Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

Freedom is a Constant Struggle is a collection of interviews, speeches, and essays by speaker, political activist, and scholar Angela Y. Davis, edited by French author and activist Frank Barat and dated between 2013 and 2015. Many of the essays in this collection coincided with or took place soon after the mass movement and protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the police killing of Michael Brown in August 2014. The collection contains three interviews with Barat, six transcripts of speeches presented to a variety of audiences, and one published essay in the Guardian. This study guide refers to the 2016 Haymarket Books edition of the book, originally published in 2015.

Through the course of the collection, Davis discusses political movements throughout history up to modern day and covers a wide range of topics, including feminism, racism, and prison abolition. However, at its heart, Davis’s book is a call to action for activists of the present and the future. Not only does she want her audience to see how struggles for freedom are connected, but she also wants people to commit to a lifelong fight against oppression throughout the world. She advises her audience to deepen their understanding of what needs to be done as part of the struggle for freedom.