Together, we will read selections from Walls & Bars<\/em> and reflect on how Debs\u2019 words speak to us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exactly 100 years ago, Eugene V. Debs was serving a ten-year prison sentence in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. His crime? Speaking out against the First World War in his famous Canton Speech of 1918. Undeterred, Debs led his fifth and final presidential campaign from his prison cell, earning nearly a million votes for the Socialist ticket in November of 1920. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prison life profoundly affected Debs. As he experienced inhumane prison conditions, Debs also witnessed the common humanity of his fellow prisoners. He described these experiences in a series of articles and essays. In 1927, his brother Theodore published these writings in the volume Walls & Bars<\/em> shortly after Eugene Debs\u2019 death. Beyond simply describing prison life and conditions, Debs created a blueprint for solving the problems of incarceration by addressing what he saw as the root of crime: unmet social and economic needs. Walls & Bars<\/em> connects crime and prisons to the economic conditions created by capitalism, forging a path to abolishing prisons as we know them by transforming our economic system.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAbout Walls & Bars<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How can I get involved?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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