Controversial political activist and Boston University professor emeritus Howard Zinn appeared at UW-Madison Saturday to give a talk on ""Standing up for Justice in the Age of Obama.""
Politically active sportswriter and author Dave Zirin interviewed Zinn in an event organized by Haymarket Books, a progressive book distributor and publisher.
Zinn said, as citizens in a democratic state, it is the American people's responsibility to make it clear to our leaders what we want from them.
He said Obama has shown himself to be a very traditional Democratic president so far, adding the Democratic Party's tradition is to be slightly more liberal than the Republicans in domestic affairs and in foreign policy, ""to be as expansionist, and militarist and imperialist as the Republican Party.""
Zinn said, while the new administration has taken small steps to improve the domestic situation, Obama's cabinet appointments of ""old-guard Democrats and even Republicans"" are ""not up to dealing with an economic crisis such as we face now,"" and Obama still maintains an excessive military budget.
In particular, he criticized the appointment of Hillary Clinton, who has a ""basically militarist point of view.""
With regard to the Bush administration's use of torture in the ""War on Terror,"" Zinn said, ""I'm not a person who believes in punishment or retribution, but I do believe in recognizing that somebody has done something bad and doing something about it which says to the rest of the world ‘we will not tolerate this; this is wrong.'""
He criticized Obama's economic policy of trillion-dollar bank bailouts, saying the money should be used for government programs that give people jobs instead of using the private sector as a middleman.
Zinn emphasized the importance of citizen action in making change, citing the women's movement, the civil rights movement and the current gay rights movement, all fueled by actions of average citizens.
""Presidents do not do things because they have it in their hearts,"" Zinn said. ""Social change happens first in the minds and hearts of the people.""
Zinn also appeared at ""The Progressive Movement, Then and Now"" conference at the Monona Terrace Saturday night.
