Conghaileach
21st May 2003, 11:23
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 15, 2003
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL FROM DEATH ROW: THE GREAT DISSENTERS
["I have been accused of obstructing the war.I admit it.
Gentlemen, I abhor war. I would oppose war if I stood alone. ...
I have sympathy with the suffering, struggling people everywhere.
It does not make any difference under which flag they
were born, or where they live..."
--Eugene Victor Debs, Socialist, to the jury at his espionage trial in
1918]
The name Eugene Debs may not ring bells today, but in the first quarter
of the 20th century his trial rocked the nation. An ardent Socialist,
Debs made plain his opposition to World War I, and more importantly, his
opposition to the class character of the war; that it was a war waged by
working people for the wealthy. A powerful and stirring orator, Debs
drew waves of applause from those who came to hear him. He also spoke
plainly about war and the wagers of war:
"They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our
institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing
people. That is too much, even for a joke. ... Wars throughout history
have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a
nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject
class has always fought the battles." (Howard Zinn, "A People's History
of the United States," p. 358)
Debs, charged with violating the Espionage Act, was convicted of
obstructing the draft for giving this speech, and a unanimous U.S.
Supreme Court would affirm his conviction a year later. The imprisoned
labor leader, convicted of exercising his alleged First Amendment rights
of speaking out against an unpopular war, would go on to write his
stirring "Walls and Bars: Prisons and Prison Life in the 'Land of the
Free'" (1927).
Nominated by the Socialist Party to run for president in 1920, Debs
received over 1 million votes--while behind bars!
Nor was Debs alone in his opposition to the war, as papers of the time
attest. The Minneapolis Journal would blare, "Draft Opposition Fast
Spreading in State." Over 300,000 men evaded the draft for the "War to
End All War" (as it was called). Working people demonstrated against the
war all across the nation, and were attacked by cops and soldiers, under
orders of their brass. Tens of thousands of men claimed conscientious
objector status. What is clear is that anti-war sentiment didn't just
sprout up during the unpopular Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s.
Being anti-war is part of the historical fabric of America.
Although it may surprise us in this age to speak of him thus, Abraham
Lincoln was famous before his presidency for his outspoken opposition to
the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), when, as a member of Congress, the
Illinois delegate challenged President James Polk to specify exactly
where American blood was shed "on the American soil"--the pretext for
the Mexican War. As a Whig, Lincoln was outspoken on his party's
position:
"The declaration that we have always opposed the war is true or false,
according as one may understand the term 'oppose the war.' If to say
'the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the
President' be opposing the war, then the Whigs have very generally
opposed it." (Zinn, p. 151)
Historians who now review the basis for the Mexican-American War
generally agree that the White House used a lie to justify it.
We have mentioned the Vietnam War. Who can question the outspoken
contributions that the heavyweight boxing champ, Muhammad Ali, or the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made to challenging and ending that
fevered carnage in the Far East? Ali's famous phrase, "No Vietnamese
ever called me a n----r," shone a garish light on the plight of Blacks
in this country, who were asked to defend a "democracy" abroad that was
sorely lacking at home.
Dr. King's speeches against the war earned him the enmity of his
liberal, fair-weather "friends," and caused the corporate press to
attack him relentlessly for treason. Yet who, some 30 years later, can
remember the catcalls of his critics, when compared to the excellence
and ethics of his dissent against the rampant militarism of the war?
Dr. King's proclamation that America was the "greatest purveyor of
violence in the world today" is found in the mouths of tens of thousands
of anti-war protestors in America who weren't alive when he said it, and
is repeated in a hundred different languages around the world to
legitimize a global anti-war movement of millions who oppose the
American way of war.
To paraphrase the former Rap Brown (now Imam Jamil Al-Amin), "Dissent is
as American as cherry pie."
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and
distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not
allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY,
NY 10011; via e-mail: [email protected] Subscribe wwnews-
[email protected] Unsubscribe [email protected] Support the
voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
Reprinted from the May 15, 2003
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL FROM DEATH ROW: THE GREAT DISSENTERS
["I have been accused of obstructing the war.I admit it.
Gentlemen, I abhor war. I would oppose war if I stood alone. ...
I have sympathy with the suffering, struggling people everywhere.
It does not make any difference under which flag they
were born, or where they live..."
--Eugene Victor Debs, Socialist, to the jury at his espionage trial in
1918]
The name Eugene Debs may not ring bells today, but in the first quarter
of the 20th century his trial rocked the nation. An ardent Socialist,
Debs made plain his opposition to World War I, and more importantly, his
opposition to the class character of the war; that it was a war waged by
working people for the wealthy. A powerful and stirring orator, Debs
drew waves of applause from those who came to hear him. He also spoke
plainly about war and the wagers of war:
"They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our
institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing
people. That is too much, even for a joke. ... Wars throughout history
have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a
nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject
class has always fought the battles." (Howard Zinn, "A People's History
of the United States," p. 358)
Debs, charged with violating the Espionage Act, was convicted of
obstructing the draft for giving this speech, and a unanimous U.S.
Supreme Court would affirm his conviction a year later. The imprisoned
labor leader, convicted of exercising his alleged First Amendment rights
of speaking out against an unpopular war, would go on to write his
stirring "Walls and Bars: Prisons and Prison Life in the 'Land of the
Free'" (1927).
Nominated by the Socialist Party to run for president in 1920, Debs
received over 1 million votes--while behind bars!
Nor was Debs alone in his opposition to the war, as papers of the time
attest. The Minneapolis Journal would blare, "Draft Opposition Fast
Spreading in State." Over 300,000 men evaded the draft for the "War to
End All War" (as it was called). Working people demonstrated against the
war all across the nation, and were attacked by cops and soldiers, under
orders of their brass. Tens of thousands of men claimed conscientious
objector status. What is clear is that anti-war sentiment didn't just
sprout up during the unpopular Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s.
Being anti-war is part of the historical fabric of America.
Although it may surprise us in this age to speak of him thus, Abraham
Lincoln was famous before his presidency for his outspoken opposition to
the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), when, as a member of Congress, the
Illinois delegate challenged President James Polk to specify exactly
where American blood was shed "on the American soil"--the pretext for
the Mexican War. As a Whig, Lincoln was outspoken on his party's
position:
"The declaration that we have always opposed the war is true or false,
according as one may understand the term 'oppose the war.' If to say
'the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the
President' be opposing the war, then the Whigs have very generally
opposed it." (Zinn, p. 151)
Historians who now review the basis for the Mexican-American War
generally agree that the White House used a lie to justify it.
We have mentioned the Vietnam War. Who can question the outspoken
contributions that the heavyweight boxing champ, Muhammad Ali, or the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made to challenging and ending that
fevered carnage in the Far East? Ali's famous phrase, "No Vietnamese
ever called me a n----r," shone a garish light on the plight of Blacks
in this country, who were asked to defend a "democracy" abroad that was
sorely lacking at home.
Dr. King's speeches against the war earned him the enmity of his
liberal, fair-weather "friends," and caused the corporate press to
attack him relentlessly for treason. Yet who, some 30 years later, can
remember the catcalls of his critics, when compared to the excellence
and ethics of his dissent against the rampant militarism of the war?
Dr. King's proclamation that America was the "greatest purveyor of
violence in the world today" is found in the mouths of tens of thousands
of anti-war protestors in America who weren't alive when he said it, and
is repeated in a hundred different languages around the world to
legitimize a global anti-war movement of millions who oppose the
American way of war.
To paraphrase the former Rap Brown (now Imam Jamil Al-Amin), "Dissent is
as American as cherry pie."
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and
distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not
allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY,
NY 10011; via e-mail: [email protected] Subscribe wwnews-
[email protected] Unsubscribe [email protected] Support the
voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)