Abolitionist Futures Digest: August 26
Abolitionist Futures Reading Group Continues
A collection of books
Big thank you to everyone who has participated in all our reading group sessions this year. We held the last reading group for the year on 28th July 2026: So now what do I do? From reading to action. If you missed them or want to revisit some of the resources shared, they are available here:
Click here for audio versions of the readings
Session 1: Introduction to Abolition
Session 2: What’s wrong with reform?
Session 3: Feminist, Queer, Antiracist Abolition
Session 4: Policing, Antiracism and Abolition
Resources:
Empty Rights and Underlying Conditions by Death Panel
On this episode of Death Panel Podcast,Beatrice, Artie and Tracy discuss the potential impacts of a new Trump executive order called “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” which threatens to dramatically expand involuntary psychiatric commitment and make it easier for the government to disappear people off the streets, allegedly in the name of “compassion.”
Death Panel is a twice weekly podcast hosted by Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco and Jules Gill-Peterson about the political economy of health.
Arts, Justice, and Harm Reduction: A Community of Practice
Deadline to apply - 2nd September
This Community of Practice aims to develop, experiment with, and share ways of using creative practice to explore abolition, harm reduction and transformative justice. We hope to work collectively to build the capacity of practitioners to engage with and apply these ideas in their practice. We believe in the significant contributions community artists and community support practitioners can make to shared explorations of justice, accountability and harm.
Who: The community of practice is open to arts practitioners and those working in community support services who are interested in creative practice. We will hold two parallel communities of practice, one in Stoke on Trent (Restoke) and one in London (Central School of Speech and Drama). Each will have up to 15 members.
Instigated and organised by Sarah Bartley.
Podcast: Justice Focus
37: Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash with Prof Lamble
In this episode, Dr Omar Phoenix Khan speaks with Lamble, Professor in Criminology and Queer Theory at Birkbeck, University of London, a leading scholar-activist at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and transformative justice. Lamble has spent decades working in community organising, prison abolition, and queer activism and has published extensively. The conversation centres on Lamble's forthcoming book, Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash, a bold political intervention that traces how the rapid rise of anti-trans sentiment in the UK is not simply a culture war, but is deeply entangled with carceral politics: the idea that safety is best achieved through punishment, policing, and exclusion. Lamble unpacks the unique convergence of left and right actors behind the anti-trans movement, and why framing trans rights as a safety threat has proved so politically powerful. We explore the mainstreaming of carceral feminism, its historical development and its troubling track record, and ask what the evidence actually tells us about whether prisons and legal reform deliver safety for survivors of gender-based and sexual violence. Spoiler: it doesn't.
But this episode doesn't stop at critique. Lamble sets out a compelling vision for transformative justice: one rooted in material safety, radical solidarity, and building collective infrastructures of care that include everyone, especially those society has deemed undeserving. We also reflect on how individuals and communities can act at interpersonal, institutional, and systemic levels to contribute to genuine change. Also - for every preorder of the book before 11th August 2026, Lavender Pages will distribute a free copy of Unsafe directly to LGBTQ+ prisoners. This episode is essential listening for anyone thinking about feminism, trans rights, prison abolition, or what it really means to build a society where everyone is safe.
Preorder Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash via Lavender Pages: https://thecommonpress.shop/products/august-11th-unsafe-the-carceral-roots-of-the-anti-trans-backlash-preorder
Lamble's upcoming events page: https://lamble.net/events
Other Resources:
Tripod: Training for Creative Social Action
Tripod produced a list of upcoming conflict trainings: a thread of work about embedding abolitionist approaches to conflict in movements and communities
Tripod's autumn trainings:
Running Great Meetings: Dealing with Disagreement
Thurs 3rd and Fri 4th September, Glasgow
A two-day, hands-on training for anyone facilitating meetings or holding space in social justice movements. We’ll explore participatory tools, and how to run effective meetings including a particular focus on how to deal with disagreements as they arise in meetings.
Transformative Conflict Skills: Navigating Hierarchies
Tue 8th and Wed 9th September, Glasgow
Do you want to find ways for tensions and conflicts to strengthen the work you do with your comrades? Do you want to navigate conflicts with bosses, landlords and others in a way that is aligned with your values while building power and keeping you safe? We’ll explore approaches to conflict informed by the values of transformative justice, collective care and anti-oppression, with a focus on how to use these skills in different hierarchical and non-hierarchical contexts.
Transformative Conflict Skills: Entangled Communities
Fri 2nd–Sun 4th October, Stirling (residential, BSL interpreted)
Do your communities keep playing out the same destructive patterns in conflict? Do you want to find ways to navigate conflicts complicated by friendships, romantic relationships and years of shared history? We’ll explore approaches to conflict informed by the values of transformative justice, collective care and anti-oppression, with a focus on how to use these skills in complex, messy communities.
Events:
Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions
Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions at Wellcome Collection is the first museum exhibition dedicated to artist Audrey Amiss (1933–2013) and opens July 2026. The exhibition features drawings, paintings and ephemera and explores Amiss’s work as an artist and campaigner, revealing how she used art to advocate for people who have experienced harmful treatment in the mental health system. The exhibition takes place from July 10, 2026–February 7, 2027.
Snitching and Surveillance: A Creative and Abolitionist Workshop
22nd August: A Creative and Abolitionist Workshop.
Join RadFiction for an abolitionist workshop in Adelaide to discuss how surveillance gets normalised as “care,” how communities are pulled into carceral systems, and what it means to resist automatic compliance. Let’s yarn about systems like: mandatory notification, neighbourhood watch, crime stoppers, etc. DM them on instagram if you’d like to come along or scan the QR Code to book online.
Image of graffiti surveillance camera with details of the workshop event occurring on Saturday 22/8/2026, 1pm at 161 Frome St, Adelaide.
Reminder: Pre-order Lamble's book Unsafe
Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash - Pre-order via The Common Press and Haymarket will donate a book to a prisoner.
All notices, events and links are for sharing how abolition is at work in allied movements, organising and wider culture and not necessarily endorsements.