When Freedom Is the Question, Abolition Is the Answer: Reflections on Collective Liberation

by Bill Ayers

An esteemed activist invites us to consider the complex idea of abolition as much more than a strategy or a set of tactics—at a deeper level, abolition is an entire political framework, culture, and orientation

Blending history and political theory and weaving in examples from literature, social movements, and his personal life, this book is a useful resource and primer for those interested in fighting for social justice. Guided by questions like what is freedom?, how do we get free?, and what are the freedom dreams that encourage us and drive us forward?, esteemed activist Bill Ayers explores the concept of freedom in eight essays:

Freedom/Unfreedom takes off from the Black Freedom Movement in the 20th Century as a template for social justice movements that followed, and begins to illuminate the idea of freedom in light of what folks come together to oppose.
Freedom’s Paradox offers examples of a contradiction (from Frederick Douglass to the French Resistance to the Panthers)—even, or especially, in the most dire circumstances, people testify to “being free” at the moment they identify and unite to oppose unfreedom.
Social Freedom/Individual Liberty directly takes on the link between the individual and the social when freedom is the question.
Freedom, Anarchism, and Socialism takes off from the idea that freedom without socialism is predation and exploitation, and that socialism without freedom is bondage and subjugation.
Freedom, Truth, and Repair considers reparations as a necessary step in any honest attempt toward authentic reconciliation.
Organizing Freedom is a primer on organizing, strategy, and tactics for freedom fighters.
Teach Freedom considers what an education for free people entails.
Freedom and Abolition connects an enriched understanding of what freedom entails with an embrace of abolitionist politics.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Memoir, Politics

168 pages, Hardcover

Published September 10, 2024

About the author

William Charles "Bill" Ayers is an American elementary education theorist and a former leader in the movement that opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He is known for his 1960's activism as well as his current work in education reform, curriculum, and instruction. In 1969 he co-founded the Weather Underground, a self-described communist revolutionary group that conducted a campaign of bombing public buildings during the 1960s and 1970s, motivated by US involvement in the Vietnam War. He is now a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, a controversy arose over his contacts with candidate Barack Obama. He is married to Bernadine Dohrn, who was a leader in the Weather organization.

Reviews

[Intissar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was quite relevant to me to a big extent despite being a person from the global south-- I enjoyed it through and through.

Absolutely loved how it challenges the reader to see abolition as the tenacious, creative radical act of constructing alternative ways of being in order to attain collective liberty from "the relics of a cruel past" and not as mere destruction, and how it encourages one to actively get engaged in the process of doing so.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ayers is an elder of the movement and has decades of insight to share. This book isn't heady or theory based but rather beautiful prose that often reads like poetry. Ayers peppers these essays with countless references to the leaders, writers and activists he has learned from and their ideas. It's a relevant text for this very moment, imagining a future in which we are all free.

[Andrea Montan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Abolition is best understood not as the deletion or an erasure but rather as a collection of creative and complex acts of ‘world-building’.”

Thought provoking and challenging (in the sense the author is inviting the readers to partake in abolition thought and framing of the world). So accessible. I loved the format of art (poems, songs, quotes) at the beginning of each essay followed by reflection questions, before delving into the issue. None of the material was especially new to me having read quite a few books on abolition, but the way the author writes and presents the material was illuminating and left me thinking, “yes, I wasn’t able to put it into words before, but that’s it.” I highlighted so many passages and I can’t write all my favorites here, but after the recent election, this line stuck with me: “…the country wallows in goblin mode.” Highly recommend.

[Rich Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read Ayers’s work when I was a student at UIC and had a chance to hear him speak and meet him at an NCTE conference over a decade ago. He’s one of the more imaginative freedom fighters out there today, and I admire his work and ideas. While much of this book rehashes ideas in his previous work, the state of our society today suggests it’s still worth repeating. His closing chapter about combating “copaganda” was especially enlightening.

[Redpoet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got 2/3 of the way through Bill‘s book and then put it down. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s more that it’s not much of anything. I’m sure there are people who would get a lot out of this book, but not me. I don’t know who he wrote the book for. Anyway, I was disappointed.

[Ryan Lurk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read that is sure to fan the flames of discontent. Excellent critique of individualism as an ideology from someone who spent their life on the frontlines of collective liberation.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an easy read. He is obviously brilliant as well as totally committed but some of this has to be taken with grain of salt. Not that it can't be done, but not in my lifetime (or his).