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Historically, abolitionism refers to slavery and its abolition, but even today it criticizes state power and its unfair structures.
Abolitionism: More Than Just the Abolition of Slavery
When abolitionists began advocating for a ban on slavery as early as the 18th century, a radical shift began in the colonies of major powers such as Great Britain and the United States of America that existed worldwide at the time. On the other side, an even stronger racist narrative emerged regarding the inferiority of dark-skinned Africans.
- Yet although many religious and Enlightenment figures expressed compassion for enslaved people and opposition to the system, it was the abolitionist movement that brought about a purposeful and well-organized resistance to enslavement.
- The goal was not only to dismantle the slave trade and the entire inhumane business model within the context of capitalism, but also to enable freed slaves to start a new life of self-determination.
- Translated from Latin, abolitionism thus means abolition or repeal—in this case, primarily referring to slavery and the slave trade.
- Even today, the term still stands for countering racist practices. The “Black Lives Matter” movement, for example, illustrates very well exactly what abolitionist demands are all about. Police violence is also a target of criticism here, which is at the heart of the term “abolitionism” in its contemporary meaning.
What Abolitionism Means Today
While abolitionism was also used as a term at the end of the 19th century to dismantle the strict regulation of prostitution in England, for example, and later in Germany as well, the term has taken on a much broader meaning since the 1970s.
- In the realm of criminal policy, proponents of abolitionism call for the abolition of state institutions of coercion, such as the police and prison sentences.
- Thus, criticism is directed at punitive institutions—and therefore also prisons—which, particularly in the context of mass incarceration in the U.S., are still sometimes equated with slavery—especially since racism continues to permeate the structures there even today.
A mere restructuring would therefore be inconceivable; rather, according to abolitionists, only a complete abolition of the system and the introduction of new ways of thinking are needed to get to the root of crime and to resocialize the offender in ways other than through isolation. - In their theories, abolitionists thus place the responsibility for ensuring that a just society can exist in the hands of civil society or so-called communities that help victims and perpetrators. The state, on the other hand, should be left out of the equation, a view dismissed by critics of the abolitionist movement as unrealistic and unworkable.
- Abolitionism today addresses many of the weaknesses in our society, ranging from capitalist exploitation to patriarchal and racist oppression at the institutional level, all the way to border and police violence. Elements of anarchism, communism, and socialism also inform the ideas of abolitionism, but they are not necessarily synonymous with the abolitionist concept.
