Brian Ruiz (he/him/they/them) /
Radical Love Consciousness (RLC) /
New York, USA /
My time with Radical Love Consciousness (RLC) this summer was reflective. I found myself with more questions than answers about the state of organizing within the prison abolition (PA) and transformative justice (TJ) movements. Originally, before this disastrous and unexpected pandemic, RLC and I wanted to do in-person popular learning sessions related to PA and TJ. However, plans changed, and we restructured our learning sessions to do them remotely. Our intent was to focus on how these workshops could incorporate the arts, direct organizing through mutual aid, and accessibility. Since then, learning sessions are still being edited.
Unfortunately, this summer brought forth the tragic continuation of systematic and interpersonal violence towards Black, Indigenous, disabled, and queer bodies through forms of policing, surveillance, and incarceration, thus upholding the erasure and oppression of marginalized folx. With the PA movement seeking to dismantle these struggles, it is essential to think about the collectives and/or individuals who are creating safe, sustainable, autonomous, and accountable communities and spaces that seek to further Black and Indigenous liberation. This liberation must additionally center those who are femme, trans, non-binary, disabled, incarcerated, and survivors. The reality is that these folx are often overlooked in the movement, which preserves the police culture and abuser-protective, ablist, and heteronormative culture within the movement.
The biggest takeaway was understanding roles within the PA and TJ movement. Roles of folxs vary throughout this movement: being on the front lines as protesters in the streets, facilitating popular learning sessions, creating various forms of art, establishing communal mutual aid, leading healing circles, starting self-defense initiatives, offering reparations (an ongoing process), taking time to rest, and more. RLC taught me a valuable lesson about how roles are meant to change over time as we understand the spaces we are a part of and what we can contribute.
I am honored and greatly appreciate having worked and learned with RLC on an intimate level. They are folxs who I share a strong kinship with. This is not a farewell to the work with RLC, but more so a let’s continue to evolve and support one another to ensure we cultivate the community we want–a community that is accountable, healing, and sustainable. I hope folx can continue to support grassroots organizers and organizations and directly impacted folx such as survivors and incarcerated people in this movement.