Former Communist Party VP pick turned Marxist prof promotes Harris, 'revolution' during pre-election lecture at Princeton
An openly Marxist professor and two-time vice presidential nominee for the Communist Party recently made a speaking appearance at Princeton University.
Angela Davis of the University of California, Santa Cruz delivered a public lecture on Oct. 22 in which she discussed voting, her support for Palestine, and her hope for 'revolution.'
An openly Marxist professor and two-time vice presidential nominee for the Communist Party recently made a speaking appearance at Princeton University.
Angela Davis of the University of California, Santa Cruz delivered a public lecture on Oct. 22 in which she discussed voting, her support for Palestine, and her hope for “revolution,” according to The Daily Princetonian.
Davis reportedly called Israel a “racist settler-colonial state” during the appearance.
“Why is it that administrators on college campuses, who might now boast about the fact that there were demonstrations on the campus … at the same time want to suppress those who are standing up against the racist settler-colonial state of Israel?” Davis remarked while criticizing universities for cracking down on pro-Palestine protests.
Davis also reportedly stated that “to stand up against Israel is not at all to be to engage in an antisemitic act. As a matter of fact, it’s the opposite.”
Davis and African American Studies Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor also discussed the importance of voting in the 2024 election.
The former Black Panther ally reportedly suggested that lecture attendees vote for Democrat Kamala Harris, noting that “progress” was being made by “the people who are out front playing the leading roles,” in reference to Harris being a minority woman.
Davis also mentioned that while she lost faith in the current system of “oppression,” it’s still important to vote in elections to protect “rights” like abortion.
“I’ve really been very upset during this period,” she said. “Oftentimes we have to do things that we hate doing, but we do them even though it makes us feel terrible. We do them for the good of larger collectives and the good of what may come afterwards.”
“I still want a revolution,” Davis also remarked. “I want to overturn the capitalist system,” she added, which was reportedly met with audience applause, according to The Daily Princetonian.
According to her university biography, Davis is “known internationally for her ongoing work to combat all forms of oppression in the U.S. and abroad.”
“Former California Governor Ronald Reagan once vowed that Angela Davis would never again teach in the University of California system,” the university web page proclaims. “Today she is Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies Departments at the University of California, Santa Cruz.”
Davis was the official vice presidential nominee of the Communist Party in 1980 and 1984. She has helped popularize the phrase, “prison industrial complex,” and has long advocated for “a world without prisons.”
Campus Reform has contacted Angela Davis and Princeton University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
