The class character of the current abolitionist movement is not that different from that of the 18th/19th century movement IMO. Upper class professionals whose strategy, politics, and tokenizing of black collaborationists of empire all reflect that background

Across empires, the "classical" (need a shorthand lmao) advocated for REFORMS which would supposedly liberate enslaved black people. This advocacy was based on humanist liberalism and did not promote socialist politics. Imperialist governments were able to absorb this easily.

In Philadelphia, abolitionists credited with greatly reducing slaveownership by appealing to slaveowners there freed a few dozen slaves at most. The decline was mostly attributable to the fact that the slaves died off & replacements weren't shipped to the city.

Osborne Perry Anderson—the only black participant who wrote a memoir of the Harper's Ferry raid—stated clearly that the rebellion would have spread much further if John Brown HIMSELF did not refuse to press against slaveowners. The slaves themselves had joined enthusiastically.

Even at its most militant, abolitionism as a politic was motivated by imperialism (Brown strenuously refused to attack while the u.s. was engaged in a war and fought under the u.s. flag) & put the brakes on its own supposed ambitions once the sanctity of white life was challenged

Today, we see the same thing. Abolitionists frequently criticize reformists even while they campaign to shut down jails, stop the building of new prisons, eliminate cash bail, & disband local police departments by appealing to local governments. Appealing to the state = REFORMISM

It's particularly disgusting when modern abolitionists—still majority nonblack (but w/~more POC!~), still upper class (note the frequency of college degrees/salaried jobs), still humanist (hence the hostility to theories focusing on antiblackness)—straight up play the voting game

They sometimes openly campaign for tools like Chesa Boudin, whose "progressive DA" cred SHOULD have been destroyed when he got on TV to whine about looting during a slave revolt, but typically save face by claiming they're voting "against" the farthest-right mainstream candidate.

So when abolitionists act shocked to see reformists coopt their tactics, like with the whole "defund" debacle, they are either being ignorant of or dishonest about their own history & politics, probably a little of both. Because abolitionists. ARE. Reformists.

The abolitionist movement, as a whole, refuses to engage with social death on its own terms, and until it does so its political horizons will have the same shortcomings as those of the past. & their "successes" will amount to what was "won" last time: slavery by another name.

I didn't end up expanding on everything in the first tweet like i meant to bc i was spitballing so questions welcome lmao