The 1acs narrative of fixing a broken system places false confidence in the maintenance of that system that deradicalizes and enables slippages that prolong the violence of the state.

Talk of a “broken system” makes theoretically possible the chance to fix the system. But in the spirit of Audre Lorde, attempting to fix allegedly “broken” systems using the “master’s tools” only stabilizes the foundation of the master’s house, rather than dismantling it. Too often attempts to undo systems of structural violence are liable to a redoing, especially when treating a disease with symptoms of that disease. My commitments are to organizing from the ground up and transformation consonant with the etymology of “radical” (a derivation of radix,” meaning “root”). As George Jackson reminds us, there is a thin line between “reform” and “fascism.” We cannot allow some slight tinkering to be wielded as a hegemonic tool to till the soil of oppression without uprooting contaminated terrain. This means we cannot let “mutual aid” work be de-historicized, mutated and made palatable for consumption and co-optation by the state and/or the nonprofit industrial complex. We may think we are preaching to the choir, but far too often the choir is singing the same song as the oppressor. We need to start singing a new tune. We need to start hitting notes out of range from those who can only lip sync the songs of freedom and liberation. It’s at this point when abolition steps to the mic and says, “check out my melody.”

Within any absence, there is a presence and abolitionists are steady building as they destroy. Many know how to live in a more just and sustainable world. It is for this reason that abolitionists embrace the idea that the world will not and cannot be the same. Abolition is a vital and necessary tool to ensuring that we no longer treat diseases with symptoms of that disease. The abolition of police, prisons, ICE, the state, capitalism, toxic animal enterprises, and solecism eliminates the possibility of being beholden to life-destroying systems. Some suggest that identifying what we are against is far easier saying what we are for. So let me put it this way: I am for a world without police and prisons. I am for a world without legislation that rewards Wall Street, big banks, and airlines acting as if they have nothing to lose. I am for a world without agencies like the IMF and World Bank that create the debt poor countries allegedly owe. I am for a world without a parasitic health insurance system that sucks the life out patients through the exorbitant cost of “care.”

Abolition is about making all of these symptoms obsolete through mutual aid, transformative justice and other ways to heal without the harm of the state. Healing through harm is not sustainable. Healing through abolition is. Abolition is not simply a negation, but a site for the generation of a more just and sustainable world.