Letters for Liberation is an entirely volunteer-run collective, committed to abolition. This work of accountability and transformation is still ongoing.
Our organization started as Abolition Apostles in 2019. A transition began in early 2022 when the co-founders quit suddenly following internal calls for accountability in the aftermath of harm.
Our Structures Working Group led us through a process of building organizational structures that support our work moving forward. This process involved collecting ideas from inside and outside pen pals, synthesizing themes, creating drafts, and approval via consensus decision-making. This resulted in the name Letters for Liberation and new mission.
The information below gives more details about this transition process.
Here are some of the updates we have shared on the transition with the community through our email listserv:
- A new purpose statement from 10/9/2023
- Important Community Updates and Transition from 3/13/22
- Transition Updates & Upcoming Meetings from 4/21/21
- Abolition Apostles Transition Update from 9/16/21
Several people who are and/or were part of this community, in collaboration with people from other organizations, wrote an open letter outlining their experiences of harm and conflict with the organization’s former co-founders. This letter was written as a last resort after multiple invitations to internal accountability processes. While this organization did not as a collective write this letter, we believe its content to be important to our work. The open letter is available online here. We take these harms seriously and are working hard to ensure we develop structures and spaces that meet the needs and responsibilities of this organization.