Alternative Radio on 08/24/10

Howard Zinn - Emma Goldman, Anarchism & War Resistance (lecture)

AR celebrates the life and legacy of America’s great historian Howard Zinn with a whole month of programs. Since its inception he was an integral part of AR. He was a friend and mentor to us and countless others. Howard Zinn would have been 88 on August 24th.

Emma Goldman is largely an unknown figure today. She deserves wider recognition. She was born in Lithuania and died in 1940. She spent many years as an organizer in the United States. She was a major anarchist thinker and activist as well as a passionate advocate for women’s rights.  Anarchism today is mostly viewed negatively. It’s seen as a synonym for disorder and chaos. Few recognize it as a political philosophy rooted in the ideals of the Enlightenment. Noam Chomsky calls it “the libertarian wing of socialism.” Anarchism not only opposes the institutions of state coercion and violence, it questions the very legitimacy of the state.

Howard Zinn passed away in January 2010. He was born in Brooklyn. His parents, poor immigrants, were constantly moving to stay, as he once said, “one step ahead of the landlord.” A World War Two vet and professor at Spelman College and Boston University, Zinn was at the center of activism and resistance from the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements to Iraq and Afghanistan and the struggle for economic justice.