With its roots in the fight to end slavery, and in anti-colonialist struggles for Black liberation, contemporary abolitionism seeks the dismantling of all systems of oppression, from white supremacy to the patriarchy. Equally importantly, it asks us to imagine a world in which these oppressive structures no longer exist. It demands that we invest in people not power ; in communities not coercion ; in healthcare, housing, education and social services, not prisons, detention centres and police forces.
And it does so through a feminist lens, recognizing that gender and sexual violence are encouraged and enabled by these same systems of oppression.