Readers React: The politics of Angela Davis

What a respectful conversation with Angela Davis by Patt Morrison, with a mild-mannered discussion of democracy and activism, and a brief inquiry: “You ran for vice president on the Communist Party ticket in 1980 and 1984.... What’s your thinking on communism now?” One wonders if a candidate fronted by, say, the 1970s Nationalist Socialist Party of America would be granted a similar gracious interview. (“Angela Y. Davis on what’s radical in the 21st century,” Opinion, May 6)

Or have the crimes against humanity committed by communist regimes in the 20th century become just a quaint memory by now? They certainly were common knowledge in 1980 and 1984.

Vitaly Kresin

Santa Monica

Some may call Davis a dreamer. But she’s not the only one.

Add the Dalai Lama to the list of socially progressive thinkers who use Karl Marx’s towering critiques of capitalism as a fount of guidance with regard to social equity, and Davis’ insights may amount to a burgeoning reawakening of the influence we, the 99%, have when we speak truth to power.

Include French economist Thomas Piketty’s latest, and most unlikely, bestseller (“Capital in the Twenty-First Century”) with the resources available to a critical mass of less-that-upper-class readers and thinkers, and we might have the basis for liberation of the working (read productive) strata of society, along with all the overdue justice that implies.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach