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The History of Critical Resistance
CRITICAL RESISTANCE (CR) WAS FORMED IN 1997 WHEN ACTIVISTS CHALLENGING the idea that incarceration is the panacea for all of our social ills came together to organize a conference that examined and challenged the phenomenon we have come to call the prison-industrial complex. Held in September 1998, the conference brought together over 3,500 activists, academics, former and current prisoners, labor leaders, religious organizations, feminists, gay, lesbian, and transgender activists, youth, families, and policymakers from every state in the U.S., as well as from other countries. The three-day event featured almost 200 panels and workshops and included a multitude of cultural events and a film festival.
Although the conference was a huge success, CR recognized that its work had only begun. The goal of CR was not simply a conference. The objective of CR was, and continues to be, the building of an international movement to challenge the prison-industrial complex. In pursuing that goal, the work of CR continues.
Critical Resistance Mission Statement
Prisons and incarceration have become the panacea for all of our social ills. Where once the United States looked to the welfare state to alleviate social problems, today the U.S. looks to prisons, prisons, and more prisons. Critical Resistance uses the term prison-industrial complex (PIC) to describe this phenomenon and the corresponding reality -- that capitalism flourishes from locking people in cages. CR recognizes that an integral component of the PIC is the dramatic increase in the incarceration of people of color, women, and the poor, along with the continued imprisonment of political prisoners.
CR is strongly committed to challenging the existing structure of "criminal justice," which is based on revenge, punishment, and violence. As part of the emerging international movement for penal abolition, we envision a society in which fundamental social problems are no longer "solved" through the mass warehousing (and periodic torture) of human beings, the overwhelming majority of whom are poor, people of color, and nonviolent. CR's mission is to build a national and international campaign to challenge the prison-industrial complex.
What We Do
In building a movement against the prison-industrial complex, CR employs strategies as varied and bold as suing the California Department of Corrections to stop construction of a new 5,000-plus bed prison,...