[PEN-L:33126] SAYING NO TO POWER

[Paul Zarembka <zarembka@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm sending in my $23 for his book:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 23:28:30 -0800
From: William Mandel <wmmmandel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

William Mandel wrote:
>
>     Howard Zinn wrote the introduction to my SAYING NO TO POWER. He
> closes: "As always in the history of the United States, its greatness
> rested not on its wealth and power, but in the courage of those people
> who continued to insist that the principles of the Declaration of
> Independence be fulfilled -- the equal right of all people to life,
> liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In that long struggle, the ideas
> and actions of people like Bill Mandel have played an important part.
> His life story is not only dramatic, but instructive and inspiring."
>     Prof. Carlos Munoz, Jr., Emeritus, UC Berkeley, was, as a high
> school student, leader of the Brown Power rebellion in Los Angeles in
> the '60s. He writes of my book: "Bill Mandel's inspirational
> autobiography is not only about his life and his participation in
> struggles for social justice and human rights, but is also an important
> chapter in the history of the Left in the United States. As such, it
> should be required reading in college U.S. history courses."
>     Robert Allen is Senior Editor of THE BLACK SCHOLAR and, like Zinn,
> author of bestsellers. he writes of my book: "I had planned only to
> skim...but I found myself drawn into it so much that I read just about
> all of it. Bill Mandel is well-known for his courageous defiance of HUAC
> witch-hunters. but his autobiography also reveals his decades-long
> commitment to anti-racist struggles, such as his defense of Angelo
> Herndon, Paul Robeson, the Martinsville Seven, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, and
> Black political prisoners including Mumia Abu-Jamal."
>     Pete Seeger writes: "Bill Mandel gives a good example to us all.
> Stay involved. Don't give up. Will we make mistakes? Of course. Grin and
> learn."
>     Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among the most widely published of American
> poets, writes: "It's an honor to contribute. Anyone concerned with the
> history of radical thought and action in the USA during the 20th century
> must read William Mandel's trenchant study of what really went on in
> this century, the scene behind the scenes, and the power plays of the
> powerful to keep themselves in power. Bravo!"
>     Matthew Lasar, historian of KPFA, over which I broadcast for 37
> years, writes: "a wise and irresistibly human memoir."
>     Quite seriously, not a single day goes by without my receiving
> e-mails from complete strangers approving my own posts on such totally
> contemporary matters as how to beat the threat to civil liberties of the
> Bush, Ashcroft, Cheney government, how to achieve the liberation of
> Mumia Abu-Jamal, how to head off war with Iraq. My posts deliberately
> use long quotes from my book, because my experience in dealing with the
> witch-hunters of the 1950s and 1960s, in the civil rights movement, and
> with the Cold Warriors during the Cuba Missile Crisis and similar
> events.
>     One would think that such a book would be flying off the shelves. It
> hasn't. Because of my own experience as a scholar, I haven't the
> slightest doubt that, half a century from now, it will be an established
> and recognized source on our times. But that wasn't my purpose in
> writing it. I want it to be of service in dealing with the issues of
> today. It is not aimed at cloistered academics but at the people who are
> active right now, and need to know how similar civic battles were fought
> and won in the most recent past.
>     I've spent three years doing my best to make it known. You need it.
> But I've had it with this. YOu want to spend a few bucks of your
> season-of-giving money in a way that will help you and those to whom you
> send presents for the rest of your lives? Get my book. With this, I sign
> off this effort.
>                                                         William Mandel
>
>
> ========================================================
>
> My autobiography, SAYING NO TO POWER (Introduction by Howard Zinn),
> is a history of how the American people fought to defend and expand its
> rights since the 1920s, employing the form of the life story of one who
> was involved in most serious movements: student, labor, peace with the
> USSR, civil rights South and North, 37 years on Pacifica Radio, civil
> liberties (you may hear/see my testimony before the witch-hunters (used
> in six films thus far) on my website, http://www.billmandel.net ,
> and the feminist movement, although I am male.  My activities began in
> 1927. I am 85. My 5 previous books were all used in higher education. I
> have taught at six universities, including Stanford and UC Berkeley. The
> book is available through all normal sources. For an autographed copy,
> send me $23 at 4466 View Pl.,#106, Oakland, CA. 94611
> ========================================================