By Rossella Forlè
On Sunday evening I had the honour to listen to Professor Angela Y. Davis live at the Women of the World event at Southbank Centre in London. In an evening with the feminist writer Lola Olufemi featuring music and poetry. Davis reflected on the power of sisterhood and political self-organising, and what a life of resistance has taught her about the struggles we face today.
Angela Davis
Despite being a self-described “radical black woman revolutionary,” and one of the most amazingly brilliant activist educators of our time, Dr. Davis has a way of making you feel as if you’re sitting in her living room, sipping tea, while casually discussing global transformation. This feeling of intimacy with her and her message is one of the more unique – and fundamentally critical – aspects of her philosophy.
“Radical transformation is not something we should put on a pedestal or deem out of reach. Rather, it can be highly attainable if we establish community with each other and do the necessary work, collectively. ”
Angela Davis: A Lifetime of Resistance - Women of the World Southbank Centre, London
She invited us to envision a new future – a future that does not capitalise on the violence of humans, and the environment. While highlighting the challenges of imagining a new society, she emphasised the importance of not blindly accepting the options presented to us. Also acknowledging the reality of doing this work within “spaces of contradiction” while continually emphasising the importance of collective movement.
Freedom from capitalism is freedom from the current system: politically, socially, and economically. It is this process that calls on us to look within ourselves and the spaces we take up, to be conscious of the relationships we cultivate, the jobs we have, the leaders we elect, and the future we imagine. What does it mean to envision a society free from capitalism? What could this look like in the intimacies of our personal lives and the intricacies of our larger social democratic fabric?
Feminist writer and researcher.
Power in our current system – colonial, white, capitalist – criminalises all else that falls outside that system. It is this imbalance that inherently connects those not in power. Freedom from racial violence will not be won without freedom from occupation, militarisation, white supremacy, and colonisation. Davis warns of the dangers in striving toward a new vision while deeply embedded in the structural and ideological forces meant to be challenged and hence, the importance for systemic change.
Angela Davis’ closing thoughts will come as no surprise for anyone familiar with her work—- and yet still overwhelmingly relevant and well-received. “Learn the rules in order to break the rules.” Our future, depend on it. Now is the time.