Politics as Liberation: Reclaiming Power, Reclaiming Ourselves

Politics has never been a distant concept. It is not confined to voting booths or government chambers — it lives in every decision that determines who gets housing, healthcare, education, or safety. Politics is the architecture of power, and whether we engage in it or not, it shapes the course of our lives. The truth is simple: if we do not understand how politics works, then we are governed by those who do.

The Power We Forgot We Had

Many people have been conditioned to see politics as something "other," something corrupt, distant, or reserved for professionals in suits. That conditioning was intentional. Systems of oppression survive by keeping people politically uninformed and disconnected. Political ignorance isn't an accident — it's a strategy. It keeps communities fighting symptoms instead of systems.

Yet, the great leaders of liberation understood politics as survival. Malcolm X spoke of education as the passport to the future. Ella Baker taught that strong people build strong communities, not just strong leaders. The Black Panther Party launched survival programs not just to feed people, but to teach people how government resources could and should work for them. Every revolution — from anti-colonial struggles to the civil rights movement — was, at its core, a fight for the right to self-govern.

Politics as Liberation

Politics, at its purest, is the practice of deciding how we live together. When people learn how to navigate it, they reclaim power over their circumstances. Liberation is not only about breaking physical chains — it is about breaking intellectual ones. Political education is what turns frustration into organized action, and protest into policy.

In communities that have endured systemic neglect and state violence, political awareness becomes a form of protection. Understanding how decisions are made at city, state, and federal levels means knowing how to demand accountability. It means knowing how budgets are distributed, how contracts are awarded, and how injustice often hides behind official language.

When people learn to interpret those systems, they stop asking for permission to exist — they begin governing themselves.

A History of Conscious Power

Our ancestors were not disconnected from politics — they were excluded from it. Enslaved people were denied literacy because the ability to read was power. After emancipation, Black communities built schools, churches, and mutual aid societies as forms of self-governance. Reconstruction gave us our first Black legislators, who were swiftly targeted by white supremacist violence and unjust laws designed to reassert control.

Every step toward equality was met with legal resistance — not just physical violence. From Jim Crow laws to redlining, from mass incarceration to modern voter suppression, oppression has always been political before it is personal.

To liberate ourselves today, we must return to that understanding. We must study systems the same way they have studied us.

Why Political Education Matters Now

We are living in a time where disinformation, division, and distraction are tools of control. The more chaos there is, the less people organize. The less people organize, the more power consolidates at the top. But when communities are politically educated — when they understand policy, process, and precedent — they become ungovernable in the best sense of the word.

Political education is not about partisanship; it's about clarity. It teaches us to analyze who benefits from our silence and who profits from our confusion. It allows us to see that poverty, housing insecurity, and police brutality are not isolated problems — they are the outcomes of deliberate policy decisions. And anything built by policy can be dismantled by policy.

At Philly People of Hope, that's what we stand for — not politics as usual, but politics as liberation. Teaching people how systems work so they can challenge them, rebuild them, and ultimately create new ones that serve the people, not the powerful.

Reclaiming the Table

The greatest myth told to the oppressed is that politics doesn't matter. It matters more than ever. Every funding allocation, every zoning law, every shelter contract, every police budget — these are political decisions that determine life and death.

When we disengage, we leave those decisions in the hands of those who do not represent us. But when we organize, learn, and show up, the balance shifts. Political power does not belong to those who hold office — it belongs to those who hold each other accountable.

The Future Belongs to the Organized

Liberation is not a moment — it's a method. It starts with awareness, grows through education, and lives through action. Political knowledge allows us to move strategically, not emotionally. It transforms survival into strength, and resistance into governance.

As Malcolm X said, "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." And freedom begins with understanding the systems that claim to govern us — so we can govern ourselves.

How You Can Get Involved

Join us in building a community that understands power and knows how to wield it. Attend our political education workshops, participate in community organizing sessions, and learn how local government works. Knowledge is the first step toward liberation, and liberation is the path to true freedom.

Together, we don't just fight systems — we transform them. Because the future doesn't belong to those who wait for change. It belongs to those who organize for it.