A People's History on TV at Last
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
[This was a great show.--DC]
http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article21.php?id=1226
Howard Zinn�s The People Speak: A People�s History on TV At Last
Dec 26, 2009
by Dan DiMaggio
Socialist historian Howard Zinn�s documentary The People Speak, which
premiered on the History Channel on December 13, is undoubtedly among
the best programs in TV history.
The People Speak is based on Zinn�s famous book A People�s History of
the United States, which tells the story of the U.S. from the
perspective of workers, slaves, African-Americans, women, Native
Americans, immigrants, and LGBT people � rather than from the
perspective of the businessmen, politicians, and generals, as is usually
the case in school textbooks. The two-hour documentary features readings
taken from the collection Voices of A People�s History of the United
States, which brings together speeches and writings from social justice
activists throughout U.S. history � from abolitionists and labor
organizers to suffragettes and anti-war activists.
The speeches are performed by a star-studded cast, including Matt Damon,
Morgan Freeman, Jasmine Guy, Viggo Mortensen, Marisa Tomei, Danny
Glover, Stacey Ann Chin, and Darryl McDaniels (of Run DMC). There are
musical performances by Bob Dylan, John Legend, Eddie Vedder, and Bruce
Springsteen. These are all tied together by Zinn�s narration, which
explains the class struggles at the heart of U.S. history, as ordinary
working people have fought for civil rights and a better life in the
face of repression and exploitation by slaveowners, capitalists, and
their political representatives.
The documentary highlights immensely important lessons for anyone
interested in achieving genuine change today in the age of Obama. The
main message of The People Speak, as with Zinn�s other work, is that
progressive change is achieved from below, by ordinary people who decide
to act against injustice � not by Democratic politicians or �great men.�
As the famous ex-slave and abolitionist activist Frederick Douglass put
it, in a speech read by Don Cheadle in The People Speak, �Power concedes
nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.�
This is a particularly important message right now. Less than a year
into his presidency, Obama has disappointed millions of his supporters
who expected his administration to enact genuine change. Instead, we
have gotten 50,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a growing military
budget, more bailouts for the banks, a betrayal of labor�s hopes for
EFCA, virtually no progress on LGBT rights, and a health care reform
that will lack even a mild public option and throw billions more at the
insurance companies. Millions are asking what happened, why the hopes
they put in Obama are being dashed, and whether serious change can
actually be achieved in the U.S.
But as Zinn writes, �There's hardly anything more important that people
can learn than the fact that the really critical thing isn't who is
sitting in the White House, but who is sitting in�in the streets, in the
cafeterias, in the halls of government, in the factories. Who is
protesting, who is occupying offices and demonstrating�those are the
things that determine what happens.� It is becoming clearer and clearer
to many, after the first year of Obama�s presidency, that it is going to
require independent action from below to achieve real change.
The People Speak shows examples of this process in U.S. history. In
particular, the example of the Great Depression and the FDR
administration is a telling one. The documentary includes Danny Glover�s
performance of Langston Hughes� poem �Ballad of Roosevelt,� which
details the frustration faced by millions suffering from unemployment,
eviction, and hunger during the Depression, who were �Waitin� on
Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Roosevelt.� Zinn explains how action on these
issues was only achieved owing to mass struggles, often led by
socialists and other radicals. While numerous progressive reforms were
enacted under FDR � from Social Security benefits, to massive public
works programs, to aid to the unemployed � these were only achieved
thanks to intense pressure from below, as workers went on strike,
communities organized to stop evictions through direct action, and
unemployed people marched on city halls and state governments to demand
relief. There is gripping footage from the sit-down strike at General
Motors in Flint, Michigan in the winter of 1936-1937, behind the words
of strike leader Genora Johnson Dollinger, who organized a Women�s
Auxiliary Brigade.
Also particularly powerful was Matt Damon�s reading of the words of Tom
Joad from John Steinbeck�s depression-era novel The Grapes of Wrath.
This book should be at the top of reading lists in these times of
double-digit unemployment, mass foreclosures, and skyrocketing hunger.
Joad says, �I been thinkin� a hell of a lot, thinkin� about our people
livin� like pigs, an� the good rich lan� layin� fallow, or maybe one
fella with a million acres, while a hunderd thousan� good farmers is
starvin�. An I been wonderin� if all our folks got together an� yelled,
like them [rich] fellas yelled ��
Joad�s words resonated, as we again and again see our government
entirely beholden to the lobbyists of the banking, insurance,
pharmaceutical, and war-profiteering industries, while workers are left
without a voice. This points to the desperate need for working people
and youth to organize a party of our own to challenge the
corporate-dominated two-party system and give voice to our demands � for
universal, affordable, not-for-profit health care, decent living wage
jobs, affordable housing, an end to the wars, equal rights for LGBT
people, an end to the racist war on drugs and police brutality, etc.
Muhammad Ali�s explanation of his refusal to be drafted to fight in
Vietnam, for which he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and stripped of
his heavyweight title, is also included. Speaking out against the war in
1966, Ali said, �Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten
thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in
Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs
and denied simple human rights?� Ironically, just weeks before
announcing he was sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan to drop
bombs and bullets on brown people there, President Obama wrote a tribute
to Ali in USA Today, claiming him as one of his heroes.
This is why Zinn�s documentary is so important, because it presents a
history of resistance that has too often been hidden from high school
textbooks and the corporate media.
Corporate-Controlled Media
The fact that this type of program so rarely makes it onto television,
despite the hundreds of channels now in existence, exposes what a crime
the corporate control over the media is. Instead of more inspiring
documentaries about people who have made heroic sacrifices in the fight
for a better world, we get shows like �Mall Cops� and �Survivor.� The
media claims it is just giving the people what they want to see, but how
many people really think there should be dozens of dating shows and
almost never anything on the collective struggles of ordinary people
that have shaped this country? The truth is, reality shows and other
such programs are made because they are profitable and
non-controversial, and thus popular with advertisers.
Why has Hollywood never produced a movie about the life of Eugene Debs,
or Sojourner Truth, or John Brown, or nearly any of the other fighters
for social justice featured in The People Speak, whose lives are surely
of more interest to millions of Americans than the latest Twilight saga?
Clearly the talent exists, given the big-name stars who participated in
this project, but the stranglehold over the film industry by a few giant
corporations prevents such works from being made.
Above all, this documentary is a call to action. The final performance
is by Stacey Ann Chin, who performs the poem �The Low Road� by Marge
Piercy, an extremely moving invocation to the strength of solidarity.
The film ends with Bruce Springsteen performing Woody Guthrie�s �This
Land Is Your Land,� a reminder that this country does not belong to the
bankers, CEOs, and politicians, but rather, to ordinary, hard-working
Americans � if we get organized and fight for it.
Go out and buy the DVD when it�s released in January, and show it to as
many people as possible.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
Lord We�rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"
Anarcissie
In article <4B370F15...@columbia-center.org>,
Dan Clore <cl...@columbia-center.org> wrote:
> News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>
> [This was a great show.--DC]
>
> http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article21.php?id=1226
> Howard Zinn�s The People Speak: A People�s History on TV At Last
> Dec 26, 2009
> by Dan DiMaggio
>
> Socialist historian Howard Zinn�s documentary The People Speak, which
> premiered on the History Channel on December 13, is undoubtedly among
> the best programs in TV history.
>
> The People Speak is based on Zinn�s famous book A People�s History of
> the United States, which tells the story of the U.S. from the
> perspective of workers, slaves, African-Americans, women, Native
> Americans, immigrants, and LGBT people � rather than from the
> perspective of the businessmen, politicians, and generals, as is usually
> the case in school textbooks. The two-hour documentary features readings
> taken from the collection Voices of A People�s History of the United
> States, which brings together speeches and writings from social justice
> activists throughout U.S. history � from abolitionists and labor
> organizers to suffragettes and anti-war activists.
>
> The speeches are performed by a star-studded cast, including Matt Damon,
> Morgan Freeman, Jasmine Guy, Viggo Mortensen, Marisa Tomei, Danny
> Glover, Stacey Ann Chin, and Darryl McDaniels (of Run DMC). There are
> musical performances by Bob Dylan, John Legend, Eddie Vedder, and Bruce
> Springsteen. These are all tied together by Zinn�s narration, which
> explains the class struggles at the heart of U.S. history, as ordinary
> working people have fought for civil rights and a better life in the
> face of repression and exploitation by slaveowners, capitalists, and
> their political representatives.
>
> The documentary highlights immensely important lessons for anyone
> interested in achieving genuine change today in the age of Obama. The
> main message of The People Speak, as with Zinn�s other work, is that
> progressive change is achieved from below, by ordinary people who decide
> to act against injustice � not by Democratic politicians or �great men.�
> As the famous ex-slave and abolitionist activist Frederick Douglass put
> it, in a speech read by Don Cheadle in The People Speak, �Power concedes
> nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.�
>
> This is a particularly important message right now. Less than a year
> into his presidency, Obama has disappointed millions of his supporters
> who expected his administration to enact genuine change. Instead, we
> have gotten 50,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a growing military
> budget, more bailouts for the banks, a betrayal of labor�s hopes for
> EFCA, virtually no progress on LGBT rights, and a health care reform
> that will lack even a mild public option and throw billions more at the
> insurance companies. Millions are asking what happened, why the hopes
> they put in Obama are being dashed, and whether serious change can
> actually be achieved in the U.S.
>
> But as Zinn writes, �There's hardly anything more important that people
> can learn than the fact that the really critical thing isn't who is
> sitting in the White House, but who is sitting in�in the streets, in the
> cafeterias, in the halls of government, in the factories. Who is
> protesting, who is occupying offices and demonstrating�those are the
> things that determine what happens.� It is becoming clearer and clearer
> to many, after the first year of Obama�s presidency, that it is going to
> require independent action from below to achieve real change.
>
> The People Speak shows examples of this process in U.S. history. In
> particular, the example of the Great Depression and the FDR
> administration is a telling one. The documentary includes Danny Glover�s
> performance of Langston Hughes� poem �Ballad of Roosevelt,� which
> details the frustration faced by millions suffering from unemployment,
> eviction, and hunger during the Depression, who were �Waitin� on
> Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Roosevelt.� Zinn explains how action on these
> issues was only achieved owing to mass struggles, often led by
> socialists and other radicals. While numerous progressive reforms were
> enacted under FDR � from Social Security benefits, to massive public
> works programs, to aid to the unemployed � these were only achieved
> thanks to intense pressure from below, as workers went on strike,
> communities organized to stop evictions through direct action, and
> unemployed people marched on city halls and state governments to demand
> relief. There is gripping footage from the sit-down strike at General
> Motors in Flint, Michigan in the winter of 1936-1937, behind the words
> of strike leader Genora Johnson Dollinger, who organized a Women�s
> Auxiliary Brigade.
>
> Also particularly powerful was Matt Damon�s reading of the words of Tom
> Joad from John Steinbeck�s depression-era novel The Grapes of Wrath.
> This book should be at the top of reading lists in these times of
> double-digit unemployment, mass foreclosures, and skyrocketing hunger.
> Joad says, �I been thinkin� a hell of a lot, thinkin� about our people
> livin� like pigs, an� the good rich lan� layin� fallow, or maybe one
> fella with a million acres, while a hunderd thousan� good farmers is
> starvin�. An I been wonderin� if all our folks got together an� yelled,
> like them [rich] fellas yelled ��
>
> Joad�s words resonated, as we again and again see our government
> entirely beholden to the lobbyists of the banking, insurance,
> pharmaceutical, and war-profiteering industries, while workers are left
> without a voice. This points to the desperate need for working people
> and youth to organize a party of our own to challenge the
> corporate-dominated two-party system and give voice to our demands � for
> universal, affordable, not-for-profit health care, decent living wage
> jobs, affordable housing, an end to the wars, equal rights for LGBT
> people, an end to the racist war on drugs and police brutality, etc.
>
> Muhammad Ali�s explanation of his refusal to be drafted to fight in
> Vietnam, for which he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and stripped of
> his heavyweight title, is also included. Speaking out against the war in
> 1966, Ali said, �Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten
> thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in
> Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs
> and denied simple human rights?� Ironically, just weeks before
> announcing he was sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan to drop
> bombs and bullets on brown people there, President Obama wrote a tribute
> to Ali in USA Today, claiming him as one of his heroes.
>
> This is why Zinn�s documentary is so important, because it presents a
> history of resistance that has too often been hidden from high school
> textbooks and the corporate media.
>
> Corporate-Controlled Media
>
> The fact that this type of program so rarely makes it onto television,
> despite the hundreds of channels now in existence, exposes what a crime
> the corporate control over the media is. Instead of more inspiring
> documentaries about people who have made heroic sacrifices in the fight
> for a better world, we get shows like �Mall Cops� and �Survivor.� The
> media claims it is just giving the people what they want to see, but how
> many people really think there should be dozens of dating shows and
> almost never anything on the collective struggles of ordinary people
> that have shaped this country? The truth is, reality shows and other
> such programs are made because they are profitable and
> non-controversial, and thus popular with advertisers.
>
> Why has Hollywood never produced a movie about the life of Eugene Debs,
> or Sojourner Truth, or John Brown, or nearly any of the other fighters
> for social justice featured in The People Speak, whose lives are surely
> of more interest to millions of Americans than the latest Twilight saga?
> Clearly the talent exists, given the big-name stars who participated in
> this project, but the stranglehold over the film industry by a few giant
> corporations prevents such works from being made.
>
> Above all, this documentary is a call to action. The final performance
> is by Stacey Ann Chin, who performs the poem �The Low Road� by Marge
> Piercy, an extremely moving invocation to the strength of solidarity.
> The film ends with Bruce Springsteen performing Woody Guthrie�s �This
> Land Is Your Land,� a reminder that this country does not belong to the
> bankers, CEOs, and politicians, but rather, to ordinary, hard-working
> Americans � if we get organized and fight for it.
>
> Go out and buy the DVD when it�s released in January, and show it to as
> many people as possible.
Dan Clore
> I thought the Revolution was not going to be televised.
It wasn't -- just a simulacrum.
> In article <4B370F15...@columbia-center.org>, Dan Clore
> <cl...@columbia-center.org> wrote:
>
>> News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>>
>> [This was a great show.--DC]
>>
>> http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article21.php?id=1226
>> Howard Zinn�s The People Speak: A People�s History on TV At Last
>> Dec 26, 2009 by Dan DiMaggio
>>
>> Socialist historian Howard Zinn�s documentary The People Speak,
>> which premiered on the History Channel on December 13, is
>> undoubtedly among the best programs in TV history.
>>
>> The People Speak is based on Zinn�s famous book A People�s History
>> of the United States, which tells the story of the U.S. from the
>> perspective of workers, slaves, African-Americans, women, Native
>> Americans, immigrants, and LGBT people � rather than from the
>> perspective of the businessmen, politicians, and generals, as is
>> usually the case in school textbooks. The two-hour documentary
>> features readings taken from the collection Voices of A People�s
>> History of the United States, which brings together speeches and
>> writings from social justice activists throughout U.S. history �
>> from abolitionists and labor organizers to suffragettes and
>> anti-war activists.
>>
>> The speeches are performed by a star-studded cast, including Matt
>> Damon, Morgan Freeman, Jasmine Guy, Viggo Mortensen, Marisa Tomei,
>> Danny Glover, Stacey Ann Chin, and Darryl McDaniels (of Run DMC).
>> There are musical performances by Bob Dylan, John Legend, Eddie
>> Vedder, and Bruce Springsteen. These are all tied together by
>> Zinn�s narration, which explains the class struggles at the heart
>> of U.S. history, as ordinary working people have fought for civil
>> rights and a better life in the face of repression and exploitation
>> by slaveowners, capitalists, and their political representatives.
>>
>> The documentary highlights immensely important lessons for anyone
>> interested in achieving genuine change today in the age of Obama.
>> The main message of The People Speak, as with Zinn�s other work, is
>> that progressive change is achieved from below, by ordinary people
>> who decide to act against injustice � not by Democratic politicians
>> or �great men.� As the famous ex-slave and abolitionist activist
>> Frederick Douglass put it, in a speech read by Don Cheadle in The
>> People Speak, �Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never
>> did and it never will.�
>>
>> This is a particularly important message right now. Less than a
>> year into his presidency, Obama has disappointed millions of his
>> supporters who expected his administration to enact genuine change.
>> Instead, we have gotten 50,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a
>> growing military budget, more bailouts for the banks, a betrayal of
>> labor�s hopes for EFCA, virtually no progress on LGBT rights, and a
>> health care reform that will lack even a mild public option and
>> throw billions more at the insurance companies. Millions are asking
>> what happened, why the hopes they put in Obama are being dashed,
>> and whether serious change can actually be achieved in the U.S.
>>
>> But as Zinn writes, �There's hardly anything more important that
>> people can learn than the fact that the really critical thing isn't
>> who is sitting in the White House, but who is sitting in�in the
>> streets, in the cafeterias, in the halls of government, in the
>> factories. Who is protesting, who is occupying offices and
>> demonstrating�those are the things that determine what happens.� It
>> is becoming clearer and clearer to many, after the first year of
>> Obama�s presidency, that it is going to require independent action
>> from below to achieve real change.
>>
>> The People Speak shows examples of this process in U.S. history. In
>> particular, the example of the Great Depression and the FDR
>> administration is a telling one. The documentary includes Danny
>> Glover�s performance of Langston Hughes� poem �Ballad of
>> Roosevelt,� which details the frustration faced by millions
>> suffering from unemployment, eviction, and hunger during the
>> Depression, who were �Waitin� on Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Roosevelt.�
>> Zinn explains how action on these issues was only achieved owing to
>> mass struggles, often led by socialists and other radicals. While
>> numerous progressive reforms were enacted under FDR � from Social
>> Security benefits, to massive public works programs, to aid to the
>> unemployed � these were only achieved thanks to intense pressure
>> from below, as workers went on strike, communities organized to
>> stop evictions through direct action, and unemployed people marched
>> on city halls and state governments to demand relief. There is
>> gripping footage from the sit-down strike at General Motors in
>> Flint, Michigan in the winter of 1936-1937, behind the words of
>> strike leader Genora Johnson Dollinger, who organized a Women�s
>> Auxiliary Brigade.
>>
>> Also particularly powerful was Matt Damon�s reading of the words of
>> Tom Joad from John Steinbeck�s depression-era novel The Grapes of
>> Wrath. This book should be at the top of reading lists in these
>> times of double-digit unemployment, mass foreclosures, and
>> skyrocketing hunger. Joad says, �I been thinkin� a hell of a lot,
>> thinkin� about our people livin� like pigs, an� the good rich lan�
>> layin� fallow, or maybe one fella with a million acres, while a
>> hunderd thousan� good farmers is starvin�. An I been wonderin� if
>> all our folks got together an� yelled, like them [rich] fellas
>> yelled ��
>>
>> Joad�s words resonated, as we again and again see our government
>> entirely beholden to the lobbyists of the banking, insurance,
>> pharmaceutical, and war-profiteering industries, while workers are
>> left without a voice. This points to the desperate need for working
>> people and youth to organize a party of our own to challenge the
>> corporate-dominated two-party system and give voice to our demands
>> � for universal, affordable, not-for-profit health care, decent
>> living wage jobs, affordable housing, an end to the wars, equal
>> rights for LGBT people, an end to the racist war on drugs and
>> police brutality, etc.
>>
>> Muhammad Ali�s explanation of his refusal to be drafted to fight in
>> Vietnam, for which he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and
>> stripped of his heavyweight title, is also included. Speaking out
>> against the war in 1966, Ali said, �Why should they ask me to put
>> on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and
>> bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in
>> Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?�
>> Ironically, just weeks before announcing he was sending 30,000 more
>> troops to Afghanistan to drop bombs and bullets on brown people
>> there, President Obama wrote a tribute to Ali in USA Today,
>> claiming him as one of his heroes.
>>
>> This is why Zinn�s documentary is so important, because it presents
>> a history of resistance that has too often been hidden from high
>> school textbooks and the corporate media.
>>
>> Corporate-Controlled Media
>>
>> The fact that this type of program so rarely makes it onto
>> television, despite the hundreds of channels now in existence,
>> exposes what a crime the corporate control over the media is.
>> Instead of more inspiring documentaries about people who have made
>> heroic sacrifices in the fight for a better world, we get shows
>> like �Mall Cops� and �Survivor.� The media claims it is just giving
>> the people what they want to see, but how many people really think
>> there should be dozens of dating shows and almost never anything on
>> the collective struggles of ordinary people that have shaped this
>> country? The truth is, reality shows and other such programs are
>> made because they are profitable and non-controversial, and thus
>> popular with advertisers.
>>
>> Why has Hollywood never produced a movie about the life of Eugene
>> Debs, or Sojourner Truth, or John Brown, or nearly any of the other
>> fighters for social justice featured in The People Speak, whose
>> lives are surely of more interest to millions of Americans than the
>> latest Twilight saga? Clearly the talent exists, given the big-name
>> stars who participated in this project, but the stranglehold over
>> the film industry by a few giant corporations prevents such works
>> from being made.
>>
>> Above all, this documentary is a call to action. The final
>> performance is by Stacey Ann Chin, who performs the poem �The Low
>> Road� by Marge Piercy, an extremely moving invocation to the
>> strength of solidarity. The film ends with Bruce Springsteen
>> performing Woody Guthrie�s �This Land Is Your Land,� a reminder
>> that this country does not belong to the bankers, CEOs, and
>> politicians, but rather, to ordinary, hard-working Americans � if
>> we get organized and fight for it.
>>
>> Go out and buy the DVD when it�s released in January, and show it
>> to as many people as possible.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
Lord We�rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"