Abolition Geographies
Abolition Ecologies
With Nik Heynen, I organized a double session at the 2018 AAGs in New Orleans on "Abolition Ecologies." In recent work, Heynen has called for abolition ecologies that theorize "against and about the continued existence of white supremacist logics that continue to produce uneven racial development within land and property relations. How can abolitionist ideals inform contemporary political ecological struggles around air quality, soil quality, water pollution, inadequate shelter, food insecurity and hunger that continue to ravage communities of color and poor communities?" Our goal is to work through grounded practices that highlight the ways that the daily work of struggle signals abolition dreams. We are working away at putting together a special issue for Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography....
These are the contributions online:
These are the contributions online:
- Heynen, N and M. Ybarra (in press) "On abolition ecologies and making freedom as a place." Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography
- Heynen, N (in press) “A plantation can be a commons”: Re-Earthing Sapelo Island through Abolition Ecology. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography doi:10.1111/anti.12631
- Mei-Singh, L (in press) Accompaniment Through Carceral Geographies: Abolitionist Research Partnerships with Indigenous Communities. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12589
- Pellow, DN (in press) Struggles for Environmental Justice in Prisons and Jails. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12569
- Ranganathan, M and Bratman, E (in press) From Urban Resilience to Abolitionist Climate Justice in Washington, DC. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12555
- Ybarra, M (in press) "Site Fight! Towards the abolition of immigrant detention on Tacoma’s Tar Pits (and everywhere else)”. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography
A Hunger Strikers Handbook
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With La Resistencia, I have been documenting immigrant-led resistance against ICE and GEO Group at a privately owned and operated immigrant detention facility. The Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, WA is one of the largest immigration prisons in the country. On Friday, March 7, 2014, over one thousand people held in the NWDC fought back against an unjust system by putting their bodies on the line: a hunger strike. The strike continued for 56 days and spread to other detention centers across the USA.
With an Antipode Foundation Scholar-Activist Grant, we wrote A Hunger Strikers Handbook and released an 11-minute documentary short: Hunger Strikes: A Call to End Immigrant Detention. These works both celebrate the organizing of detained immigrants and challenge those of us not detained to join in their work and act as accomplices in abolition. |
Unjust Enrichment
~ work in progress~
As a result of detained immigrants' and Resistencia's long-term organizing, GEO Group must now defend its actions in two lawsuits: one where the state of Washington is suing for GEO’s failure to pay state minimum wage since the NWDC opened in 2005; and one class-action lawsuit of detained workers (current and former) in the Northwest Detention Center (Tacoma, WA). These lawsuits seek to show that for-profit immigration detention benefits from what Washington state law calls 'unjust enrichment,' challenging the company’s claim to be exempt from state labor laws and the supposedly voluntary nature of the work programs. The goal of this grant project is two-fold: with La Resistencia, I seek to explain the importance of labor cases as part of a radical immigrant justice vision to abolish ICE; and we aim to highlight the sustained activism of detainees themselves in offering evidence and coming forward to sue the company that cages them in court.
Related Publication: Mora Villalpando, M and Ybarra, M (2019) "ICE rebranded the Tacoma detention center. It's still inhumane." Crosscut, https://crosscut.com/2019/09/ice-rebranded-tacoma-detention-center-its-still-inhumane. Published September 24, 2019
As a result of detained immigrants' and Resistencia's long-term organizing, GEO Group must now defend its actions in two lawsuits: one where the state of Washington is suing for GEO’s failure to pay state minimum wage since the NWDC opened in 2005; and one class-action lawsuit of detained workers (current and former) in the Northwest Detention Center (Tacoma, WA). These lawsuits seek to show that for-profit immigration detention benefits from what Washington state law calls 'unjust enrichment,' challenging the company’s claim to be exempt from state labor laws and the supposedly voluntary nature of the work programs. The goal of this grant project is two-fold: with La Resistencia, I seek to explain the importance of labor cases as part of a radical immigrant justice vision to abolish ICE; and we aim to highlight the sustained activism of detainees themselves in offering evidence and coming forward to sue the company that cages them in court.
Related Publication: Mora Villalpando, M and Ybarra, M (2019) "ICE rebranded the Tacoma detention center. It's still inhumane." Crosscut, https://crosscut.com/2019/09/ice-rebranded-tacoma-detention-center-its-still-inhumane. Published September 24, 2019