Howard Zinn a Student and Faculty Discussion (WB V. V)

The Weekly Beast Volume V (Originally Appeared in the Lariat 3/10/10)

Will Hunting paces around his psychologist’s office. He scans the book case and notices a rather generic book title, he breaks the silence, "A History of the United States, Volume I," he pauses as he continues on examining the large bookcase, “If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States." This quote is from the 1997 film Good Will Hunting which won the Academy Award for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck who wrote the original script. Howard Zinn was already 73 years of age when this film was produced, and was still actively speaking at college campuses and penning best-selling works on politics and history. If one were to open up the Los Angeles Times a month ago perhaps on the 7th page in or so you’d run into a standard 6 inch obituary-Howard Zinn’s name was on it. Howard Zinn passed away January 27th in Santa Monica, California he was 87 years old. America has truly lost someone invaluable. But what does his death mean to students and teachers?



I sat down with students and professors here at Saddleback to discuss who Zinn was for them. I walked into Professor Mike Merrifield's office first, being the fire-brand radical that he is he seemed delighted to discuss Zinn and his impact on society. He compared Zinn's writing to his own field of expertise, Anthropology. "In Anthropology one of the things we do is break down mythologies, and that's what he's done in his historical work." Merrifield went on to talk about his first exposures to Zinn and his thoughts. He first heard Zinn on KPFK 90.7 FM about twenty years ago. If hed had to sum up Zinn's greatest achievement he stated that other than his particular account of the history of the people of the United States, "Howard stayed true to form. He held to his principles."



After talking to a few faculty members in the Social Sciences department an e-mail and a phone call later I found myself sitting in Professor David DiLeo's office 24 hours later. As soon as I got comfortable and spat out my first question someone came rapping at the door. Chris Rouse a fellow history student walked in. We all exchanged short greetings and got down to business. Professor Dileo continued responding to my question regarding Zinn's importance to students. According to Dileo Zinn's writings are important because, "the story he tells is more reflective of their lives-He's writing books about working class people which is congruent to the lives of students." However he did mention that he wanted to distance himself from his younger more "impressionable" colleagues by declaring that he is no "Zinn Cultist." I decided to kill two birds with one stone and ask for Chris' opinion as well. I told Chris I was recording to let him know that what was saying was on the record. I asked him why Howard Zinn was important to students. His response was eloqent and well put: "He paid attention to people who are ignored. He gave a voice to those who are traditionally voiceless."



I decided to interview two other students. Jon Raissi, a transferring Anthropology major commented on his first experiences of Zinn. "Initially I was assigned to read Voice's of a People's History by one of my history professor. I was blown away by his ability to narrate the history of American dissent in such an in-depth way." Jon went on to talk of Zinn as a pioneer of alternative history writing. A Geography major by the name of Nika Daroui age twenty spoke highly of Zinn stating that "Howard Zinn has made me question everything I learned about history during high school." She articulated Zinn's difficulty as a historian stating that he was a historian with a definite perspective presented in a very neutral way. Professor Andrew Dzida was next on my hit list of interviewees. Professor Dzida teaches Philosophy at Saddleback. We discussed his first experiences, and lasting impressions of the historian. "I saw him interviewed a while back on Bill Moyers." Dzida revealed that he hadn't heard Zinn speak much until recently, he said he'd been meaning to read The People's History of the United States for a quite some time. He did mention that he saw bits and pieces of "The People Speak." Recently Zinn along with Matt Damon produced The People Speak a series of dramatic performances of political speeches and dissenting poetry. Dzida elaborated on his feelings about the film, "He got me thinking about social justice issues in general-even the ethical question of fair wages, or living wages."



Many pundits on the right would love to dismiss Howard Zinn as a mere polemicist. Some people have gone as far as trying to rob Zinn of his well-earned title as a historian. (see Sean Wilentz’ contribution to the LA Times’ posthumous panel discussion of Zinn) No matter how people try to distort the memory of the man one thing is undeniable he was truly a historian of the people. His landmark work, A People’s History of the United States sold over two million copies, and is on many professors syllabi across the country as required reading for U.S. History classes. The text is mostly interested in dismantling what is normally thought of as history, (e.g. glorified nationalistic fairy tales excluding regular people from the process of making history). Howard Zinn wanted to bring to light those who were marginalized, distorted or omitted from the pages of history: women, feminists, socialists, anti-war resisters during World War I, and World War II, and the working-class. Zinn’s most important lesson may be ,"If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday."

UCI Students Take the Streets! (WB V. IV)

The Weekly Beast Volume IV (was meant to appear in the Lariat edition 3/10/10, however due to space limitations it did not)


To many students and faculty at the University of California Irvine the events of March 4 were a complete surprise. A group of over 600 people made up of students, workers, union members, professors, political activists, and the occasional passerby marched through the UCI campus. They were armed with voices, with drums, with picket signs, with posters, and discontent. The marches we're not strictly limited to college campuses some made their way from uptown to downtown, and some such as the Los Angeles Unified School District were teacher-led strikes. March 4 was a day chosen months ago in October as a "day of action" by multiple campus student groups, and adjacent political activist groups in a large general assembly held at UC Berkeley. Over 29 other states alongside California planned to make March 4 memorable.

The aim of this action, as acknowledged by all the groups that formed the student coalition in Irvine was to draw attention to and voice anger about the UC Regent's decision to raise tuition a devastating 32%. Raul Perez a UCI Sociology graduate student stated some the reasons why students were marching, “this is a crisis and it’s not going away, there are real structural problems with the UC system and capitalism, these conditions force people into action.” On top of the increase there have been state-wide furlough days which essentially amounts to professors taking pay cuts in their salaries. Eric a current grad student at UCI majoring in Visual Studies summarized the days events positively saying, “this is a real testimony to the fact that students are interested in change-groups are coming together in recognizing the need for public education as a public good.”

The first hundred or so student activists gathered at the flagpoles in front of the administration building at UC Irvine. Many students were weary that this would be the only people to protest in Irvine that day. 40 minutes later however the plaza was teaming with over 300 students. They marched throughout the entire looping campus. Aldrich Hall, the science department, the Langston Library, dormitories, study and lecture halls across campus all heard numerous chants throughout the day. "They say 'cut back' we say 'fight back!'" was a phrase that filled the air that day. Students and workers took to the streets around 2 PM.

They poured into both Campus Drive and the connecting bridge overhead. Traffic on both sides were forced to a halt due to all the people in the street. The crowd urged bystanders to join them in the street in support of their education. The protest moved up the street seemingly ignoring both sidewalks and principally marching down the six lanes of traffic on both sides of the street. Traffic was at a standstill on Campus Dr. for over 15 minutes. Three policemen zoomed ahead of the crowd on motorcycles in an effort to control the crowd. Sylvia Pham a senior at UCI studying Biology was concerned with people’s initial perception of the marches and protests, “people confuse law and order with justice, the law protects the rich, intimidates us and legitimizes oppressors. The general public needs to recognize we’re not disrupting peace our lives are being disrupted.”

The duration of the street march lasted for 40 minutes before it came back onto campus grounds. An unidentified student managed to quiet down the entire crowd with hand signals. He declared, “let’s take a building.” The crowd cheered and yelled as they marched back onto the campus. As they were making their way back to the front of the administration building roughly half the the crowd collectivley decided to storm a lecture hall and urge their fellow students to join the walk-out and fight their education. The instructor ceased her lecture, and even seemed welcoming to the actions. Some demonstrators broke away from the main shouting line, grabbed chalk, and wrote “walk out” on the board. An attempt to occupy one of UCI’s study halls was next on the agenda, and again the crowd split into two one shouting and making declarations in the study hall the other half pouring outside it’s doors and urging student to join the cause as they walk to and from class.

The march reached it’s final resting place at approximately 4:00PM. The administration building had it’s doors pounded on with dozens of fists. Multiple students yelled into the bullhorn, “you’re cowards!” and “why are you hiding?” The answer was indicated much earlier. The administration in an unprecedented move had closed their doors to general public in the early morning declaring themselves “closed for the day.” After a failed attempt to get a reaction from the administration the crowd gathered at the grassy area facing the locked-down building. They held an impromptu assembly where people could grab the bullhorn and make statements about the day’s actions and future plans for the student movement. Speeches and polemics were made, and calls for further actions pierced the quiet breeze.

March 4 2010 as an (unbroken) spectacle

Here's a collection of photographs and videos taken during the March 4 "Day of Action"
@ University of Irvine California. More to come.