Liberalism, at its core, is an ideology of emancipation that historically sought to dismantle oppressive hierarchies and champion freedom and equality for all. While some argue that liberalism centers on private property and has been co-opted to justify systems like chattel slavery, labor exploitation, and enclosure, this reflects a distortion of liberalism’s original emancipatory intent. True liberalism—like anarchism—opposes the concentration of power that limits individual freedom, whether by monarchs, states, or capitalists. Though the liberal tradition has been manipulated to defend private property at the expense of broader freedoms, its true essence aligns with rejecting systems of exploitation and inequality. Similarly, leftist movements rooted in the fight against oppression are fundamentally incompatible with being anti-freedom, illiberal, authoritarian, or reactionary. Leftism, when consistent with its ideals, seeks to expand liberty and dismantle all hierarchies that restrict universal freedom.

Nobody is free until everyone is.