Skip Navigation
Books for changing the world
Menu
Menu
Abolishing State Violence
A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages

ABOLISHING STATE VIOLENCE is an urgent and accessible analysis of the key structures of state violence in our world today, and a clarion call to action for their abolition.

Connecting movements for social justice with ideas for how activists can support and build on this analysis and strategy, this book shows that there are many mutually supportive abolition movements, each enhanced by a shared understanding of the relationship between structures of violence and a shared framework for challenging them on the basis of their roots in patriarchy, racism, militarism, settler colonialism, and capitalism.

This book argues that abolition is transformative. It is about defunding, demilitarizing, disbanding, and divesting from current structures of violence, but also about imagining new ways to organize and care for each other and our planet, and about building new systems and cultures to sustain ourselves in a more equitable, free, and peaceful way. It shows that change is possible.

Reviews
  • Praise for Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy

    “This is a powerful and encouraging approach to an often overlooked concern, an informative work that will inspire readers to pay close attention to and even consider participating in the nuclear weapons disarmament movement.” Booklist

    “Hooray for the peacemakers, who prevail in the end! They—and Acheson—have gifted us with a deliciously relevant organizing model for challenging any status quo.” —CODEPINK: Women for Peace

    “Ray Acheson tells a profoundly important and timely story of movements and resistance, of protest and vision, of diplomats and activists who have committed to banning the bomb. This book will make you understand the urgent need to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.” —Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Other books by Ray Acheson