Our July Issue
Volume 1, Issue 9
Ask DSA: What is Freedom?
In our series Ask DSA, we ask our members to define a popular leftist concept and what it means to them. Comment below with questions or topics you would like to read about in ‘Ask DSA’
The anniversaries of two of America’s most sacred days are celebrated just two weeks apart. July 4th marks the day when the American colonies delivered the Declaration of Independence to the English in 1776. Eighty-nine years later, on June 19, 1865, the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas were the last to be notified of the Emancipation Proclamation, making them the final people to be freed by that document. The relationship between these two days exposes the central contradiction of America’s conception of freedom. How can we celebrate America’s glorious revolution when independence only meant freedom to land owning, and slave-owning, white men? As we’ve seen over the last few years, the extent of one’s freedom in America is still largely conditional based on your race, gender, and income bracket. While some Americans can breach the walls of congress heavily armed and come out unscathed, others are killed in the street for non-compliance. While some children can kill with impunity in the name of private property, others can be ripped from their families because of their birthplace or gender identity. While billionaires are jetting off to space, their workers are being fired for unionizing, food is unaffordable, evictions are rising, and with the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, states have been given authority to force that pregnancies be carried. Where is this freedom that we celebrate? It’s easier to see what freedom is not, but what is freedom? As we continue our fight for freedom, let’s talk about what freedom means to us.
Seth
From the crowded playgrounds of America’s public schools, to the shop floors of its unionized factories, from the crinkled, smiling lips of liberals to the snarling, bespittled mouths of Trumpists, all over this land you’ll hear loudly proclaimed, “it’s a free country!” Few of us take a moment to contemplate the meaning. Most just bask in the magic power of those words. “I can do whatever I want, don’t tell me what to do, it’s a free country.”
We’re all equally free to own vast reserves of oil, oceans of land, armadas of machines, fleets of trucks, factories and distribution centers that pay starvation wages. We’re all free to import raw materials from child labor farms in Africa and send death squads to kill South American workers attempting to unionize. We’re all free to petition the government with political action committees, fund million dollar ad campaigns and hire teams of lawyers to draft legislation. We’re all individually capable of circumventing international law to foment rebellion in democratically elected countries, engineer civil wars, and profit off of the carnage they cause. It’s our god given right. We’re United States citizens! No one can tell us what to do. It’s a free country. Our grandfathers fought and died for these rights.
Sure we’ve got to sacrifice a few things. Things that some might call “human rights” or “freedoms.” But what’s the point of all that if we and 89 of our best friends can’t be personally responsible for mass extinction and total ecological collapse. Sure, people in other countries are free to stay home with their newborn babies. Free to raise them up school age without fear of starvation or homelessness. In fact people all over the world never have to worry about food or where they’ll sleep tonight, because those people mutually agreed that food and housing are human rights. Those same people are comfortable in the knowledge that their children will get a full education including university and vocational training without being burdened with a lifetime of debt that will make owning property impossible. Sure those people take months of vacation every year and they never fear that a small injury could lead them to bankruptcy because what kind of society would profit off of healthcare? Oh right! A free society. And you, as a free red-blooded American, have just as much right as any other American to own and control an insurance company or a pharmaceutical company. Rake in those dollars, Jack, you’ve earned it. We really are the freest country in the world (as long as you don’t look at any other country). Enjoy your freedoms, Americans! Happy Fourth of July.
Chuck
On the left side, freedom means the freedom…
to vote, to assemble/protest, to organize unions, of women to control their bodies, to determine one’s gender, to have a clean environment, to not have to drive a car/use mass transit
On the right side, freedom means the freedom…
to limit those who vote to the right people, to ‘speak’ with money, to bribe politicians, to fire workers, to lower wages and working conditions, to have military style weapons, to drive any car anywhere, to pollute and exploit scarce resources, to force women to carry fetuses to term regardless, to enforce patriarchal gender norms, to practice discrimination if religion dictates…
The difference between left and right ideologically has much to do with a fundamental disagreement over the relationship between the individual and the group. Capitalist ideology wants to imagine the individual exists alone, granted freedom by the marketplace operating on higher principles.
[Read Chuck’s full article here]
A. Adams
Democratic socialism aims for true freedom: both the freedom from want, but also the freedom to develop ourselves to our fullest abilities once our basic needs have been satisfied. It is the freedom to take over ownership of our own lives as well as the well being of our shared communities. Isn’t this worth fighting for? And if not, what is the alternative? A dystopia of brutality and misery for the vast majority of people on this planet? What freedom is that?
We as democratic socialists must redefine and extend the definition of freedom so that we can explain to our fellow members of the working-class exactly what it is that we are fighting for. In a time when the meaning of freedom has become so twisted and warped by our exploiters, the necessity for fighting for real freedom, the emancipation of the working-class, has never been more important. The stakes are high. But we can overcome if we find it in ourselves to struggle together. For it is only together that we can discover real and lasting freedom.
[Read A. Adams full article here]
Ashley W.
Our society claims it is a free country and we even have a holiday to celebrate that notion. Sure, freedom looks different to everyone; however, there are some basic, fundamental things that make a country truly free. True freedom would include the abolition of Capitalism, which only serves to exploit and suppress working people a.k.a the vast majority of us. If the foundation of a society breeds unhappiness via a never ending hamster wheel, is it actually free? A free society would not only ensure a living wage, but it would also respect its workers who would always have a seat at the table.
Another area that is crucial to a free society is education. It should not only be encouraged and accessible, but it should also be free of cost. How are you free when learning is hampered to those only in a certain income bracket, or one must be forced into the hardship of debt to receive it? Additionally, a major proponent to a free society is access to healthcare. In a country where freedom is paramount, you would not fear going to the doctor due to cost. Whether it be safe abortions, therapy, optometry, dentistry, regular preventive care, surgery, prescriptions, anything from a medical doctor—healthcare should not only be easily accessible, but it should also be free of cost. Again, how can a society be free without being able to access necessary medical needs without the fear of debt?
[Read Ashley’s full article here]
Comment below with questions or topics you would like to read about in ‘Ask DSA’
Consider What Freedom Actually Means
By Ashley W.
This article is a part of our series Ask DSA, where we ask members of our chapter to define what a concept popular on the left means to them. The rest of the responses can be found here.
Our society claims it is a free country and we even have a holiday to celebrate that notion. Sure, freedom looks different to everyone; however, there are some basic, fundamental things that make a country truly free.
True freedom would include the abolition of Capitalism, which only serves to exploit and suppress working people a.k.a the vast majority of us. If the foundation of a society breeds unhappiness via a never ending hamster wheel, is it actually free? A free society would not only ensure a living wage, but it would also respect its workers who would always have a seat at the table.
Another area that is crucial to a free society is education. It should not only be encouraged and accessible, but it should also be free of cost. How are you free when learning is hampered to those only in a certain income bracket, or one must be forced into the hardship of debt to receive it?
Additionally, a major proponent to a free society is access to healthcare. In a country where freedom is paramount, you would not fear going to the doctor due to cost. Whether it be safe abortions, therapy, optometry, dentistry, regular preventive care, surgery, prescriptions, anything from a medical doctor—healthcare should not only be easily accessible, but it should also be free of cost. Again, how can a society be free without being able to access necessary medical needs without the fear of debt?
A society can only be free if they remove themselves from the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) as it only encourages, promotes, and supports violence. A free society would use the billions of dollars otherwise used to fuel the MIC to create and send weapons etc. on helping its citizens.
Freedom also means not fearing where you are going to sleep next or when you are going to eat. Shelter and food are basic human rights! How can you be a free land when millions are starving and sleeping on the streets?
Freedom also must include enacting regulations, creating jobs, etc. that promote clean energy and saving our planet. This is extremely important, because how can any of us be free on an uninhabitable planet?
Finally, for a society to be free, it must have racial and gender equality. You truly cannot call your country free until equality is achieved.
There are many major things that would have to occur for the above things to happen but it’s definitely possible. The more folks come together and demand improvements and change, the more we move towards actual freedom. So, on this holiday weekend, think about and consider what freedom actually means to you!
Freedom Is…
by Seth
Freedom is a border
Freedom is a wall
Freedom is the right to freeze
Freedom is the right to starve
Freedom is cancer without treatment
Freedom is $300 insulin
Freedom is $1200 childcare
Freedom is $2000 rent
Freedom is a once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe
Freedom is the hottest year in history
Freedom is five miles to a grocery store
Freedom is a decommissioned factory
Freedom is a shuttered school
Freedom is a forced birth
Freedom is surveillance
Freedom is silence
Freedom is slavery
Freedom is a white man’s burden
Freedom is manifest destiny
Freedom is a bomb
Freedom is a paperclip
Freedom is a backroom deal
Freedom is an empire
Freedom is a blockade
Freedom is a boss is a cop is a tyrant
Freedom is the lesser of two evils
Freedom is a prison cell
Freedom is boots on the ground
Freedom is a standing army in your neighborhood
Freedom is a knee on your neck
Freedom is being corralled on a dead end street and gassed
Freedom is a bullet
Freedom is a gun
Freedom is as American as apple pie
…tainted with disease
…painted red to hide
…the rot that lives inside
What the Fight For Freedom Means
by Chuck
This article is a part of our series Ask DSA, where we ask members of our chapter to define what a concept popular on the left means to them. The rest of the responses can be found here.
Freedom is a powerful notion, something to fight and die for, though I’m largely a pacifist. Like my father, I would enlist to fight against Hitler (my father was fortunate the Germans surrendered shortly after and he occupied their country).
But rarely is the threat to freedom so clear or the solution so obvious, a war between nations being the last resort.
More often, particularly today, we fight a different kind of war, a culture war over the very definition of freedom. It’s imperative that the left not surrender this powerful concept to the right, or their corporate sponsors.
While simple dichotomies are dangerous, this may help:
On the left side, freedom means the freedom…
to vote, to assemble/protest, to organize unions, of women to control their bodies, to determine one’s gender, to have a clean environment, to not have to drive a car/use mass transit
On the right side, freedom means the freedom…
to limit those who vote to the right people, to ‘speak’ with money, to bribe politicians, to fire workers, to lower wages and working conditions, to have military style weapons, to drive any car anywhere, to pollute and exploit scarce resources, to force women to carry fetuses to term regardless, to enforce patriarchal gender norms, to practice discrimination if religion dictates…
The difference between left and right ideologically has much to do with a fundamental disagreement over the relationship between the individual and the group. Capitalist ideology wants to imagine the individual exists alone, granted freedom by the marketplace operating on higher principles.
Those on the democratic left know this ‘invisible hand’ of the market is imaginary, and that an unregulated market is highly destructive, like a dangerous machine out of control. Freedom comes in a society when individuals can form communities held together by social justice. Freedom comes when individual choices are meaningfully shaped through a democratic process. When markets are limited and well-regulated, infused with social values like equality and a healthy planet. Freedom can only be achieved by pulling the evil of right-wing capitalism out by the roots, replacing it first with social democracy then democratic socialism.
Let freedom ring.
What is True Freedom?
by A. Adams
This article is a part of our series Ask DSA, where we ask members of our chapter to define what a concept popular on the left means to them. The rest of the responses can be found here.
Freedom in this country is invariably defined in individualistic terms. Freedom is cast as the individual triumphing against the constraints imposed on the individual by laws and regulations imposed on her or him by “big government” bureaucracy, leading many, particularly on the right, to cast a cold eye on anything that has a whiff of collective action about it. I believe that this is not an accident, but is a viewpoint that has been purposely propagated by many on the right to stymie progressive change in favor of working people.
The simple truth is that one cannot begin to talk of freedom until the collective freedom of all members of the community is brought into consideration. As John Donne himself counseled us, “no man is an island unto himself.” We are all connected by social relations, and what happens to one part of the community will invariably affect the whole. Even the richest plutocrat, despite their direct role in exploiting the working-class, is affected by the consequences poverty, for it eats away at the social fabric of the same society in which they are a part as well.
Perhaps the richest among us have dreams of sequestering themselves in high security compounds. Perhaps they will take up residence on an island far out in the ocean. Some may even harbor dreams of leaving the planet all together and leaving the rest of humanity to rot as in some Philip K. Dick dystopia. Who would want to wrench themselves away from the rest of humanity like this but the worst sort of misanthrope?
Humans are by nature social beings, and we cannot live without each other for long. None of us can claim true freedom until we can honestly say that freedom is to be found throughout society. And that must include the freedom from want.
Democratic socialism aims for true freedom: both the freedom from want, but also the freedom to develop ourselves to our fullest abilities once our basic needs have been satisfied. It is the freedom to take over ownership of our own lives as well as the well being of our shared communities. Isn’t this worth fighting for? And if not, what is the alternative? A dystopia of brutality and misery for the vast majority of people on this planet? What freedom is that?
We as democratic socialists must redefine and extend the definition of freedom so that we can explain to our fellow members of the working-class exactly what it is that we are fighting for. In a time when the meaning of freedom has become so twisted and warped by our exploiters, the necessity for fighting for real freedom, the emancipation of the working-class, has never been more important. The stakes are high. But we can overcome if we find it in ourselves to struggle together. For it is only together that we can discover real and lasting freedom.
Our July 4th Playlist
By Seth
A statement from Columbus DSA’s Steering Committee Re: Abortion access in Ohio
The most immediate and useful thing you can do is give your money to an abortion fund – WHO/Ohio (@whoohio) Midwest Access Coalition (@midwest_access_coalition), Preterm in Cleveland (@pretermclevelandohio), the Aggie Fund in Toledo. They all facilitate people getting abortion care that they need as abortion care that is now more difficult to access than ever.
Remember that we have known – with certainty – that this was coming for six weeks. Organizers, clinic defenders, clinic workers, and other folks on the front line have known for much, much longer. Roe has been a line in the sand, allowing state level restrictions to pop up rapidly and prevent many, many people from accessing abortion services despite the theoretical right.
What is a Right without Access?
Every day of the six weeks prior to the court’s decision was a blessing for those who sought abortion care, because every day the Supreme Court delayed their decision – however cowardly it was to do so – people were able to get that care.
Abortion is older than the state.
Abortion providers have historically been witches, midwives, rootworkers, herbalists, people on the margins who serve the health of our communities, and people from who power has been withheld.
Legality hasn’t been the norm for most of human history. Stripping away the legal right to abortion will not deter us from owning and celebrating our bodies and holding our community close.
There is no pithy statement, quip or hot take that wouldn’t immediately undermine the severity of what has happened. People are suffering.
There is no usefulness in being content with our moral superiority, pointing out hypocrisy and shortcomings of the “other side.”
It is now time to dive deep within ourselves to take care of our people and to do for us what the state cannot or refuses to do.
The people in power do not care about us. not the GOP, not the Democratic Party – but there are more of us than there are of them.
It is time to join a mass movement that takes care of others and will fight back for the right to do so.
You can join ours at columbusdsa.org. It will take all of us.
