People’s present
>>American historian and activist
Howard Zinn ponders President-Elect
Obama’s positions on peace and imperial power
CAUTIOUSLY HOPEFUL: Zinn
by MATT JONES
Few people are as unimpressed with the Bush presidency and the war in Iraq as American social historian, playwright and anti-war activist Howard Zinn. An opponent of U.S. military interventions since Vietnam, Zinn got his distaste for war after running high altitude bombing raids over Europe in World War II. Meeting survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki later convinced him that the disconnect between military decisions and their consequences on the ground inevitably brought with it massive, unnecessary suffering and devastation. He would spend the ’60s and ’70s forging his academic career and agitating against the Vietnam War.
In 1980, Zinn published his pièce de résistance, A People’s History of the United States, a grand survey of everything usually left unsaid in the triumphalism of mainstream American history, from the decimation of native populations during colonization through slavery and up to the invasion of Iraq. But the book doesn’t just dwell on the negative. Zinn’s real strength is as a storyteller, and his book uses anecdotes to tell the stories of slave revolts, strikes by garment workers and anti-conscription riots. The book has now sold over a million copies in its multiple variations, the latest of which is a graphic novel version called A People’s History of American Empire (Metropolitan Books, 2008). A documentary based on the book—featuring narrators such as Danny Glover and Viggo Mortensen and music by the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder—will likely premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Mirror: So, there’s a new guy moving into the White House. What do you make of that?
Howard Zinn: All of us [in the progressive movement] were really terrified of a McCain victory, and with an Obama victory, we are cautiously hopeful. Knowing that Obama has a lot of shortcomings in his foreign and domestic policies, there’s a slight opening that could be filled with traditional conservative, old-line Democrats—which would be a disaster—or it could be filled by all those young, enthusiastic Obama supporters rushing into that opening and demanding that Obama not move toward the centre, as he has been doing, but move towards a more progressive agenda.
Spare change
M: Does this election change anything for the American empire?
HZ: Not clear yet. The American empire is something that has been supported and advanced by every president of the United States since the beginning. So Obama has a very difficult job if he intends to change that. Of course, the time is right for him to change that because the American empire, after a long, long period of expansion, is now going to start a period of decline. If he is going to go with the flow of history and with the flow of morality, then he will speed that decline and call a halt to American military expansion in the world and declare that America does not want to be an imperial power, that America wants to be a peace-loving nation.
M: Can you see him doing that?
HZ: That is a very bold agenda. After all, Obama said we’re willing to withdraw our troops from Iraq—although at a rather slow pace—but he wants to send troops to Afghanistan. Obama talks about having a larger military force. He’s even talked about attacking Pakistan. So Obama does not give the signs that he is someone who is ready to dismantle the American empire.
M: Do you think there’s a risk the American left will become complacent now that there’s a “good guy” in office?
HZ: It’s easier to mobilize people against a government that is obviously terrible, like the Bush administration. On the other hand, when you have an administration that is as Draconian and as threatening as the Bush administration, it also intimidates people and makes them cynical. With somebody like Obama, there’s a possibility that people will sit back and say, “Well we’ve elected the man we wanted, now let him do what he wants.” But there’s also a possibility that when people who have wanted Obama in office in order to get us out of war and in order to make fundamental changes in our economic program, when these people see that there’s no real change, then maybe they will be ready to mobilize in a movement that demands such change.
And then:
HOWARD ZINN SPEAKS AT UQÀM’S JUDITHJASMIN
PAVILION (405 STE-CATHERINE E.,
MARIE-GÉRIN-LAJOIE ROOM) ON
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 19, 7:30 P.M.
(DOORS: 6:45 P.M.), FREE. DONATIONS
WILL BE COLLECTED TO SUPPORT
LOCAL ACTIVISTS—SEE
LUXEDITEUR.COM FOR DETAILS. 
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