Critical Resistance
From Social Justice Wiki
Who We are?
Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. CR believes that basic necessities such as food, shelter, and freedom are what really make communities secure. As such, CR’s work is part of global struggles against inequality and powerlessness. The success of the movement requires that it reflects communities most affected by the PIC. Because CR seeks to abolish the PIC, it cannot support any work that extends its life or scope. (copyright Critical Resistance)
What is the PIC (Prison-Industrial Complex)?
PIC refers specifically to the increasing relationship between industry and the prison system where, through corporate contracts, prisoners are used as a cheap labor force. In addition, the building, maintenance, and multiplication of prisons have themselves become an industry and economic driving force. Thus, prisons become less focused on rehabilitation and more upon the number of prisoners needed to turn a profit. However, Critical Resistance has broadened the term to describe the affects of an overall structural system of injustice and oppression dependent upon policing, surveillance and the current penal system. It refers to injustices that are specifically directed at impoverished communities and particularly at communities made up of people of color.
Methodology
1) Movement building through large and regional gatherings (2) Local grassroots organizing through CR chapters around the world (3) Public education through the creation and use of innovative organizing tools such as videos, radio shows, film festivals, toolkits, and the journal of social justice.
(copyright of journal of social justice)