James Kilgore

James Kilgore is a long-time socialist activist and writer based in Urbana, Illinois. He is the Director of the Challenging E-Carceration Project at MediaJustice and Director of Advocacy and Outreach for FirstFollowers Reentry Program in his hometown. He is the author of six books, including his most recent Understanding E-Carceration (The New Press, 2022) and his earlier Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time (New Press, 2015). He lived in South Africa and Zimbabwe under the name of John Pape.

Punishing the Criminalized Sector of the Working Class
Against the Current, No. 218, May/June 2022

Oupa Lehulere, Renowned South African Marxist
Against the Current, No. 216, January-February 2022

Mass Incarceration for Profit
Against the Current, No. 177, July/August 2015

The Politics of Mass Incarceration
Against the Current, No. 174, January/February 2015

Drugs, Race & the Gulag Industry
Against the Current, No. 153, July/August 2011

Year One of the Transition
Against the Current, No. 58, September/October 1995

Perestroika as Africans See It
Against the Current, No. 28, September/October 1990

Zimbabwe's Decade of Independence
Against the Current, No. 21, July/August 1989