In today’s show, Chris Lievense, high school social studies teacher in Vermont and Kelly Junno 3rd grade teacher in Western Massachusetts, and Spark faculty, share with us their insights from the 2025 Socialism conference in Chicago and how those lessons are applicable to their work as K-16 educators.
A major theme Kelly and Chris found at the conference was, how does the progressive left recapture the narrative. Fascist can’t win unless they capture education and the narratives around it that normalize injustice. How does the progressive left ask for the unimaginable. How do we ask for a better world where we don’t have prisons, where we don’t spend billions of dollars and billions of lives to have them and instead ask for what are the kinds of care we need and what are the things that we need to meet, at minimum, the basic needs for people: food, clothing, shelter, health, education, transportation. How do we bring the majority of people in the United States along with the possibilities of abolition. Most Americans can’t imagine an abolitionist society. How do we as educators change the conversation which then changes the narrative around this and make it imaginable? Most importantly that Capitalism can’t solve capitalism
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In today’s show, Chris Lievense, high school social studies teacher in Vermont and Kelly Junno 3rd grade teacher in Western Massachusetts, and Spark faculty, share with us their insights from the 2025 Socialism conference in Chicago and how those lessons are applicable to their work as K-16 educators.
A major theme Kelly and Chris found at the conference was, how does the progressive left recapture the narrative. Fascist can’t win unless they capture education and the narratives around it that normalize injustice. How does the progressive left ask for the unimaginable. How do we ask for a better world where we don’t have prisons, where we don’t spend billions of dollars and billions of lives to have them and instead ask for what are the kinds of care we need and what are the things that we need to meet, at minimum, the basic needs for people: food, clothing, shelter, health, education, transportation. How do we bring the majority of people in the United States along with the possibilities of abolition. Most Americans can’t imagine an abolitionist society. How do we as educators change the conversation which then changes the narrative around this and make it imaginable? Most importantly that Capitalism can’t solve capitalism
The purpose of prisons & the history of incarceration in Vermont
Indigo Radio
53 minutes 41 seconds
1 year ago
The purpose of prisons & the history of incarceration in Vermont
Part I of a two-part show on Vermont and incarceration. Hosts Chris and Anna spend the hour with Jonathan Elwell, organizer with the FreeHerVT campaign. In Part I, Jonathan speaks with us about the purpose of prisons, the history of incarceration and surveillance in Vermont, and the criminalization of the poor.
Part II will air next week and will focus on the FreeHerVT campaign with Jayna Ahsaf and Jonathan.
Songs:
1) Tom Waits: "Fish in the Jailhouse"
2) Warren Zevon: "Prison Grove"
3) Felice Brothers: "Rockafeller Drug Laws"
4) Public Enemy: "Black Steel"
Photo: VT State Prison, Windsor 1907
show notes:
FreeHer: https://www.freehercampaign.org/vermont
FreeHer zine
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11hILxjEcUBBU8KcjJOqxIqg9zTc-8ut3/view
Books:
Tip of the Spear - Orisanmi Burton
Golden Gulag - Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Indigo Radio
In today’s show, Chris Lievense, high school social studies teacher in Vermont and Kelly Junno 3rd grade teacher in Western Massachusetts, and Spark faculty, share with us their insights from the 2025 Socialism conference in Chicago and how those lessons are applicable to their work as K-16 educators.
A major theme Kelly and Chris found at the conference was, how does the progressive left recapture the narrative. Fascist can’t win unless they capture education and the narratives around it that normalize injustice. How does the progressive left ask for the unimaginable. How do we ask for a better world where we don’t have prisons, where we don’t spend billions of dollars and billions of lives to have them and instead ask for what are the kinds of care we need and what are the things that we need to meet, at minimum, the basic needs for people: food, clothing, shelter, health, education, transportation. How do we bring the majority of people in the United States along with the possibilities of abolition. Most Americans can’t imagine an abolitionist society. How do we as educators change the conversation which then changes the narrative around this and make it imaginable? Most importantly that Capitalism can’t solve capitalism
