by brian bean, Illustrated by Charlie Aleck
Haymarket Books
7/29/2025, paperback
SKU: 9798888903735
A deeply reported analysis of the connections between policing and capitalism, centering global lessons of revolt and resistance
Where do cops come from and what do they do? How did "modern policing" as we know it today come to be? What about the capitalist state necessitates policing? In this clear and comprehensive account of why and how the police--the linchpin of capitalism--function and exist, organizer and author brian bean presents a clear case for the abolition of policing and capitalism.
Their End Is Our Beginning traces the roots and development of policing in global capitalism through colonial rule, racist enslavement, and class oppression, along the way arguing how police power can be challenged and, ultimately, abolished. bean draws from extensive interviews with activists from Mexico to Ireland to Egypt, all of whom share compelling and knowledgeable perspectives on what it takes to--even if temporarily--take down the cops and build a thriving community-organized society, free from the police. The lessons they offer bring nuance to the meaning of "solidarity" and clarity to what "abolition" and "revolution" look like in practice.
Featuring illustrations by Chicago-based artist Charlie Aleck, Their End Is Our Beginning is an incendiary book that offers a socialist analysis of policing and the capitalist state, a vital discussion of the contours of abolition at large, and the revolutionary logic needed for liberation.
Reviews:
"With compelling prose and beautiful images, The End is Our Beginning lays out the clear and convincing evidence that any path to real social justice requires eliminating the roadblock of police power." -- Alex S. Vitale, author of The End of Policing
"Their End is Our Beginning is a book about cops--where they come from, what they do, and why they do it. Cops, as brian bean so eloquently writes, hold a capitalist order together, and so this book is also about class, racial capitalism and the state. The goal, as the title makes clear, is revolutionary abolition, not reform. We don't need a better world, we need another world, but since cops block our way, bean offers us this book as his contribution to the fighting movement we need to get us there." -- David Correia, co-author of Violent Order: Essays on the Nature of Police
"Their End Is Our Beginning powerfully exposes the comprehensive entanglement of policing and capitalism, revealing how these two forces bolster, feed, and necessitate each other. With bold prose and deep research, brian bean chronicles these institutions' twin evolutions: a story of intertwined economic, structural, physical, and social violences. He also illuminates a path to a world without them. At a time when policing is wielded to enforce rising authoritarianism, this is the book we need." -- Maya Schenwar, co-author of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms
About the Contributors:
brian bean is a Chicago-based socialist organizer, writer, and agitator originally from North Carolina. They are one of the founding editors of Rampant magazine. Their work has been published in Truthout, Jacobin, Tempest, Spectre, Red Flag, New Politics, Socialist Worker, International Viewpoint, and more. They co-edited and contributed to the book Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, also from Haymarket Books.
Charlie Aleck is a Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations artist based in Zhigagoong (Chicago), traditional territory of the Three Fires Council. They enjoy working in fiber arts, film, illustration, and collaborating on projects that bridge creative arts with political history and education.