SPOTLIGHT: Abolitionist Futures GBV blog series
Spotlight series of blogs from Abolitionist futures produced by some key voices on gender-based violence, carcerality, anti-carceral critiques and some alternatives.
We are sharing these vlogs again, which may be of interest for your personal reading, community group or syllabus.
Lizzie Hughes: Whipping up Fear Whipping Up Fear — Abolitionist Futures
molly ackhurst: Complexifying Carceral Feminism: Interrogating an Emotional Entanglement carceral feminism and our emotional entanglement, abolitionist feminist, gender based violence — Abolitionist Futures
Alison Phipps: ‘It takes a village to rape a woman.’ Community, modernity, and Gisèle Pelicot Feminist abolition, gender based violence, rape culture — Abolitionist Futures
Resources:
From Solidarity Wedges to Bridges Discernment Toolkit from Building Movement Project
The Solidarity Wedges to Bridges Discernment Toolkit, grounded in BMP’s decade of work building transformative solidarity with frontline communities, offers a framework for understanding the wedges that emerge in our collective work.
It invites us to examine the conditions, relationships, risks, and possibilities at play and discern what it may take to transform wedges into bridges.
In times of heightened division, uncertainty, and crisis, wedges can deepen tensions, test values alignment and hinder our individual and collective capacity to build power and act in solidarity together. They can also offer insight into the conditions shaping our collective work. Wedges can reveal where relationships need repair, power dynamics need attention, and infrastructure needs strengthening.
Obstinate memory: the People’s Tribunal on Police Killings
This commentary by the organisers of the ongoing People’s tribunal on Police Killings (PtPK), which held its first hearings in London on 5–6 April 2025, describes key features of the background to and hearings of the PtPK.
Despite an estimated 3,000 police violence related deaths in the UK, no criminal conviction of officers has ever followed an inquest, and the judicial system has acted to contain the struggles of the families of those killed by police. The PtPK provided a space for families to tell their narratives in an unfiltered way, and verbatim testimonies are included here. the authors are aware that these testimonies might well not accord with evidence presented at inquests and rulings by inquests and the Crown Prosecution Service. But the shared patterns of systemic treatment by the state as well as collective resistance needed to be documented. these testimonies were interventions of what Fero and hutnyk term obstinate memory – which functions simultaneously as qualitative data, research method and political praxis. Families testified to decades of betrayal by coroners, prosecutors, complaints bodies and lawyers who maintain a fiction of accountability. the very language of deaths in custody is, it is argued, a deliberate state strategy of erasure. Instead, the PtPK proposes the term police killings; to name them as such is to challenge power.
The collection of testimonies, expert witness evidence and panel judgments underpin a series of class actions that the PtPK is undertaking. Further tribunals are planned on state killings in prison, secure medical units and during immigration control.
Fero, K., Bradshaw, J., & Patterson, S. (2026). Obstinate memory: the People’s Tribunal on Police Killings. Race & Class, 68(1), 3-31. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063968261450818
Podcast episode from Making Meaning: not all who obey are faithful - with lisa minerva luxx
ON LOYALTY & LIBERATION 🪢
What deserves our loyalty in these times? In our first episode of Making Meaning, lisa minerva luxx reflects on the words of Yemeni activist Heba Muraisi - one of the longest hunger strikers in British history and part of the Filton 25.
In this conversation, luxx shares how revolutionary disobedience, refusal and moral clarity can become acts of faith in themselves. Drawing on their experience in the Lebanese uprising, mutual aid work across Syria and Lebanon, and their current role coordinating the Filton 25 Defense Committee, luxx articulates a framework for understanding faith as embodied, grounded and inseparable from direct action.
About Making Meaning
Making Meaning is a Skin Deep podcast series emerging from our editorial season on faith. It’s a space for people of all faiths and none to think creatively and critically about how faith shows up in how we produce culture, make meaning of our times, and build our movements.
lisa minerva luxx is a British Syrian writer, poet, organiser, essayist, and a PhD researcher on militant poetics at the University of Manchester. They are a long-time transnational community organiser with deep experience in the Lebanese uprising, mutual aid networks across Syria and Lebanon following the Beirut blast, and coordinate the Filton 25 Defense Committee, which supports 25 Palestine Action activists arrested for allegedly breaking into Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems in Filton, Bristol, in August 2024.
Department for Education officials listen as psychologists tell them that English schooling suffers from “design failure”
Latest article from Education Uncovered:
A 90-minute meeting with civil servants comes after nearly 3,500 psychologists sign petition and open letter calling on DfE to carry out “urgent education reform to protect children’s mental health”.
Psychologists, who have collected nearly 3,500 signatures from fellow professionals concerned that English schooling is suffering from “design failure,” have taken their case to the Department for Education.
Armed with statistics pointing to worsening problems with young people’s mental health, increasing numbers of children classed as “severely absent” from school and demand for special educational needs and disability support soaring, clinical psychologists Hayley Smith and Natasha Holden presented their case that today’s education experience is a source of anxiety for many pupils.
The forum was a meeting at the Department for Education last month, which came after Dr Smith and Dr Holden started collecting signatures from fellow clinical and educational psychologists last year, calling for a meeting with policymakers about what they describe as a “mental health crisis” among young people.
A core argument was that the government’s main approach in terms of addressing the mental health troubles that clearly afflict many young people – providing support teams in schools – is tackling symptoms, rather than causes, when core aspects of education policy, including high-stakes testing and often “punitive” behaviour policies – were helping make schools “anxiety-generating” places for many.
Events:
Abolitionist Futures Book Club 2026: ‘Unsafe’ by S. Lamble
Join the Abolitionist Futures collective for an online reading group to explore Lamble’s book Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash. We are hosting 4 online sessions, starting October 2026:
Session 1: Monday 19/10 7:30 UK time
Session 2: Sunday 15/11 7:30 UK time
Session 3: Monday 14/12 7:30 UK time
Session 4: Sunday 10/01 7:30 UK time
This is where you can purchase the book: Unsafe | HaymarketBooks.org. If the price is a barrier for you, or if you are unable to purchase the book, please get in touch with us and we'll be happy to discuss alternative options.
What to expect
We will ask you to read selected sections of the book ahead of each session. Don't worry if you're not able to complete all of the reading, you're still very welcome to attend.
We'll explore the key themes, arguments, questions, and contemporary relevance of the book
Curious about the book? Read our book review!
‘Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash’ by Sarah Lamble — Abolitionist Futures
If you have any questions or accessibility needs, feel free to reach out to us via email.
We look forward to reading and discussing the book with you!
A series of triangles with the title of "Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash” by Sarah Lamble.
Annual United Families & Friends Campaign Remembrance Procession
Stand in solidarity with families and friends whose loved ones lives have been stolen by the state. Join our annual remembrance procession - first a silent walk to remember all those killed by the state, and then we raise our voices to demand justice.
WHEN: 31st October 12pm UK time
WHERE: Trafalgar Square, London, UK
United Families & Friends (UFFC) is a coalition of families from across the UK affected by the a death at the hands of the state, and the subsequent lies and coverup concerning the circumstances of their loved ones’ deaths. Established in 1997 as a network of Black families, UFFC now includes people from all backgrounds affected by these injustices.
Bring placards, banners and your friends to demand justice from 10 Downing Street.
Image of families and friends whose loved ones lives have been stolen by the state, holding signs saying “No Justice No Peace”.
Tower Hamlet is Anti-fascist
This Sunday marks the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street.
Join LRU Tower Hamlets branch, Nijjor Manush and UVW on Sunday 11:30am to walk together to the rally & march.
WHEN: Sunday 4th October 11:30am
WHERE: Pelican House gates @ 144 Cambridge Heath Road E1 5QJ
In 1936 Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists AKA “blackshirts” planned a march through east London to intimidate the then heavily Jewish community and spread hate and division. The local community, trade unionists and the wider working class came together to oppose them - their message was clear: “they shall not pass!”
This important moment in history showed the strength of communities coming together against division. LRU Tower Hamlets branch aims to continue this legacy of people power and unity.
Image of historic protestors running from police.
Mobilise for the Allianz London 3 Trial
Join the rally for the Allianz 3 London, undergoing both criminal and civil cases.
WHEN: Thursday 8th Oct, 8.45-10.30aM
WHERE: Inner London Crown Court
In March 2024 3 people took action against Allianz who were providing insurance for Israel’s biggest weapons supplier Elbit Systems. Now they face criminal damage charges in court.
Through music and speakers, show solidarity with defendants charged with £38k criminal damage for taking action to end complicity with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.
Can’t make it? Join us across 5th-9th October, 10am-4pm at Inner London Crown Court for Court Support.
National March for Palestine
Three years of genocide. Three years of human life, morals and the bare minimum of dignity being massively destroyed by the Zionist occupation and its allies.
Join the National March for Palestine with Parents for Palestine.
WHEN: 10th October from 1pm
WHERE: Victoria Embankment, London
Parents children, and everyone who can join us… we will be marching from an accessible starting point. Activities for children will be held at the end of march, green space just before Whitehall.
The People's Tribunal on Police Killings European Action Evidence Session
In April 2025, during its first session, The People’s Tribunal declared its commitment to international action. Now, we are holding our second session which focuses on police killings across Europe and we organise resistance.
WHEN: Saturday 17th - Sunday 18th October 2026
WHERE: Queen Mary University of London
The People’s Tribunal on Police Killings is an initiation of new solidarities, where families from countries including France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and the UK to come together for the first time to launch international actions.
✊🏾 This anti-imperialist gathering will link our struggles for justice with the global majority, who we call on for support. We declare allegiance to international calls to abolish and defund the police.
Image of mourners with event details (Saturday 17th - Sunday 18th October).
National Student Conference for Palestine
The National Student Conference for Palestine is a conference organised by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and student organisers from across the country, to reflect on the knowledge and experiences gained over the past three years of organising against the genocide of our siblings in Gaza. This is our space to strategise, organise, and build the collective power needed to confront Zionism.
WHEN: 24th-25th October 2026
WHERE: London, UK
Over the two days of this conference, we will meet to sharpen our analysis of the genocide, fortify our tactics, strengthen our networks, and forge the unity necessary to end universities’ complicity. Convening around the theme of "The Onward Struggle: Accumulating, Organising, & Resisting Zionism", this year’s conference will bring together past, present, and future student organisers to reflect and strategise around our accumulated knowledge from the student movement, to bring back to our universities and prepare for the next phase of our struggle. The conference exists to provide the student movement for Palestine with direction and clarity in a political moment marked by defeatism, waning student engagement, and increasing institutional complicity.
Tracing of Palestine with event details (October 24th - 25th).
Ongoing Exhibition: 'Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions'
WHEN: Until January 2027
WHERE: Wellcome Trust London
'Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions’ is the first museum exhibition dedicated to artist Audrey Amiss (1933–2013). Bringing together drawings, paintings and other exhibition materials, it explores Amiss’s work as both an artist and campaigner, revealing how she used her art to speak out against harmful treatment within the mental health system.
Workshops:
Disruption Exclusion: An Abolitionist Approach to Education
An interactive workshop led by No More Exclusions at the Decolonise Fest.
WHEN: Sunday 4th October 2026, 1pm-2pm
WHERE: Signature Brew Blackhorse Road, Unit 15, Blackhorse Ln, London E17 5QJ
Join @no_more_exclusions_abolition, a Black-led and community-based abolitionist grassroots coalition movement, for this interactive workshop which focuses on the impact exclusion and oppressive education has on children and young people. In this workshop, participants will draw two children, a child that is excluded and a child that is not, and label them with reasons why the child has and has not been excluded from school. The second part of the workshop will be a power mapping exercise, where we will go through and identify the powers that exclude a child from school (teachers, slt, governors etc) and then brainstorm ways to disrupt that.
Abolitionist Bystander Intervention Workshop
The community training programme ‘Love Is…’ continues in October with an ‘Abolitionist Bystander Intervention Workshop’. This workshop will focus on practical de-escalation skills to safely and actively respond to public intrusions and harassment.
WHEN: Wednesday 14th October 2026 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM (UK time)
WHERE: Square Deal, Huntly, Aberdeenshire, AB54 8BR Scotland
Led by Glasgow-based Bystander Intervention Scotland group, we will explore how and why we can reject the framing of racist incidents as ‘hate crime’, and ways we can intervene when we witness such harm in our communities. Challenging automatic responses such as calling the police or doing nothing, this will be a space to delve into the multitude of alternative responses available to us.
Join us to create collective, community-led ways to keep each other safe.
Socialist Night School: Abolition 101 - Workshop
WHEN: 19th October 18:30 UTC Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)
WHERE: Hybrid in person and online
This workshop moves beyond a US-centric view of abolition to explore the global systems of policing, imprisonment, and surveillance that uphold racial capitalism and imperialism. We will connect the struggle to abolish police and prisons in Philadelphia to movements for liberation around the world, understanding that our fights are interconnected.
By building internationalist prisoner solidarity, we strengthen our local organizing and embrace a truly intersectional abolitionist framework.
All notices, events and links are for sharing how abolition is at work in allied movements, organising and wider culture and not necessarily endorsements.
If you have anything you would like to add to the next digest please contact us: abolitionistfutures@gmail.com