"The beautiful young people who were cut down at Jackson State 30 years ago were fighting for something that human beings have dreamed of and yearned for since the beginning of time - a world without exploitation, without poverty, without racial and national hatred and sexual oppression... "
-- Chris Mahin, writing about the 30th anniversary of the massacre
on U.S. campuses during the Indochina War and the lessons for today
Chris Mahin is a writer, speaker, and teacher
of classes on contemporary U.S. politics and U.S. history, particularly
on the significance of the American Revolutionary War and Civil War eras
for today. He grew up in Washington, D.C. in an Irish-American family active
in the civil rights movement. As a high school student, he helped organize
the anti-war protests at Richard Nixon's first inauguration in 1969, and
the nationwide student strike against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia in 1970.
Revolutionary History: The collected writings of Chris Mahin
Some of Chris Mahin's speaking topics:
1. KENT STATE AND JACKSTON STATE - "If those of us who are living cannot consecrate the ground on which these young people stood, then surely we can and must -- again, as Lincoln said -- take from these honored dead increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last, full measure of devotion."
2. RECLAIM THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT OF JULY FOURTH - "Does July Fourth matter anymore? Or is it just an extra day off from work -- if you're lucky enough to still have a job? What does Independence Day mean for the homeless mother? For the young man in prison? For the day laborer? Every generation asks these kinds of questions. Finding the answers has never been more urgent than it is today. The Fourth of July should be about more than parades. Remember that this country was born in revolution. It should be an occasion to recall that the founding document of this country, the Declaration of Independence, openly proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are endowed with "unalienable rights" including the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
3. WHAT JOHN BROWN'S STRUGGLE MEANS FOR TODAY. "December 2 will mark the anniversary of the public hanging of John Brown, the militant opponent of slavery who led the bold attempt to seize a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry in 1859. As we fight injustice today, we should strive to use the revolutionary press and the speaker's platform as skillfully as the abolitionists did then. Like the abolitionists, we should be bold and insist on describing the existence of massive wealth alongside massive poverty as a moral issue -- because it is one."
4. THE TRUE STORY OF THE BOSTON MASSACRE: THE POOR, NOT THE ELITE, BEGAN
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - "March 5 will mark the anniversary of the
Boston Massacre, the event which began the American Revolution. When I visited
Boston, I saw homeless people of different nationalities shivering in the
April cold just a few feet outside that cemetery's gates. Clearly, we once
again need the unity of the poor that "the rabble" displayed on
King Street in 1770. Without it, we won't be able to take back the country
that the martyrs of March 5, 1770 helped create."
5, March 7, 2000 will mark the 150th anniversary of U.S. Senator DanielWebster's controversial "Seventh of March speech" in 1850 defending the Compromise of 1850 and appeasing the slaveowners of the South. Mahin's article on this subject will appear in the March 2000 edition of the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo. The article points out the importance of learning from the uncompromising stance of the abolitionists who opposed Webster and adopting that same stance in the fight against injustice today.
6. April 18-19, 2000 will mark the 225th anniversary of the battles ofLexington and Concord, where the first shots were fired in the AmericanRevolution. Mahin has written several articles on the significance of theAmerican Revolution for today, and given numerous talks on the role which Tom Paine's ideas played in pushing the revolution forward. Last year heisited the sites of both battles.
Here's a list of the historical subjects that Chris Mahin has written about (click to view the articles):
2. Lexington and Concord (1775)
3. William Lloyd Garrison (1831)
6. The Compromise of 1850 (1850)
10. May Day (1886)
11. Kent State and Jackson State (1970)
12. Harper's Ferry