Mellon Sawyer Seminar on Contemporary Political Struggle: abolition x communism

This event brings together our favorite thinkers of both abolition and communism not as official upper-case ideologies but as lower-case ideas about how to organize social existence. While some would say that each implies the other, tensions between the two traditions have also proliferated. Some interpreters have opposed anti-racism and class analysis, decolonial thought and Marxism, the Global South and Eurocentrism, among other oppositions. Such considerations have taken on ever greater significance amid the ongoing horrors of police violence within the explosion of the carceral state, and the intensifications of capitalist collapse. This discussion provides an opportunity for these scholar-organizers to consider the overlaps and consonances, the necessary and prospective relations between abolition and communism - as well as the potential lacks thereof. We’ll feature statements by each participant, shared discussion, and some time for questions.

[@PDPresents]

Thank God for Dr James. She nailed the problem in academia down. We want SLAVERY ABOLITIONISM.

[@amdclx4635]

many thanks for the upload

[@LilithsRib]

Did Kathi misname Joy at the 1:48:36 mark? and call her Joanne? I'm unfamiliar with her scholarship and while I appreciated what she had to say about the nature of work, i don't think she had the range to speak with (or remember the names of) Charisse and Joy.

[@AbolitionToday]

That's not abolition you're talking about. What Dr joy James pointed out is historic abolition. Ending constitutional slavery allowed by the 13th amendment and practiced in fact by a racist justice system. That's what our ancestors fought for and what this generation of alleged abolitionists completely ignore.

[@danagreen4543]

Thank you for a great discussion!!