Since the beginning A Radical Guide has made a point to highlight women who have, and who are, challenging the current systems of oppression. One of the first blog posts we wrote for the site featured four women from around the world, to raise awareness of radical women, and connect us to their history, where they came from, and the political climate of their time.
Today, we are continuing this important tradition with the Radical Women of the World Series. For each of the radical women on A Radical Guide, we will create items that honor them and help create a conversation about their work.
Angela Davis
If you remembered from the very first post on A Radical Guide, the words of Angela Davis helped me come to terms with naming the site ‘Radical’, with the quote, ‘Radical simply means‘ grasping things by the root’.
Angela Yvonne Davis is an American communist, political activist, academic, and author. She emerged as a prominent counterculture activist in the 1960s working with the Communist Party USA, of which she was a member until 1991, and was involved in the Black Panther Party during the Civil Rights Movement.
The childhood home of Angela Davis, in Birmingham, Alabama, can be found on A Radical Guide.
Comandanta Ramona
Comandanta Ramona was the nom de guerre of an officer of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, a revolutionary indigenous autonomist organization based in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
Perhaps the most famous female Zapatista actor, Ramona was one of seven female commanders in charge of directing an army that consisted of one-third women.
A member of the Zapatista leading council, the CCRI (Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee), she served as a symbol of equality and dignity for indigenous and impoverished women.
Lucy Parsons
Lucy Parsons was an American labor organizer, radical socialist, and anarcho-communist. Parsons entered the radical movement following her marriage to newspaper editor Albert Parsons and moved with him from Texas to Chicago, where she contributed to the newspaper he famously edited—The Alarm.
Following her husband’s 1887 execution in conjunction with the Haymarket affair, Parsons remained a leading American radical activist, as a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and member of other political organizations.
Lucy Parsons birthplace in Buffalo Creek, Texas can be found on A Radical Guide
If you don’t see someone on the site that you think should be listed, please add them to the site.
You can find books, clothing, and other items that celebrate Radical Women of the World at A Radical Shop.
