(no subject)
Sep. 6th, 2009 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture - Angela Y. Davis. This book comprises a series of recent interviews with Davis (the book was published in 2005). For a tiny book (pocket-sized, topping out at 136 pages), Davis (unsurprisingly) covers a ton of ground: prisons & prison abolition, the media framing of Abu Ghraib (in particular the photographs), activist tactics, western feminism's relationship with women in the Middle East, how the promise of security is played up in the public mind to justify both increased incarceration & increased militarization, etc. etc. etc. Very powerful & inspiring.
Are Prisons Obsolete? - Angela Y. Davis. Another brief but intellectually weighty book from Davis, this one focuses more in detail on the question of what society would look like were prisons not in existence. Davis offers a sharp critique of the prison industrial complex, showing how corporations, whose profits depend on an increasing number of prisoners, are tied into the state (by running private prisons or using prison labor—Davis provides a startling list of companies whose products are made at least in part by prisoners). Davis asks us to imagine a society with alternatives to prison—firstly by offering alternatives to crime, in the form of access to education, medical care, work with a living wage. She also gives a brief history of the prison, showing how originally solitary confinement was envisaged as almost like religious solitude—it was supposed to lead to moral improvement. Also covered are the ways in which gender affects imprisonment, & how prisoners are raced. Davis' ideas are challenging, even to prison reformers who often cannot imagine just getting rid of prisons all together, but I think vital to discuss.
Coffins, Cats and Fair Trade Sex Toys - Jeremy Piercy. Piercy, the founder of Shared Earth, the UK's most successful fair trade chain store, shares here how & why he started the store & why fair trade is important. Thought-provoking, but perhaps not in the way the author intended. If fair trade (in the UK at least) was founded in large part by hippies, with their cultural appropriation & liberal condescension towards other parts of the world intact, how might that be affecting the routes that the fair trade movement has taken? (The other main group to show early interest in fair trade was the church, which also hints at other issues.) And isn't there a better model for helping the global south other than by getting people here to buy more crap they don't need? (Shared Earth mostly focuses on tchotkes—some more “exotic” than others—not fair trade food, etc.) Another thing I noticed is that Piercy hints at disapproval of the large supermarket chains (for putting local greengrocers out of business) yet uncritically lauds them for carrying fair trade groceries. From my other readings about supermarkets, it seems likely that suppliers of fair trade products to supermarkets are abused & cheated like any other supplier, to the point where I wonder if buying fair trade tea from, say, Tesco almost does more harm than good. I do think fair trade is important, & there ought to be more of it, & that people like Piercy have done loads towards this. I remain cynical about aspects, though.
Are Prisons Obsolete? - Angela Y. Davis. Another brief but intellectually weighty book from Davis, this one focuses more in detail on the question of what society would look like were prisons not in existence. Davis offers a sharp critique of the prison industrial complex, showing how corporations, whose profits depend on an increasing number of prisoners, are tied into the state (by running private prisons or using prison labor—Davis provides a startling list of companies whose products are made at least in part by prisoners). Davis asks us to imagine a society with alternatives to prison—firstly by offering alternatives to crime, in the form of access to education, medical care, work with a living wage. She also gives a brief history of the prison, showing how originally solitary confinement was envisaged as almost like religious solitude—it was supposed to lead to moral improvement. Also covered are the ways in which gender affects imprisonment, & how prisoners are raced. Davis' ideas are challenging, even to prison reformers who often cannot imagine just getting rid of prisons all together, but I think vital to discuss.
Coffins, Cats and Fair Trade Sex Toys - Jeremy Piercy. Piercy, the founder of Shared Earth, the UK's most successful fair trade chain store, shares here how & why he started the store & why fair trade is important. Thought-provoking, but perhaps not in the way the author intended. If fair trade (in the UK at least) was founded in large part by hippies, with their cultural appropriation & liberal condescension towards other parts of the world intact, how might that be affecting the routes that the fair trade movement has taken? (The other main group to show early interest in fair trade was the church, which also hints at other issues.) And isn't there a better model for helping the global south other than by getting people here to buy more crap they don't need? (Shared Earth mostly focuses on tchotkes—some more “exotic” than others—not fair trade food, etc.) Another thing I noticed is that Piercy hints at disapproval of the large supermarket chains (for putting local greengrocers out of business) yet uncritically lauds them for carrying fair trade groceries. From my other readings about supermarkets, it seems likely that suppliers of fair trade products to supermarkets are abused & cheated like any other supplier, to the point where I wonder if buying fair trade tea from, say, Tesco almost does more harm than good. I do think fair trade is important, & there ought to be more of it, & that people like Piercy have done loads towards this. I remain cynical about aspects, though.