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“How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?” - Howard Zinn
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“I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they're doing. I'm concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that's handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers.” - Howard Zinn
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Back in 1999 Howard Zinn wrote a play about Karl Marx called Marx in Soho.
I decided to write a play about Marx. I made this decision after the fall of the Soviet Union because, after its fall, everyone thought that Marxism had died. So I tried to tell the US public: Marx is not dead and I am going to prove it by bringing him back to the scenario. From there I would teach this same public the difference between Stalinism and Marxism. I would remind them what Marxist criticism of capitalism consists of. I would demonstrate that these ideas have much to do about the US today. In other words, that Marxist criticism of capitalism is still exact and current today.
Perhaps in one out of every hundred universities there is a course on Marxism. There are many courses of political philosophy and perhaps a few days are set aside for Marx. Usually his ideas are not taught with exactness.Marx In Soho:
Marx in Soho has often been produced. The play depicts Marx resurrected to defend the ideals of communism from the dehumanized version of it practiced in the former Soviet Union and to defend humanity from capitalism.
Zinn writes in his foreword that as early as 17, he had seen dramatic evidence "that the machinery of government was not neutral, that, despite its pretensions, it served the capitalist class.... My Communist friends brought me along with them to a demonstration in Times Square. Hundreds of people unfurled banners proclaiming opposition to war, opposition to Fascism, and marched along the street. I heard sirens. Mounted police charged the crowd. I was knocked unconscious by a plainclothes policeman. When I came to, as my head was clearing, I could only think one troubling thought: the police, the state, did the bidding of the holders of great wealth. How much freedom of speech and freedom of assembly you had depended on what class you were in."Zinn was 17 in 1939, long before Occupy Wall Street and Zuccotti Park:
Police called in re-enforcements as more activists entered the park. Police tried to enter the park but were pushed back by protesters. There were reports of pepper-spray being used by the police. About 12:40 am after the group celebrated New Years in the park, they exited the park and marched down Broadway. Police in riot gear started to clear out the park around 1:30 am.Howard Zinn described himself as a Democratic Socialist, just like Bernie Sanders does today.
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“Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.” - Howard Zinn
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From Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day? by Howard Zinn:
Memorial Day will be celebrated ... by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.
No politician who voted funds for war, no business contractor for the military, no general who ordered young men into battle, no FBI man who spied on anti-war activities, should be invited to public ceremonies on this sacred day. Let the dead of past wars he honored. Let those who live pledge themselves never to embark on mass slaughter again.Read the rest here.
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From We need "people's impeachment hearings" across U.S. by Howard Zinn:
The Declaration of Independence, revered as a document, ignored as a guide to action, needs to be read from pulpits and podiums, on street corners and radio stations, throughout the nation. Its words, forgotten for more than two centuries, need to become a call to action for the first time since it was read aloud to crowds in the early days of the American Revolution: "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government."
The "ends" referred to in the Declaration are the equal right of all to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
True, no government in the history of the nation has been completely faithful to those ends. But no past government has so casually ignored the will of the people, affirmed the right of the president to ignore the Constitution, even to set aside laws passed by Congress.
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This is an excerpt from Michael Moore’s Bowling For Columbine movie:
It is our fear of the “other” and our denial of what we have done to the “other” that is the root cause of many of our current problems. For white Americans the “other” takes many forms: Native Americans, Black Americans, people from the Middle East, Mexicans, Cubans, the list goes on. America: Land of the free and the home of the brave? How free are we if we are fearful all of the time? How brave are we if we can't face our past?
The brave ones are the ones who don’t believe in some fairy tale version of America in which we are always saints and always right. In order to have a better future we need to know our past, accept it, and learn from it. Many mistakes were made that need to be rectified. If you don’t have a clue as to what I am talking about, may I suggest that you read A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
The cowards are the ones who accept the propaganda that America is always right, that the people we brutalize and kill somehow deserve it. That it makes their lives better somehow. Again, if you don’t know what I’m talking about just inform yourself of what we did to the Native Americans when Europeans first arrived here and move on from there. George W. Bush is just the latest in this long line of Americans who brutalize and kill in the name of improving the lives of those they are brutalizing and killing. It is morally wrong and makes no sense. And it always comes back to bite us in the ass, too. It takes courage to stand up to this view of America, but it needs to be done. It is the only true way to fight terrorism.
On another note, I liked this part of what Robert W. Glidden has to say about Michael Moore in his Customer Review of Bowling For Columbine over at amazon.com:
Moore is often called an Anti-American, which is a term I think is overused and rarely appropriate. Osama Bin Laden is an Anti-American. Moore would not like to see America destroyed, he would like it to be a place with less violent deaths and discontent citizens. Moore doesn't hate America, he loves America. The free speech he's grown up with has given him the opportunity to write his books and make his movies. He is certainly anti-Bush, but why should that make someone anti-American? I'm sure plenty of conservatives were anti-Clinton or anti-Carter or anti-Kennedy, but I would never call them anti-Americans. Our real enemies are people who would destroy crowded buildings in NYC, not people who voted for Gore.
Yet, despite all this, the attacks on Moore's film are often totally vicious and off-base. A disturbing number of the reviews on this site, and many others, attack his weight more often than they attack the film. Yes, Moore is fat but so is Rush Limbaugh for God's sake.
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