American Communist History

The American Communist History journal invites authors to submit abstracts for possible inclusion in a special edition titled “Solidarity Across Borders: Revisiting the ‘Free Angela Davis’ Movement and Its Global Impact.”

The “Free Angela Davis” movement of the 1970s was an international campaign advocating for the release of Angela Davis, a distinguished Black political activist, scholar, and author. Thanks to this campaign Angela Davis emerged as an international symbol of resistance against racial injustice, political repression, and the criminalization of dissent. The movement garnered momentum and support from diverse oppressed groups, activists, and organizations worldwide, especially in Soviet Eurasia and state socialist countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It also elicited sympathy from marginalized communities not directly involved in social justice activism. Hundreds of people, from children to peasants and factory workers, expressed solidarity by writing to Davis during her incarceration and trial. It appears that today, with the surge of carcerality, authoritarianism, capitalism, and warfare incited by various imperial formations, the significance of this past movement and the urgency of transnational solidarity take on a new meaning.

This special edition seeks reflections on how this historic moment of global solidarity influenced different communities politically and personally, exploring the contemporary relevance of the past, including its limitations and possibilities.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The importance or influence of the “Free Angela Davis” movement on diverse communities in a non-U.S./non-Western context.
• The lasting impact the “Free Angela Davis” movement had on global activism and discussions surrounding civil rights, racial justice, capitalism, and the rights of political dissidents. What the “Free Angela Davis” movement may bring to contemporary struggles and forms of solidarity.
• How the “Free Angela Davis” movement was part of the mobility of ideas across borders, revealing intellectual exchanges between communities historically and in the present.
• Personal reflections on witnessing or participating in the “Free Angela Davis” campaign in a non-U.S./ non-Western context.
• What constitutes the archive of the “Free Angela Davis” movement, and what place diverse communities/geographies and their cultural and intellectual perspectives have within it.
• The different historical circumstances that facilitated the exchanges within the “Free Angela Davis” movement.
• In what way the “Free Angela Davis” campaign brought attention to carcerality, in general, and political prisoner solidarity, in particular, on a global scale.
• Limits and potentialities of transnational solidarity organizing around the “Free Angela Davis” campaign; what this movement can and cannot teach us.
• What potential the “Free Angela Davis” movement has for critical pedagogy and the feminist classroom.

A paper draft is due by June 1 and final revisions must be completed by October 1. If you are interested, please send a 250 word abstract to Tatsiana Shchurko [email protected] and Denise Lynn [email protected]. Abstracts will be considered until February 1. The journal welcomes articles, dialogues, notes, and further comments thereon of 5000-8000 words on the “Free Angela Davis” movement.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Abstract: February 1, 2024

Full Draft: June 1, 2024

Decision Date: August 1, 2024

Final Version: October 1, 2024

 

All inquiries should be directed to the attention of:
Denise Lynn, editor-in-chief
[email protected]

Tatsiana Shchurko, guest editor

[email protected]

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