I want to speak on the importance of political education and solidarity in our struggle to survive, get free, and stay free. But first I would like to address the short comings of the prison abolitionist movement today. There is a belief that mutual aid and general correspondence alone will help us survive genocide and escape torture. When instead, these caring acts only help us manage and cope with these conditions while doing nothing to liberate us from them. This approach will only help prisoners suffer peacefully while assimiliting our movement into the power establishment in which controls the mechanisms of state violence and oppression. The very thing that developed mass imprisonment as a tool to displace and dispose of entire communities.

This must be met with critical resistance and revolutionary action. It’s on us abolitionists who are sincerely committed not just in thought and words but in action and practical application. We are confronting material conditions that must be done away with completely. We are embracing visions, programs, and processes that ensure autonomy, independence, collective self-determination, and sustainability. These are things we’ve identified as primary aims and objectives to ensure our survival, maintain our freedom, and secure our destiny. And we are committed to do this till we free us.