This Juneteenth we're partnering with Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross to screen Ava Duvernay's award winning documentary 13TH and discuss the movement to #EndPrisonSlavery.

About Juneteenth & Prison Slavery

Juneteenth (June 19) is a holiday that celebrates the end of legalized slavery in the United States. But prison activists have pointed out that slavery was never fully abolished: it still exists for incarcerated people, because the 13th amendment says the State may use slavery as "punishment for a crime." This is why hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people work for little or no pay every day in prisons across the country.

The #EndPrisonSlavery movement arose several years ago as prison rebels and their allies sought to shine light on the reality of un-free labor in the U.S.  Activities associated with the movement have included prison strikes, boycotts of prison industries, and other taking aim at the profitability and smooth functioning of the exploitative carceral State.

About the Film

The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary 13TH refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.