After the Uprising, What Is To Be Done?

More from Hammer & Hope

As we continue our exploration of selections from Hammer & Hope, this week we turn to a topic that many of us committed to the work of liberation think about often - how do we build on the mass protests and energy we experienced in the summer of 2020 to bring the world we wish to see? For many, there is a feeling that there was an opportunity lost, but in this week’s selection, After the Uprising, What Is To Be Done?, Keeanga Yahmata-Taylor, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, and Derecka Purnell discuss the promise of all that is yet to come if we work together and organize against the resistance and mirage of reform that has stifled much of this energy.

One of the many important things this article highlights is the limitations of relying solely on legal responses as a means of countering the resistance, and rather the need for mass and collective resistance. As Derecka Purnell says:

Do we need a legal strategy? Of course. But we need mass resistance by everyday people. We need to go to the libraries where people are banning books to say, “Absolutely not. We’re not going to allow this.” We need strategic, disruptive, direct action. We need protests to push back and to show in numbers that this is wrong.

This piece also addresses a challenging but necessary topic that all of us committed to abolition need to address - the limitations of electoral politics and lack of change that results from “blue no matter who” arguments:

Dems pretend that student-debt cancellation and abolition are narrative issues; they hide behind language to obscure why they don’t support the substantive reasons that lead members of the public to organize for these causes. They are not interested in social transformation, and they benefit personally, professionally, and politically from the status quo. So we must be much more energetic, powerful, strategic, experimental, and organized.

This week’s piece addresses this and many other complex issues that we all need to contend with as we continue to fight for the world we wish to see. Perhaps most importantly, we need to recognize that nothing has been lost since the summer of 2020 - rather, much has been gained, and there is much more that we need to do. Those of us who are working toward liberation hold the power to bring about the world we wish to see. Now, we need to recognize that our collective power is greater than those who wish to oppress us and organize to ensure our power is known.

Join Alan and connease at the 2023 upEND annual convening!

On October 17 at 12:00-1:30pm ET Alan will be in conversation with writer/journalist Josie Duffy Rice at the fourth annual upEND convening: Living Abolition Now: Exploring Everyday Resistance to Family Policing. Alan will be discussing his new book, Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System: The Case for Abolition.

Also at the upEND convening, connease will be leading a workshop discussing the role of language in shaping and advancing abolitionist movements. We Call It Family Policing: The Language of Liberation will take place on October 17 at 2:30-3:30pm ET.

Both events are free for in person and virtual attendees.