Coming of age in the wake of Watergate, in the waning days of the Vietnam War, the student movement of the Sixties made a great impression on me, even if only a bit after the fact. Contrary to conventional wisdom, that
Posts tagged ‘history’
For Tom Hayden
by Jeffrey Hearn, posted on Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 10:36 am
Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick on the Untold History of the United States from the Atomic Age to Obama’s Drone War
by The Editors, posted on Friday, November 16th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
from Democracy Now!
Part One
Academy Award-winning Oliver Stone has teamed up with historian Peter Kuznick to produce a 10-part Showtime series called, “Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States.” Drawing on archival findings and recently declassified documents, the filmmakers critically examine U.S. history — from the atomic bombing of Japan, to the Cold War, to the fall of Communism, and continuing all the way through to the Obama administration. Contrary to what’s taught in schools across the country, the filmmakers found the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were militarily unnecessary and morally indefensible.
Part Two
Stone and Kuznick also suggest the Soviet Union, not the United States, ultimately defeated the Germans in World War II. And, they assert the United States, not the Soviet Union, bore the lion’s share of responsibility for perpetuating the Cold War. The filmmakers also found U.S. presidents, especially in wartime, have frequently trampled on the Constitution and international law, and they note the United States has brought the world dangerously close to nuclear war by repeatedly brandishing nuclear threats. The first episode of the series aired Monday night on Showtime. For more about this series and the companion book, we are joined by Stone and Kuznick
Financialization and the World Economy
by n0madic, posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2012 at 7:36 pmGerald Epstein, Political Economy Research Institute, and Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst): Financialization of the economy has been developing since the late 19th century and is now at historic Levels
What does labor need to do to make a comeback?
by n0madic, posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 at 3:27 pmfrom The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann (RT)
Bill Fletcher, Jr., AFGE/activist, joins Thom Hartmann. Ronald Reagan may be a Republican hero – but he’s played the role of the villain to American workers for over three decades. How has the American worker suffered over the last 30 plus years – and how can we stop the war on unions that’s been plaguing America?
Roundtable: After 1 Year, OWS Gives Voice to Resistance of Mass Debt and Widening Inequality
by n0madic, posted on Monday, September 17th, 2012 at 8:53 pmfrom Democracy Now!
The Occupy Wall Street movement is largely credited for reframing the national dialogue on economic inequality and popularizing the phrase: “We are the 99 percent.” We host a roundtable with Frances Fox Piven, an author and professor at City University of New York who has studied social movements for decades; Nathan Schneider, editor of the blog Waging Nonviolence, which has extensively covered the Occupy movement; and Suzanne Collado, an organizer with Occupy Wall Street since its inception and member of the group “Strike Debt,” an effort to organize a mass upsurge of debt resistance.
Labor Day Parade, Aurora, 1912
by n0madic, posted on Saturday, September 1st, 2012 at 6:30 pm
click on the images to see larger size
“Be Honest About the History of Our Country”: Remembering the Historian Howard Zinn at 90
by n0madic, posted on Friday, August 24th, 2012 at 1:40 pmfrom Democracy Now!
“People have the power. If they begin to organize, if they protest, if they create a strong enough movement, they can change things.” — Howard Zinn
The late historian, writer and activist Howard Zinn would have turned 90 years old today. Zinn died of a heart attack at the age of 87 on January 27, 2010. After serving as a bombardier in World War II, Zinn went on to become a lifelong dissident and peace activist. He was active in the civil rights movement and many of the struggles for social justice over the past 50 years. In 1980, Howard Zinn published his classic book, “A People’s History of the United States,” which would go on to sell more than a million copies and change the way we look at history in America. We air an excerpt of a Zinn interview on Democracy Now! from May 2009, and another from one of his last speeches later that year, just two months before his death.
Found Objects for a Friday Afternoon: Gore Vidal on the History of the National Security State
by n0madic, posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2012 at 11:00 amThe legendary author discusses his thesis on the construction of the national security state.
Gar Alperovitz’s Green Party Keynote: We Are Laying Groundwork for “Next Great Revolution”
by n0madic, posted on Monday, July 16th, 2012 at 8:15 pmfrom Democracy Now!
At the Green Party’s 2012 National Convention in Baltimore over the weekend, Massachusetts physician Jill Stein and anti-poverty campaigner Cheri Honkala were nominated the party’s presidential and vice-presidential contenders. We air the convention’s keynote address delivered by Gar Alperovitz, a professor of political economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. Alperovitz is the author of, “America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.” In his remarks, Alperovitz stressed the importance of third-party politics to challenge a corporate-run society. “Systems in history are defined above all by who controls the wealth,” Alperovitz says. “The top 400 people own more wealth now than the bottom 185 million Americans taken together. That is a medieval structure.”
For more from Gar Alperovitz, click here.
David Harvey on Urban Uprisings From Occupy Wall Street to Paris Commune
by n0madic, posted on Monday, April 30th, 2012 at 10:19 amfrom Democracy Now!
On Tuesday, May 1st, known as May Day or International Workers Day, Occupy Wall Street protesters hope to mobilize tens of thousands of people across the country under the slogan, “General Strike. No Work. No Shopping. Occupy Everywhere.” Events are planned in 125 cities. We speak with leading social theorist David Harvey, distinguished professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, about how Occupy Wall Street compares to other large-scale grassroots movements throughout modern history. His most recent book is “Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution.”
