Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 2. februar 2014 / Time Line February 2, 2014
Version 3.51. Februar 2014, 3. Februar 2014
02/02/2014
Pete Seeger: Character, Personality, Intuition And Focus
By Ralph Nader, Nader.org
After 94 years, on January 27, 2014, the world lost Pete Seeger.
The world is the lesser for that loss. The accolades for this giant
of folk songs and herald of all causes just are pouring in from
around the world. He is celebrated for regularly showing up at mass
protests, for singing songs so transcendent (This Land is Your
Land; We Shall Overcome; Where Have All the Flowers Gone) they are
sung in many foreign languages all over the earth, and for his
mentoring and motivating of millions of people and children.
Pete Seeger overcame most of his doubters and adversaries. On his
famous five string banjo, he inscribed the slogan, “This
machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.”
No less than the Wall Street Journal, after reprinting an ugly
commentary on Seeger’s earlier radicalism, wrote:
“troubadour, rabble rouser, thorn in the side of the bloated
and complacent, recipient of the National Media of Arts, American
idealist and family man, Seeger maintained what Mr. Springsteen
called his ‘nasty optimism’ until late in
life.”
At a Madison Square Garden songfest for Seeger’s 90th
birthday, Springsteen added: “Pete Seeger decided he’d
be a walking, singing reminder of all of America’s history.
He’d be a living archive of America’s music and
conscience.”
I met and spoke to Pete Seeger a few times and can attest to his
steady determination and uplifting spirit. All the above are
measures of this authentic man and his rare traits of character,
personality, intuition, scope and focus.
The man’s character shone when he was subpoenaed before the
powerful House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in August
1955, along with other outspoken entertainers and actors, he
refused to take the easier way out and invoke the Fifth Amendment
against self-incrimination. Instead, he made himself vulnerable to
later prosecution by pleading the First Amendment and his right to
free speech, petition and assembly.
After rejecting the Committee’s probe about whom he
associated with politically and his beliefs, he suggested that they
discuss the music that the committee members found so
objectionable. He offered unsuccessfully to sing his songs, then
and there, before the startled clenched-jaw politicians.
“I think,” he told them, “these are very improper
questions for any American to be asked especially under such
compulsion as this.” In those days, that was an astounding
act of courageous character.
He paid the price, when he was prosecuted and convicted before
winning his appeal. In those years of “commie symps”
witch-hunts by McCarthyite zealots, his career nearly collapsed.
Television networks banned him for over a decade; record companies
shunned him; concerts dwindled. So what did he do? He continued
recording, touring among everyday people around the country,
learning music from them and singing on street corners, at union
halls, churches, schools and what he called “hobo
jungles.”
He quit a popular band he formed – the Weavers – after
it did an advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes. More recently,
according to his producer, Jim Musselman, and record label
Appleseed Recordings, he turned down an offer by BP of $150,000 to
use one of his songs in a commercial, even though he could have
given the money to charity.
Complementing this sterling character, Seeger possessed a
stunningly functional personality. His resilience in overcoming
setbacks, ideological adversaries and smear specialists was
legendary. That was because he never let his ego get in the way and
wear him down and he recognized the big picture of social change
and how he could use his stardom to amplify the people’s
efforts for peace, justice, the environment and other necessities
of the good life. It helped mightily that he was married to the
stalwart Toshi for seventy years.
“The key to the future of the world,” he remarked in
1994, “is finding the optimistic stories and letting them be
known.” In 2009, he said his task was “to show folks
there’s a lot of good music in this world, and if used right
it may help to save the planet.” He placed his greatest hope
in women wisely teaching their children. Three years ago, he won a
Grammy for his album, “Tomorrow’s Children.”
His connection with audiences of all kinds, here and abroad, was
uncannily attuned to getting them to participate and sing. For Mr.
Seeger, it was not about the song or the singer – these were
the means – it was about the audience’s own
experience.
He disliked the overwhelming sound of rock that blotted out the
lyrics. The lyrics, he believed, were what needed to be
communicated and therefore had to be heard, sung and understood.
That is one reason he avoided electric guitars and other
electrified instruments.
In his biography by David Dunaway, titled How Can I Keep From
Singing: Pete Seeger, Mr. Seeger spoke about rural traditions.
“I liked the strident vocal tone of the singers, the vigorous
dancing. The words of the songs had all the meat of life in them.
Their humor had a bite, it was not trivial. Their tragedy was real,
not sentimental.”
Arlo Guthrie, son of the great Woody Guthrie, a mentor of
Seeger’s, played with Pete for nearly fifty years. He spoke
to Time Magazine about his magic in getting audiences to
“relax and sing along with him. My eyes just opened up and I
couldn’t believe what was happening in front of me. He would
just wave his hand, and you could hear people
singing…Someone who has not [seen him] will find it hard to
believe. It was almost as if he had some extra sense that allowed
that kind of response. There’s no one else I have ever seen
in my life that has had that, on any country, on any continent or
in any city. Nobody came close.”
His intuition was augmented by a vast knowledge of American
history, astonishing memory and what one reporter called “a
vast repertoire of ballads, spirituals and blues songs.”
Seeger’s scope covered just about every social justice cause
that arose from the people and some that he helped ignite such as
opposing wars and cleaning up rivers. He knew what he was singing
about, such as when he focused on his beloved Hudson River. He
launched his famous 106-foot sloop, the Clearwater, whose journey
with musicians up and down the Hudson unleashed civic and
litigation energies that have greatly reduced the pollution of that
storied river. Again and again, the Clearwater would take adults
and children on these trips so they could appreciate the river,
learn, sing, and resolve to combat the polluters, such as General
Electric and its dumping of PCBs. The children, recounted
Musselman, would go home knowledgeably motivated and urge their
parents to act. The work done on the Clearwater is now a model for
cleanup efforts in other rivers.
This man, who led sing-alongs and gave benefit concerts for the
downtrodden and the defiant, would bring his audience to silence
and then joyous singing. Imagine, today’s domineering,
ear-splitting, flashing bands jetting their fans into frenzied,
uproarious, sweaty reactions with the sounds drowning out the
lyrics. That was never Seeger’s vision. Thank goodness he
leaves behind hundreds of hours of music that stimulates both the
ears and sweetens or alerts the minds.
Musselman related a powerful example of how Pete Seeger
communicated at gatherings. He quotes Seeger as saying,
“Nelson Mandela went from prison to the presidency of his
country without a shot being fired. The Berlin Wall came down
without a shot being fired. And did anybody think there would be
peace in Northern Ireland? There is always hope when it comes to
unlikely social change.”
“Pete planted many seeds all over the world,” Musselman
concluded. That is why Pete Seeger lives on.
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His latest
book is The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American
Future. Other recent books include, The Seventeen Traditions:
Lessons from an American Childhood, Getting Steamed to Overcome
Corporatism: Build It Together to Win, and "Only The Super-Rich Can
Save Us" (a novel).
02/02/2014
No nuclear powers to participate in confab on humanitarian impact
Kyodo News International February 2, 2014
The United States, Russia and the three other countries allowed to have nuclear weapons under the existing nonproliferation regime are expected to skip an international conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, an envoy of host Mexico said Wednesday, citing their failure to register delegates for the event.
A similar conference was first held in Norway last March to put the spotlight on the humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons, but the five nuclear "haves" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which also include Britain, China and France, did not participate, apparently fearing that such a meeting would propel talks on outlawing nuclear weapons.
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