La Lotta Continua

My wife and I watched the 2015 movie "Suffragette" tonight on TV.  It stars Carey Mulligan, Anne-marie Duff & Helena Bonham-Carter. It is the story of As imdb.com describes it, it is the story of "the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State." As I watched this movie, I found myself thinking over and over again, "we are still fighting these battles today." 
Yes I know women have the right to vote. Most countries now protect the rights of women to vote. (in 2014 Saudi Arabia promised women would get the right to vote, but it has yet to happen.) However, as is vocalized early on in the movie by Carey Mulligan's character Maud Watts, this is about so much more than voting.  The fact that the rights of women to be treated as full human beings is still questioned by far too many people today.
And that's not all. I am struck by the level of racial bigotry that is being felt and openly expressed in today's age. When right-wing pundits accuse President Obama of bringing more division they are somewhat right. Because it is coming out in the open now that too many white Americans are not pleased to live in a country where we allow an "uppity" POTUS. I can't believe we are still having this conversation about racial iniquity and are having to battle systemic prejudice against people of color.
Gay men are still killed by haters because of who they love. Young black men are still disproportionately pegged by law enforcement, the courts and popular media as the as the most likely "bad guy."  Muslims, Latinos, non-whites in general stand a good chance of encountering the hatefulness of bigotry many times in the course of their lives.
Elements of society that should have been permanently laid to rest decades ago still threaten the rights, safety and economic freedom of far too many. 
Basic human and civil rights cannot be taken for granted in our country by many, even when such laws of assurance are on the books. As I contemplate this reality I am reminded of my youthful days in Italy, in the early 70's.  At that time Italy had thee largest communist party in Europe outside of the Eastern Bloc countries. The idealistic fervor of young communists and socialists was very present in the cities, north and south. I talked with a few such people over my time there and the one thing that remains with me to this day, is the slogan that was chanted in demonstrations and painted on signs, placards and graffiti. That slogan was "La Lotta Continua!" (The Struggle Continues!) I had a sense of what it meant to those young people in the heady days social change and I think it needs to be chanted again, in our conversations, writings and demonstrations.  Because these words are not owned by the communists. They are the words of truth that all people who hunger for justice and freedom should chant! Over and over again, until we remember and struggle on.