We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice: 1 (Abolitionist Papers, 1)

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Eventually, Rusher was found unresponsive after a suicide attempt and died 12 days later after being removed from life support. She was only 27 years old.

Kaba focuses on a case from 2013 to show how the industrial prison complex strips prisoners of their humanity.Mariame has the rarest of gifts: the ability to imagine a better future, the skills to help construct it, and the courage to demand it. For years, Mariame has been thinking through some of the toughest questions about society's addiction to punishment, and We Do This Til We Free Us showcases the extraordinary depths of her knowledge about our criminal legal system. This book could not arrive at a better time –as more people become familiar with abolition, Mariame's words are especially critical. But it is not just a book about systems. It's a book about people, the powerful and the struggling. And, ultimately it is a book about each of us— the values we possess and the choices we make. Mariame has the uncanny ability to illuminate the murky and complicated elements of who we are and give them voice. As an abolitionist, Mariame is not just calling for the destruction of old systems, but the creation of a new world. This book will change the way you think about your community, your relationships, and yourself.” — Josie Duffy Rice, writer Restorative Justice: This is “focused on the importance of relationships. It is focused on the importance of repair when those relationships are broken when violations occur in our relationships. It is very much interested in community” (p. 148). The intertwined analysis and collective organizing archived in this invaluable collection provides crucial entry points in the everyday work of abolition. Engaging the most pressing questions of our time with clarity and commitment, as always, Mariame makes abolition irresistible, and as imperatively, doable.” — Erica R. Meiners, author, For the Children: Protecting Innocence in a Carceral State We can and must collectively build a world without policing, prisons, surveillance, punishment, and capitalism––a world in which all are equipped with the tools to prevent and transform harm, one in which everyone has what they need to thrive in community with others. The logics and practice of racialized punishment extend beyond the prison itself. Punishment creeps into and defines every other governing institution — government assistance, immigration, education, social work, health care, and more— thus drawing more people into the prison, and extending the captivity of the prison into more people’s lives.

While these steps provide a more general overview, Kaba also covers what immediate steps can be taken to work towards prison abolition: when we set about trying to transform society, we must remember that we ourselves will also need to transform. Our imagination of what a different world can be is limited” (p. 4). Challenging the logic of oppression and how society has internalised and grown to rely on these logics is essential to step one.The miracle is Mariame's collaborative, accountable, future-facing, legacy-bearing presence in our movements and her intentional practice of evaluating how she can contribute to our collective future. This book, which documents some of Kaba's most important interventions, crucial conversations and paradigm shifting ideas makes this ongoing miracle shareable, teachable, and available for study in community. We Do This 'Til We Free Us is a necessary offering towards the possibility of our intentional participation in the actions that will create a more loving and live-able world. Read this book, hold this archive, share this journey, to nurture your own presence, practice and collaborations towards the freedom we already deserve." — Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author, Dub: Finding Ceremony She promotes and facilitates transformative and restorative justice processes and helps lead campaigns for people who face criminal punishment tied to actions like self defense from abusive partners — also known as criminalized survivors — all while doing research and publishing toolkits, zines and other resources to educate the public. But as beloved an organizer as she is, Kaba consistently refuses to center herself in the spotlight — she often chooses not to be photographed or to appear in videos. For a long time, she even refused to put her name on her writings and resources. Despite being well known, Kaba is a deeply private person. Prisons did not always exist and they were something that was created, which means that new systems of justice can be created as well. The PIC is not broken. When the PIC causes death and destruction, it is working at peak efficiency. Calling the PIC “broken” reaffirms the misguided possibility of reform and acts as a counterinsurgent force against abolition.