The systems we confront don’t want us to study–and they definitely don’t want us to study together. 

Abolition and Reconstruction is the product–and the process–of the first year of work at the Du Bois Movement School, a community education project that came together in the wake of the 2020 uprisings. While the media embraced the language of abolition–if not the revolutionary practice–the state used violent tactics to repress activists as we fought in the streets and in public opinion for the abolition of prisons and police, of state violence and capitalism. Out of this moment a question emerged: What do we really mean when we say “abolition”? 

Searching for the answer to this question required conversations with organizers and educators, the development of concrete organizing skills, and most of all a deeper understanding of history, economics, and power. In this pocket-sized volume, Abolition and Reconstruction offers a framework for 12 weeks of study on revolutionary abolition, decolonization, and struggles past and present, giving readers the tools to understand oppression and domination, and work together to build knowledge and solidarity.