Working Statement on What Is CoRe
From Communities of Reistance
Communities of Resistance
WHAT IS CORE?
Prisons do not make our communities safe. Most people who are sent to prison return time after time, causing perpetual harm to our communities. Prisons takes people with broken lives and then strips them of all that it means to be an individual, before spitting them back into our communities.
There must be a better way. Crime is a social problem, and we believe that the solutions lay within our communities. For too long we have handed the problem over to government agencies and private companies, only to watch them make the problems worse.
It is time for us to take responsibility for social problems, and for the community to provide the opportunities that all people aspire towards.
We need to create healthy, solid and vibrant communities where each if us feels we have a stake, where we know we matter. Only then will, we feel confident that we can turn our back on the disaster that is imprisonment and have our community offer answers to community problems.
HOW WE ORGANIZE:
Abolitionist Stance: We are part of an international movement that believes prisons are not a solution, but part of the problem. We cannot support work that extends the life, or increases the number, of prisons or perpetuates the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) worldwide
Inclusive and accessible: We will reach out to all who are affected by prisons and social problems. We will explain our campaign in terms mast easily understood and with thought given to those who may have particular difficulties in participating.
Prioritise involvement by, and direction from, communities most affected by the prison industrial complex: Our campaign is based in the community and must be guided by the needs of the community, particularity those most affected by prisons and social problems. We will help people to organise, inform others and gain support within their communities.
Grassroots & non-hierarchical model of organising: We do not have leaders, a hierarchy or make top-down decisions and all decisions within our organising efforts are made by consensus.
Politically independent: We are not aligned with any political party or group.
**Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)
The prison industrial complex (PIC) is the network of governmental and private interests that uses prisons as a response to social, political and economic problems. The PIC includes all institutions, government branches, agencies, NGOs and businesses that have a financial, organisational or political interest in maintaining the prison system, such as the Home Office, Border Agency, security corporations, prison construction companies, surveillance technology vendors, etc.
***Communities most affected by the PIC
Everyone is affected by the violence of the prison industrial complex (PIC). However, by using the term “communities most affected” we recognise that particular groups of people are disproportionately targeted by, and bear the brunt of, the prison industrial complex. By communities most affected, we refer to groups that are more likely to be criminalized, regulated and punished through the PIC. In the current social, political and economic context in Britain, communities most affected includes, but is not limited to: people of colour/non-white people, including for example Blacks and Asians, Muslims, Roma/traveller communities; immigrants; youth; poor and working class people; sex workers; queer, transgender and gender non-conforming people; drug users; people with learning disabilities; people with addictions and mental health issues; psychiatric survivors; and political activists.
