June 27, 2004
"The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex. And in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus suggested, not to be on the side of the executioners."
US civil rights activist and historian, Howard Zinn, recently presented his book, A
People's History of the United States, in its Spanish language version here in Havana.
With Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcón and Minister of Culture Abel Prieto present, Zinn was introduced by Cuban poet and essayist Roberto Fernández Retamar who described the book as an important rendition of the history of the "elephant" to the north.
Unlike most history books, Howard Zinn's is not primarily the story of presidents, army generals and industrialists, but US history from the perspectives of women, men, labor, Native Americans, African Americans, soldiers, and antiwar movements. Although the book was first published in 1980 it has been revised up to and including the first year of the Bush administration. This Spanish language version is the most up to date. Zinn commented that one of the best things about launching his book in Cuba was the price:
Howard Zinn: It has a special meaning for me because there's something very different about this publication. Although my book is called A People's History of the United States, in the United States not all people can afford to by it. But I understand that here it will be very "barato" (cheap) and so it will really be a book for the people. Some of you may know that Abraham Lincoln said "democracy is government by the people, for the people, of the people." So I feel that here in Cuba this book is for the people. So, it's a very democratic act to publish this book here.
One of the worst distortions of US history that Zinn immediately deals with is the great mythological figure of Christopher Columbus. Columbus Day is a national holiday and the Spaniard is revered as the discoverer of the Americas to the disgust and anger of Native Americans who remember him for killing many of their ancestors and kidnapping a number to return to Spain.
Other unknown facts to most US school-children is that Japan was provoked into attacking Pearl Harbor and that Washington knew of the plan to attack but kept it secret to ensure the US entry into the war would happen. President Cleveland, who is remember for making Labor Day a national workers holiday also sent troops out to massacre striking workers.
In other words, says the US historian, he doesn't want to "practice safe history."
Howard Zinn: And you know I'm hopeful you see, that something will change between the United States and Cuba because I believe that the American people basically have good will because there's a difference between the good will of the American people and the bad will of the American government. But there are those of us in the United States who are trying to change that situation, and so I feel confident that the time will come when there will be a free interchange of ideas and everything, you know when after all Cuba is so close.
But, said Zinn, both peoples have never been allowed to be really good neighbors:
Howard Zinn: I was saying that the policy of the United States toward Cuba has been very cruel from the beginning, from the moment of the Revolution. Even before it was recognized that Cuba would be a communist country; even before that because for the American government what they were concerned about, they just did not want any government that would be independent of the United States. That's the reason for all this hostility. The American government has not been able to bare the thought that this little country, so close, can refuse to be obedient to the United States.
The US writer and historian then turned to the new anti-Cuba measures that prevent families on both sides of the Florida Straits from seeing each other more than every three years and go into effect in two days time:
Howard Zinn: To me, you know when I came to Havana six weeks ago, I was on the plane to Miami and I began a conversation with a woman who was sitting next to me. She was a Miami person visiting her family in Havana. And it was very clear to me how much it meant to her - how important it was to her to be able to visit her family. So I thought about her when Bush issued these regulations, and I realized what it must mean to families to have to wait three years and then to restrict the number of family members you can see. From a human point of view, it's a very cruel thing to do. And I believe that it will not help Bush. I believe that it will turn many people in Miami, even those not friendly to Cuba; I think it will turn many Cubans in Miami against Bush.
But these latest regulations are the most inhuman of all and I believe that they will blow back in the faces of the American government, that the United States government is not concerned with the feelings of people, whether they're in Cuba or in Florida or anywhere. They don't care about the feelings of people, they don't care about families, they don't care about human relations and this will be recognized more and more. So, I'm hopeful that people are going to think very hard about this and this will have an affect on change in policy.
When asked if he knew who would win the presidential election in November, Howard Zinn said that he was happy the audience though so much of him:
Howard Zinn: I'm very happy that you think I know the answer. A historian can know about the past, he doesn't know very much about the future. I think Bush will lose. Not because his opponent is a good candidate, but because more and more Americans are learning that Bush has been a terrible president. And you know that when the war against Iraq began, most Americans, maybe 70-75% said that we support the war. But a few days ago, just as I was leaving the United States to come here, there was a report that more than 50% of the American people are opposed to the war. And things will keep going in that direction because the truth is beginning to come out. So I have this fantasy in my mind, this vision in my mind, that on the night of the election, I'll be sitting around the television set, with my friends and family and we will have a big celebration, and at that same moment people will be celebrating all over the world.
Howard Zinn then turned on the US mainstream media who many feel are greatly responsible for war by their unquestioning support of the Bush attack against Iraq and the assumption there were weapons of mass destruction to be found.
Howard Zinn: So there is the press and television which have been supporting the war from the beginning and even today, while public opinion has been changing, every major newspaper in the United States still supports the war to some extent. No major newspaper says: We must leave, the United States must stop. So if you just look at the press and televisio, you will become very depressed. But I think in every country, under the surface of politics, there are ideas that circulate and they grow stronger and a certain point is reached in history when there is cultural change. People like Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, writers, artists, some of the most famous musicians in the United States have spoken out against the war, some of the most famous poets have spoken out against the war. And I think the essential things that I said about the Bush administration are still true four years later. We writers like to think that when we write something it remains true forever.
Finally the US historian and civil rights activist was asked to what degree people in the United States were aware of the case of the five Cubans imprisoned in their country:
Howard Zinn: You know, the five Cubans who have been imprisoned in the United States is something that is a secret from the people of the United States. That story does not appear in the American press. You hear nothing about it. It's like some of those other people that the United States has picked up and put away and not allowed to see their families or to talk to lawyers. It's totally in violation not just of constitutional rights, but just of human rights. So we have a very important job to do in the United States for people in the progressive movement. And that is to make the situation known to people because I believe the American people have a basic sense of decency. When they learn that something inhuman has happened, they react against it. The problem is that they don't learn about these things because the government and the press keep these things hidden from them. When they learn what is happening, then they begin to understand. And we've seen this happen historically in the United States because we saw during the Vietnam war how the American people at first were very ignorant about what was happening in Vietnam and so they supported the government. But, when they learned the truth about what was going on, they turned against the government. And so my hope is that more and more people in the United States will begin to learn about the situation of the Cuban Five and I think they will find that intolerable. So that is the hope for anybody who believes in human rights.