Juneteenth and the
Unfinished Work of Freedom
From the Editors of Rally/Agrupémenos
The Juneteenth holiday marks one of the greatest victories in American history- the end of chattel slavery. On June 19, 1865, enslaved African Americans in Texas learned that the Emancipation Proclamation had freed everyone held in Confederate states – a full two and a half years earlier. The holiday celebrates freedom that was won through struggle. It is a reminder that entrenched systems of oppression can be overturned.
The abolition of chattel slavery transformed the nation. Emancipation abolished roughly $4 billion in human property — at the time, the largest concentration of private wealth in the U.S. economy — but that wealth was never redistributed to the people who had been enslaved. The formerly enslaved received no 40 acres or reparations and were forced into a continued system of extreme exploitation, sharecropping. Meanwhile, the wealth generated by enslaved labor and stolen Indigenous land became the foundation of American capitalism and U.S. global power.
Private property survived, and the ruling class reorganized around new ways to exploit labor, control land, and divide workers along racial lines.
Juneteenth challenges us to examine today’s remaining barriers to freedom. Society has unprecedented wealth, yet millions lack access to basic necessities. At the same time, that wealth and the power it wields are concentrated in the hands of a tiny ruling class of billionaires turning to fascist methods — attacking democracy, stoking racism, expanding surveillance, and unleashing state violence – to retain their dominance.
As A.I. and automation transform the economy, growing numbers of workers — across every race, gender, nationality, and industry — are being displaced, with no stake left in a system that no longer needs them. The struggle for human dignity and true democracy now requires the abolition of capitalist private property itself. Displaced workers are becoming a powerful social force, today’s abolitionist working class.
Across the country, today’s abolitionists are in motion — defending neighbors from ICE, demanding healthcare and housing, fighting for the right to vote. Many are angry and dissatisfied, but don’t yet see that a different system is possible today— one where the wealth we all create is shared instead of hoarded by a few. Helping people see that, and fight for it, is the work ahead.
Juneteenth carries a spirit of hope and transformation. It teaches that systems once thought permanent can be abolished. As we celebrate emancipation, we take up that work — building toward a society where the wealth we all create is owned in common and distributed according to need. That is the unfinished work of freedom.
