Liberation and equality will never come from the top down but

In the chronicles of human history, there has always been a great tension between those who hold power and those who seek freedom. Clive Lewis speaks a truth that has echoed through the ages: "Liberation and equality will never come from the top down but through organizing from the ground up, and our Labour movement has a crucial role to play in fighting for it." This call to action strikes at the heart of one of the most enduring lessons of human struggle: true liberation can never be granted from above, like a gift bestowed from the throne, but must be fought for, built, and won by the very people who seek it, from the bottom up.

The ancients understood this well. In the great struggles for freedom and justice, it was not the kings or emperors who brought liberation to their people, but the people themselves, united in their common cause. Take, for example, the story of the Spartan helots, the oppressed class in ancient Sparta. Though the Spartan rulers enjoyed great power, it was the helots, the laboring masses, who kept the city-state running. For centuries, they were subjugated, yet their solidarity and resistance were the seeds of many uprisings. They may not have had the weapons of the elite, but they had the power of unity—a unity forged not by the top but by the bottom. The great lesson here is that real change does not begin in the halls of power; it begins in the hearts of the people who refuse to accept their oppression.

In more recent times, the Labour movement has embodied this same principle. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels spoke of the proletariat, the working class, as the true engine of societal change. They recognized that the elite would never willingly relinquish their control, but that the strength of the masses, when united and organized, could not be denied. The Labour movement was born from the recognition that equality and liberation were not gifts to be handed down from the aristocracy or ruling class, but were to be earned, fought for, and protected by those who worked to sustain society with their hands and sweat. In the great strikes and protests of the 19th and 20th centuries, the working class did not wait for the top to grant them their rights—they fought for them with an unwavering spirit of solidarity and organizing.

Consider the example of the suffragette movement, a battle for women's equality that was fought not in the halls of governments or among the ruling elite, but in the streets, where ordinary women—mothers, daughters, workers—marched, protested, and demanded their rights. Women like Emmeline Pankhurst did not seek permission from the top; they took action from the bottom, knowing that true equality could not come from a vote handed down by the rich and powerful, but through their collective struggle. Their organizing became a force so powerful that it changed the very fabric of society. Clive Lewis's words mirror this same principle: liberation is not something that can be bestowed from above, but something that must be taken by the people through their own organizing and collective power.

The ancient Greeks, with their lofty ideals of democracy, also understood that true freedom and equality could never be achieved if left to the few. Pericles, in his famous speeches, spoke of the Athenian democracy as a system where all free men had a voice, yet the reality was far more complex. While Athens prided itself on democracy, it was still limited by the status quo that excluded women, slaves, and non-citizens from its ranks. The power of organizing was not yet fully realized, but the seeds were sown. True democracy—and by extension, true equality—could only come when the voices of the oppressed were heard, and their power was organized from the ground up.

Thus, the message from Clive Lewis is not merely a call to action but a reminder of an ancient truth: liberation is a process, not a gift. It is something that cannot be handed down by those in power; it must be claimed by those who are willing to organize, to fight, and to stand together. The Labour movement is the vessel through which this organizing can happen, but it is not the only means. In every society, it is the people, united in their demand for justice, that hold the power to change the course of history.

The lesson we learn from Clive Lewis is clear: if we seek a world of equality and liberation, we must begin by organizing from the bottom up. It is not enough to wait for the powerful to offer change. We must take action, unite in our common cause, and demand a fair world. Let us follow in the footsteps of those who have fought before us—not in hope that those at the top will change, but with the certainty that through organizing, we have the power to shape a new future for ourselves and for generations to come. Only in this way will true equality be realized—not as a gift, but as the fruit of our own hard-won labor.