Warsaw Anarchist Black Cross invites you to the 8th Anti-prison Days!
22-24 October 2021

PROGRAM:
# Friday, October 22nd
19:30 - Anti-prison poetry slam // Szkoła -> Emilii Plater 31 Street // [www.facebook.com/events/448846136539482/]

# Saturday, October 23rd
10:30 - 15:00 - Interactive Workshop: Community Accountability Processes and interventions in response to violence and abuse. Part 1. Please RSVP! // ADA Puławska -> Puławska 37 Street // [fb.me/e/4zMrFYfgE]
16:00 - Discussion: This is not a migration crisis. Situation of refugees and possibilities of support // ADA Puławska
[fb.me/e/56s9YzE49]
18:00 - Restorative justice in action: presentation and discussion led by the trade union group OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza // ADA Puławska -> Puławska 37 // [fb.me/e/26xV4Gjj3]

# Sunday, October 24th
10:30 - 14:00 - Interactive Workshop: Community Accountability Processes and interventions in response to violence and abuse. Part 2. Please RSVP! // ADA Puławska -> Puławska 37 Street // [fb.me/e/4zMrFYfgE]
14:00 - 18:00 - Worshop: alternatives for justice system // ADA Puławska
[fb.me/e/4nyU4SOZR]
14:30 - Discussion: How to create a world without police? Looking for alternatives to the criminal justice system and the communities that implement them // ADA Puławska
17:00 - screening of documentary movie "Free CeCe!" // ADA Puławska
[fb.me/e/3ZKE9Gt1o?ti=as]
More details and more events for Sunday will be added soon 🙂

What is it about?
Stop for a moment, this is important. Ask yourself, what comes to your mind when you think about prisons? How many of these thoughts are the result of a common stereotype? And how many are the result of fears you feel as a socially engaged person?
Prison. One of the main pillars of state power. Magazines of human misery that serve to spread a sense of insecurity. They are often found in our immediate surroundings, but as with police stations or detention centres for refugees - we are more likely to look away than towards the barbed wire and bars in the windows. It is easier to look away in an attempt to forget their existence. It helps to think that this does not concern us and that we have nothing in common with the people trapped inside. And yet it does. Because prison, both as a symbol of the human failing and as a constant threat, exists in our lives every day. It programs us from an early age to accept a life of economic, social and political subjugation. It is an eternal warning to do what you are told, otherwise you will be one of "them". You will end up 'in there', on the margins, and those on the outside will look away - frightened, ashamed, feeling relieved that they are not you. It doesn't matter if you are one of the nearly 75,000 imprisoned in poland, or one of the hundreds of anarchists and activists incarcerated around the world. The threat of prison affects us all in the same way.
Prisons are not just walls, bars and guards. It is a daily rigour, a hard structure to which you have to adapt under the threat of further punishments and restrictions. It is hierarchy, the feeling of being under surveillance 24 hours a day, boredom, having your dignity stripped away by having to ask for every little thing. It is the brutal suppression of even the smallest form of resistance against the deprivation of humanity. It means being separated from loved ones and robbed of the social contacts that are the basis of good mental health. In order to survive, you have to adapt to the only accepted model, or fight and suffer all the consequences.

In the last year, there has been a visible increase in repression in Poland, or rather, repression has been reported in the media on an unprecedented scale, as has the problem of police violence. We learned new techniques of action, we experienced an incredible wave of solidarity and of being together in the streets. New initiatives, groups and collectives were formed and the slogan "You will never walk alone" became part of everyday life. We stood shoulder to shoulder in defence of our friends, hoping that the structures we had developed would stay with us for longer and that what had happened would not be erased from the pages of history and social consciousness. And yet, let's be clear, as activists and anarchists we still have much to learn about how to deal with conflicts and problems in our movements. The methods we have used so far are proving to be ineffective for a variety of reasons, from a lack of knowledge about the mechanisms of restorative processes to an unwillingness to move beyond familiar patterns. The reality of recent years shows that more often the revealed problems ended in deepening splits and a feeling of powerlessness than in satisfaction and healing of the whole community, and that turning off the internal judges and prosecutors is more difficult than in politic declarations.

That is why today we propose to reach with our thoughts even further, to the fight against one of the most strong tools of repression. To reflect on it and its importance in our lives, and to ask ourselves the key questions: why is there a belief in our society that we need prisons? What are the alternatives?

We want to dedicate this year's anti-prison days to talking about alternatives. We will spend a lot of time on restorative and transfromative justice, we will look at examples of communities that manage without formal police units, and - thanks to a special exhibition - we will return to the history of Anarchist Black Cross and the events of the last year (after all, we start exactly on the anniversary of the outbreak of the protests in poland!). As every year, there will be an ABC distro and a letter-writing stand for the imprisoned.

Follow the event, we'll be publishing details of the programme soon.
Repression affects us more and more often.
To fight them we need to unite.
Until they are free, no one is free.
Support your local ABC group.
Join us during Anti-Prison Days!

22-24 October 2021
Warsaw