Under the Tree: A Seminar on Freedom with Bill Ayers

The forest is disappearing—it’s becoming a ghost—and along with its entire ecosystems. This is not something distant from us; it is us—the power of a tree is the air we breathe. Two and a half billion years ago enough oxygen had built up on earth to support multicellular life, and the first trees evolved about 400,000,000 years ago. The first primates appeared fifty-five million years ago, living in trees in the rain forests. In the past 10,000 years, the earth lost one-third of its forest—almost all of it in the last few hundred years. And the recent loss is caused, not by ice and fire and ice or earthquakes and volcanoes, but by the deliberate acts of human beings. We’re talking in his Arcata home with an extraordinary writer/activist named Greg King, author most recently of The Ghost Forest: Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods. 

The Palestinian people’s ongoing struggle  for self-determination and basic human rights has appropriately drawn the attention and support of freedom lovers the world around. Invasion and occupation, ethnic cleansing and segregation as both policy and law are all part of the continuing and everyday catastrophe. Rick Ayers co-hosts this episode, and we’re both grateful to be joined from her home in the Galilee by an inspiring writer, Fida Jiryis, as she tells the story of Palestine through a beautiful and haunting memoir of her family's journey—Stranger in my own Land.

Young people in many parts of the country are denied decent school facilities, honest and forward-looking curriculum, and fully qualified teachers, but the fundamental injury they face is the deliberate and systematic suppression of freedom. They have endured institutions—not only schools, but the cops and La Migra, the courts and the hospitals—that routinely disregard their humanity. These are First Nations students or the descendants of formerly enslaved and African-ancestored people or recent immigrants from poor countries; they’re from working-class families and they’ve attended schools of poverty; many have participated in a sort of general strike and run away from those schools. What could it mean and how would it look if these young folks were to mobilize themselves in order to articulate their own desires, their own demands and dreams, and pursue their own questions? We’re joined in conversation with Rick Ayers, a life-long freedom fighter and legendary teacher.

“If we have to use force,” former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright famously said, “it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation.” A benign interpretation of that extravagant claim might visualize the country as a shining city on the hill, the very paragon of democracy and freedom; a more realistic assessment sees the US holding itself above international laws—including the use of lethal force, invasion, and occupation—that govern all others.  We’ll consider the role of US imperialism both historically and in the contemporary world over at the incomparable  Pilsen Community Books with the legendary activist/journalist Juan Gonzalez, co-host of Democracy Now! and author of the now classic Harvest of Empire. We are overjoyed that Juan and his partner Lilia Fernandez have recently moved to Chicago—we welcome them and celebrate them.

Unchecked, the US juggernaut is headed for catastrophe, either a new and friendly-looking American fascism, or some other form of extreme social disintegration. Another world is surely coming—greater equality, socialism, participatory democracy, and peace are all within our reach, but nuclear war, complete capitalist climate collapse, work camps and slavery are also looming possibilities. There are choices and options before us—where do we go from here, chaos or community? I’m joined by Jon Melrod at Pilsen Community Books in conversation about his life as a student and labor organizer, and his memoir Fighting Times.

One of Karl Marx’s most famous dictums is carved onto his gravestone: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” The first step is opening our eyes, making meaning, making sense, interpreting and constructing a world. Another step is allowing ourselves to feel the world throbbing inside of us, to hear its rhythmic heart-beat in sync with our own—to be astonished at all the beauty and splendor and magnificence available in all directions, as well as all the unnecessary suffering and undeserved pain. And then, acting in response to what the known demands of us—to do something. This takes us into the realm of strategy and tactics where we state our aims and objectives and values, make and implement a plan, and organize ourselves for action. I’m joined at Pilsen Community Books in conversation with the brilliant thinker and writer Clément Petitjean in a far-ranging conversation about his important new book, Occupation: Organizer, and the challenge of organizing to change the world.

This political moment—complex, contradictory, and characterized by escalating crises—urges us to focus our attention on movement building. Beyond campaigns, projects, policies, or organizations, we need to find multiple ways to weave our work together into a sturdy quilt, or a mighty and irresistible social upheaval that advances the cause of peace and freedom, joy and justice in our time. I’m joined in conversation with Randolph Stone, a friend, inspiration, “lawyer-for-the-people,” and long-distance runner for justice.

The struggle for Black Freedom was intensifying in 1966, and when the term “Black Power!” leapt from the March Against Fear in Mississippi into the mainstream, the Freedom Movement was newly energized. White supremacist hearts were all aflutter, and Mister Backlash went into overdrive with the usual bullshit: Black Power is hate! Is racist! Is destructive! Is too extreme! We’re joined in conversation today with Zoharah Simmons, Michael Simmons, and Dan Berger to consider the long history of Black Power and the struggle for self-determination and pride through the story of one family.

What’s the worst thing you ever did in your life? OK, stop blushing, and be honest. Are you sure you haven’t repressed, suppressed, and forgotten the most unkind or terrible or illegal or unjust things you’ve done? Think harder. What were the consequences of your actions for others, and for yourself? I’m joined in conversation with Michael Fischer, a brilliant writer and teacher who probes his own experiences with the carceral state to offer wisdom for all of us about the social construction of crime, and the deeper meaning of justice, repair, transformation, and grace.

We’re in a five-alarm shit-storm of trouble to be sure, and the overlapping crises can feel overwhelming— racial reckoning, catastrophic capitalist climate collapse, a financial system that parodies a massive, out-of-control Ponzi scheme, a legislature impersonating a medieval auction block, and more. We meet up with Danny Katch to help us name this political moment. Danny offers a delightful and accessible primer on socialism as a living alternative, and he shows us that Love and Imagination are still durable weapons to deploy in our fight for freedom—he reminds us that socialism is for lovers, not losers.