In french: Howard Zinn nous a quittés (article suivi de nombreux liens)

“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience.“ Howard Zinnn

"You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train

Howard Zinn Dead, Author Of 'People's History Of The United States' Died At 87

Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist "A People's History of the United States" became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts and a favorite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87.

Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Mass.

Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, "A People's History" was – fittingly – a people's best-seller, attracting a wide audience through word of mouth and reaching 1 million sales in 2003. Although Zinn was writing for a general readership, his book was taught in high schools and colleges throughout the country, and numerous companion editions were published, including "Voices of a People's History," a volume for young people and a graphic novel

"I can't think of anyone who had such a powerful and benign influence," said the linguist and fellow activist Noam Chomsky, a close friend of Zinn's. "His historical work changed the way millions of people saw the past."

At a time when few politicians dared even call themselves liberal, "A People's History" told an openly left-wing story. Zinn charged Christopher Columbus and other explorers with genocide, picked apart presidents from Andrew Jackson to Franklin D. Roosevelt and celebrated workers, feminists and war resisters.

Even liberal historians were uneasy with Zinn. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. once said: "I know he regards me as a dangerous reactionary. And I don't take him very seriously. He's a polemicist, not a historian."

In a 1998 interview with The Associated Press, Zinn acknowledged he was not trying to write an objective history, or a complete one. He called his book a response to traditional works, the first chapter – not the last – of a new kind of history.

"There's no such thing as a whole story; every story is incomplete," Zinn said. "My idea was the orthodox viewpoint has already been done a thousand times."

"A People's History" had some famous admirers, including Matt Damon and Affleck. The two grew up near Zinn, were family friends and gave the book a plug in their Academy Award-winning screenplay for "Good Will Hunting." When Affleck nearly married Jennifer Lopez, Zinn was on the guest list.

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"He taught me how valuable – how necessary dissent was to democracy and to America itself," Affleck said in a statement. "He taught that history was made by the everyman, not the elites. I was lucky enough to know him personally and I will carry with me what I learned from him – and try to impart it to my own children – in his memory."

Oliver Stone was a fan, as well as Springsteen, whose bleak "Nebraska" album was inspired in part by "A People's History." The book was the basis of a 2007 documentary, "Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind," and even showed up on "The Sopranos," in the hand of Tony's son, A.J.

Zinn himself was an impressive-looking man, tall and rugged with wavy hair. An experienced public speaker, he was modest and engaging in person, more interested in persuasion than in confrontation.

Born in New York in 1922, Zinn was the son of Jewish immigrants who as a child lived in a rundown area in Brooklyn and responded strongly to the novels of Charles Dickens. At age 17, urged on by some young Communists in his neighborhood, he attended a political rally in Times Square.

"Suddenly, I heard the sirens sound, and I looked around and saw the policemen on horses galloping into the crowd and beating people. I couldn't believe that," he told the AP.

"And then I was hit. I turned around and I was knocked unconscious. I woke up sometime later in a doorway, with Times Square quiet again, eerie, dreamlike, as if nothing had transpired. I was ferociously indignant. ... It was a very shocking lesson for me."

War continued his education. Eager to help wipe out the Nazis, Zinn joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 and even persuaded the local draft board to let him mail his own induction notice. He flew missions throughout Europe, receiving an Air Medal, but he found himself questioning what it all meant. Back home, he gathered his medals and papers, put them in a folder and wrote on top: "Never again."

He attended New York University and Columbia University, where he received a doctorate in history. In 1956, he was offered the chairmanship of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, an all-black women's school in then-segregated Atlanta.

During the civil rights movement, Zinn encouraged his students to request books from the segregated public libraries and helped coordinate sit-ins at downtown cafeterias. Zinn also published several articles, including a then-rare attack on the Kennedy administration for being too slow to protect blacks.

He was loved by students – among them a young Alice Walker, who later wrote "The Color Purple" – but not by administrators. In 1963, Spelman fired him for "insubordination." (Zinn was a critic of the school's non-participation in the civil rights movement.) His years at Boston University were marked by opposition to the Vietnam War and by feuds with the school's president, John Silber.

Zinn retired in 1988, spending his last day of class on the picket line with students in support of an on-campus nurses' strike. Over the years, he continued to lecture at schools and to appear at rallies and on picket lines.

"The happy thing about Howard was that in the last years he could gain satisfaction that his contributions were so impressive and recognized," Chomsky said. "He could hardly keep up with all the speaking invitations."

Besides "A People's History," Zinn wrote several books, including "The Southern Mystique," "LaGuardia in Congress" and the memoir, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train," the title of a 2004 documentary about Zinn that Damon narrated. He also wrote three plays.

One of Zinn's last public writings was a brief essay, published last week in The Nation, about the first year of the Obama administration.

"I've been searching hard for a highlight," he wrote, adding that he wasn't disappointed because he never expected a lot from Obama.

"I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president – which means, in our time, a dangerous president – unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction."

Zinn's longtime wife and collaborator, Roslyn, died in 2008. They had two children, Myla and Jeff.

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About "xxi century"- film featuring chomsky,zinn... (critics+film's+trailers)

Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

Howard zinn lecture at university of connecticut (videos)

A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn

Howard zinn's "three holy wars" (2009 conference, 36' 50)

Noam chomsky, howard zinn, and michael albert on dn (2007)

Arundhati roy new book: is there life after democracy? Arundhati roy and howard Zinn (40')

Irak, retrait immédiat, livre d'anthony arnove* Howard Zinn postface

L'émission de Daniel Mermet consacrée à Howard Zinn: http://www.la-bas.org/article.php3?id_article=1847#forum13343

Par le Dr Jean-Pierre Willem

Rachel Corrie was assassinated in the Gaza Strip in Palestine on March 16, 2003, trying to prevent the demolition of the home of a Palestinian family.

Le 16 mars 2003, Rachel Corrie, étudiante de 23 ans, fut écrasée volontairement par un bulldozer Caterpillar de l'armée israélienne à Rafah, alors qu'elle essayait avec d'autres militants de son organisation, d'arrêter pacifiquement la démolition de la maison d'un médecin palestinien.

In Memoriam ~ Rachel Corrie ~ 1979 - 2003 envoyé par 54fiorentino54


Photo prise entre 15 et 16 h par Joseph Smith (ISM). On voit que Rachel est clairement visible avec sa veste orange. Elle parle au conducteur du bulldozer avec un mégaphone et lui demande de ne pas démolir la maison.








http://www.rachelcorrie.org/
http://www.ism-france.org/news/article.php?id=821&type=temoignage&lesujet=Victimes%20ISM
Voir les photos de l’assassinat de Rachel Corrie

Théodore André Monod ( 1902-2000) 




"Le Naturaliste voyageur Théodore Monod est avant tout le scientifique et l’explorateur du plus grand désert du monde, le Sahara.

Né en 1902 à Rouen, fils de pasteur, le jeune Théodore devient très vite un élève brillant dont la passion s’affirme au cours de son adolescence pour les sciences naturelles.

À 20 ans, en 1922 devenu naturaliste au Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris, il est envoyé sur les côtes de Mauritanie pour y étudier les poissons. Il découvre alors le désert saharien.




À la fin de sa mission au lieu de retourner directement par bateau en France, il décide de partir de Port Étienne à St Louis à dromadaire à travers la Mauritanie. Un itinéraire de 800  kms. De ce jour, un méhariste était né et le continent africain ne cesserait de le fasciner durant plus de 70 ans.

Sa curiosité insatiable le conduit à parcourir des milliers de kilomètres à travers le Sahara et à réaliser la première géologie de l’Adrar de Mauritanie.

En 1940, ses découvertes en botanique, en préhistoire, en zoologie le poussent à fonder à Dakar un organisme scientifique, l’Institut Français d’Afrique Noire.


L’IFAN regroupe de nombreux scientifiques afin de récolter des données sur le continent africain afin de mieux le faire connaître.

Membre de l’Académie des Sciences, Théodore Monod sera très tôt reconnu par ses pairs. Il ne sera découvert du grand public qu’en 1989, grâce au film « le vieil homme et le désert », réalisé par Karel Prokop.

Pour la première fois sur le petit écran, les téléspectateurs découvriront cet homme passionné parcourant les dunes à la recherche de la fameuse météorite de Chinguetti en Mauritanie.

Théodore Monod est l’auteur de nombreux ouvrages dont le plus célèbre est Méharées.

En novembre 2000, à 98 ans, Théodore Monod le scientifique, l’humaniste et l’homme de foi passe sur l’autre rive nous laissant le souvenir d’un des savants les plus doués et le plus attachant du vingtième siècle." ( http://www.theodoremonod.com)

Pour nous Theodore Monod, c'est aussi l'homme de Paix de tous les combats : contre le nucléaire civil et militaire (il jeûnait tous les ans à Taverny pour commémorer Hiroshima), pour le respect des animaux (il était végétarien, anti-corrida, anti-vivisection)...

September 13, 2008
www.votenader.org

Source: fogcityjournal.com

Peter Miguel Camejo, a civil rights leader, socially responsible investment pioneer, and magnanimo caballero for third party politics in the US, peacefully passed away early Saturday morning at his home in Folsom, CA with his wife Morella at his side -- only days after completing his autobiography.

The 68-year-old justice fighter had been battling a reoccurrence of lymphoma cancer, and his condition had rapidly deteriorated over the past few days.

Peter was a student leader, civil rights advocate, leader in the socially responsible investment industry with his own investment firm, Progressive Asset Management, Inc., and author of books on investment and history including Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877, The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction, California Under Corporate Rule, and his recent book, The SRI Advantage: Why Socially Responsible Investing Has Outperformed Financially.

Peter used his eloquence, sharp wit, and barnstorming bravado to blaze a trail for 21st century third party politics in the US. He was a third party candidate for state and national office, making three gubernatorial runs in California as a Green, including one in the 2002 election when he earned 5.3 percent of the vote. In the 2003 recall election, he debated Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis, and in the 2004 Presidential election, he was my running mate on our Independent Ticket.

Among the many causes Peter forcefully championed were a living wage, healthcare for all, and making the US the world leader in renewable energy. He was also a passionate advocate for electoral reform, pressing for proportional representation and instant run-off voting (allows voters to rank their top choices) in an effort to overturn the "200-year-old dysfunctional money-dominated winner take-all system that disrespects the will of the people."

Peter was a friend, colleague and politically courageous champion of the downtrodden and mistreated of the entire Western Hemisphere. Everyone who met Peter, talked with Peter, worked with Peter, or argued with Peter, will miss the passing of a great American.

Peter Camejo is survived by his wife Morella, his father Daniel, his daughter Alexandra, his son Victor, three brothers Antonio, Daniel, and Danny, and three grandchildren Andrew, Daniel, and Oliver.

When his autobiography (with the working title Northstar) is published, we will all be able to get a vivid sense of the great measure of Peter Camejo as a sentinel force for civil rights and civil liberties, and expander of democracy. His lifework will inspire the political and economic future for a long time.

Click here to view Peter Camejo at this summer's California Peace and Freedom Party convention, endorsing the nomination of Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez.