Tom Hayden at Brave New Films

Brave Nation Young Activist Award Winner Cristina Lara

2008-08-21T21:29:12Z

Brave New Foundation hosted a reception in honor of Cristina Lara, the first winner of the Brave Nation Young Activist award. Cristina was selected out of 350 other young activists as this year's recipient and received her award at the reception. In addition, Brave New Foundation president, Robert Greenwald was featured in conversation with activist and author Tom Hayden. It was incredible to celebrate the beginning of a young activist's career while hearing words of wisdom from those who have been entrenched in social movements since the 1960s.

See the full video at bravenation.com

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This Brave Nation: A Confession

2008-08-21T21:29:17Z

I have a confession to make and I hope it doesn’t change your opinion of me as a serious blogger but it has to be said; I have a wicked crush on Tom Hayden. Now, before you click away and dismiss me as some empty-headed gossip blogger – hear me out. I don’t hand crushes out freely, I have very high standards. Recipients of said crushes are typically ambitious, straightforward and fearless types who never back down from a fight. They have mastered the use of wit over fists, pen over sword, and creativity in lieu of the familiar.

With criteria like that, is it even possible that I wouldn’t have a crush on Tom Hayden? New York Times book reviewer Paul Berman called Tom Hayden “the single greatest figure of the 1960’s student movement”. But I know him as – yes my crush, and also the journalist that writes pieces that make me want to learn more about the world in which I live. The person that makes profound statements in everyday conversation, the member of the Chicago 7 that works several yards away from our office and pops in for coffee from time to time. The former state senator who faced constant protests from conservative groups, and one half of the conversation that is This Brave Nation: Tom Hayden and Naomi Klein.

Tom and Naomi talk about everything from Martin Luther King, Jr. to their upbringings to violence in Iraq to their experience at WTO 1999. I know I’ve said this before, but you really cannot miss this episode. Invite your friends over and watch it together! By the end I’m sure you’ll be confessing your crushes on Naomi and Tom to one another.

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You Can't Call Yourself a Progressive Until You've Seen Tom Hayden and Naomi Klein

2008-08-21T21:29:18Z

"Print married with film. Film and print married with the internet. Internet married with text, audio and video. Text, audio and video married with ACTION. You don't need a user's manual to get the beauty of all this integration."
- The Agitator review of This Brave Nation.

What an amazing trip this has been! After months and months of hard work, This Brave Nation wraps with its thrilling fifth episode: Tom Hayden in conversation with Naomi Klein. Hayden is, of course, the legendary activist who was a member of the Chicago 7 and who also spent 18 years in the California Legislature. Klein is the author of two best-selling books, the anti-globalization manifesto No Logo, and the recent hit, The Shock Doctrine.

Together, they cover everything from the tumult of the 1960's to protests in Seattle to what it means to be a true witness of the events around you. Spirited and lively, Hayden and Klein have one of the most compelling conversations of this series, one you won't want to miss.

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If you've missed one episode of This Brave Nation, you've missed too many! For a $15 donation to This Brave Nation, you'll receive 2 DVDs of the first five episodes. Remember that the most important part of this series is the ability to share it with everyone you know, including a local school or library! We've already started shipping DVDs of This Brave Nation, so now is the time to get yours.

And don't forget to vote in our Brave Nation Young Activist Award contest. We've narrowed the list of incredible nominees down to just five contestants for you to choose from. On July 13th, when we bring you LIVE the final episode of This Brave Nation featuring 2 very special guests, we will announce the winner of the award.

Vote today and decide who the next Tom Hayden or Naomi Klein could be.

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Naomi Klein on Becoming an Activist

2008-08-21T21:29:18Z

Author, journalist and syndicated columnist Naomi Klein talks to journalist and activist Tom Haydn about the event that lead her to activism in this powerful segment from This Brave Nation

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Brave New Review: Tom Hayden's "Writings for a Democratic Society"

2008-06-18T00:16:44Z

From Richard Flacks:

If you were on the campus at Ann Arbor at the dawn of the 1960s, you’d have been aware of Tom Hayden’s writings in The Michigan Daily (the substantial and influential University of Michigan student newspaper). He first came to notice for his travels to the South to cover scenes of civil rights struggle and the movement then bursting into history. Then during the summer of 1960, Hayden was reporting from California, on the new breed of student rebel at Berkeley, on farmworker conditions in Delano, and a conversation with Edward Teller, the father of the H-bomb, at the Livermore Nuclear Lab. And then there was Hayden at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, watching JFK’s nomination and interviewing Martin Luther King Jr. as he led pickets in the streets outside the convention arena. In the fall of 1960, Hayden became editor in chief of the Daily, writing full-page articles declaring the birth of an American student movement. He was 20 that year.

Mickey and I, just married, were in Ann Arbor, where I was working toward a Ph.D. in social psychology. We’d gone there from New York City, both of us red diaper babies, disillusioned with communism’s betrayals, harboring no expectations that we’d ever find a way to restore political hope, enjoying instead our breakaway from the provincialism of the City, and discovering at that moment cultural possibilities unknown to New Yorkers. Ann Arbor was humming with film and electronic music festivals, “happenings,” coffeehouses and bookstores where young writers and artists could find voice and space that would not have been possible in the big city. Tom Hayden’s articles in the Daily became part of that ferment. We read them avidly, seeing them not as mere reportage, but as an effort to construct an exciting political myth—that Cold War apathy and conformism might be replaced by a new, youthful protest and dissent, spawned by the civil-rights movement, seeking possibilities for personal commitment and social renewal. We weren’t yet ready to believe his story line, but we certainly wanted to hear it.

Tom Hayden on Clinton vs. Obama

2008-06-17T21:31:24Z

According to Hayden, the battle between the Democrats is a huge advantage for McCain.

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This Brave Nation Trailer

2008-08-21T20:47:59Z

Sneak peak at the new documentary series from Brave New Foundation and The Nation coming out Spring 2008.

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Would a Democratic President pull out of Iraq?

2008-06-12T03:33:22Z

More info at therealnews.com
Tom Hayden: The media has failed to ask what will happen with the thousands of contractors in Iraq

Thursday January 31st, 2008

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US Military Action In Pakistan Gets Under Way?

2008-06-09T03:34:19Z

According to Tom Hayden:

The US government is considering direct military intervention in the tribal areas of Pakistan, risking an escalated conflict with Pashtun nationalism in the name of crushing al Qaeda. An essay in last week’s Washington Post, a front page story in today’s New York Times and reports from the Real News Network all confirm that a decision to intervene is near. The Times confirms that as many as 50 American personnel, whether special forces or CIA, already operate clandestinely inside the Pakistani border.

Democrats have called no hearings nor raised significant voices of opposition to the unfolding plan. In New Hampshire last night, Sen. Barack Obama repeated his endorsement of unilateral US military intervention in Pakistan if “actionable intelligence” exists. His Democratic rivals did not dissent.

The consequences of the possible escalation are extremely unpredictable. The alleged al-Qaeda militants are embedded in complex tribal networks in a remote mountainous area. Military action could inflict severe casualties and damage to these traditional communities and inflame anti-American sentiment across Muslim Pakistan. It might accelerate the disintegration of the US-backed Musharraf dictatorship which currently possesses nuclear weapons. Musharraf and the Pakistani military have steadfastly opposed direct American intervention for the past five years.

Speculation is rife that US support for the ill-fated return of Benezir Bhutto to Pakistan was based partly on an understanding that she would endorse and legitimize an expanded US presence in her country. If neither the American embassy nor the Musharraf regime could save her from death at a public event, it is unclear how successful American special forces will be in the wilds of South Waziristan.

There is virtually no public discussion of the implications of American support for a military dictatorship that imprisons Pakistani lawyers while harboring anti-US jihadists. Instead of enforcing the existing Leahy Amendment [1997] which bans military assistance to human rights violators, the US has spent approximately $10 billion in five years supporting the Musharraf regime, alienating a majority of Pakistanis, and lending credence to the claims of Muslim extremists. Having contributed to, or at least failing to have prevented Pakistan’s fall into chaos, “senior officials” quoted by the Times now are blaming al-Qaeda for plotting all along to achieve “the big prize, creating chaos in Pakistan itself.”

It is ironic that Democrats like Obama, whose campaign was built around questioning the intelligence justifying the Iraq War would now be arguing for a preventive war in a sovereign country if evidence gathered by intelligence sources is merely “actionable.”

The further irony is that the “war on terrorism” is escalating without meaningful discussion or dissent in the midst of the most open and democratic of American processes, the presidential debates.

Congressional hearings and questioning by the presidential candidates might stall, circumscribe or prevent the escalation. An alternative policy of reducing US military assistance to Pakistan and demanding the full restoration of civil liberties there, while seeking diplomatic de-escalation in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Palestine is being ignored in the march towards a wider quagmire. #

TOM HAYDEN is the author of Ending the War in Iraq [2007].

This is a very complex region of the world (as evidenced by recent events) with competing tribes, religions, ideologies and no one size fits all way to bring Democracy and stability to the region. We need a real strategy there, not a Bush in Iraq approach.

Let's all pray that not impeaching George W. Bush and thinking we can just wait things out until the end of his two terms doesn't come back to haunt us in the form of more foreign conflict based on shoddy reasoning.

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A Question of Torture, Algeria to Iraq

2008-06-15T03:29:37Z

American taxes pay for American advisers at Iraq's Interior Ministry, which carries out torture. The Leahy Amendment [1997] prohibits any American assistance to human rights violators.

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The Surge In Baghdad - It Is NOT WORKING

2008-03-22T21:54:32Z

A Video by Tom Hayden. It tells the story of this tragedy in human terms, and gives you a little insight into the wonderful guys who are our allies.

Think Somoza or Diem. We sure pick 'em well.

Tom Hayden's thoughts on Video and Activism

2008-06-12T15:36:01Z

My thoughts on the power of video to expose power and authority to a wide audience.

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Colbert Report: Tom Hayden

2008-07-09T18:27:11Z

Tom Hayden gives Stephen a tongue twister to end the Iraq War.

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