Too often, her legacy is reduced to sensationalized FBI narratives or confined to her role in the Black Liberation Army. But Assata was also a sharp political thinker, deeply committed to socialism and the revolutionary transformation of society. Her words cut to the heart of the contradictions of capitalism and pointed toward the collective power of the working class.
Assata never wavered in her belief that capitalism is built on the theft of workers’ labor. She put it plainly:
“Anything that has any kind of value is made, mined, grown, produced, and processed by working people. So why shouldn’t working people collectively own that wealth? Why shouldn’t working people own and control their own resources? Capitalism meant that rich businessmen owned the wealth, while socialism meant that the people who made the wealth owned it.”
This clarity reflected a Marxist understanding of class struggle: that those who produce everything of value are robbed by a ruling elite that owns the means of production. For Assata, socialism was not an abstract ideal but a necessary reorganization of society, grounded in justice and dignity for the working class.
Assata rejected the idea that freedom could be won through moral appeals to the very system that profits from oppression. She was unequivocal:
“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who oppressing them.”
Here she aligned herself with revolutionary movements across the globe, insisting that only organized struggle — not charity, reform, or pleas to the ruling class — could bring liberation.
She understood that the ruling class deliberately hides history and revolutionary thought in order to maintain control. In exile in Cuba, she emphasized the need for radical education:
“No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.”
This insistence on self-education and collective study reflects a core principle of socialist and communist organizing: that knowledge of history and theory is a weapon in the hands of the oppressed.
Though her struggle was rooted in the Black liberation movement in the U.S., Assata consistently linked it to global anti-imperialist struggles. In Cuba, she witnessed a living example of socialism in practice, and she connected the fight of Black people in the U.S. with liberation movements across Africa, Latin America, and the world. For her, international solidarity was not optional — it was essential.
Assata Shakur’s words remain urgent reminders of the tasks before us. She exposed the brutality of capitalism, insisted on socialism as the only just alternative, and demanded that oppressed people take history into their own hands. She taught us that revolution is not a dream but a necessity.
“Anything that has any kind of value is made, mined, grown, produced, and processed by working people. So why shouldn’t working people collectively own that wealth? Why shouldn’t working people own and control their own resources? Capitalism meant that rich businessmen owned the wealth, while socialism meant that the people who made the wealth owned it.”
This clarity reflected a Marxist understanding of class struggle: that those who produce everything of value are robbed by a ruling elite that owns the means of production. For Assata, socialism was not an abstract ideal but a necessary reorganization of society, grounded in justice and dignity for the working class.
Assata rejected the idea that freedom could be won through moral appeals to the very system that profits from oppression. She was unequivocal:
“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who oppressing them.”
Here she aligned herself with revolutionary movements across the globe, insisting that only organized struggle — not charity, reform, or pleas to the ruling class — could bring liberation.
She understood that the ruling class deliberately hides history and revolutionary thought in order to maintain control. In exile in Cuba, she emphasized the need for radical education:
“No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.”
This insistence on self-education and collective study reflects a core principle of socialist and communist organizing: that knowledge of history and theory is a weapon in the hands of the oppressed.
Though her struggle was rooted in the Black liberation movement in the U.S., Assata consistently linked it to global anti-imperialist struggles. In Cuba, she witnessed a living example of socialism in practice, and she connected the fight of Black people in the U.S. with liberation movements across Africa, Latin America, and the world. For her, international solidarity was not optional — it was essential.
Assata Shakur’s words remain urgent reminders of the tasks before us. She exposed the brutality of capitalism, insisted on socialism as the only just alternative, and demanded that oppressed people take history into their own hands. She taught us that revolution is not a dream but a necessity.
