Connecting the dots in systems of domination and violence: a conversation

Abstract

This article is an edited version of a conversation between Barbara Ransby and Derecka Purnell, two US-based key Black feminist activists on ‘New lines of Black resistance in the US: undoing racial capitalism and the carceral state’, which took place at the ‘New Circuits of Anti-racism Conference’, King’s College London, October 2022 (IRR50). They discuss their own political journeys, shared by many activists today, which they describe as involving building and re-envisioning a desired future, as well as the role of Black feminism and abolition. The conversation, introduced by Chantelle Lewis of Surviving Society and Sophia Siddiqui of Race & Class, unpacks the workings of the carceral state and the specific racial and class targeting of surplus Black workers. Drawing from their experience on the practicalities of organising today, they discuss their commitment to internationalism, the challenges of building genuine coalitions and the need to connect the dots between different systems of domination and violence to understand the functioning of the carceral state, and the centrality of reproductive justice and the fight for bodily autonomy.