Radical historian Howard Zinn criticizes the Obama machine

The recent presidential election in the United States saw millions of African-Americans show up to the polls, some for the first time in history, to cast their ballot for President-elect Barack Obama.

But according to noted historian and author Howard Zinn, the election of a black man to the highest office would not have been possible without the struggle of many in the civil rights movement during the 1960s.

“There has been progress in racial consciousness,” he said. “We need those people who came out enthusiastically for Obama to build a great new social movement.” 

Zinn, who spoke at UQAM on Nov. 19, encourages Americans to get actively involved in their country and not be passive observers as their government wages war in the name of “liberty and democracy”, which since 9/11 has come to be associated with the Bush administration’s agenda in the Middle East.

“Obama said we must get out of Iraq, but more importantly we must get out of the mindset that got us into Iraq,” Zinn said. “But Obama doesn’t show the signs of somebody who’s escaped that mindset.”

Zinn believes that putting too much faith into one politician can lead to serious disappointment and as author of ‘A People’s History of the United States’, he’s documented how many popular presidents have gone on to neglect the people and serve other interests.

“In the U.S. we grow up with the idea that we have the same interests, that the government and the people are all one,” he said. “For the most part the government has represented only one interest."

Calling America a “military state”, Zinn talks frankly about how his nation came to be from a slave holding colony to the imperial world power that it is today.

“It all started with the constitution of the U.S.,” he said. “It was adopted to build a strong central government.”

And also Zinn notes the many different types of class struggle, most of which go unnoticed in modern-day history text books, from the abolitionists and their fight to end slavery to the labour movement and strikes for the eight-hour workday.

“We don’t learn about this in the U.S., we learn the glories of the [American] revolution,” he said. “There was class conflict before, during and after the American revolution.”

According to Zinn, the only way for Americans to make this change being talked about since the election of Obama is by taking a closer look at the Declaration of Independence, where it states “governments are artificial creations set up by the people to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” he recites. “And it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.”

Of course with Obama’s support of the economic stimulus package for Wall Street put forth by outgoing-President Bush, Americans are starting to wonder what bold actions will be taken by their new leader.

“We should take that $700 billion and not give it to the financial institutions, because that money should be given directly to people who need it.” Zinn said. “We shouldn’t stand for a system that gives to the rich while others remain poor.”