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Title: Review: Locked Up by Alfredo M. Bonanno Author: Aragorn! Date: 2009 Language: en Topics: prison, review, Alfredo M. Bonanno, AJODA, AJODA #67 Source: AJODA #67
Elephant Editions/Quiver
PO Box 993
Santa Cruz, Ca 95061
60 pages
This new pamphlet by Elephant Editions is a transcript of a presentation
by Alfredo Bonanno on the distinction between prison abolition and the
destruction of all prisons. It is a particular pleasure to read not only
because of how personal the subject matter is to Bonanno, but because
the distinction itself raises interesting questions about future
solidarity and coordination with other so-called radical groups.
At the heart of the distinction is the idea that even the idea of prison
abolition (which in this country is seen as the height of radicalism
within the emaciated prison reform movement), is fully capable of being
integrated by a progressive prison reform movement into a new way for
the State to manage prisoners (perhaps without the cost but with the
same level of control). The central contention for Bonanno is that
abolition is in practice impossible because the social context of
capitalism and the state is such that prison is a requirement for the
existing social order.
“The destruction of prison, on the other hand, clearly linked to the
revolutionary concept of destruction of the State, exists within a
process of struggle”.
This kind of distinction is seemingly impossible in North America, where
nearly anyone who desires the end of the existing order appears to be
happy working with anyone who will frown in the general direction of
authority. Bonanno’s distinction implies that anarchists can set the bar
much higher, can challenge themselves on the actual meaning of their
rhetoric, and can use that challenge to refine exactly what order of
operation our direct action should take.