The US has been through several extremely turbulent months, and we’ve been yearning for deeper and more genuine conversations on these developments. What does this time of upheaval and polarization mean for the USA? How do questions of race and class connect? What are we learning about power and corruption – and what does it really mean to be free? In this special edition of the Forest of Thought we speak to historian and community organizer Crystal Vance Guerra, and policy analyst and activist Victor Menotti.

Crystal Vance Guerra is a Mexican-American/Chicano historian, journalist, educator and community organiser from Chicago. She has lived and worked in Latin-America for several years, most recently on conservation in Honduras.

Victor Menotti is Senior Fellow at the Oakland Institute and works with governments, businesses and civil society on a range of economic and environmental issues. He lives in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Links from Crystal Vance Guerra:

• On Abolition: level.medium.com/so-youre-thinking-about-becoming-an-abolitionist-a436f8e31894 .


• Essential reading on mass incarceration: www.usprisonculture.com/blog/essential-pic-reading-list/ .


• Movement work and mutual aid in the US: https://truthout.org/series/movement-memos/ .

Links from Victor Menotti:

• Four Ds Of Oil’s Just Transition: stanleycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CCAI-FourDsOfOilsJustTransition92820.pdf .


• Links to some of Victor’s papers: www.oaklandinstitute.org/about/people/victor-menotti .

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