book Against Police Repression "The ideas that can and will sustain our movement for total freedom and dignity of the people cannot be imprisoned, for they are to be found in the people, all the people, wherever they are. As long as the people live by the ideas of freedom and dignity, there will be no prison that can hold our movement down.” ―Huey P. Newton Defund the Police. Abolish Prisons. Refuse State Repression. Contents: - “Fighting to Win” from Full Spectrum Resistance: Building Movements and Fighting to Win by Aric McBay (2019) - “The Problem is Civil Obedience” from The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy, Updated and Expanded 2nd Edition by Howard Zinn (2009) - “Slavery, Civil Rights, and Abolitionist Perspectives Toward Prison” from Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis (2005) - “Women in Prison: How We Are” by Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard), 1978, from Voices of a People’s History of the United States, 10th Anniversary Edition , edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove (2014) - “We Remember the Days of Glory but Tend to Forget They Were Fourteen-Hour Days” from ’ 68: The Mexican Autumn of the Tlatelolco Massacre by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith (2019) - “Even Liars Know the Truth” from ’68: The Mexican Autumn of the Tlatelolco Massacre by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith (2019) - “Prison, Where Is Thy Victory?: January 3, 1970” by Huey P. Newton (1969), from The New Huey P. Newton Reader , edited by David Hilliard and Donald Weise (2020)” Happy Birthday, Octavia Butler June 22 Against Police Violence June 02 There Is an 80 Percent Chance There Will Be an Election in 2020 May 26 More on the blog We project onto nature the tensions and contradictions of our providential mission. Nature is seen as a wilderness to be tamed, a continent to be conquered, an apocalypse over the horizon, and at the same time a sublime lands...