Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement

I believe in transformative justice like I believe in abolishing prisons and police, like I believe in a utopian anarchist society; it's mostly theory and there are many steps to achieving these far-fetched goals and dreams. There are a lot of steps we have to take to get there, and they make take generations if ever to achieve, but there are people out there doing the work to make it happen. The ends don't justify the means; the ends are the means. I think this is where anarchists and communists disagree.

Beyond Survival is three hundred plus pages of writings by people who have put in the work, against all odds. There are stories of success (few), stories of learning from failures (many), interviews with people who have been knee deep show more in accountability processes for decades, and more. Progress has been made and there are pockets in the world where communities don't call the police or rely on the injustice system when someone has been wronged. They get together as human beings and figure out what works best for everyone involve to try and make things as right as possible.

As much as I thoroughly enjoyed this book there were definitely parts that I skipped through because I found them irrelevant or boring, but that doesn't mean everyone will. This is the kind of book that I'm glad to own because I know (hope?) there will be many times where I take it off the shelf and use it to help guide my dream of creating a better world.

Every community should have at least one copy of this book, and you can order yours from AK Press. show less

In this collection, a diverse group of authors focuses on concrete and practical forms of redress and accountability, assessing existing practices and marking paths forward. They use a variety of forms--from toolkits to personal essays--to delve deeply into the "how to" of transformative justice, providing alternatives to calling the police, ways to support people having mental health crises, stories of community-based murder investigations, and much more. At the same time, they document the history of this radical movement, creating space for long-time organizers to reflect on victories, struggles, mistakes, and transformations.

This book really floored me. I learned so much from reading it.