American black feminist activist and human rights defender Angela Davis was invited by the Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Committee to deliver the 8th Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Lecture on 16th December this year at KC College Auditorium, Churchgate, Mumbai.
Angela Davis’ commitment to the struggles against racism, gender discrimination and class exploitation is well known. She herself has been a victim of state oppression in the US and has been fighting relentlessly for the rights and freedom of political prisoners. In the 70s when Angela was campaigning for the Soledad brothers, (Black Americans falsely accused of killing a white jailer) a violent incident in the court, during the trial left the judge and others dead. Though Angela was just an observer she was arrested for this death and imprisoned for 16 months. After her release Angela’s activism continued with greater zeal and she also took on academic assignments.
Her book, Women, Race and Class, is a seminal text used in Women’s Studies and other disciplines, across universities. Her other books, such as, Are Prisons Obsolete? Women, Culture and Politics and Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire are well known, latest work being, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Her writings on related subjects and her years of academic work go along side by side with her activism.
The lecture dicussed the realities of post-Trump America which has already seen a threatening rise in racism as well as the implications of the new government for democratic movements in the US, in India and across the world.
Also read: American Black Feminist Activist Angela Davis Appeals To President To Repeal AFSPA
Below are the YouTube videos of Angela Davis’s lecture compiled by Max Maharashtra and Ushakiran Bhagat.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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