The GDC Abolitionist Working Group was created in July 2023. It originated out of three dynamics within GDC. First, some members of GDC had been engaged in struggle around the racial composition of the organization. While GDC had always been conceived of as a multiracial organization, and in practical terms had at least minimally been a multiracial org, the vast majority of the current members were white, the new chapters at the time in Lansing and Detroit were almost entirely white, and new member cohorts for the organization were mostly college-educated young white folks. Led by Black GDC members there was an intervention to address this problem head-on. We struggled with why this was the case and what we could do differently to counter this. One element of this struggle involved centering the Black Liberation Struggle in our internal political education -recognizing that the Black Proletariat throughout US history has been the vanguard of the revolutionary class struggle here.
Many of us who joined GDC during this period were also incredibly inspired by the George Floyd Rebellion but also disheartened by how quickly it was defanged and defeated through counterinsurgency. We hoped to learn from this defeat and vowed to do the reflection and organizing necessary to avoid this fate next time. Through this reflection and mstudy, we identified Revolutionary Abolition as the cutting edge of the George Floyd Rebellion and began to explore how we could engage in this work to prepare ourselves for the Fire Next Time.
We began to develop abolitionist survival programs like Pullover Prevention in Lansing and Detroit. We also started writing to incarcerated comrades and planting the seeds for inside/outside study and organizing inspired by the connection with comrades in Study and Struggle and our long-term formerly incarcerated comrade Joaquin. Over the last year, we have also seen the police accelerate the murder of Black people – and we have engaged in community organizing and struggle to build the power to dismantle this horrific system. We have no illusions about Abolishing the Police and Prisons. This isn’t possible without abolishing capitalism, which makes it all possible.
This article aims to highlight some key moments, movements, battles, and organizing the GDC Abolitionist WG has been engaged and involved in, often alongside and in coalition with others.
August 2023: Study and Struggle + GDC public theory
During the summer GDC Conference in 2023, we made contact with comrades from Study and Struggle. We held a public theory event with Safear and others from S&S on the basics of organizing with incarcerated people. This event made a big impact on us and led us to begin the initial steps to build outside/inside study groups based on the experience and feedback from these amazing comrades.
February: “29 Days of Black Liberation”
Social media campaign highlighted key individuals, organizations, and movements that have contributed to the liberation of Black people.
March: Successful Phone Zap for Hunter P.
An incarcerated comrade we had been writing and working with to build an Outside/Inside Study Group was assaulted by another inmate after being set up by a CO he had a verbal argument with. Hunter’s jaw was broken during the assault. He was moved to a segregation unit and left in his same bloody clothes for more than two weeks. He wasn’t given adequate food for someone with their jaw wired shut and was rapidly losing body weight. GDC and MAPS (Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity) organized a phone zap targeting the warden, MDOC administration, and the Ombudsman’s office. Through a concerted effort of many individuals and organizations consistently calling day after day, we got Hunter’s emergency medical needs addressed. We were also able to get Hunter transferred to a different
facility (which was Hunter’s main concern to avoid continual targeting and abuse at Gus Harrison). This was the first time most of us in GDC had organized something like this, and we learned a lot.
April: Tip of the Spear Reading Group
In March 2024, the Abolition Working Group hosted a study group reading Orisanmi Burton’s
book Tip of the Spear. The group was full of GDC comrades and comrades from our surrounding communities. Orisanmi Burton collected the stories and analyses of Black Radicals who participated in Prison Uprisings in the 70s in and around the famous Attica Rebellion of 1971, which he calls “The Long Attica Rebellion.” This Rebellion lasted throughout the 70s in prisons around the country! The reading group met weekly on Sundays to read and discuss the text, drawing connections to varying struggles throughout history and today. A main connection point we discussed was the ongoing struggle for Palestinian Liberation and mistreatment against Palestinians held captive in ‘Israeli’ prisons that echoes the torture and mistreatment against men held captive at Attica. Burton draws lessons for abolitionist movements and Black liberation based on these examples of real-life protracted struggle and moments of liberation, rejecting the silence and co-optation surrounding Attica. As we read, we were in awe of the way the men of Attica sought to care for each other and created a new society and ways of relating to one another within the prison walls as a result of their conditions. This showed us that a new society was possible and grounded us in hope for a future without prisons.
May: Mother’s Day Rally at Women’s Huron Valley Prison
Starting in October of 2023, we began communicating with an inmate at Women’s Huron Valley Prison (located in Ypsilanti) named Krystal Clark. Krystal is a regular contributor to Prison Radio, reporting on the conditions within the prison, including the black mold growing profusely in WHV. After doing smaller support work (writing letters, etc), GDC held our first public event for Krystal, holding a rally outside of the prison on Mother’s Day. Some of Krystal’s family and supporters from out of state made it in for the rally, and we amassed about 70 people as a show of support for the women and mothers incarcerated inside. Between the powerful speakers on the mic, Krystal calling in to add her voice to the rally, and inmates seeing and hearing us from the yard, the event was a strong show of solidarity and connection across the bars.
July: Krystal Clark protest at MDOC
Continuing the fight for Krystal Clark’s freedom, GDC organized a rally in downtown Lansing, outside the main office of the Michigan Department of Corrections and the State Parole Board. Krystal’s family came from out of state, and her mother and some of her children delivered powerful messages to the MDOC while we flyered the downtown crowds and got the word out about the conditions at Women’s Huron Valley Prison. From there, we took the rally to the home of Governor Gretchen Whitmer where her family pleaded with the governor to let Krystal go. She has served 14 of her 17-year sentence, and her allergy to the mold in WHV is causing severe
health effects, which Dr. Ellison (the prison dr.) is neglecting the proper treatment of. She is slowly dying in this prison, and the governor has the ability to commute her sentence so she can be released and access proper medical treatment. Governor Whitmer knows about Krystal’s condition and has done nothing to help.
August: BBQ and City Council Disruption for John Zook Jr.
In June, Wayne Police shot and killed John Zook Jr. in his apartment at Newberry Square in Wayne. Johnny was a fiancée and a father. Johnny was a man loved by his community. And that community fought to defend his honor and demand justice for him. The Abolition WG helped to organize a community BBQ at the request of Johnny’s fiancée. We flyered Newberry Square Apartments and another nearby apartment complex, encouraging people to come to the BBQ to remember Johnny and develop a plan of action for justice. The next step was going to the City Council and demanding that they release the bodycam footage of the cops who murdered Johnny, release the names and records of those pigs, and fire and arrest them. We packed the City Council halls and chambers and spoke for hours, furious, pleading, demanding, begging, reasoning, yelling, explaining, and what it got us was proof of the City Council’s purpose as a brick wall to the people. Only one council member motioned to release the bodycam footage and Michigan State Police report. His motion was ignored, and the other council members voted to end the meeting. What Wayne City Council didn’t understand was that we were not going on their terms or when they decided they were done. We broke into protest, culminating in surrounding their cars and refusing to let them leave. Eventually, we dispersed and would follow up this action by shutting down the next City Council meeting entirely. Through organizing, we have and continue to prove, through our own force, our ability to take back power from those who seek to keep it from us. The next step is to continue strategically applying force to wrench our full power from those very hands.
September: March for Sherman Lee Butler
On July 12, a Detroit Police Officer and bailiff both tasered and shot Sherman Lee Butler (who was recovering from foot surgery) while executing an illegal eviction in Palmer Park to complete renovations in the deteriorating apartment building. The police had refused to release any key details about Sherman Butler until members of Detroit Eviction Defense, Detroiters for Tax Justice, Detroit Tenants Association, and GDC members went to the September 29 Detroit Mayoral Charter meeting at Coleman A.
Young Center demanded that the city release the information. Once pressured, Mayor Duggan tapped a homicide detective who released Sherman Lee Butler’s name and accidentally released the bailiff’s name as Craig Gregory. The Justice Coalition was formed to demand justice for Sherman Lee Butler’s murder. It held a town hall on August 11th at Palmer Park to rally neighbors and community members to support the release of the body cam footage. The Justice Coalition connected with Sherman Lee Butler’s aunt to help support the family in obtaining justice for him. GDC, a member of the Justice Coalition, then helped organize a march on September 4th down to Coleman A. Young Center to pressure the city again to release the footage and bring justice to Sherman’s killer, Craig Gregory.
We continue to fight for justice even after Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy declined to press charges against Craig Gregory and the police officer who murdered Sherman on November 14th, after both the police officer and the bailiff had claimed Sherman had lunged at them with a knife while recovering from foot surgery and recently released from the hospital.
September 3rd: John Zook Jr. Coalition shuts fown Wayne City Council meeting.
September: Outside / Inside study group and letter writing to WHV prisoners begins.
September: John Zook Jr. Coalition ID’d Jared Grembowski as the killer of Johnny.
October: Benefit for Krystal Clark at The Avenue
In October 2024, we hosted a Halloween-themed benefit show for Krystal Clark and her family at a bar which some Lansing GDC members had a connection at. The DJs played until 1 am, and the venue was decorated with anti-prison banners and Free Krystal signs. We had a table with information about the Free Krystal campaign as well as general abolitionist and anti-capitalist literature. We raised over $1000 dollars and raised awareness about the Free Krystal campaign and conditions in Women’s Huron Valley. Krystal enjoyed receiving the pictures from the fundraiser. We know that fundraising cannot replace organizing and that the prison system has far too many victims (~33k prisoners in MDOC, more in county jails or on probation or parole) for us to financially support them all, but some fundraising can help support ongoing organizing. The GDC Abolitionist Working Group plans to host more fundraiser shows every few months to support the anti-prison/police campaigns we are involved in. In November 2024 we raised money for the family of John Zook Jr.
“Within the working class struggle in the US – this contradiction between Black rebellion vs white policing has been primary. So from early attempts to rebel and escape slavery, to build rebel outposts with other escaped Indigenous people and white indentured people, to the Civil War and the general strike of enslaved people to fight on the side of the union, to the early forms of Black armed self-defense organization and “civil rights” movement, to the revolutionary Black left formations of the Black Panther Party and DRUM, to the urban rebellions and the growth of armed anti-colonial struggle of the Black Liberation Army and the Attica Rebellion. This struggle is traced through the LA rebellion of 1992 to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of Tamir Rice, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, and Breonna Taylor. All this culminated in the George Floyd Rebellion.”
GDC Abolition WG Position Paper
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