Reclaim the Block (RTB) started in 2018 as a volunteer group of Minneapolis organizers who came together to try and move some money to #FundCommunitiesNotCops in the city budget cycle. We surprised the cops by actually winning, moving $1.1M out of the Minneapolis Police Department and into alternatives.
In the five years since then, RTB grew quickly to meet the moment. After MPD murdered George Floyd, we were one part of a much larger global uprising – rooted here in Minneapolis – that called for an end to the MPD that stole his life, and that helped the vision of abolition reach a lot of people who hadn’t before dreamed about it. We pushed for an abolitionist future where everyone in Minneapolis can get home safely and have someone to call when they need help.
From our beginnings as a scrappy crew moving those city budget dollars to a staffed organization working on abolition on a national stage, we have learned a lot, had wins, losses, and believe that we planted seeds for lasting change. Over the course of this year, our staff, volunteers, and sunset council came to the consensus that at the end of the redistribution work we committed to, our work as Reclaim the Block would sunset.
Redistribution
As a reminder, in 2020 Reclaim the Block received $11.2 million in donations after the MPD murder of George Floyd. We committed to redistributing 75% (totalling $8.4 million) and invested the remainder in bold #DefundThePolice and community safety campaigns through Reclaim the Block and Yes 4 Minneapolis.
In redistribution we moved more than $8.6 million through mutual aid; other organizing groups building safety outside of the police; and community endeavors like the Transformative Black Led Movement Fund ($5.6 million), a cohort in Northside, a cohort of Indigenous leaders, and a participatory budgeting project in the community around George Floyd Square. Aside from the $5.6 million, we also moved more than $3 million to 54 Minnesota-based organizations and a number of individuals.
Abolitionist work continues
While our organization is sunsetting, in 2024 some of us will work to gather RTB stories into a case study, which we will publish at reclaimtheblock.org. Organizers do not always tell our own stories, and we hope this will be useful to other movement organizations.
Mariame Kaba has said that prison industrial complex abolition is “a vision of a restructured society where we have everything that we need to live dignified lives.”
There is no single tactic that creates abolition, no single moment when it has arrived, and no moment when it is no longer before us. Building this world will take many experiments, many people, and many years. While our formation is done, we all continue our work as abolitionists in this beautiful and difficult lifelong work.
Abolitionist organizing also continues in Minneapolis. These are some of the groups who continue that work; we hope you’ll connect with them, sign up for their emails, follow them on socials, and, when applicable, donate to their work.
- Black Visions
- Futures Beyond Criminalization
- Ground Cover
- Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) Twin Cities
- Institute of Aspiring Abolitionists
- Library Patrons Union
- Minnesota Freedom Fund
- New Justice Project
- REP for MN
- Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) Minneapolis
- Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Twin Cities
- Southside Harm Reduction Services
Thank you
Finally, thank you to everyone who has connected with us since 2018. To all of our comrades: staff, volunteers, partner groups, mentors; to everyone who has shown up: to testify, at a direct action, at a political education event, at a People’s Assembly or anything else; to everyone who has signed up for our lists or followed us; to everyone who has supported our work. Thank you.
Core team: Amy, Jonathan, Nat, Valentina, Zak
Sunset council: Corenia, Elizabeth, Ewan, Jae Hyun, Lex, Sheila, Truth Maze