This is comrade Pitt, um, this commentary titled “Abolition is Possible.”
So Juneteenth is upon us: the day that the news finally reached the slaves in the Deep South long as the Union had won the Civil War, once after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, which effectively granted slaves their freedom.
Can you take one moment and just imagine being that enslaved person whose sole existence was to produce wealth and serve people who didn’t even see you as a human being but rather their property? Your family, your ancestors, and everyone else who looked like you was subject to the same inhumane cruelty.
Countless died never imagining the freedom who one day be possible. They were born into slavery and died a slave. But yet here you are working in the fields, picking cotton, tending farm animals, cooking, cleaning, or doing whatever was expected of you. As you are involuntarily doing this forced labor, word reaches you that you are now free. You are no longer a slave.
A system which you, your ancestors, and others never imagined would crumble. It was too strong of a system. It was too big. The nation depended on the system for produce wealth. What once was seen as inconceivable turned to reality. I imagine many slaves merely had ideas of freedom or the abolishment of the system only in their minds.
Juneteenth is a reminder and a commemoration of the day which the last running slaves gained their freedom. It’s also a reminder that a deeply entrenched system can indeed be abolished. Nothing is too great to destruct, and nothing remains the same for too long.
A world without prisons, police, and all forms of oppressive structures is possible. A world without class as possible. We have the power to fight for this world and bring it into existence. We have the power to make this happen as long as we keep fighting. Happy Juneteenth, and abolition is indeed possible. All power to the people. This is comrade Pitt.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
