A lot of work done addressing oppressions across the country takes place in courtrooms and legislative bodies. This work is not always successful due to the fact that the oppressors are the ones making the laws. But we know you can’t fight a system if you don’t know the ins and outs of how that system works. You do the research, you do the lawsuits, and legal representation, etc. There are overwhelming and awful processes where people can appeal the horrors being done to them - theoretically for due process. If you exhaust these it helps to say “see this is a systemic form of oppression - not just an isolated act of oppression.” To do all this you need to have radical lawyers. The victory is in overturning the racist, classist, and ableist systems and laws, not just in winning a case. It behooves us to use these systems that are set up, in reality, to exhaust the average person and get them to walk away. It strengthens our organizing to document that the system is not what they claim it is - that it is meant to deny and frustrate and get rid of people.
