Lecture. For the End of the Police. Why we cannot reform the police, why we will only be able to get rid of the police and the state together, and how collective responsibility might look like.

From Basel to Minneapolis, from Moscow to Tehran. At the EU’s borders or the Berlin Wall. Any place could be listed here, because in every city, every village, and countless other places, people have already been murdered, tortured, imprisoned, or attacked by the police.
For about 160 years, the police have oppressed and terrorized those at the bottom of the social order. And although it was founded precisely with this mandate—namely, to uphold slavery and colonialism and prevent uprisings by the poor—many people, especially in German-speaking countries, believe that the police serve to protect the general population or that the police simply need to be reformed.
Understanding the Police
The lecture will discuss how the police came into being, what their function and structure are, and why we cannot simply reform them but must get rid of them. It will become clear that the police and the state are inextricably linked. Added to this are capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and ableism.

So anyone who wants to abolish the police can only do so by abolishing the state as well. Other topics will include: What examples of resistance against the police exist? In what ways do (some) leftists defend the police?
Learning to Take Responsibility
We will then explore forms of communal living in which people collectively take responsibility: How do and have societies without police or a state dealt with conflicts, assaults, and external violence? What possibilities do we have to weaken the power of the police in our everyday lives?
Location and Date
The lecture will take place on June 4, 2026, at 7:30 PM (doors open) at Carambolage (Erlenstrasse 34) in Basel.
It will be presented by the anarchist educational project Schwarzer Weg: schwarzerweg.noblogs.org