In the last 3+ years, the On the Eve of Abolition creative team has been researching, discussing and growing our collective understanding and praxis of Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) abolition. We’re grateful to the longtime revolutionary thinkers, organizers and scholars who’ve informed our work including bell hooks, Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Albert Woodfox, Mariame Kaba, Elizam Escobar, and many more.  

Below is a list of articles, zines, books, podcasts, toolkits, artwork and more resources we’ve engaged with in the making of On the Eve of Abolition. As cultural workers committed to grassroots organizing, Papel Machete’s work has always supported and uplifted struggles for the working class in Puerto Rico. We share Angela Davis’ belief that “knowledge is built through struggle” and encourage folks who are new to PIC abolition to follow and find access points into grassroots organizing efforts to dismantle and abolish prisons, police and surveillance. We’ve listed a few on our Actions for Abolition page and will continue to update that page as we learn of new campaigns and actions within abolitionist movements in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Please keep in mind, this is not an exhaustive list of PIC abolition resources. Critical Resistance and other abolitionist organizations have done an amazing job compiling resources and we encourage folks to dive deep into those materials. What you’ll find on this page are simply the resources we’ve engaged with directly for this project.  

A note about Resources in Spanish: We acknowledge that most of the below resources we’ve engaged with are only available in English and this may be a barrier especially to our community in Puerto Rico. We have gathered some materials in Spanish and are creating some of our own to help address this. We’re grateful to groups like Micellio Abolicionista for the materials they’ve provided in Spanish for free, and we’ve included some below.