09/17/2026
The political moment around abolition has changed.
Ideas that once felt newly possible are being questioned, walked back, or treated as relics of another moment. But we don't think that means the futures we imagined were wrong.
For nearly a decade, Black Visions has been part of a broader movement imagining what safety, freedom, and collective care could look like beyond policing and punishment. The uprisings of 2020 brought abolitionist ideas into a much wider public conversation, but the questions at the heart of that movement did not begin in 2020, and they have not disappeared with the changing political landscape.
Tempest's September 10th article, “In Defense of Abolition,” takes a closer look at this shift. The authors respond to what they describe as a growing anti-abolition backlash, including recent efforts from some progressive politicians and writers on the Left to distance themselves from the demands that emerged from the 2020 movement. The piece makes the case that movements should not abandon their visions simply because the political conditions around them have changed.
As we move through our own period of change, we're thinking about what it means to keep imagining beyond the conditions we're given.
What did we learn when we allowed ourselves to imagine something different? What becomes possible when we refuse to accept the systems around us as inevitable?
The future we imagined is still worth imagining.
You can read “In Defense of Abolition” by the Tempest National Committee at the link in our bio.
