We are prison abolitionists, and we support the promotion of dialogue about and from prisons and prisoners. This doesn’t mean, though, that we wish to provide a blanket defence for the actions that have led people to be in prison, because not all people in prison have engaged in defensible actions. While we are all “products of our societies” to some extent, we all have a responsibility to become more than a product, to realise our own values, beliefs, dreams and identities. For those people who have further oppressed others with less power than them, who have hurt and harmed communities and individuals, there can be space for you in our journals, but there will not be space for a defence of these actions. We provide space to build understanding of how prison only further oppresses people and communities; how it offers no justice and no healing; how it offers no learning; and how it nourishes seeds of violence in individuals and seeds of poverty in communities. We’d like to finish with a call for support for the journal. The first issue of Paper Chained was released in 2017 and was funded entirely by an individual dedicated to the cause (who can’t afford to support the journal on their own anymore). In 2018 we raised $350 through crowd-funding to support the costs that year, and we're calling on the community to support us once again so we can keep the journal going in 2019, especially considering our costs are rapidly increasing as we are providing the journal to a greater number of individuals in prison every month. Please donate if you can and spread the word about this fundraiser – you can donate online at:
https://www.gofundme.com/paperchained2019
None are free until all are free, Running Wild Collective
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