Resources

Other Local Organizations

• ACLU-VA American Civil Liberties Union focuses on education, political, and litigious means of expanding the rights outlined in the Constitution.
• CPUSA Communist Party of the United States of America focuses on education, agitation, and organizing towards liberation for all and building a socialist state, as outlined by the Party Program: The Road to Socialism USA.
• Justice Forward VA is an advocacy organization educating and pursuing legislative changes to reform Virginia’s criminal system
• Moms Demand Action does education towards changing laws focused on gun violence and related issues, including police violence.
• NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People does education, solidarity, and advocacy work with a focus on electoral and litigious means.
• New Virginia Majority is focused on education and turnout for electoral issues relevant to working class Virginians.
• Reston Strong focuses on material aid and education for and about people experiencing homelessness and poverty in Reston.

Learn about abolition

• Mariame Kaba is a touchstone with many resources on her site. Here we highlight a few specifics for those getting started:
  • Article: So You’re Thinking About Becoming an Abolitionist
  • Article: Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police
  • Book: We Do This Till We Free Us is
  • Book: Let This Radicalize You is a group of stories and perspectives that come together as a love letter to organizers, aiding and empowering us on our journeys and do the work of justice-making. 
  • Book: No More Police this is particularly great for those who want access to primary sources and resources. It is a well-researched and cited text full of facts and material analysis.
• Abolition Geography by Ruthie Gilmore is a foundational text and explores the idea of organized abandonment and how geography, “state”, and liberation intersect.
• Building an Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement with Everything We’ve Got
• How Anti-violence Activism Taught Me to Become a Prison Abolitionist
• A Handbook for Abolitionists
• Cheat-sheets and why reform isn’t enough:
  • Reformist Reforms vs Abolitionist Demands
  • Police Reforms You Should Always Oppose
  • A response to left criticism: What Abolitionists Do
• Lists of lists: if you’re looking for more to read, check here:
  • Abolitionist Futures
  • A Reading List of Abolitionist Imagination and Practice
  • Burning Books Abolitionist Book Club

Biographies

Biographies are a powerful way to cultivate empathy and better understand what life is like for those most impacted by the state’s monopoly on violence. Some of our favorites below. Please note that race, class, brutality, and violence are often in these books, so please take care if you have experienced trauma yourself.

• Assata An Autobiography
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• Frank Chapman: The Damned Don’t Cry
• Angela Davis
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave