From Block to Build: Learning From Interrupting Criminalization’s Abolitionist Strategy

At Abolish Slavery VA, we are continually looking for frameworks that not only help us dismantle systems of exploitation, but also guide us toward building the world we actually want. A recent, powerful, and practical abolitionist framework we’ve encountered comes from Interrupting Criminalization, co-founded by Andrea J. Ritchie and Mariame Kaba. If you are not already familiar with their work, I highly suggest checking out the site. They describe their site as "a movement resource hub offering research, connection, learning, and practice for organizers, practitioners, and advocates on the cutting edge of efforts to build a world free of violence, surveillance, policing, and punishment." And they really are just full of amazing and easy to digest content and resources.

The one we are discussing today, Block & Build: But Make It Abolitionist, offers a strategic roadmap for resisting criminalization while actively creating alternatives grounded in care, community power, and liberation.

This post, "From Block to Build: Learning From Interrupting Criminalization’s Abolitionist Strategy", draws heavily on the wisdom, analysis, and organizing vision offered by Interrupting Criminalization and by Andrea Ritchie’s decades of leadership in the abolitionist movement. We are grateful for their work and encourage readers to visit their website, download the toolkit, and support their ongoing efforts.

➡️ Resource: Block & Build: But Make It Abolitionist — Interrupting Criminalizationhttps://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/resources-all/block-amp-build

What Interrupting Criminalization Teaches Us: The Block & Build Framework

In their toolkit, Interrupting Criminalization outlines the five strategic approaches communities can use when confronting harmful systems:

• Block – preventing harmful policies, technologies, institutions, or practices from being implemented

• Blunt – reducing the harm of existing systems when blocking isn’t immediately possible

• Break – dismantling the structures that uphold violence, exploitation, and criminalization

• Bridge – connecting movements, struggles, and communities through shared strategy

• Build – creating the community-based institutions, relationships, and infrastructures that make harmful systems obsolete

This framework is deeply influenced by Andrea Ritchie’s long-standing work documenting the harms of policing, mapping how criminalization operates, and helping communities envision genuinely liberatory pathways forward. Interrupting Criminalization’s framing makes clear that abolition is not simply tearing down what harms us—it is fundamentally about constructing new systems that center care, safety, dignity, and community governance.

Why This Framework Matters for Ending Modern Slavery in Virginia

Slavery and forced labor in Virginia—whether through legal exceptions, exploitative labor practices, immigration coercion, subcontracting structures, or carceral systems—is not an isolated issue. It is one expression of the broader system of criminalization and control that Interrupting Criminalization works to expose and resist.

Applying the Block & Build framework helps us see:

Blocking

Stopping new forced-labor loopholes, repressive bills, expanded detention, or policies that increase vulnerability to exploitation.

Blunting

Reducing the harm experienced by workers and survivors while longer-term abolitionist strategies are underway.

Breaking

Targeting the structures that make forced labor possible—punishment-based legal frameworks, economic precarity, coercive immigration policies, exploitative business models, and the 13th Amendment’s exception itself.

Bridging

Connecting movements in Virginia—immigrant justice, labor rights, anti-carceral organizing, racial justice—so we are fighting the same root systems, not isolated symptoms.

Building

Creating new liberatory systems: community-based worker protections, cooperative economies, survivor-led policy development, and governance models that reduce reliance on punishment and coercion.This is abolitionist strategy exactly as Andrea Ritchie and Interrupting Criminalization describe it: not reforming oppressive systems but replacing them.

How We Use the Block & Build Framework at Abolish Slavery VA

We Block

• Harmful legislation.

• New forced-labor loopholes.

• Investments in carceral expansion.

We Blunt

• Push for effective labor enforcement.

• Support workers navigating coercive conditions.

• Build public awareness of exploitation.

We Break

• Expose and challenge the legal and economic structures that allow forced labor to thrive.

• Push to eliminate Virginia’s and the nation’s forced-labor exceptions.

• Work toward dismantling punishment-based labor regimes.

We Bridge

• Convene coalitions across labor, immigration, racial justice, faith, and community groups.

• Learn from national movements, including the deep analysis provided by Interrupting Criminalization.

We Build

• Support worker-centered alternatives.

• Encourage cooperative economic models.

• Promote abolitionist values of dignity, consent, care, and community power.

Interrupting Criminalization’s framework reminds us that abolition is not only possible—it’s already happening in the strategies communities deploy every day.

What’s Next for Virginia?

Guided by the Block & Build approach, we plan to take a comprehensive and strategic stance on addressing the complex issue of forced labor within our communities and across the state. Our multifaceted plan encompasses several key initiatives aimed at not only identifying and dismantling the systems that perpetuate coerced labor but also fostering alternative structures that empower individuals and communities. Specifically, we will:

• Map all forced-labor loopholes and systems that produce coerced labor across the state. This initiative will involve extensive research and collaboration with various stakeholders, including labor rights organizations, community activists, and legal experts. By creating a detailed mapping of the existing loopholes and identifying the mechanisms that allow forced labor to thrive, we aim to illuminate the hidden networks of exploitation. This mapping will serve as a vital resource for advocacy efforts and policy reform, providing a clear picture of where intervention is most urgently needed.

• Expand our cross-movement coalition work. Recognizing that the fight against forced labor intersects with various social justice movements, we will actively seek to build and strengthen coalitions across different sectors. This includes collaborating with groups focused on racial justice, immigrant rights, environmental justice, and economic equity. By uniting our efforts, we can create a more robust and diverse movement that amplifies the voices of those most affected by forced labor and ensures a holistic approach to addressing the root causes of exploitation.

• Seed or support alternative labor structures such as co-ops, mutual aid networks, and community-based enforcement models. We believe that empowering communities to create their own labor systems is essential in dismantling the structures of forced labor. By providing resources, training, and support for cooperative enterprises and mutual aid initiatives, we can foster economic independence and self-determination. Furthermore, developing community-based enforcement models will enable local communities to hold exploitative practices accountable, ensuring that labor rights are upheld and respected.

• Develop our statewide education initiative on the connections between slavery, mass incarceration, immigrant detention, , and racial capitalism. Education is a powerful tool for change, and through this initiative, we aim to raise awareness about how systemic issues contribute to forced labor. This program will target various audiences, including students, community members, and policymakers, using workshops, seminars, and digital resources to disseminate information. By connecting the dots between forced labor, the criminal justice system, and the pervasive effects of racial capitalism, we hope to inspire a collective movement towards justice and equity.

• Develop survivor-led policy proposals guided by abolitionist principles. Central to our approach is the belief that those who have experienced forced labor should lead the way in shaping policies that affect their lives. We will work closely with survivors to ensure their voices and experiences inform our policy proposals. These proposals will be rooted in abolitionist principles, advocating for transformative justice solutions that address the systemic issues contributing to forced labor rather than merely punitive measures. By centering the needs and insights of survivors, we aim to create policies that foster healing, empowerment, and long-term change.

  
  

Through these strategic initiatives, we are committed to not only addressing the immediate challenges posed by forced labor but also building a foundation for a more just and equitable society. Our holistic approach seeks to dismantle oppressive systems while simultaneously fostering resilience and empowerment within communities, ensuring that all individuals can thrive free from exploitation. Each of these steps reflects the kind of strategic, grounded abolitionist organizing modeled by Interrupting Criminalization.

Deep Gratitude to Interrupting Criminalization & Andrea Ritchie

The insights in this post come from the work of:

• Andrea J. Ritchie — feminist abolitionist organizer, attorney, and scholar whose work has transformed how we understand criminalization and resistance

• Interrupting Criminalization — a movement-building project shifting power away from systems of policing, punishment, and control

• Mariame Kaba and all the organizers, researchers, and communities contributing to the Block & Build framework

We encourage everyone reading to engage directly with the full toolkit and support their work.

➡️ Download the toolkit:https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/resources-all/block-amp-build