Emergent Strategies for Abolition: Andrea J. Ritchie's Toolkit for Activists -
laura flanders show

Movement lawyer and organizer Andrea J. Ritchie's forthcoming book is unlike anything she's written before. In "Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies", published by AK Press and out at the end of October 2023 as part of their Emergent Strategies Series, Ritchie has written a toolkit for organizers. Both visionary and practical, Ritchie believes we can live the "future" world we want, and offers actionable steps we can take to get there. A self-described "Black lesbian immigrant survivor," Ritchie has been engaged since the 1980s in anti-violence, labor, and LGBTQ organizing, and in movements against state violence and for racial, reproductive, economic, environmental, and gender justice. In this wide-ranging conversation, Andrea J. Ritchie and Laura Flanders discuss what's changed and what hasn't after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, and the emergent strategies for abolition that we should all pay attention to. The Right has strategies too - and so far, they're working. How do we create the necessary conditions that foster collectivity and liberation leading to increased public safety and well-being? All that, plus a commentary from Laura on the power we recognize, and the other sort too. "Change happens by acting as though the future that you are dreaming of is present now. And then practicing that with people who share your vision and values and then bringing more and more people into the conversation." - Andrea J. Ritchie "[Emergent strategies are] a way of approaching a world that interrupts violence in all its forms and creates new possibilities that we can't imagine yet." - Andrea J. Ritchie Guest: Andrea J. Ritchie: Author, Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies; Co-Founder, Interrupting Criminalization.

Duration: 26 minutes and 46 seconds

Episode Number: 428

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About Laura Flanders Show:

THE LAURA FLANDERS SHOW is an award-winning public affairs series that reports on community-led initiatives across the U.S.

creating a more inclusive society.

Host Laura Flanders - a New York broadcast journalist, author and contributing writer to The Nation - talks with experts and people on the front lines of artistic, cultural, social and economic movements.

Each episode blends reporting with in-depth interviews of leaders in the arts and small business world, profiling individuals and organizations uplifting and revitalizing their communities.