Ep. 67 - #DefundCPD, Responsive Institutions, & Turning Moments into Movements ft. Bettina Johnson

BrownTown invites Bettina Johnson to talk all things #DefundCPD
campaign, nuances and strategies for abolitionist organizing,
non-hierarchal structures, building responsive institutions, and
training the newly politicized.


The gang compares and contrasts their work and thoughts on
abolition and broader "defund police" campaigns pre- and
post-George Floyd uprisings before digging into the momentum
theory of organizing--turning the energy and politicization of
highly visible moments into sustainable movements.


As Bettina notes, "we need as many people and as many entry
points to start that [politicization] process that feels good for
people." BrownTown and Bettina discuss various entry points into
grassroots work and the non-hierarchal structures and autonomous
actions that folks are encouraged to take within more current and
common decentralized movements. They eventually delve in the
weeds about #DefundCPD in Chicago and similar campaigns
nation-wide naming the specific campaign goals as abolitionist
steps and not a reformist reforms. However, they center nuanced
inter-movement discussions about the role of "refunding" and what
responsive institutions should and could like that that do not
re-ify the harm of the prison-industrial complex under a
different name.


#DefundCPD educated, organized, and mobilized thousands of
Chicagoans around the abolitionist demand to defund the Chicago
Police Department on the heels of a global uprisings against
state violence and white supremacy and for Black lives. Now, a
campaign coming out of hibernation in April 2021, what lessons
have we learned from 2020? Why is hibernation necessary for
movement work? Building upon years, decades, centuries of work,
what types of organizing strategies and tactics need we build on
or alter in terms of autonomous coalition-building, trust in
camaraderie, and exhausting all of our skills in our work towards
liberation? Here's their take.


GUEST


Bettina Johnson is a Chicago born and raised abolitionist
organizer, Co-founder and current Steering Committee member of
Liberation Library and on the Steering Committee for the
AfroSocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus of the Chicago
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). She is also on the
Steering Committee of Chicago DSA’s #DefundCPD Campaign, and
Co-lead for the Training Committee of the Black Abolitionist
Network-steered #DefundCPD Campaign


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Follow Bettina on Twitter!


Follow Liberation Library on their site, Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter.


Follow Chicago's AfroSocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus
via Linktree, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.


Follow the #DefundCPD campaign via Linktree, Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter.


Watch SoapBox's coverage of the 2020 uprisings in
Chicago here!


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CREDITS: Intro/outro song Fuck Tha Police
by NWA. Audio engineered by Genta Tamashiro with assistance from
Kiera Battles. Episode photo by Love and Struggle Photos.


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