Golden Gulag
by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
A sophisticated account of the California prison boom, the various economic, geographic, and political factors that led to it, and its devastating impact felt by communities. Includes key takeaways around the complexities of organizing within a system that actively works against you, and which is driven by power, profit, and control.
“People can and do make power through, for example, developing capacities in organizations. . . . When the capacities resulting from purposeful action are combined toward ends greater than mission statements or other provisional limits, powerful alignments begin to shake the ground. In other words, movement happens.”
MY TAKEAWAYS
During and after a series of economic crises, the California prison boom was fueled by a reconfiguration of surpluses including labor, land, and finance capital. Ironically though, this massive prison-building project began at a time when crime was decreasing.
States and the federal government can relatively easily shift laws and legislature to allow for the easier filling and maintenance of existing jails and prisons, or new ones being built. This creates a perpetual self-sustaining cycle of criminalization and incarceration.
“As we can see that crime is not fixed, it follows that crime’s relationship to prisons is the outcome of social theory and practice, rather than the only possible source of stability through control.”
“Laws change, depending on what, in a social order, counts as stability, and who, in a social order, needs to be controlled.”
Mothers Reclaiming Our Children (Mothers ROC) exemplify the power in collective struggle and resistance, and the obstacles—both systemic and ideological—that arise when organizing for change.
The experiences of Mothers ROC also illuminate the intersections of race and class involved in challenging the status quo and analyzing systemic oppression.
“In a sense, the professionalization of activism has made many committed people so specialized and entrapped by funding streams that they have become effectively deskilled when it comes to thinking and doing what matters most.”