Angela Davis: Electing Harris will open space for more radical struggles
www.peoplesworld.org
PARIS—“Do I really have to answer that question? I’m certainly not voting for the person leading the Republican Party.” That was the response of communist icon Angela Davis when a journalist asked about her intentions for the 2024 U.S.

Excepts for the anti link nerds

PARIS—“Do I really have to answer that question? I’m certainly not voting for the person leading the Republican Party.” That was the response of communist icon Angela Davis when a journalist asked about her intentions for the 2024 U.S. election at the festival of l’Humanité, the newspaper of the French Communist Party, this weekend.

“When Obama was elected, that was a very important victory,” Davis said when asked about the advance of Black political figures in the U.S. “It was not a victory in relation to what he actually accomplished during his presidency, but rather what was significant was that young people organized and accomplished something that was considered to be impossible.

“When we engage in electoral politics, it can’t be just because a particular individual is running for office,” Davis told the crowd, “it is to enlarge the terrain of mass struggle, to guarantee a space for the trade union movement to win victories, for the women’s movement to win victories, for people of color to win victories, for working and poor people to win victories.

“That’s why we urge people to vote, isn’t it?” she asked before turning to the audience with a smile and saying, “You know that here in France for sure.”

Referencing the struggle to save democracy from Macron and Le Pen, Davis said of the French people, “You—especially you—understand the necessity of pushing back against the ultra-right.”

Davis emphasized the historical importance of Harris being the Democratic candidate. “Black women are so marginalized in society that Kamala’s candidacy means something spiritually to Black women.

“But when you reach that level,” nominee of one of the two major parties, “you have to be the face of capitalism, militarism, and neo-colonialism.” Harris, Davis warned, “has told us she will be that face, that she will build the most lethal military apparatus ever.”

As dangerous as that reality is, however, Davis said, “There’s more to think about: Harris is not a fascist, and the other person running for president is.” That’s why she said there’s “no question about who progressive people should vote for” in the U.S. election. Trump, whom she never mentioned by name, must be defeated, but getting Harris into office isn’t the end of the road.

“It’s not just about electing Kamala Harris,” Davis again said, “it’s about opening space for those of us who are more radical than Kamala Harris to put the pressure for change, especially in the first place when it comes to the genocide in Palestine.”

When the black panther goat becomes a “vote for genocide” lib kitty-birthday-sad

  • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    44·
    1 day ago

    hesitation-1

    “When Obama was elected, that was a very important victory,” Davis said when asked about the advance of Black political figures in the U.S. “It was not a victory in relation to what he actually accomplished during his presidency, but rather what was significant was that young people organized and accomplished something that was considered to be impossible.”

    To what end? To continue the brutalization of Africa, South America, the Pacific, etc. under the new shining sun of a Black president?

    “When we engage in electoral politics, it can’t be just because a particular individual is running for office,” Davis told the crowd, “it is to enlarge the terrain of mass struggle, to guarantee a space for the trade union movement to win victories, for the women’s movement to win victories, for people of color to win victories, for working and poor people to win victories."

    Funny she should say that Kamala L3Harris would enlarge the terrain of mass struggle. Maybe starting WW3 and helping Israel annex Lebanon and Syria are enlarging the terrain of mass struggle? Lenin told us to turn the imperialist conflict into class conflict, and Davis is being incredibly myopic not to see how the imperialist rhetoric here does the opposite, distracting the American masses from their exploitation by aligning them against America’s geopolitical enemies, the workers of exploited periphery nations.

    It’s shameful that someone so respected is missing the forest for the trees so hard. Kill your heroes.

    • xiaohongshu [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      43·
      1 day ago

      To what end? To continue the brutalization of Africa, South America, the Pacific, etc. under the new shining sun of a Black president?

      Don’t forget that Obama wiped out nearly half of the generational wealth of black communities in America overnight when he chose to bail out Wall Street by evicting 9 million American (predominantly black and Hispanic) families and transferred their properties to private capital ownership, one of the single largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the top 1% in American history. The wealth that black communities had accumulated over decades all ended up in the hands of private capital overnight thanks to Obama.