Chicago and then and the democrats socialist publication is the quarterly imprint we support their work in the Event Description on youtube and please subscribe to our Youtube Channel which will allow the video to reach more people than the author of several books are presented as obsolete and freedom is a constant struggle and of all Political Prisoners at the university of california santa cruz. As being grounded in the work as an organizer she cofounded the debt collectors and coauthored the new manifesto with the case for economic disobedience so how does this come about . More than one year ago a class for scholarship and activism and we wanted to hear her thoughts on the film to Exchange Ideas but im sure we will reach others tonight. So first, what is democracy and how has that manifested for good and bad and what is the difference of potential that borrows the name altogether different purposes . Her film captures the questions from the activist perspective. The second topic is what type of activism will it take to bring about our democracy and in particular with different groups of people that work together. I had the privilege of knowing angela davis over some time and reasons to be a part the main reason is because of her remarkable lecture she gave which was entitled legacy and activism. Probably gave the most inspiring and heartfelt and uplifting talk about precisely the idea of working together different generations and different types of people for a common purpose because the pandemic struck we cannot have it in person and we were looking for a sponsor that i have a coming up on haymarket and they generously offered to take up the sponsorship and produce the show so my heart goes out to them going into the topic thank you for being here so now i will handed over. Thank you so much also our host haymarket books and i want to acknowledge you david and thank you for visiting this event and sticking with it despite all of the disruptions over the last eight months is a huge honor to be speaking to angela davis and Everybody Knows why she is brilliant and engaged and embodies the title of the book is a constant struggle for gives us meaning and pleasure so thank you for being here the theme is democracy i do know is like the word democracy with the war on terror and george w. Bush saying he was bringing democracy to the middle east shaped my perception i was uninterested it sounded hollow when the liberation and combination and regulation on revolutionizing but democracy and i began to rethink and 2011 from the arab spring to occupy a wall street and then to say so now almost ten years later it is a concept that we struggle with it is a hard word to define it is radical and thats why the powerful have tried to coopt that there are a lot of ways to define democracy each raises questions and conundrums and a paradox thats what i write about in my book are broken down into its parts the people have power and to endlessly struggle over how we defined the people and hold that power its always open for debate and conversation and expansion another way to define democracy that was a very subtle definition they ruled on many and many by definition are not rich so that is the class component the oligarchy is ruling of the few so just a warning we will not spend a lot of time on the election i endorse the advice she has given voting for a candidate we love versus an adversary without political terrain i would rather fight centrist and reaction he reactionary so this limited conception so we will show the two minute clip from my film what is democracy and i wanted to hear from everyone from politicians to refugees with those philosophical subjects and get their thoughts i would is in miami and some of my friends that began to sponsor angelas talk so after the clip would love you to take up some of the themes and pick up on this democracy which is the title of another one of your books and what that means in the context of a bigger protocol crisis of the unprecedented protest of the pandemic that has led to the death of over 200,000 people in this country most of which are preventable and the consequence. And that drives the current administration. I havent been to miami in a long time. I was running from the fbi the first time. [laughter] [applause] the system cannot be fixed. [applause] that the problems we are confronting is the consequence that slavery was never fully abolished. That would not simply be the dismantling of the institution but rather the creation of new conditions , new institutions, new democracy. That the democracy will familiar with could not be the same as a began to participate on the basis of the quality has to be a very different democracy. So the challenge of the end of the 19th century but the challenge of the 20th century and it remains the challenge of the 21st century. That was 2015. Yes. I think we can learn a great deal from w eb the boys. First of all it is not a unitary term its not the same across the states and too often we think of democracy as one thing will of the people will of the majority and it tends to assume and imply and inside and outside. There for so many struggle those who have been marginalized into the existing democracy into the fold. And that is where we make many mistakes and w eb to boys emphasizes abolitionist during that period to argue the democracy could not remain the same with those who had been previously enslaved. The democracy itself would have to be transformed and new institutions and a way to guarantee that it could respond to the need of the people for so many decades. Think of democracy as a unitary concept and unchangeable and simply to bring more and more of the marginalized population into the democracy we fail to recognize the very structure of that democracy has created the marginalization in the first place and by simply including and this is a critique of the strategies , and these days the assumption that any institution that wants to join the office of diversity and inclusion. And those that were previously marginalized a very little attention to the concept to transform and change and render the actual structure that was responsible for the marginalization. We have a great deal to learn from w. E. B dubois that was never fulfilled in the aftermath of the negative evolution and the way in the which the institution itself is prohibited. And in the year 2020 basically the same issue writing about with black reconstruction that now that it seems to me that should have happened 150 years ago. It makes me think of the quote to be integrated into a Burning House or something to that effect. If its a sinking ship to bring down the Burning House and those to be very literal right now in some places. This is exactly what we are wrestling with right now there is tension. With the system and then to keep the guy on the horizon. And with the political system we are operating in. And to the exclusion and men with out property and we could the talk about why they are so averse to democracy interested in minority rights of the slaveholders that they still constrain us and that is frustrating. And all the ways the Current System is undemocratic from the Supreme Court it goes on and on. And working towards the abolitionist horizon and then to be aware and we see all sorts of attempts of what civil rights people have in a basic way and in North Carolina and the disenfranchisement and the public voted and the public voted and then to keep all of those levels in mind but that conservatives in terms of elections or political systems but to alter the rules of the game that is progressive and liberals have been after but rewriting the actual rules. And then we are frustrated by president ial elections and then to transform the system. And then to simply look at democracy as a form of political rule. To exclude a whole range of issues regarding democracy. In this method of the us on the first democracy with so much attention as we pointed out in the beginning called the democracy of the minority that should be an oxymoron but what is interesting is democracy what were the economic democracy entail . What about the social dimension . And how has that changed in relation to the Economic System that comments to tuition of that democracy . And i think its important to reclaim that specificity and that we are accustomed to and to guarantee from the middle classes. And in relation to the fuel system. What it would be like to imagine and a democracy in which that they got to participate on the basis of the quality economically, culturally, sociay and politically. And with that nice definition of democracy in that way and we argue that everyone for example in a particular region should be considered a citizen and to participate in the governing and the economy what does that mean cracks. And this gets to what i was wanting to think about next so the two things i guess that i would notice going around and interviewing people that i expected them to tell me how capitalism was democratic to use that rhetoric of democracy after donald trump won the election to acknowledge they would never win majority so that democracy is bad and then forget the 20th century we will take the capitalism part and the selfconsciously elite and a lot of prominent republicans of tweeted anyway. With the american tradition to be anti democratic. On the other side people realize and to have the economic equality and to have liberal rights and freedoms we dont even have them because there is so much inequality so what you were getting at is that is true with a different Economic System that would violate to think about under the officials the rich democratic conundrums we have these problems but how do we share power or live in a world and also to have control over their lives how do we decide . Of the democratic questions would be more richer and profound. I have been questioning if the outcome of the last election might have been different if more attention had been paid to those who experience the impact of global capitalism with for white families who recognize that their children will not be better off. With those develop strategies that so many of those existing problems in the country with the rise and the spread of global capitalism. And that we use to have more than we have today. Used to be it has not been privatized and with the covid19 pandemic has such a state of emergency. With respect to hospital beds because they are not well. So as one looks at the impact of global capitalism and the way it is very much and explanation for the prison industrial complex. Where so many institutions use it as the economic safety net the increasing privatization of healthcare. And with more institutions devoted to the public good and then to create a terrain that has expanded not only communities of color, but also among white people. And the current occupant of the white house called upon those that were suffering the impact of global capitalism to return to another era in which the industrialized economy responded to the needs of people. And those jobs all over the world those jobs that will not return so it is important that Economic Transformation has an impact on the possibility for democracy. Yes looking at the 2016 election people were very frustrated and they felt utterly hopeless for good reason. But one problem is that this is another question i wanted to as ask, the history of the attacks on the left to undermine democracy. So it speaks we you were just laying out. The lack of Association People can get an education and thinking as active participants and the economy and through this pandemic with the haymarket generation like the red scare i dont need to tell you about that in the sixties and certainly heating up with this administration and the way the Trump Administration and talks about socialism and to the rights or the left and american democracy as we know it. And those contemporary efforts. And the current occupant and that current democratic president ial candidate i wont comment on that but i do think to recognize the role socialist and communist have made and struggled for democracy in this country, i know that for decades there are ways those that were involved that are struggling referred to as the other america. And then there was a union and the struggles against sexism. And that reading a lot of history recently precisely the roles that communist and to expand the possibility in the country. And those in the 1930s. And the role that black communists played in the south that would eventually came to be known as the civil rights movement. And those that are eradicated with that representation of history. And as we are engaging in a racial reckoning the terminology not just a racial reckoning with the history of this country with a history of racism and exploitation and if we are not aware of those who struggle created a democracy as an aspirational notion not as a given set of affairs but simply our way government is organized for a more equal society than we have nowhere to start and then to have the struggles unfold. And the idea to have a communist to be the best president is the history of expanding democracy not something to run away from. So i can relate to that. [laughter] i recommend this is a way to spend ones time i thought i knew that i realized i didnt. How about reflecting on the connection between incarceration and democracy . And with that prison abolition and that where the fact of disenfranchisement in florida thats what happened in 2000 we hear about how the left lost that election we make a much more compelling case it is bigger thing and de tocqueville democracy in america is a foundational relationship of liberal democracy. And you said on the talk but it required as evidence of existence of those two phases of american and freedom and the fact that american and democratic freedom on the domination. On the African People is a have noted have been with conclusion and exploitation so i only know im free if youre not free is that intrinsic to democracy or such as the version we are living in . Where we have a prison abolition at the center of this democratic horizon that we talk about . And he speculates that western democracy as we know it must have revolved from a yearning of the enslaved to be free. The very concept of freedom that we work with in many ways in order to explain and certainly as you pointed out to vote for those who were not enslaved. How do i know i am free . Because i am not a slave. But of course the emergence of president s as punishment with the rise of the revolutionary ideals and that punishment is the underbelly of democracy. And its not conceivable as a matter of fact you need capitalist democracy in order to imagine what the imprisonment entails it entails the divestment of race and it makes no sense in a society that does not recognize individual rights and this is and the terms of people in prisons incarcerated is like china and india cannot even begin to approach the people who are incarcerated. So its important to keep in mind that nagy nation of democracy thats the whole point of my constituents and therefore it has to be denied i was moved by so much of this young man and florida who recently was released and i was so moved by the way in which he talked about indication and this is moving into another area very casually said it used to be that my people could be killed to learn how to read and write and i was struck by that because we are encouraged to think of the human life span for what we do and just very casually talked about the people during slavery as if he could smell them and touch them and those that had the extent of which the capitalist democracy that imprisoned temporality and the relationship to the future is so restrained by the existing forms of democracy and if we are to imagine the new rules we have to generate new temporality. I love that so much. One of the wisest people in the film for that question is interesting i was thinking of bringing it up now that you have we really asked the question of the relationship and what i think oppression in the past has a heavy hand of the Founding Fathers with her hand reaching out from beyond the grave really with a handful of men and that i think in my book i talk about to say tradition is honoring the dead we cannot go against these esteemed men but we can expand democracy but also to include future generations and make their presence comparable not to protect those unborn fetuses that there is a planet for where those who dont yet have a vote so time is interesting to me and that we do have to think about so i will say inherited wealth that accumulation of wealth from bygone generations to way down on us today so the whole question is fascinating. Democracy has to be feminist for sure on the idea of abolition and feminism we need to think of democracy that political sphere of the education and economy and relationship and even ourselves. Those that thought about social reproduction or day care for each other in our society so with that democratic issue we find ourselves with the attention of vulnerability and disability is something to be mocked like toxic masculinity editors you want to be compassionate and wear a mask and then the importance of care. The big question. I would begin by arguing that feminism should be much more capacious than it visually is we assume when the subject turns to feminism that there is an agenda but that approach is so much better than simply engaging and gender and to think of crenshaws term intersection only we learn how to give expression to different connections and whether they have to do with gender or not and abolition and feminism to think about what might be required to move in a democratic direction to say what might we need to dismantle for Police Departments and prisons . But also, how we think differently about those struggles. So how do we think differently of gender violence so if we did not have to assume those institutions of policing and imprisonment were not there to pretend to solve the problem then we would have to take a much more complex approach and this is what i appreciate about feminism that makes a steel and a messy world that social realities dont always reflect the analytical category and we have to be willing to try to begin to approximate the messiness the social reality. And so that means when we say abolishment and abolish the prisons forecast into the depth of history so how do we address the problems they pretended to address but could not . And also to address maybe it is always political and then to say in conversations with you the personal is not political in a way that allows us to equate and luckily often assumed to be ideas generated by our own individuality they are i