Your #1 Political Influence - Who is it?

[j]

As I was posting in the Topic "Malcolm X" I realized that Malcolm was my number one political influence. He above all has shaped my thinking.

Who has shaped your thinking? Why? Compare and contrast your top two. (OK, just kidding about the compare and constast. I'm a teacher and this question feels like its for my class.)

j

[Supermodel]

Jesus Christ.
Then Che.

[Valkyrie]

Bobby Sands then Che and Voltairine DeCleyre.

Funny you mention that. I did a little freelance project about 5 years ago compiling tons of research on these two revolutionary freedom fighter/martyrs to see wherein their differences and similarities lie, as they were both propelled onto the world-stage and both met the same kind of fate.

[Xvall]

Lots of people...

[Borincano]

My granny :)

(Edited by Borincano at 6:00 pm on June 13, 2002)

[Vladimir]

Che, Osama in a anti american kind a way, not to say i love the guy but very influential in everyones life, Bobby sands,( Paris where are u from, judging by the name, paris but.........?)

[Supermodel]

All you Irish stop right there.....

Why would you choose Bobby Sands over national heroes and heroines such as Cuchulain, Finn MacCool, St. Patrick, Fergus the Strong, or Queen Eire? Bobby made a statement. The others formed a country.

[honest intellectual]

Cuchulain, Finn MacCool: Fictional

St. Patrick: Catholic

Fergus the Strong, or Queen Eire: Imperialist


The others formed a country
A conservative, Catholic, isolated country

[j]

Paris-between who Che and Jesus, Che and Malcolm, who?

j

[pastradamus]

Kevin barry,paidraig pearse,james connolly,Che,jesus,& of course my man michael de nostradame.

[Blasphemy]

Yitzhak Rabin, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Che Guevara...

[Reuben]

Zippy!!!

No seriously, my political though t was really shaped by reading Castaneda biography of Che. It confirmed aa lot of my Marxist attitudes, and also made me realise that Marx may be wrong on his assertion that revolution would occur first in the third world.

Reading about him as a kid also inspired me to become a real activist.

[Son of Scargill]

No.1:The nameless tens of thousands of african people,who lived in the Nairobi slums or illegal encampments surrounding the city.
No.2:Anyone that I believe is/was attempting to eradicate this inequity.


And I nearly forgot..No.3:ZIPPY!!



(Edited by Son of Scargill at 9:26 am on June 14, 2002)

[bleed3r]

Jello Biafra would have to be the single figure who sparked my political interest beyond a dormant viewpoint. Others include Mumia Abu Jamal, Che, and Lenin to an extent.

Edit -- Forgot to mention Ghandi. How could I forget??

(Edited by bleed3r at 9:52 am on June 14, 2002)

[Angie]

Anyone who fought or actively fights the oppressive Capitalist system. There are some well-known faces who I could point out specifically, but I feel that the "faceless" deserve to be placed on the same level, and receiving the same honours. :)

[Reuben]

FREDERICK DOUGLASS!!

[death b4 dishonour]

Che and my good friend dave, who got me interested in politics.

[I Will Deny You]

http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/avatars/personal/I_Will_Deny_You.gif

[deimos]

my grandfather, marx,luxembourg

[Kez]

Che
Lenin
Stalin - HAHAH got u there hey Guerilla RAdio?? HAHAH
Castro
The true communists of the world who are in IRan, Iraq and suppressed in Asia.

Comrade Kamo

[Menshevik]

Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Che, Nelson Mandella . . .

[kingbee]

castro,
che (even though everyone has said him),
fanon,
tito,
kruschev (only cos of his speeches against the us- his ordering of the tanks into hungary wasnt good, and i read somewhere that he was basically turning ussr into a state capitalist country- hmm),
trotsky.

[suffianr]

Che takes the cake. I read the Bolivian Diaries when I was 16, and that kicked it off...But since then, I've been influenced by lots of people, it's a sort of a "cause & effect" thing, to tell the truth. But lately, it's been my cat.

So, now you know...

[Fires of History]

'What would Zippy do?'

This is my trusted source of guidance in any situation.

Other less influential figures than Zippy include: Che Guevara, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldman, William Godwin, Noam Chomsky, Albert Camus, Bertrand Russell, etc...

But these are just voices that represent the plight of the Proletariat, which is the strongest call of them all (even stronger than Zippy).

[guerrillaradio]

Kamo you bastard ;)

(Funny...noone's said Zack de la Rocha yet...lol)

In no particular order:

Che Guevara obviously
Nelson Mandela (for the same reason as Che, he spent 40 years fighting adamantly for something he believed in, I don't give a fuck if he's capitalist)
George Orwell
Naomi Klein (read No Logo)
Zippy (lol)
Robert Fisk (very good journalist)
Ghandi
Denis Lyxen (vocalist and songwriter in Refused and The (International) Noise Conspiracy)
Lech Walesa (he liberated Poland from Sovietist repression)

(Edited by guerrillaradio at 9:37 pm on June 15, 2002)

[Mac OS Revolutionary]

Terry Pratchett

[psycho chicken]

mike (my mate), zack de la rocha, che, jello biafra, mumia abu jamal

[I Will Deny You]

My actual influences are, in no particular order: Abbie Hoffman, Dave Dellinger, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, George Washington, Che, Conrad, Dario Fo, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Bob Moses, my family, Zippy, Pee-Wee Herman, Ben Franklin, Einstein, Emma Goldman, Gloria Steinem, Sabbatai Zevi, Trotsky (although I'm not a trot), and that's all for now.

Lindsay

[BOZG]

Bakunin, Berkman, Marx, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mandela, Che, Mumia, Orwell.

Can't be bothered thinking of any more.


Blasphemy,

Lincoln was a fucking racist. How can you like the man?

[Blasphemy]

a racist? wasn't he the president who started the civil war in order to free the black slaves?

[Blasphemy]

Quote: from Mac OS Revolutionary on 11:51 pm on June 15, 2002
Terry Pratchett


isn't he the guy who wrote the discworld series? what's so special about him?

[BOZG]

Blasphemy,

Yes he did but he still believed in a superior and inferior race.

(Edited by BornOfZapatasGuns at 8:57 pm on June 16, 2002)

[revolutionary spirit]

Che Guevara= Best inspiration
Lenin=My influence

[Lefty]

oh god...ummm
in no particular order
Che
Ghandi
Martin Luther King Jr.
Malcolm X
My dad
Dennis Miller (or at least his writers)
Zach De La Rocha
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Ben Franklin
Albert Einstein
John Ashcroft (in the reverse way of the others)
Marx
The voiceless poor hordes of the world

[Hattori Hanzo]

Every man or woman who has been globaly raped by america and it's cronies and is willing to fight!

[Mac OS Revolutionary]

Quote: from Blasphemy on 8:52 pm on June 16, 2002

Quote: from Mac OS Revolutionary on 11:51 pm on June 15, 2002
Terry Pratchett


isn't he the guy who wrote the discworld series? what's so special about him?

His books introduced communism to me. His non-fantasy ones that is.

[j]

Blasphemy,

In the beginning of the American Civil War, Lincoln said that if he could end the war without freeing any of the slaves he would. Lincoln wrote extensivly on how to return the slaves of the Americas back to Africa. Now this would be 1860-something and many slaves had been in the US for over 200 years!!!

Lincoln wasn't an entirely bad man. He did sign the emancipation proclamation that freed the slaves. But he may have done so for political reasons and not because he felt the slaves should be free. One needs to remember that the southern plantation owners were not the only beneficiaries of slavery. All of the US did. So in a way Lincoln did an extrodinary thing. Lincoln had two sides. There are admirable qualities of the man but some disgusting qualities as well.

j

[Conghaileach]

Che Guevara, James Connolly and George Orwell.

The only pieces by Bobby Sands (who I do look up to) I've read are "One Day In My Life" and his personal accounts of the first seventeen days of his hunger strike, both of which are very harrowing.


I don't know who Zippy is, but if I did I'm sure he/she'd be on my list. ;)

[Conghaileach]

Oh, and Albert Einstein too. His essay "Why Socialism?" was very good.

[Rob]

Marx (#1), Bakunin, Lenin, Trotsky, Emma Goldman, Rosa Luxemburg, Daniel DeLeon, Basheer Barghouthi (founded Palestinian Communist Party), Michael Collins, Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Conghaileach]

Fuck, how could I have forgotten Michael Collins? Though not a lefty, he was a very big influence on me during my childhood - being one of the first rebels I ever heard of.

[Reuben]

Quote: from j on 6:07 pm on June 17, 2002
Blasphemy,

In the beginning of the American Civil War, Lincoln said that if he could end the war without freeing any of the slaves he would. Lincoln wrote extensivly on how to return the slaves of the Americas back to Africa. Now this would be 1860-something and many slaves had been in the US for over 200 years!!!

Lincoln wasn't an entirely bad man. He did sign the emancipation proclamation that freed the slaves. But he may have done so for political reasons and not because he felt the slaves should be free. One needs to remember that the southern plantation owners were not the only beneficiaries of slavery. All of the US did. So in a way Lincoln did an extrodinary thing. Lincoln had two sides. There are admirable qualities of the man but some disgusting qualities as well.

j


The real hero of the emancipation of black slaves was Frederick Douglass, though of cours that doesnt go along with America n history which emphasise the way whites liberated african-americans

[Menshevik]

Frederick Douglas [one "s" Reuban ;)]was a great abolitionist; Sojourner Truth (women's suffrage advocate and abolitionist) is another one of my heros.

The Civil War was not only fought over slaves. Serious economic tensions between the North and South had been developing ever since industrialization. The South controled the international cotton industry and didn't appreciate Northern trade restrictions and tarriffs. When slavery was abolished in the North, Southerners were encouraged to do the same. Of course, part of the way Southerners made a killing off of cotton was through slave labor. Slaves did a majority of farming and cotton picking in the south and didn't recquire wages, so plantation owners could by hundreds of slaves and make an incredible profit. Finally, after abolitionist movements in the south, like John Brown's raid, got out of control, the south wanted to suceed from the Union and take their cotton profits with them. Of course the American government couldnt stand for this, so they declared war on the newly formed, but unrecognized, CSA. Most of the northern troops fighting for the Union were racists. Many of them didn't give a shit about a bunch of "negros", let alone the abolition of slavery. No, they were fighting because they felt the Confederates had no right to break away from the Union. The American Civil War was just a tidal wave of federalism, slavery just happened to fall into it. Lincoln himself didn't care about the slaves, but ended slavery once and for all to end feuding and to use blacks as cheap labor and infantry units.

[Rob]

I'm actually pretty sure there's two "s"s in Douglass. And he and Sojourner Truth did get a lot of focus in my history classes here in Amerikkka.

[red senator]

My political thought has mainly been shaped by conservatives. I hear what they say and then I (always) disagree with it and then come up with my own thought on the subject which always seems to be on the left side of things.

So the main shaper's of my thought are:

1. Major republicans ( w., cheney, etc.)
2. Imbosiles at Fox News (O'Rielley, Hannity, etc.)
3. conservative christian fundamentalists
4. British conservative party

There are a few from the left:
1. Marx
2. Lenin
3. Labour government in britain

[Conghaileach]

from red senator
There are a few from the left:
1. Marx
2. Lenin
3. Labour government in britain Are you talking about Blair's "New Thatcher" government?

[I Will Deny You]

One of my greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreat greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreat uncles was a black Confederate soldier. Frederick Douglass may have been the greatest abolitionist, but there were plenty of white people who helped a lot and deserve credit, too. Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by a white woman. The white Radical Republicans were great men.

Reuben - We read a book about Harriet Tubman in middle school. I know you Europeans just love to complain about the American government, but I'm afraid you've lost this one! ;) American kids really do learn about black abolitionists.

Lindsay

[red senator]

Quote: from CiaranB on 10:25 pm on June 17, 2002

from red senator
There are a few from the left:
1. Marx
2. Lenin
3. Labour government in britain Are you talking about Blair's "New Thatcher" government?


Say what you want, but watching blair on "questions time" talking about social programs and putting money into the government has been welcomed by me in comparison to here in U.S. where if you say anything other than "cut taxes" you should just say "I fuck animals and gamble in whorehouses with mobsters and i will not win this election."

[shunt]

G-d

Chomsky

[pastradamus]

The brittish labour party screw people,faking the whole democratic sociallist thing.Blair is a right winger,and jut stole votes off the left by betraying them.
I am also a democratic socialist,but blair is a fucking snake.Although I wud vote for him to prevent the conservites coming to power.

[Domino]

Ché, Marx and Castro.

[Conghaileach]

Blair's government is proposing having the health and education systems privatised. The British Labour Party has lost the support of the most of the big trade unions.

In England, they vote by who they dislike the least.

[Black Jesus]

In no particular order: Guevara, Lenin, Orwell, McKenna, Huxley, Abu Jamal, Mandela.

[Zippy]

My Grandfather. The easiest question i'll ever have to answer. :)

Zippy.

[Fabi]

Robin Hood, Ghandi...

those were the earliest... ;)

[truthaddict11]

my main influences

Zach De la Rocha
Mumia Abu Jamal
Jello Biara
Gandhi
Malcom X
Martin Luther King JR
Noam Chomsky
George Orwell
Ray Bradbury

[Fabi]

yeah...

chomsky
m.l. king
orwell
bradbury's 'fahrenheit 451' ......

but mostly i have been my own influence... ;) self-induced political propaganda could be a way of putting it... ;)

[sypher]

zack de la rocha
Che Guevara
George Orwell

[j]

I see that a good number of you state that Zach de la Rocha is one of your number one influences. He has done a lot in advertising the cause but what else has he done? I love RATM but they are just a band. Maybe I'm just ignorant to his accomplishments but how is de la Rocha that important?

j

[alphaq]

Influences:
Marx
Lenin
Subcomandante Marcos
Tony Cliff
Charles Darwin
Albert Einstein
James Clerk Maxwell
Erwin Schrodinger
Werner Heisenberg
Malcom X
Bob Seals
Che Guevara
Isaac Newton
Gandhi
MLK
Mandela
Eugene Debs

[Lefty]

j- zach has spoken out on the cause and woken many people up to the unspoken evils of the world, and he has contributed generously to the Zapatista movement in mexico. He was what got me started on politics

i forgot orwell and steinbeck

j-what do you teach?

[guerrillaradio]

And let's not forget RATM's benefit shows and constant work on getting Abu Jamal freed, a free show in Mexico City, anti-GAP protests, anti-PMRC protests, a protest show outside the Democratic National Convention in LA...

[j]

Hmmmm, I'm still not sold on Zach de la Rocha as a political influence. Not on the level of Che.

I teach special education.

j

[RedCeltic]

IWDY: Several pages back you mentioned that George Washington was a major influence. I wonder why as he never actually did anything, in government nor the battlefield. ( I could go into a long rant about him but won't for now..)

My list, (also in no particular order)

Karl Marx
Eugene Victor Debs
Abbie Hoffman
Martin Luther King JR.
Norman M. Thomas
Hellen Keller
Thomas Paine
Michael Harrington
Leon Trotskey
John steinbeck
Upton Sinclair
Albert Einstein
James Connolly
Bobby Sands
Gandhi
chomsky
Che
*and last but not least*
Zippy!

[jimr]

Chomsky
Che
Castro
Marx
Garibaldi
Tom Paine
Malcom X
Martin Luther King jr
Trotsky
rosa Luxemburg
Gandhi
mao

various other influences that are not exactly political but effected the way i think about using violence as a means of change

Garibalidi
William Wallace

[Kez]

Im with J, Zack and his band did nothin but give us a generation of phoney "communists", who do fuck all but buy nike and whisper slogans.

My other massive massive influence is "Kamo - the great revolutionary", who i dedicated a thread to:



If i can be a hundredth of what this man was i will be a happy man, i would rate this man above Che Guevara as he did more deeds for the cause

Please read the thread you will enjoy it and there is some humour in it, such as why the germans caught Kamo in Berlin.

Comrade Kamo

[red senator]

Quote: from CiaranB on 11:10 am on June 18, 2002
Blair's government is proposing having the health and education systems privatised. The British Labour Party has lost the support of the most of the big trade unions.

In England, they vote by who they dislike the least.


Where did you read/hear that Blair was going to privatize medicine? I get their news-letter and it always says the evil tories are the ones who want to privatize medicine, and I watch him on c-span always saying they need to to continue putting money into the NHS and just last week during question's time he defended the national pension system, shunning the idea of privatization.

[Conghaileach]

Sorry if I misled you, but I was wrong. My info was out of date on the hospital privitisation.

However, with concerns to education there's a book by George Monbiot called "The corporate takeover of Britain". I haven't read it myself but I'm told it's good.

[Anonymous]

Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Marx
Malcom X
Me!
Bush!!! (just kidin!!!) :)
Zach de la Rocha
Some of my family
Dr Oswald le Winter (altough he doesnt follow any special politic he is a truth finder!)
Che again!!! lol
etc............................................... ...................

[hXcPetey]

john fucking brown, man

justin sane

G.W. bush -wait a tic, that goes on my hate list

any ways, where was i?
oh yeah, jello biaffra

that dude from earth crisis

my comrade and good friend travis bemann of millwaukee

zakk z.(lead singer of the band N.S.A.)

JOE HILL

Z. de la rocha

roger of agnostic front

Eric Chester, Frank Ziedler and David McReynolds of SPUSA

eugene debbs

phil ochs

pete seeger

hidalgo

pancho villa

and all those ALFies out there

Oi! Oi! Oi!

[Valkyrie]

hEY HxC Petey I work with Pete Seeger( he's a local here, Woodstock, NY area) in his founding organization Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Woody Guthrie, an enviromental action group specifically aimed against General Electric and their dumping of PCB's into the Hudson River for the last 25 years. The Clearwater had their yearly festival on the banks of the Hudson River last Sunday and as usual Pete Seeger came and played!!!! I agree!! He's a great man. Not a thread of celebrity in him!

[Dhul Fiqar]

No particular order:

Foucault

Marx

Trotsky

Sid Vicious

Chomsky

Nietsche

Mao Tse-Tung

Big Zach (De La Rocka)

Timotyh Leary

Bill Hicks

As well as various other people I've met or heard from during the course of my life.

--- G. Raven

(Edited by Dhul Fiqar at 10:57 pm on June 23, 2002)

[RedCeltic]

Quote: from Paris on 4:08 pm on June 21, 2002
hEY HxC Petey I work with Pete Seeger( he's a local here, Woodstock, NY area) in his founding organization Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Woody Guthrie, an enviromental action group specifically aimed against General Electric and their dumping of PCB's into the Hudson River for the last 25 years. The Clearwater had their yearly festival on the banks of the Hudson River last Sunday and as usual Pete Seeger came and played!!!! I agree!! He's a great man. Not a thread of celebrity in him!


My aunt lives near you Paris..

Anyway Fuckin' GE get's me so pissed off for destroying the Hudson river! New York is one of the most beutiful states in the union, but ass holes like General Electric don't give a fuck about anything but making money.

[revolutionary spirit]

not many have Lenin

[Fabi]

"not many have Lenin"


and rightly so, one could argue........ ;)

[revolutionary spirit]

Quote: from Fabi on 10:41 pm on June 23, 2002
"not many have Lenin"


and rightly so, one could argue........ ;)

Let's?

[Rob]

save it for a different forum

[antieverything]

Jesus, Ghandi, RATM and Anti-Flag, Chomsky, Some college chaplin I know who grew up in a prison camp, reading the hate letters that my grandfather got from rascists back in the 60's that are hung up over his fireplace, my parents for teaching me to think for myself and to stand up for others...oh, and I'd like to thank my agent...