All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence by Emily L. Thuma

All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence Reviews

• 
  Sarah Schulman

  Like Emily Hobson's book Lavender and Red, Thuma's book lays down some necessary fundamentals for beginning to understand the depth, nuance and meaning of wide spread popular Left subculture of the 1970's-90's, and especially its anti-racist and queer and lesbian (of color and white) elements. The more this work is done, the more people today will be able to comprehend what concrete organizing regarding the state in terms of prison, police, and male violence actually looked like, what coalitions looked like and a glimpse of what what grass roots media and initiatives, including defense committees were like. The contrasts with our contemporary moment are sobering and crucial. So so so much more needs to be done, each of these campaigns, organizations and events could and should be its own book, but this volume is a good place to start. I learned that Joann Little's Defense campaign infrastructure was based in Angela Davis's Defense Committee, which explains why people from the Communist Party were involved. She touches on Joan Gibbs' work with DARE (Dykes Against Racism Everywhere) but not that she was Joann Little's cousin. And what became of Little, Yvonne Wanrow, Dessie Woods, etc? My one place of quibble, and I felt the same about Hobson's similarly enjoyable book, is that the authors are too swayed by the range of organizations, and don't realize that some were front groups for others, glorified cults, or tiny and ineffectual. More specificity about that would be welcome. Thuma also points out repeatedly the role of lesbians and Jews, (and combinations of the two) in anti-racist work in the period, but she doesn't name names (Susan Saxe is weirdly left out of the section on Framingham Prison.) And when she criticizes organizers along racial lines she also doesn't name names. Obviously this calls for large scale historical projects, with widespread interviewing and more specific and nuanced discussions of differences and alliances. More, more, more.
• 
  Corvus

  
  All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence by Emily L. Thuma is a widely researched and meticulously organized catalogue of an important history. Many people who write about feminist movements of the 1970's and 80's focus on the big names in white, second wave feminist discourse. This book was a breath of fresh air in that it focused on and described in beautiful detail the feminist movements against violence that centered Black, Brown, and other POC women, working class and poor women, lesbian, trans, and queer women, Jewish women, and women abused in psychiatric settings (whether or not they dealt with mental illness.)
  
  It is obvious that Thuma put extensive time into researching material for the book. It is full of amazing fliers, photos, newsletter covers, and other graphics from various grassroots movements in defense of women. There were definitely some more well known names highlighted like those of the Combahee River Collective, but there was a ton I learned from this book. I read a lot of feminist literature and activist history and it was really exciting to learn in detail about so many people and organizations I had not previously heard of. Thuma packed a ton of information into a relatively small space making the book an efficient read.
  
  Thuma's focus was on movements surrounding the oppression and anguish caused by the prison industrial complex. These included the criminalization of women defending themselves from male violence in many forms including intimate partner abuse, stranger assaults, women abused by the psychiatric system in prisons and other institutions, pathologizing and abuse of masculine and gender nonconforming women, abuse and discrimination of transgender women both in prisons and some feminist circles, the struggles between white dominant feminist groups and Black and other people of color feminist movements, the struggles with some lesbian separatist movements' expressions of white supremacy, and much more. The focus is on the is mainly on movements in and around the 70's and 80's give or take, but she uses some sections as well as the epilogue to tie in these struggles to more recent events (such as CeCe's McDonald's imprisonment for self defense against homophobic and transmisogynistic violence.) I could not help thinking of the saying (that I have heard worded many ways and am not sure who it should be attributed to) that, "Oppression doesn't go away, it just changes shape." Many of the things these movements were fighting back then, we are still fighting against today. That is not to say there was not progress. The immensely difficult and involved work these women did was life changing for countless prisoners and marginalized people.
  
  Thuma takes the reader into the intimate details and individual struggles that went on inside these movements. We learn about what people did pre-internet to disseminate materials to prisoners that prisons did not want them to have. We learn how women on the outside gave support and an external voice to women on the inside. We learn about the discussions of race and racism and the need for educating white women about race and intersectional approaches to women's liberation. We learn that trans women have been struggling with the hatred from TERFs since at least the 70's despite being a regular fixture in feminist movements from the start. We learn about the dangers of all white juries judging Black and Brown women who are fighting for their lives. We learn about "Daddy tanks" where butch women and other gender nonconforming AFAB people were abused and isolated. We learn about how a mere hug or supportive touch on the shoulder between women in prison can be criminalized as homosexual activity. (This is something I can attest is still true in today's prisons as I had a penpal who told me about the same restriction in her prison. Even worse, they put women on sex offender registries for homosexual activity.) We learn that presenting oneself to a parole board using or imitating white cis femininity is the only way to be seen as exhibiting "good behavior." We learn how intersectional feminist movements navigated the inclusion of men oppressed by the racist prison system while also fighting against heinous male violence against women. We learn about the many differences between "carceral feminism" (which seeks to fight oppression with increased imprisonment and policing) and intersectional feminism which sought community alternatives to ineffective and abusive prison systems. We learn about the criminalization of survival itself and the endless fights that women endured to keep their sisters alive and safe in the cruelest of institutions.
  
  What I truly appreciated about this book is that its approach was intersectional from start to finish. Thuma truly centered the voices that are often the least heard but most affected by these oppressive systems. She shows how lesbian, Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, Disabled, and other marginalized women have been leading the fight against policing of women's survival and of imprisonment of Black and Brown bodies in general. The book is well organized, well edited, and a fast and very informative read. I recommend this not only to people interested in activist histories, but to anyone who considers themself a feminist or who is fighting for any kind of liberation today. We can learn so much from these women who paved the way ahead for all of us.
  
  This review was also posted to
  my blog.
  
• 
  Zach

  Emily Thuma’s All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence documents is an important and fascinating history of anticarceral feminist organizing and its intersections with anti-rape and anti-police activism. Of the organizations and publications discussed, the majority are little-known by scholars and organizers today, and Dr. Thuma excavates their histories in a way which will be very valuable for folks doing this work in the present. (One better-known organization, the Combahee River Collective, makes an appearance in the last chapter, but I would argue that for all its importance; Combahee is itself understudied, and Thuma places it in valuable context, describing its role broader organizing in Boston and across the country.). I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of anti-carceral movements and/or the history of feminist organizing.
• 
  Mariah

  I'd like to thank Netgalley and the University of Illinois Press for giving me an ARC of All Our Trials.
  
  For starters, there are some trigger warnings in this book, including, but not limited to: sexual assault, and brutality (domestic and police). All Our Trials is essentially a history of modern feminist anti-violence and anticarceral movements within the United States. This book covers a lot of ground, but it is incredibly important material. Emily Thuma details the incredible importance of intersectional feminism and through this book shows the triumphs that women can accomplish when we choose to stand together fighting for and with those whom colonial systems have tried to strip voices from. I would encourage anyone to read this book.
• 
  Tonstant Weader

  All Our Trials is a history of how the women’s anti-violence, anti-racism, feminism, and prison abolition came together in recognition of how these struggles are interdependent. Examples abound of women who have been sentenced to prison for defending themselves from rape and domestic violence. The story of two African American women, Joan Little and Cece McDonald bracket the book, Joan Little killed a prison guard who was raping her. McDonald shot into the ceiling to scare off her abusive ex. Both women were convicted and both have won release through activism demanding justice. On one hand, the power of organizing is demonstrated by their release. On the other hand, half a century separate their cases…and the same biases prevail.
  
  I remember when I was in college, a local woman whose abusive husband kept her shackled to a ropeline to keep her from leaving their farm was convicted when she killed him. It was such an unspeakable injustice and All Our Trials is rife with injustices and the women and organizations in the struggle to right those wrongs.
  
  Because prison and the criminal justice system is the purveyor of so much injustice, feminist anti-rape and domestic violence organizers are reluctant to look to the criminal justice system for help. Incarcerating more people in a system of violence is not the answer to violence. This has been a nexus of coalition-building and opportunity as well as division as many white feminists did not see the connection.
  
  
  All Our Trials successfully connects contemporary anti-violence and anti-carceral organizing to the struggles of the Seventies. There is a through-line that connects generations of organizing. That is both empowering and discouraging as our nation has embraced locking people up as a solution for every social problem, including mental illness and student disruption. The carceral state remains a force of oppression. Rape and domestic violence also seem unimpeded, with an abuser in the White House. Nonetheless, no one has given up and the work continues – work that will be well-informed by this book.
  
  I received an e-galley of All Our Trials from the publisher through NetGalley.
  
  All Our Trials at University of Illinois Press
  Emily L. Thuma faculty page
  
  
  https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
• 
  Marina

  I loved this! This is at the very least a part of the history I've been looking for to contextualize the current politics of carceral feminism, rape crisis centers, and their relationship to other activist issues (which are far more related than we usually recognize). I'm really impressed by the archive-digging required to put together this book, and I recommend everyone read carefully and pick out unclear phrases and references to go read up on related history (thanks to one sentence in this book, I found like three more topics I need to read about and easily found the resources to do so). So... I just feel like this is a really good jumping-off point to get more deeply aquainted with how to fight carceral feminism - Thuma's book won't cover everything, and I wish we could cover more about disability and incarcation, but I'll start with her resources here and keep going until I find answers to that question too!
  
  WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND to all self-acclaimed feminists (esp white feminists) and anyone who volunteers/works at rape crisis centers or on domestic violence issues.
• 
  Molly Roach

  All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence by Emily L. Thuma
  
  This books was so GOOOOOD omg. It is so well researched and organized in such a concise way. It dives into the effectiveness of defense campaigns, especially for Black women and other WOC convicted of fighting back against sexual violence. It also outlines the abolitionist aspect of grassroots printing projects and work that happens on the streets. The most compelling part for me was the in depth analysis of lesbian feminist organizing that was centered in Boston and Worcester, and the connection between the prison and the psychiatric institution.
  5/5⭐️
• 
  Tia

  Thank you for your wonderful and detailed work, Emily! This book wades through the vast history of feminist antiviolence organizing in the 70s and 80s and its intersection with advocacy against the carceral state, especially along lines of gender, race, sexuality, mental health, and class. It is extremely detailed, elaborating on how organisation meetings worked, how organisations were formed, and information and campaigns circulated. At times I wanted more argument and analysis, but the amount of research here is astounding!
• 
  Leigh

  Must read for anyone interested in the criminalization of survival or the early anti-violence movement. So sorry I didn't have this when I was working on my book.
• 
  Adrienna

  Book club read. Non fiction.
• 
  victoria

  another mad-dash to finish my QE list, another s&p rec, cool to trace the origins of abolition feminism alongside third world/women of color feminist movement
• 
  Evan

  All our Trials explores the intersection between race, gender, sexual orientation and the American "justice" system. Although racialized people made inroads during the Civil Rights Movement of the '60s, systematic changes didn't begin until much later. Racialized people continued to remain active. This book is extremely detailed, citing prominent voices, movements and publications of the time. Women were being thrown into jail for acts of self-defense, for protecting their families and even for looking at someone the wrong way. Thanks to the efforts of these valiant women (and men), we have a more intersectional feminist movement that helped decriminalize homosexuality and other queer identities and helped ensure imprisoned racialized people have basic human rights. I'm rating the book 4/5 stars because although it's very good, it covers a LOT of ground and is pretty dry. Still worth the read if you want to learn more.
  
  Trigger warnings: domestic violence, police brutality, sexual assault