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_
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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"