The following story is a mix of fact and fiction. Outside Mumbai, a worker in a surrogacy home was refused permission to travel back to her village to visit a dying relative. The gestational surrogate, like all the others in her dormitory, was growing a fetus whose genetic design and […]

In recent weeks the mainstream media spotlight has shone on the conditions faced by the hundreds of people in the UK who are imprisoned in immigration detention centres. A large number of detainees reacted to reports by staging protests (certainly not for the first time) from within detention, with many […]

Over 8,000 migrants and refugees are currently detained in concentration camps throughout Greece. Among them are minors, families and those with significant health problems. Six people have died in these camps because they had no access to medication and recently two people committed suicide once they were informed that they […]

The United Kingdom is facing an unprecedented expansion of the prison system, justified by appeals to ‘public safety’ and the supposed economic benefits for ‘local communities’. In response, a new campaign network has been launched called Community Action on Prison Expansion (CAPE). CAPE aims to counter expansion plans and stem the […]

When the Empty Cages Collective facilitates workshops on prison abolition we ask participants to share their first cultural memory of prison. Was it the TV show Porridge? Or when Dumbo the Elephant’s mum is locked up? Together we explore how normalised prisons are and how, as abolitionist Angela Davis describes, “prison […]

Right now over 90,000 people across the UK are locked inside cages that are socially and intellectually justified, rationalised – even celebrated – as fundamental to the smooth running of a liberal democracy. Many more people are in detention centres, young offenders institutions and psychiatric units. It’s called the prison system. Its role […]

Published below is a heavily condensed and edited version of a chapter from Dario Azzellini’s recent book,“An Alternative Labour History”. The chapter can be read in its entirety here (PDF). During the first decade of the current century, factory occupations and production under workers’ control seemed to be limited mainly […]

Last month, Abahlali baseMjondolo (a social movement of shack-dwellers founded in 2005 in Durban, South Africa) presented to the Human Rights Commission in Johannesburg. This is the statement that was sent to the Commission in advance of the hearings, and their responses to questions from the NGO. Statement for the […]

In every struggle today, across the world, “climate change”, “global disaster”, “ecological devastation” and “the right to the city” are phrases held in common by those who resist. Meanwhile, private property, profit maximisation and the mantra of economic growth, “progress” and prosperity continue to be promoted by a system and […]

A Brief History of Undercover Cops On a cold October night in 2010 Mark Kennedy admitted to his partner of six years and a group of close activist friends to being an undercover cop. This event cracked the dam of secrecy that had allowed the police to infiltrate and undermine […]