Grief can be mistaken for mere sadness. As a result, those who are grief-stricken may feel pressured to easily come to terms and find closure—and the sooner, the better. In From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire, labor journalist Sarah Jaffe describes it as a complete rupture; it is both sorrow and rage. In her radical vision of grief, Jaffe insists that it becomes part of the mourner. It tinges the past, invades the present and forms the future. Grief insists that we are intertwined, complex beings, and not commodities or cogs—and thus, she asserts, grief defies the pulverizing effects of unbridled capitalism.
In this steadfastly personal book, Jaffe explores her own grief after the death of her father. But the death of a loved one is not the only source of grief she explores and honors. From the Ashes recounts the grief felt by refugees forced to leave their homes; workers whose livelihoods and communities were destroyed when they became unprofitable; “essential” workers who were overworked and underprotected during the COVID-19 pandemic; and survivors of climate change disasters. Their grief is intense, and reading about it can be overwhelming.
But, paradoxically, this book about sorrow is profoundly optimistic. Jaffe believes that grief, with its terrific rage and energy, can fuel revolutionary changes in our lives, our communities and our world. For example, Mohamed Mire, a refugee from the civil war in Somalia, joined forces with other Somali workers in Minnesota and forced Amazon to the bargaining table. When Margaret Thatcher closed coal mines after a bitter and violently repressed strike, Kevin Horne and other miners became health care workers, recreating the solidarity and community they had lost. After Hurricane Maria ravaged Loiza, Puerto Rico, and it became apparent that the government would not provide aid to the survivors, the women of Taller Salud, a women’s health nonprofit, worked to provide assistance and to demand justice for the people of their community.
Detailed, lucid and richly sourced, Jaffe’s book provides many more examples of these transformations, which offer compelling evidence that we can generate healing, justice and equity “from the ashes.”
