Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages

by Ray Acheson

Overview

ABOLISHING STATE VIOLENCE is an urgent and accessible analysis of the key structures of state violence in our world today, and a clarion call to action for their abolition.

Connecting movements for social justice with ideas for how activists can support and build on this analysis and strategy, this book shows that there are many mutually supportive abolition movements, each enhanced by a shared understanding of the relationship between structures of violence and a shared framework for challenging them on the basis of their roots in patriarchy, racism, militarism, settler colonialism, and capitalism.

This book argues that abolition is transformative. It is about defunding, demilitarizing, disbanding, and divesting from current structures of violence, but also about imagining new ways to organize and care for each other and our planet, and about building new systems and cultures to sustain ourselves in a more equitable, free, and peaceful way. It shows that change is possible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642596939
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	07/26/2022
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	754,674
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ray Acheson is director of disarmament at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and a steering group member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its work to highlight the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons and work with governments to develop the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Acheson is the author of Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Disbanding Police 17

Chapter 2 Dismantling Prisons 39

Chapter 3 Decoding Surveillance 69

Chapter 4 Deconstructing Borders 107

Chapter 5 Demobilizing War 135

Chapter 6 Decommissioning Nuclear Weapons 171

Chapter 7 Demolishing Capitalism 215

Coauthored with Nela Porobic

Conclusion: Abolition as Movement 257

Acknowledgments 269

Further Resources 273

Notes 289

Index 341

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy: 

“This is a powerful and encouraging approach to an often overlooked concern, an informative work that will inspire readers to pay close attention to and even consider participating in the nuclear weapons disarmament movement.” —Booklist

“Hooray for the peacemakers, who prevail in the end! They—and Acheson—have gifted us with a deliciously relevant organizing model for challenging any status quo.” —CODEPINK: Women for Peace

“Ray Acheson tells a profoundly important and timely story of movements and resistance, of protest and vision, of diplomats and activists who have committed to banning the bomb. This book will make you understand the urgent need to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.” —Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

From the Publisher