The call for police abolition is not a new one. Anarchists and communists have been calling for it for hundreds of years, and as these once-maligned voices are pushed to the forefront, a thorough consideration of the corollaries and implications of this demand is necessary. This is not what this piece plans to provide. Instead, take it as a springboard for further reading.
Anarchist and communist suggestions for a filling for the vacuum left by an abolished police force are myriad, but they are not exclusively highfalutin theoretical whimsies. Noam Chomsky noted in ‘On Anarchism’ that nobody is smart enough to plan a society in advance, and this holds true; instead, it makes sense to advocate the methods that have been tried in anarchist or libertarian communist regions throughout the world. To research the strengths and weaknesses of communal organisation in Zapatista Mexico, anarchist Catalonia, and the Paris Commune, is necessary for anyone pushing for abolition. Read from the Invisible Committee and the Situationists; without them we will simply be reinventing the wheel. To conclude the final call of this piece is not simply to run blindly forward with vague schema ill-fitted to the world, but to perfect what has been tried.
Written by Oliver Haythorn
Media by Ben Hyland
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