Chapter 03 - Lines of Flight
Section Notes¶
Family Abolition as Affirmative Response¶
Larcenia Jones Floyd
George Floyd’s mother
Raised her children as a single mother in Houston
Taught her children about the realities of Black life under U.S. racial capitalism
George called for her as he was being murdered by a police officer in 2020
Family abolition must be affirmative response for those who are not cared for well under racial capitalism
Must expand love and care, not cut more people off from it
Breaking Open¶
Multiple global crises
Deep economic stagnation and intensifying working-class precarity
Mass species death, climate catastrophes
Fascist politics, religious fundamentalisms, intensifying state authoritarianism
For many people, family is a refuge from the terrors of the world
But the family is in crisis, too
Challenging bigotry and abuse
Massive load of reproductive/domestic labor
Protracted economic strain
Lack of property access
Conflict is inevitable
Family abolition is an answer
Beyond the Family¶
We need something beyond the family to be able to care for one another effectively
Family has been challenged in every era of working-class rebellion
Definition of family abolition
Moving beyond nuclear family
Family abolition expands relationships of care
Mutual love and support
Raising children, tending to ill
Erotic connection and pleasure
Theorizing logic of social reproduction in a free, communist society
Abolition, Preservation, and Destruction¶
What abolition tries to accomplish
Abolition of slavery/prisons vs. abolition of family
Family abolitionists do not set out to destroy all families
Choice of whether to stay or leave
Aufhebung in philosophical writing
To sublate; positive supersession
Activist lineage of abolitionist struggle
In Haiti, in the U.S., and in Europe
Quotes¶
“... family abolition is not just a call for destruction and overcoming; it is also a positive embrace of the love at the heart of the best families. Floyd called to a woman who had cared for him against the cruelty of the world. Family abolition must be an affirmative response to George Floyd’s plea to his mother. That tie of love is at the heart of justice, of the struggle for a free world. The affirmation of family abolition is the demand that this love be a universal and unconditional basis for a social order that extends to include everyone. Yes, we all deserve love. Yes, we all deserve help. Yes, we all deserve to survive. Yes, we will defend each other. Yes, we will keep us safe.” (pp. 49)
“Family abolition is the care we all need abundantly available beyond the family. This care could extend through the whole of society, made possible through deep revolutionary change. Family abolition is the expansion and generalization of relations of care and consensual interdependency. Family abolition is a commitment that no one should be without support, that everyone should have the freedom to find ways of loving and caring without coercion... that who you love should not determine the material conditions of your life.” (pp. 53)
“Instead of destroying the family, we must abolish it by preserving what is crucial to it - human love, connection, care, community, romance - without binding these qualities to the particular form of the household within capitalism. Abolition means radically transforming these qualities, freeing them from relationships of coercion, abuse, isolation, and property.” (pp. 56)