The Transformative Justice Collective provides free teach-ins for our members. Scroll to read through the notes from a recent teach-in on Harm and Harm Reduction.
Teach-In Description
Harm reduction is a core philosophy that guides TJC’s work across everything we do. It is a commitment to addressing harm without causing more harm. How we understand harm in our society, what causes harm and what we consider to be meaningful responses to harm are key questions for abolitionists and community organisers.
While the term ‘harm reduction’ is often associated with certain programmes and practices that are aimed at addressing the harms of drug use, it is a powerful and expansive idea that can transform how we approach and respond to harm in many different contexts. It is an intuitive and just approach grounded in the belief that all people deserve safety, autonomy and dignity, as well as support to make informed choices about their well-being.
This session will first explore what we understand to be different kinds of individual, interpersonal and social harms, and introduce the key principles and practices of harm reduction, and concrete examples of how we can apply this in our own lives, as well as in our work as organisers.
Notes from the Teach-In
We often hear about crime and whether something is legal or illegal. Politicians talk about being “tough on crime” as a way to “protect” society from harm. But CRIME =/= HARM!
Harm exists whether or not we experience them or choose to acknowledge them ourselves. For example, if a rainforest is cleared for property development, harm—to indigenous communities who have depended on the rainforest for generations, to the animals whose habitats have been destroyed, to the ecosystem and environment—exists even if we don’t feel the loss of the trees and vegetation personally.
On the other hand, ‘crime’ and notions of ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ are politically constructed myths that shift over time. Three years ago, sex between men was officially a crime in Singapore. Today, it isn’t. This change had nothing to do with whether sex between two consenting adult men caused harm, but about the power to enforce (or not!) a discriminatory law.
Criminality is not about harm, but about social control and subjugation, the maintenance of class and power relations, and the preserving of institutional impunity. Many activities or events that cause serious harm are either ignored, not part of criminal law or handled outside of it—especially harms caused by states and corporations.
Criminalisation, detention and punishment—all things that are so prevalent in our society today—cause harm too, not just to individuals but to the wider community. When we focus on crime and crime rates, we’re not paying attention to what harms are actually caused, or whether there are even harms at all. We fail to recognise that many criminalised actions might themselves be a form of harm reduction.
For example, when a desperate parent steals milk powder from a supermarket to feed their child, this action is spurred by a desire to avoid the harm of letting a baby go hungry. Punishing that parent with fines they cannot afford to pay, or sending them to prison, not only does not address the harm of food insecurity, it inflicts more harm by putting the family through more financial difficulty, disruption and trauma.
Harm reduction is a practice grew out of community care strategies in the ‘60s and ‘70s to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDs, at a time when vulnerable communities that were most affected and at risk were ignored by the state and institutions.
It requires us to move away from punishment, coercion and shame. It’s about acknowledging a situation as it is—rather than as we wish or think it should be—and coming up with practical, non-judgmental strategies to minimise risk and/or harm while respecting self-determination and agency.
We already practice harm reduction all the time!
– When we put on seatbelts in cars
– When cigarettes come with filters to reduce the amount of harmful chemicals inhaled by smokers
– By using condoms when having sex to avoid sexually transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancies
– By making sure that everyone takes a taxi home after a night out drinking alcohol, so that no one drives while intoxicated
Key tenets of harm reduction include…
…increasing safety while acknowledging that there’s no such thing as ‘completely safe’
…providing realistic information, education and skills
…supporting people unconditionally, i.e. not making a particular behaviour a prerequisite to access care or aid
…recognising that people are experts of their own lives
…valuing long-term effort and commitment, more than results/ideal behaviour
…recognising that our relationship to a thing is what makes it safe/unsafe, harmful/not harmful, rather than the thing itself
Harm reduction and drug use
People use drugs for a variety of reasons, from soothing pain to providing pleasure. That’s not going to stop—so what can we do to address the risks and keep people as safe as possible?
Examples include:
– Medically supervised injection sites that make sure healthcare workers are available in case of overdose or other medical emergencies
– Distributing naloxone, which can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose
– Ground-up resources from peers
– Creating safety plans
– Decriminalisation and moving away from punishment to a health-based approach
Harm reduction and transformative justice
Both harm reduction and transformative justice work through reclaiming and rebuilding community capacities and competencies.
In both these practices we recognise that people are more than their mistakes, and that there is a lot to learn from marginalised communities who have had to devise their own strategies to minimise harm and increase
well-being in environments that neglect or actively oppress them.
There are many things that we can do to care for one another and address harm without resorting to granting the state immense power to make decisions for us and exert control!
Transformative Justice Collective 