Resistance

Excerpts from a speech by Howard Zinn which was given in Madison, Wis.

This is an edited version of a speech by historian/activist Howard Zinn. OK, I am a little biased and hope you will see Deb Ellis' and my film about Prof. Zinn, which is being shown across the country. --Denis Mueller

There are wonderful signs of resistance all over the world, resistance to authority, resistance to governments, resistance to war. It makes me feel good when I pick up the paper and I see that seventeen Israeli pilots are refusing to fly missions any more.

You forget what power people have. Did you see that picture of that woman from Nigeria who was going to be stoned to death because of a sexual escapade? There was a worldwide protest against that, and the Nigerian government had to back down. People forget how powerful protest is, and how actually vulnerable these presumably powerful entities really are when people get together. We've seen this happen again and again in places where the all-powerful government wakes up in the morning and there are a million people in the streets, and that's it.

I'm hopeful when I hear those stories. All over this country there are people who are resisting and speaking out. I do a lot of traveling, and I even go to places other than Madison. I've heard you shouldn't only go to Madison; you'll get a distorted view of the country. In early April, I went to Athens, Georgia. When I lived in Atlanta, I looked at Athens, Georgia, and I said, whoa. Athens was where the Daughters of the Confederacy were. But now Athens, Georgia, has a radical columnist writing for the main Athens newspaper. This radical columnist makes me feel inadequate, makes me feel almost liberal. And I go to Athens, Georgia, and 800 people show up, and I give my rap against the war, and the reaction is enthusiastic. And I thought, wow, something is happening.

That's what happened during the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the Vietnam War, two-thirds of the American people were in favor of the Vietnam War. A few years later, two-thirds of the American people were against the war.

How did that happen? People became de-bamboozled. They began to learn more and more what was going on. Where is the Gulf of Tonkin? Who knows? But as people went to teach-ins and underground newspapers gave out their information, even the mainstream media put the story out after it was broken in the alternative media.

You know the Pentagon told Dan Rather, they heard he had these pictures of the torture, and they said, "Would you delay?" And Dan Rather said, "OK." This is not what independent journalists are supposed to do. You're not supposed to bow down before the Pentagon.

Fortunately, we have people all over the country spreading the word. We have people protesting, and we have people going on trial and being acquitted by juries when the jury hears what they did.

Have you heard of the St. Patrick's Four? Of course not. They aren't going to tell you about the St. Patrick's Four. The St. Patrick's Four were four people from the Catholic peace movement who, on St. Patrick's Day last year, poured their blood around at a military recruiting station in Ithaca, New York, and they were put on trial. It was clear what they did. They said, we did this and this is why we did it. And the jury refused to convict. It was a hung jury.

So, I'm hopeful about the future of this country based on the idea that people have a certain common decency and that when they learn the truth, the truth has a power that can overcome even the most sophisticated of propaganda machines that the government has and the media collaborate with.

I feel confident--well, I won't talk about the elections, because the important thing is social movements--I feel confident for a future of this country. We are going to see the emergence and growth of a great social movement which has the possibility of changing the character of this country into a place that we can proud of.