garden/Liberationist manifesto/Liberation.md

Collective liberation is, generally speaking, a pursuit of freedom for everyone. Liberation understands that our freedom is connected to and dependent on the freedom of others; realizing freedom requires that we work together and that we provide for everyone’s basic needs. It is the spirit which animates Fannie Lou Hamer’s words that “nobody’s free until everybody’s free” and connects that freedom to our basic needs. A liberationist is one driven by this spirit — one who works towards liberation.

I look at liberation primarily through five lenses: the result, which is freedom for all; the understanding that this freedom is intrinsically interconnected and, in our current environment, radical change will be necessary to realize it; the scope, which is the human condition and the future we are building together; the values, which are justice and love; and the means, which center on change-oriented action and reflection.

My writings on liberation are rooted in many different concepts spanning cultures and movements and radical traditions. The following is not a comprehensive list but documents some works which have been influential to me:

• Kapwa, a concept and core value in Filipino psychology which is deeply rooted in Filipino cultural notions of inherent unity and interconnectedness between oneself and others
• The Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist lesbian socialist organization active in Boston from 1974 to 1980, and their 1977 statement, powerful for a multitude of reasons but highlighted here for their view on oppressive systems (white supremacy, capitalism, capitalism, heteronormativity, etc.) being interconnected and on the centering of Black women in social justice causes: “Black women are inherently valuable, that… (their) liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because of (their own) need as human persons for autonomy…”
• A Siksika (Blackfoot) perspective on human needs and a collective way of realizing them, which Cindy Blackstock refers to as community actualization — sharing responsibility for “the work of meeting basic needs, ensuring safety, and creating the conditions for the expression of purpose” — and which informed Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-06-18/the-blackfoot-wisdom-that-inspired-maslows-hierarchy/)
• A personal perspective (based on various other works) that economy is the system of how we meet basic human needs, culture is the storytelling which perpetuates economic systems while also being shaped by them, politics is the culturally rooted decision-making revolving around economy, and society includes the spaces and relationships in which these processes take place, change, and evolve
• “What we mean by collective liberation,” an article which articulates a spiritual vision of what collective liberation entails and which comes from enfleshed, a spiritual organization focused on “creating and facilitating spiritual nourishment for collective liberation” (https://enfleshed.com/blogs/news/what-we-mean-by-collective-liberation/)
• “all about love,” by bell hooks, a book which explores the subject of love within modern society, what our society teaches us about love, and what a more liberatory view of love might look like, presented alongside hooks’ own experiences with love
• My experiences with the Unitarian Universalists, through whom I have been able to witness more of the spiritual aspects of collective liberation work in a face-to-face setting
• “Let This Radicalize You,” by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes, which provides “a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe”
• “The Millionth Circle,” by Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, which reveals a vision of women’s circles as a means of liberatory transformation
• And a myriad of others, whose stories, theories, critiques, models, experiences, ideas, works, and art pieces all had a role in the development of my perspective on collective liberation

Liberation is freedom Liberation is connection Liberation is human condition Liberation is justice and love Liberation is change