Labor as Liberation
Graphic designed by Missy Soto
“Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear; love transforms hate. Acceptance dissipates prejudice; hope ends despair. Peace dominates war; faith reconciles doubt. Mutual regard cancels enmity. Justice for all overthrows injustice. The redemptive community supersedes systems of gross social immorality.”
– Rev. James Lawson
Defining the Empire
Whether the working class knows it or not, we have been subject to performing the labor required for the expansion and maintenance of the U.S. empire. As best explained by authors Daniel E. Bender and Jana K. Lipman in Making the Empire Work: Labor and U.S. Imperialism, it does not matter your occupation nor your location because,
“ultimately all [negotiate] their positions as colonial workers in the shadow of the flag.”
To begin, we must recognize that the U.S. empire expands beyond its physical borders and encompasses territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, as argued by Bender, Lipman, and supporting authors. However, to maintain its economic power and reinforce neoliberal globalization, the U.S. also relies on migration and labor produced from said migrants and/or the working class within its borders. As a result, the global working class is subject to the exploitation of the U.S. empire.
With the U.S. rooted in plantation capitalism—a term coined by the late Reverend James Lawson Jr. to describe a system in which white-led governments deliberately suppress Black commerce—ensuring the flow of Black wealth into white hands while denying Black consumers equal access to goods and services—we must recognize its lasting impact. As workers and students, we must critically examine our roles as both agents and challengers of global capitalism.
____________________________________________________________________________
“I think the human species was created primarily to learn to work; physical work, intellectual work, artistic work, community work, social work. We have to work as human beings because it feeds our dignity. It feeds our sense of making a contribution.” – Rev. James Lawson.
Dismantling the Empire
Reverend Lawson was deemed “the leading strategist of nonviolence in the world” by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and is considered one of the most important figures in the labor and civil rights movement. Throughout his work, he preached that non-violence and labor-based methods were the answer to dismantling the three major social evils (as proposed by Rev. King Jr.): the evil of war, the evil of economic injustice, and the evil of racial injustice, as detailed in Revolutionary Non-Violence: Organizing for Freedom.
However, to achieve liberation as a goal, dedicated work and labor are required. The successes of, for example, the fall of South African apartheid were products of organized actions, pro-longed boycotts, unity, and more. The steps toward a non-violent movement were, as explained by Rev. Lawson, the following:
“Step 1: Focus
Focus on an issue・Investigate, research, and educate・Determine cause and source of the problem・Map solutions, demands, goals and vision・Recruit and train leaders
Step 2: Negotiation
Engage the opponent, present demands, and plan for direct action・Develop a timeline and plan for a protracted campaign・Develop strategy and tactics
Step 3: Direction Action Campaign
Start creative, flexible direct-action campaign・Move from simple to complex actions・Build inspiration and public support
Step 4: Follow Up
Retrench and regroup your forces・Engage in healing and reconciliation・Conduct a strategic analysis and educate the movement and community・Plan for next campaign (Lawson, 2022, p.42).”
Rev. Lawson emphasized that these steps work as a cycle and the biggest flaw in organizers in the United States is that, “they go about it the wrong way” (Lawson, 2022, p.43). You simply cannot have supporters of violence within a non-violence movement (as clarification, Rev. Lawson also believed there was a great difference between self-defense and violence). Analyzing these steps, I realize that this is a long and tedious process–as seen with the dismantling of South African apartheid which took decades to accomplish. However, I also realize that organizing in itself is a form of labor.
____________________________________________________________________________
“We have to find ways to create a new power, and the new power is the power of people who get engaged and are willing to work on developing a plan and a strategy . . . that enables us to work as a people to make change.” – Rev. Jaames Lawson.
Repurposing the Empire
I am in no position to tell you how to organize, what you are doing right or what you are doing wrong, but what I can do is express what I have learned from Rev. Lawson. Simply put, organizing requires an immense amount of dedication, sacrifice and perseverance spanning generations, therefore the necessary work is labor.
As undergraduate college students, we live in a microcosm of our social, academic and workplace environments being largely contained within UCLA. We as undergraduate college students have the privilege of enrolling in Labor Studies M173: Nonviolence and Social Movements, a course taught by Rev. Lawson for over 20 years up until his death and is now being taught by Professor Robin D.G. Kelley. We as undergraduates college students may also be disillusioned by this microcosm and privileges, and therefore fail to remember the global picture, or the most obvious, many don’t agree with us.
I can say with certainty that organizing cannot happen without collective action. However, collective action is not spontaneous—it requires labor, strategy, and long-term commitment. Rev. Lawson taught that the labor movement was the foundation for true liberation and that government intervention to hinder the labor movement is a direct effort to limit democracy. Achieving labor and economic freedom demands both discipline and unity; we cannot afford to be divided, nor can we act without direction.
Given the current moment—and recognizing that U.S. exploitation has never been confined to a single era but is an ongoing reality—it is critical to remember who benefits from our division. The U.S. has always relied on the exploitation of those who are not white men, ensuring that marginalized communities remain fractured and fatigued. If we are to challenge this system whether through nonviolence or armed resistance, we must do so with intention, solidarity and an understanding that organizing itself is labor.
