Critical Resistance Volunteer at Malcolm X Jazz Festival, photo by DianaCritical Resistance is an activist organization that advocates to abolish the prison industrial complex internationally.
It has chapters in Oakland, Los Angeles , New York and Portland. It was founded in the mid 1990s by a group of activists including Angela Davis.
Key current issues that the organization has mobilized around include:
- "Solidifying the reversal of gang injunction policies and continue organizing against the violence of policing
- Preventing jail and prison construction and expansion projects in California and Louisiana
- Supporting prisoner hunger strikes and all prisoner organizing
- Organizing the dialogues, trainings, mini-conferences, panels, and actions big and small that enable all of us to sharpen our thinking about how to end the reliance on imprisonment, policing, and surveillance that dominates our world today."[website]
Critical Resistance chapters also lead various initiatives and projects such as:
- PublishingThe Abolitionist Newspaper, a quarterly bilingual newspaper written mostly by people currently or formerly in prison as well as community advocates [Nationally].
- Organizing to stop prison and jail expansion [Oakland and Los Angeles] and support prison closure [New York].
- Hosting community conversations to discuss youth justice, gain people's experiences with policing, and discuss alternatives to policing and the prison industrial complex [Portland]
- Promoting alternatives for community members to foster practices, relationships and resources that work to build community solutions and support as effective alternatives to policing [Oakland]
Over 75% of Critical Resistance's funds come through grassroots fundraising and the organization has also received funding from a small number of foundations, including: Ben & Jerry's Foundation, Call Family Foundation, craigslist Charitable Foundation, Dolphin Foundation, Hull Family Foundation, Thendara Foundation, RESIST, Inc,, and the Women's Foundation of California.
Critical Resistance Oakland can be found at:
1904 Franklin St., Ste. 504, Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 444-0484
Fax: (510) 444-2177
Email: [email protected]
It hosts volunteer nights on Mondays at 7pm. See the Website for more information.
