Whenever I find myself in casual political conversations, it quickly becomes clear how often some people treat social issues as if they exist in isolation. But as Angela Y. Davis reminds us, nothing stands alone. Race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, and ability are all deeply intertwined and to truly understand justice, we need to look at how these categories overlap and connect, rather than seeing them as separate struggles.
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle brings together a collection of essays, interviews, and speeches that highlight exactly this point. Angela Davis speaks passionately about movements close to her heart, like prison abolition, feminism, the rights of BIPOC communities. She underlines the importance of remembering the long and painful history Black people have endured. At the same time, she points to what civil rights movements have achieved, not only in the United States but also in struggles around the world. Central to her vision is solidarity: standing with marginalized groups across borders.
Social struggles are never isolated. Davis consistently calls for building links between movements, whether they address state violence, systemic racism, gender inequality, or global oppression. She traces these connections with both historical depth and global perspective.
Though relatively short, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle is rich in insight. It reminds us of the importance of collective, sustained movements and of seeing the fight for freedom as something deeply interconnected, across communities and across the globe.
Summary
Prison Reform or Prison Abolition? Rethinking Justice, Racism, and Democracy
The history of prisons is often told as a story of reform but reform didn’t come after prisons were created, it came with them. Every attempt at “improvement” has only led to bigger, more efficient prisons. And with each reform, more people are pulled into the web of surveillance and control.
But prisons aren’t only about physical buildings made of walls and bars, they’re also ideas. Society has internalized the notion that “bad people” belong in prison. This belief cuts off deeper conversations: What makes someone act violently? Why do men harm women? What social conditions make violence possible in the first place? Instead of asking these questions, the default answer has been: “just send them to prison.”
The problem is that prisons don’t solve violence, they reproduce it. Inside, people experience another form of violence, and many come out worse than before. The cycle continues.
Abolitionists argue that we can’t think about prisons in isolation. We need to look at the bigger picture: racism, poverty, illiteracy, lack of health care, untreated mental illness, and homelessness. For example, the largest psychiatric institutions in the U.S. today aren’t hospitals, they’re jails in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Abolishing prisons, then, isn’t just about closing buildings. It’s about dismantling the inequalities that keep filling them.
And we can’t ignore profit. With the privatization of prisons and their services, corporations benefit from keeping prison populations high. Politicians, too, have long relied on “tough on crime” rhetoric to win votes, whether crime rates are high or not.
The struggle against prisons mirrors the earlier struggle against slavery. Ending slavery required more than removing chains; it required building new institutions that could truly support freedom. Similarly, ending prisons requires building the foundations of an abolitionist democracy, one where justice i in creating the conditions for genuine equality.
Understanding Racism Beyond Stereotypes: Why Structural Change Matters
Racism is a deeply complex system. There are powerful structural elements that shape society: laws, institutions, and unequal opportunities. Yet these structural roots are often ignored when people talk about “ending racism.”
On top of that, racism also leaves a deep mark on the human psyche. This is where stereotypes come from and why they continue to stick. Unless we address both the systemic structures and the psychological impact, stereotypes will keep resurfacing, and racism will remain.
Why Real Change Comes from Movements, Not Presidents
Lasting change doesn’t come from governments alone, no matter who holds power. History shows that progress has always been pushed forward by mass movements: people organizing, refusing to let urgent issues fade away, and demanding something different.
Take the abolition of slavery, for example. Many people credit Abraham Lincoln as the main force behind emancipation. While his role mattered, the real turning point came from enslaved people themselves. By escaping, by joining the Union Army, and by fighting for their own freedom, both men and women, they shaped the outcome of the Civil War. It was their courage, combined with the broader abolitionist movement, that dismantled slavery.
Movements like these don’t appear overnight. They take time, careful organizing, and unseen labor behind the scenes. But when they grow strong enough, they make change inevitable.
My Favorite Bits
I don’t think we can rely on governments, regardless of who is in power, to do the work that only mass movements can do. I think what is most important about the sustained demonstrations that are now happening is that they are having the effect of refusing to allow these issues to die.
Angela Y. Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle
Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible.
Angela Y. Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle
Author: Angela Y. Davis
Publication date: 17 August 2015
Number of pages: 156 pages
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