Honoring Palestinian Prisoners Day & Earth Day: Resistance, Liberation & the Fight for Life
For the month of April, we honor two dates that speak to the resilience of life under violent systems of control: Palestinian Prisoners Day on April 17, and Earth Day on April 22. Though they may seem unrelated, both are powerful reminders that the fight against cops and cages is a fight for the right to live—a struggle for collective survival and liberation.
This week, Palestinian Prisoners Day uplifts the courage and resistance of Palestinians caged and tortured in apartheid-Israeli prisons as part of a settler colonial regime that uses imprisonment as a key tool of control. Next week, Earth Day calls us to confront the global systems that exploit land and people.
From the 9,600 Palestinians currently incarcerated by apartheid-Israel, including over 3,300 prisoners in administrative detention without charge or trial, to the escalated crackdowns on student activism for Palestine and collaborating with attacks on immigrant communities in the US as seen by the Trump administration and ICE's targeting of Mahmoud Khalil, we uplift the brave resolve of imprisoned Palestinians who continue to organize hunger strikes, create underground political education spaces, and remain part of the larger struggle for land, dignity, and freedom in the face of brutal repression in historic Palestine and across the diaspora.
From apartheid-Israel’s ecocide of Palestinian lands and greenwashing of settler colonialism to extractive industries poisoning water in Indigenous territories in Turtle Island (ie the “US”) or expanding prisons and jails on toxic landfills, the prison industrial complex (PIC) is deeply entangled with ecological destruction worldwide. This Earth Day, we champion movement victories intersecting struggles for ecological preservation, Indigenous sovereignty, and the fight against the still-rapidly-expanding PIC, like the resourceful organizers in Central Appalachia, who successfully returned land to Indigenous hands while halting prison construction in Letcher County, Kentucky.
Across geographies, we see how the forces that cage people are the same ones that poison the earth:
militarism, capitalism, settler colonialism, and white supremacy. But we also see resistance rooted in care for life - from prisoners organizing against solitary confinement to land defenders halting pipelines.
People are fighting back—not only to survive,
but to build a new, liberated world.
This Earth Day and Palestinian Prisoners Day, we recommit to an abolitionist vision that refuses to separate freedom for people from freedom for the land. We honor those imprisoned for their resistance, and those who resist from within the walls. And we continue to raise the call for a free Palestine, for an end to all cages, and for the restoration of life everywhere. Another world is not only possible—it’s necessary. And it’s already being grown in the cracks of this one.
For a world free of fascism—without walls, cages or borders,
-Critical Resistance
More Announcements
Last Call: Applications for National Media Director due tomorrow, April 15!
With staff changes at CR, we're looking for a committed, disciplined and rigorous PIC abolitionist to join CR's team of organizers. Check out the full job announcement and description here. We're accepting applications on a rolling basis through April 15, and are hoping to fill position with a best fit candidate as soon as possible. Formerly imprisoned people are highly encouraged to apply.
We also encourage people of color, women, queer and trans/gender-nonconforming people to apply. We welcome people from all educational backgrounds to apply. Apply today!
For a Livable Future: Learn more about the intersecting struggles of PIC abolition and ecological justice in Issue 41 of The Abolitionist!
Check out last year's Spring-to-Summer issue of CR's cross-wall newspaper for an inside scoop on the abolitionist and environmentalist organizing to stop federal prison expansion in Appalachia alongside pipelines, how Indigenous communities are fighting back against extractivist mega-projects in Mexico to land struggles in post-apartheid South Africa and resisting ecocide in Palestine, or the impacts of ecological destruction on imprisoned people and more! The entire issue is free on CR's website here.
COMING SOON: Issue 43 prints in June 2025 focused on censorship and repression.Subscribe todaytosupport the project, receive your own copy hot off the press at the end of June, and sponsor free subscriptions to people locked up in jails, detention centers, and prisons.
Curious what else CR has been up to?Check out our 2024 Annual Report now available on our website!
As we reflect on a challenging 2024, we are grateful for the resilience and commitment of our community, including your invaluable support. Last year, we continued to advance our mission by achieving significant campaign wins, creating more abolitionist organizing tools, actively supporting international and cross-sector liberation struggles, and launching a new regional chapter - CR Central Appalachia. Read our annual report here, check out these 11 ways to give to CR, and consider donating to support CR's work today!
