Abolition Week Three
LIBERATION LECTIONARY - BLACK AUGUST
Study, Fast, Train, Fight
“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation…do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love of Revolution. Pass on the torch. Join us, give your life for the people.” George Jackson
Reflection: No Turning Back
August 21st, 1971, George Jackson was assassinated in San Quentin prison after spending 11 of his 29 years in prison. He was sentenced to somewhere between one year and life in prison, for stealing $70.00, because the judge counted his behavior and multiple prior arrests against him. He was put in jail for such a long time because a judge claim to believe that imprisonment was best for his
“Capture, imprisonment, is the closest to being dead that one is likely to experience in this life,” Jackson wrote in his book Soledad Brother.
Black August is honored among Black liberation movements each year in large part because of George Jackson, the Soledad Brothers, and unjust imprisonment in general. Abolition is the goal of Black August. Political prisoners over the past few decades have given us the principles that connect our work to their struggle this month: Study, Fast, Train, Fight.
When we study, we explore concepts of imagining a world where harm is healed through accountability, community power and transformative justice. When we fast, we are focusing our attentions and appetites on the freedom struggle, and we are moving our bodies, hearts and minds at the pace of solidarity with imprisoned people everywhere. When we train, we are organizing our people to prepare for a world free from cages, where punishment is not the path to justice, because punishment is not the same as consequence or critique. When we fight, we protest the dehumanizing conditions of prisons and jails, we dismantle the cash bail system, we draft and advocate for more protective policies.
Critical Resistance, one of the premiere and vanguard resources on 21st century abolition principles, describes the PIC in this way: “The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.” Their definition of PIC abolition is “PIC abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment.”
When we study, fast, train and fight, we are realizing that as Dr. Angela Davis says, even the most intimidating walls can be turned sideways into bridges. The struggle is not swift, but the people can endure. Because death is not our destiny, and the slow death of imprisonment is not God’s design for anyone who carries the breath of the divine.
Music: Black August Playlist
This month’s meditation music varies from Gary Clark, Jr. and the Roots, Syl Johnson, to Sun Ra, and Anderson Paak. Enjoy these grooves under the themes of deliverance, dreaming for our futures, and demanding change even now.
YouTube Video Playlist – watch live performances of the tracks we’ve chosen for this month.
Daily Scripture Readings from Isaiah 28
This week’s concentration was inspired by the fury we might feel against judges who put children in bondage, like the story of George Jackson. The future of these corrupt leaders might always remain unknown to us, and we might be tempted to hold vendettas instead of pursuing accountability, but we have work to do, and obsessing over punishments deserved is not how we study, train, fast or fight. This is why the word of the Lord can be a shelter for us. God’s word is the place for us to learn how to grow new nourishment in the places where we feel our people have been tilled for far too long.
Sunday: Isaiah 28:1-2 See, there is a time of trouble coming for the seats of power, the crowns worn with pride and drunkenness, whose shining beauty is a dying flower. Judgment will come to the rich valley of those who have taken too much wealth for themselves! Look, The Lord has One who is mighty and strong, like a storm of hail, a tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters; with force he will hurl them down to the earth.
Monday: Isaiah 28:5-6 On that day the Lord of hosts will be a garland of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people and a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
Tuesday: Isaiah 28:14-15 So receive the word of the Lord, which comes against all scoffers who claim power to rule over the people. You will be judged for you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with the place of bondage we have an agreement, that when destructive punishment passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter.”
Wednesday: Isaiah 28:16-17 This is what the Lord God is saying, “See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: ‘The one who trusts need not panic.’ And I will make justice the line and righteousness the plummet; hail will sweep away those who uphold lies, and waters will overwhelm their hiding place.
Thursday: Isaiah 28:18-19 Then, you rulers, your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with punishment will not stand; when threats and danger pass through, you will be defeated by it.
As often as it passes through, it will take you, for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night, and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.”
Friday: Isaiah 28:22 So take the warning and stop lording over people, or your curse will be made stronger, for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts upon the whole empire.
Saturday: Isaiah 28:23-28 Listen and hear my voice; Pay attention and hear my speech. Do those who plow for sowing constantly dig up? Do they continually open and till their ground? No! when they have leveled its surface, they plant in the ground. They scatter dill, sow cumin, and plant wheat in rows and barley in its proper place and spelt as the border. For they are well instructed; their God teaches them how to grow new things,
Prayer & Meditation
Spiritual well-being is one of the most important practices of our imprisoned loved ones. Islam is a very common religion for incarcerated people. This week’s prayer comes from the Instagram page @flowerspodcast, a cultural and spiritual hub for Black Muslims.
“The past several weeks have been challenging, to say the least. With challenges come opportunities for reflection, action and growth. The ills that plague American Muslim communities - racialized, gendered and sectarian - are not unique to us or our time. The way we confront them can be. Why we do so must be rooted in what we profess unites us all, our love for Allah swt and our pursuit of His forgiveness and favor. Bismillah. Jummah Mubarak, y’all.”
#BlackMuslimFlowers #flowersdue #flowersgiven #BlackMuslims #fortheculture #forthefuture #fortheancestors #Muharram #BlackAugust
Ya Allah, we are in need of Your mercy, Your grace and Your healing. Ya Samï, … You are the One who hears all. Ya Mujeeb… You respond to the yearner who calls out in need.
We are in need of less performative piety and more sincerity rooted in love. We are in need of change rooted in the example of Your Beloved, We are in need of vision that illuminates the path to Your reward. We are in need. We are in need. We are in need.
Join our hearts with the hearts of those who call out for Your mercy. Join our hearts with the hearts of those who call our for Your ease. Join our hearts with the hearts of those who call out for Your justice.
Make the cause of those who are struggling, ill-treated and oppressed, our cause. Unite our voices with their voices until we are all too loud to ignore and too mighty to be denied!
Ya Waali… You govern and manage all things. Ya Haadi… we are in need of Your guidance. Do not entrust us to any other than You. Do not even leave us to ourselves. We are in need. We are in need. We are in need. ~
Credits and Endnotes
Sources for Reflection:
Critical Resistance page for PIC Abolition https://criticalresistance.org/mission-vision/not-so-common-language/
About George Jackson https://socialistworker.org/2018/08/21/the-murder-of-a-soledad-brother
Books to Read : Angela Davis Autobiography, Fumbling Toward Repair
Prayer: Flowers Podcast page
https://www.instagram.com/p/Chc6LdKJIHZ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
Artwork: Buhle Nkalashe