A People’s History of the United States author Howard Zinn urged a crowded Mandel Hall to take action against injustice in a conversation about social activism Saturday.
Though his talk kicked off the citywide Campaign to End the Death Penalty over the weekend, Zinn’s view on the death penalty was only one of many liberal viewpoints he shared. Soldiers receive commendation for killing in times of war, Zinn said, while the judicial system puts Americans away in droves for the same actions.
Dave Zirin, a progressive writer for Sports Illustrated and The Nation, moderated the talk, which included Darby Tillis, the first exonerated death-row inmate in Illinois, and Lawrence Hayes, a Black Panther. Zirin wrote A People’s History of Sports in the United States, an homage to Zinn’s history of underrepresented classes since the nation’s founding.
Zinn urged the audience to remain skeptical toward the government, especially when considering the death penalty. “I don’t trust the states, the government, the judicial system,” Zinn said. “These people are not fit to make [capital punishment] judgments.”
Zirin asked both serious and humorous questions of Zinn throughout the panel. “This will be like Frost/Nixon except I’m not British and he’s not evil,” Zirin said.
Several audience members wore shirts reading, “I Am Troy Davis,” a criminal defendant sentenced to death in 1991. Davis’s sister, Martina Correia, was present; she said that seven of the nine trial witnesses have recanted their original testimonials since the trial, but Davis still remains on death row. “We have to be determined, not deterred, and be in it for the long fight like Howard Zinn,” she said, referring to Zinn’s long career as a civil rights activist.
Zinn also voiced his opinions on the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he called “unjust wars against children.” Zinn pointed to the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, last week as “a demonstration of what war does to people.” He compared the shooting to statistics that claim more Vietnam veterans have died as a result of suicide than combat.
Zinn, a self-avowed socialist, called capitalism “a total failure,” which prompted Zirin to riff on the University’s famed free-market scholar Milton Friedman. “How great is it we’re doing this at the University of Chicago,” Zirin said. “Milton Friedman is not very happy.”
A People’s History focused on historical examples not usually taught in classrooms, such as Chicago’s Haymarket Riots, Zinn said, instead of stories more favorable to the political elite. “If you want to study history, don’t go to school, go to the library instead,” Zinn said. “Especially not the University of Chicago.”
In a closing statement, Zinn encouraged the young audience members to embrace activism. “It’s fun to be in a social movement with other people who think and feel the way you do. It’s fun, it’s fulfilling. So whether you win or lose, in the meantime, you win.”
The talk was co-sponsored by the Organization of Black Students, the Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and the Illinois Socialist Organization.
This was a great event. Serving 28 years in prison for a crime that I did not do and coming out to this, it was the best. Howard Zinn kept everyone laughing and he spoke truth on all levels. Dave Zirin ask Zinn the questions in which I feel the people viewing this event wanted to hear. As National Board member of the CEDP, this was a event in which we put alot of hard work into. Thanks is well needed to be given to Marlene, Lee, Noreen, and
all who work so hard on this event.
“Zinn also voiced his opinions on the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he called ‘unjust wars against children.’ ”
Mullah Omar couldn’t have said it better himself. Presumably, Zinn would like to see ISAF forces completely evacuated from Afghanistan and permit restored Taliban rule. And when the Taliban splashes a young girl’s face with acid for learning how to read, would Zinn consider that an “unjust war against children?”
The Bush administration’s handling of the Afghan War was criminal. It focused on destroying apartment blocks with aerial missile strikes in order to kill militants, but not on rebuilding the destroyed villages. Liberals and “leftists” like Zinn have it all wrong by advocating against continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan. The point is not to invest less in the country, but invest more.
In response to C.M.:
Your argument for the US to ‘invest more’ in Afghanistan ends up supporting the US occupation. It is you who have it wrong. Advocating US withdrawl from Afghanistan is a principle we cannot break. It does not assume support for the Taliban. US progressives should support neither the Taliban nor the Karzi puppet warlord government – support for the democratic aspirations of the regular people of Afghanistan is deserved and you want to postpone that date by advocating continued occupation.
Ben,
I don’t “support” the Taliban or the Karzai government in principle, but the reality is that we are faced with that dichotomy. I’d love to see the “democratic aspirations of the regular people of Afghanistan” realized more than you know, and if such a democratic, secular, socialistic movement in Afghanistan existed, I would support it. However, no such movement exists and we have to choose the lesser of two evils. Sticking to the principle of supporting neither side means supporting the Taliban, because they would reconquer the country in the absence of ISAF support for the government in Kabul. And there is no dispute that the Taliban is much worse than Karzai – it’s a difference great enough worth fighting for.