#slowbookclub

This month #slowBookClub read Angela Y. Davis's Are Prisons Obsolete? I highly recommend it, it's short, it's clear and well-written, and it has a great chapter on 'what do we do instead?'

I was put off by the word "Obsolete" in the title. Partly it felt like if you're going to make one argument against it in the title, "old-fashioned" is not that convincing of one. But the way she threads the history of how we got here and the question of where we go next make it fit.

my takeaway: Prison Industrial Complex Abolition is an entrenched problem with two major modes of approach:

1. Chip away at criminalization - decriminalize things, strength the social safety net, get people housing, food, education, and health care. This is mostly stuff we can vote for.

2. A common empathy for humanity or grounding in human rights. No one should be getting raped, regardless of whether they are in prison. No matter what a person has done, they don't deserve to be treated as sub-human.

#slowBookClub will return Tuesday Sept 8, at 6p Pacific. We're reading Fight Like Hell, The Untold History of American Labor, by Kim Kelly. It has 65 chapters, so we'll take it in 3 chunks. For Part 1, please read the first 22 chapters or at least some of them. Slow Book Club is on jitsi and open to anyone who is interested! we have a small core group, but we've had up to 7 or 8 people at some of the earlier meetings - and it's gone well. Sign up at https://luma.com/yrzgh4t1 for reminders Boosts welcome