Like all revolutionaries and activists, we sometimes carry enormous burdens — trauma, stress, financial hardship, exhaustion, and the emotional toll that comes with dedicating our lives to struggle. The work we do is not easy, and the systems we confront were designed to wear people down, isolate us, and convince us that change is impossible.
Canadian physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté speaks powerfully about this reality in his books When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress and In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. In When the Body Says No, he explains how prolonged stress and unresolved trauma can deeply affect both the mind and the body. He reminds us that many people learn to suppress their pain, overwork themselves, and ignore their emotional needs in order to survive systems built on pressure and exploitation. Over time, the body itself begins to carry the weight of that hidden stress.
In In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Dr. Maté goes even further by showing how trauma, disconnection, poverty, and social oppression shape human suffering. He demonstrates that many of the struggles people face are not simply personal failures, but the result of conditions imposed by an unequal and dehumanizing society. His work reminds us that healing and liberation are deeply connected — that we cannot separate individual pain from the systems that produce it.
When we look at the capitalist and imperialist system we are living under today, it becomes clear that people everywhere are fighting on different fronts while carrying deep emotional and psychological wounds. Many of us entered the struggle already carrying trauma from our lives, our communities, and generations before us. And sometimes, the struggle itself can reopen those wounds. It can cause people to overextend themselves, suppress their emotions, or lose connection with one another.
That is why we must remind ourselves that revolutionaries are human beings first. We cannot heal the world overnight, and we cannot expect perfection from ourselves or from each other. Revolution is not a single event — it is a continuous process of growth, sacrifice, collective learning, and transformation. Like evolution, struggle is always developing, always moving forward, even through setbacks and contradictions.
But we will prevail.
And in order to prevail, we must struggle collectively. We must communicate openly and honestly. We must practice compassion with one another, especially during difficult moments. Most importantly, we must never lose our love for the people. Love for our neighbors, our comrades, our families, and humanity itself is what keeps the struggle alive. That love is not weakness — it is the foundation of revolutionary commitment.
When we care for one another, protect one another, and continue moving forward together despite hardship, we become stronger than any system built on greed, fear, and division.
So to all comrades: do not give up. Rest when you must. Heal when you can. Support one another. But never lose sight of why we fight. Keep pushing forward, because every act of solidarity, every act of resistance, and every act of compassion plants the seeds for a better future.
As one of my dear comrades once said: when we stand together and fight together, we win.
¡Venceremos!
Reference:
When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress — Gabor Maté
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction — Gabor Maté
