Abolition requires that we change one thing: everything.
– Ruth Wilson Gilmore
BACKGROUND
Structural violence occurs in different forms, in different places, and by different actors: In the form of batons and tear gas, racial profiling and camera surveillance, incarceration and exclusion, deportation and drowning, sexual assault and feminicide, exploitation and debt, wars and trade agreements, environmental racism and ecological destruction. Resistance to these varieties of organized abandonment takes just as many forms: Black Lives Matter rebellions, anti-colonial struggles, feminist movements, wildcat strikes, refugee and migrant organizing, prisoners’ unions, anti-repression groups, mutual aid collectives, struggles against exploitation and oppression, disability justice initiatives, and the planetary climate movement oppose state forms of violence. They all try – often with reference to concrete practices in the here and now – to live and defend a world beyond exploitation and oppression. At least since the global uprisings of 2020, all these struggles have assembled behind the same flag: abolition.
This international activist conference serves to exchange and connect all those who struggle against police violence and imprisonment, borders and deportation, patriarchal violence and ecological destruction, exploitation and the increasing production of people as “surplus” -, in short, racial capitalism. Our conference aims to further anchor the analysis and critique of racial capitalism and its various facets, specificities, and global articulations in the German context and to strengthen productive conversations and solidarities between local movements and global struggles for other worlds.
With Hakima Abbas, Verónica Gago, Harsha Walia, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and the abolitionist multitude from Germany.
DOCUMENTATION
Here are some videos documenting the conference and ongoing abolitionist activities.
RESOURCES
The German site has reading lists, book recommendations, podcasts and other resources: https://abolitionismus.org/ressourcen/
PROGRAM
Friday, 23.6
15.00 h Welcome + Introduction
Abolition Beyond Borders Collective
[K2] [Livestream] [German with Simultaneous Translation]
15.30 h Panel: State Violence, Resistance, Abolition
Initiative in Gedenken an Oury Jalloh, Initiative in Gedenken an Yaya Jabbi, Solidaritätskreis Mouhamed Lamine Dramé, Aktionsbündnis NSU-Komplex auflösen
[K2] [Livestream] [[German with Simultaneous Translation]
17.00 h Networking and Collecting Suggestions for the Workshops
[K2] [German and English]
17.30 h Break
18.30 h Keynote Lecture: Ruth Wilson Gilmore (New York): Change Everything
[K2] [Livestream] [English with Simultaneous Translation]
20.00 h Bar + Abolitionist Playlists [Peacetanbul]
Saturday, 24.6.
10.00 h Concurrent workshops with abolitionist groups + friends
Workshop 1: Abolish Police, Cages and Borders
Facilitator: Simin Jawabreh
With: Abolish Frontex, Black Community Coalition for Justice & Self-Defence, Bündnis zur Abschaffung der Ersatzfreiheitsstrafe, Gefangenen-Gewerkschaft / Bundesweite Organisation (GG/BO), Wrangelkiez United!, Lampedusa in Hamburg, Udo Sierck/Aktivist der Selbstbestimmt-Leben-Bewegung behinderter Menschen, Critical Resistance, Asmara‘s World e.V. (tbc)
[kmh] [German with Whisper Translation]
Workshop 2: Abolish Fascism
Facilitator: Charlie Ebert
With: Bildungsinitiative Lernen aus dem NSU-Komplex (BiLaN), Jüdischer Antifaschistischer Bund, Migrantifa NRW, Migrantifa Wien, Kurdische Frauen*bewegung in Europa, Critical Resistance
[kx] [German with Whisper Translation]
Workshop 3: Abolitionist Feminist International
Facilitator: Melanie Brazzell
With: ARRiVATi – Community Care, Berlin BIPOC Transformative Justice Group, Casa Kuà, Hydra e.V., Hamburg Collective of Transformative Justice Facilitators, International Women* Space, Romani Kafava, Transformative Justice Practitioner Network
[6a] [German with Whisper Translation]
12.00 h Lunch Break
13.00 h Keynote Lecture: Harsha Walia (Vancouver): Abolish Border Imperialism: Migration, Racial Capitalism, and Building Transnational Solidarity
[K2] [Livestream] [English with Simultaneous Translation]
14.30 h Break
15.00 h Reflection of the Workshops and Networking Perspectives
[K2] [German + English]
16.00 h Keynote Lecture: Verónica Gago (Buenos Aires): Feminist Alliances Against the Counteroffensive
[K2] [Livestream] [English with Simultaneous Translation]
17.30 h Break
18.30 h Concluding Panel: Abolition must be… green, red, & international
Hakima Abbas, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mimi Kim, Nazan Üstündağ, Sulti (BIPoC for Climate Justice, No Border Assembly)
[K2] [Livestream] [English with Simultaneous Translation]
20.30 h Bar + Abolitionist Playlists [Peacetanbul]
22.00 h Abolition Dance [kmh]
Additional program:
Copwatch Hamburg: Gefährliche Orte [Piazza]
Escalation Hörstation: Sound Of No Police [Foyer]
Screening, The Life of Yaya Jabbi [k2 and Livestream]
Jam Session & Cocktails [Friday Evening at Migrantpolitan]
Abolitionist Songs/ Call and Response [anywhere, anytime]
Unfortunately, the rooms Kx (workshop 2) and 6a (workshop 3) are not barrier-free (stairs).