“50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed To Know” (disinformation)
Book review by John Trent
This cat that goes by the handle Mickey Z has put together a compendium of 50 things he deems radical, steps toward American Enlightenment, but that are hushed up, ignored, kept from the mouths of babes, so to speak. These “Revolutions” are persons, events, happenings, dates, things, movements. There are no real stringent guidelines here, just 50 great American stories of progress that, when combined with many others, such as this list, make up a sum that is indeed greater than its parts, even though those parts are damn important and memorable, with nothing taken away from their individuality, but still having come together for the common good
Thomas Paine, agitator, author of the pamphlet, “Common Sense” is in here. So is Angela Davis and her Afro (#40: “Angela’s Afro”). There are some very well-known things in here, like the Bill of Rights, that is, the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution, Shays’ Rebellion, The Pentagon Papers and Muhammad Ali saying NO to the draft. But also, quite a few things that you probably haven’t heard about, like the organizing of young women who worked in a textile mill in Lowell, Mass, called Lowell Girls, who organized a women’s union to collectively bargain for wages, conditions, et cetera; or, how about Keith McHenry forming Food Not Bombs, in 1980?
Then, there are many things that we all know about but that are put in a different context. These are the many firsts, the barrier-breakers, iconoclasts, like the two Olympians who raised their fists in the black power salute at the 1968, Mexico City Olympics, or the time Eugene Debs ran for Prez from a prison cell (he was truly a hero –imprisoned for speaking out against WWI, under the Sedition Act of 1917) and garnered almost a million votes). How about Lady Day singing “Strange Fruit;” “Brando’s Undershirt;” or IF Stone at the Weekly and the one about Charlie Parker finding the ‘pretty notes’ – these and more are all little parts that were important pieces in a bigger picture that, when assembled in hindsight, show not only what has been done, but what can be done. If an insignificant nobody can change history or at the very least, can throw a monkey wrench in the works of the oppressive state machine that eventually causes it to have to be taken apart and re-tooled, than you can too. Don’t despair, AGITATE! (http://www.disinfo.com) – JT.