A Force for Liberation
Marsha Hunter, International Liberation Reference Person for Lawyers
For the last two and a half years in the United States, we’ve seen outstanding examples of lawyers and judges defending human rights against government attacks. For example, the minute the U.S. government issued travel bans against certain nationalities, immigration lawyers showed up at airports to protect immigrants. And judges have over and over again decided in favor of people and humanity.
This is not new in U.S. history or in the history of other peoples. Judges and lawyers have won many victories for humanity and against greed and mistreatment. Despite our role as middle agents in a class system serving the owning class, we have been a force for liberation.
However, like everyone, we’ve been hurt by early separation and isolation. And our legal training—which involves self-reliance, enduring bad working conditions, winning at any cost, and holding everyone at arm’s length [at a distance]—has nailed in [reinforced] the isolation. Still, like all humans, we want connection, we want fairness, we want things to go well for people.
Most of you aren’t lawyers. You may not even know any. And you may not have ever thought of us as fighters for equality and justice. I’d like you to remember us as a particular part of the middle class that can offer disciplined thought and organization in support of large movements, as all of us work to stop climate change and transform society.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA