“It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism”
Angela Davis writes about collective movements and solidarity like no other. Although hers is a critical voice that binds freedom struggles around the world, throughout this collection of interviews and writings, she consistently highlights the power of the many in the making of a movement. This cannot be more true today as millions around the world rally for Palestine, holding a mirror to the moral hypocrisies of the ruling classes.
‘Freedom is a Constant Struggle’ is a collection of Davis’s essays, speeches and interviews that exemplify transnational decolonizing solidarities. Angela Davis is an abolitionist, civil right activist, professor, philosopher, scholar, writer, and all round inspirational human. Her writing is heavily grounded in the deeply concerning and ever-growing apparatus of the ‘security’ state, and its carceral systems. We should all be terrified by the links between ‘security’ forces employed by major countries around the world, from checkpoints, to police training, immigrant detention centers, even armed guards in schools. These services are all provided by one company, the third largest in the world, after Walmart and Foxconn (in 2016). So when Angela argues that people’s struggles for freedom around the world are linked, it’s not just ideological.
Before it was laid bare with the genocide in Palestine, and long before Pro-Palestinian activism flourished on campuses across the world, Davis was showing us the links between Black liberation movements, Indigenous struggles, and Palestinian resistance. These linkages extend to the anti-caste movement in India, to Kashmir, and resistance to rising fascisms across the world.
Her work powers our imagination and thinking of solidarity. Many of us have been screaming on and offline about Palestine for months and her work makes me think of how we can deepen loving connections with each other over dispelling energy that broken institutions puppeted by the ruling classes. Whether it’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, speaking up, supporting mutual aid, or just showing love for each other’s actions, together we keep momentum alive, and restock our reservoirs of hope and optimism.
