“They Embody The Division” Geo Maher On Breaking Police Power And Building A World Without Police

In this episode we speak to Geo Maher. Maher is an educator, organizer, political theorist and the author of four books, including We Created Chavez, Building the Commune, and Decolonizing Dialectics. In this episode, we talk about Geo’s latest book, A World Without Police: How Strong Communities Make Cops Obsolete. In this discussion we talk about Maher’s grounding of the abolitionist struggle in W.E.B. Du Bois’s seminal work of history Black Reconstruction in America.  Geo discusses the specific relationship between whiteness and policing which develops through history in the US context. From there we get into a discussion of how to break police power in the US, starting with expelling police associations from labor unions and federations. Geo also talks about abolition in an international context, examining international struggles we can draw from, while also discussing about why abolitionist struggle has a specific relevance and relationship to revolutionary struggle in the US.  Along the way we examine other important questions for the abolitionist movement today at a time when the ideas of abolition have as much popular resonance as ever, but there is still a need to develop the political forces to fight for and implement them. The “Camden Model” Is Not a Model. It’s an Obstacle to Real Change by Brandon McQuade A Critical Analysis of the Demand to Defund The Police by Max Rameau and Netfa Freeman Editing note: there are a few moments of slight distortion or static in the audio, in each instance the clear up pretty quickly and hopefully are only a minor distraction And as always if you like what we do, please consider contributing to our patreon. We are still down several patrons from last month, so if you’re able to join it’ll help get us back on the right track, building towards the sustainability of this platform and our ability to bring you all these conversations.