On this edition of Parallax Views, longtime activist and populist historian Harvey “Sluggo” Wasserman joined the show to discuss his life of radical activism and his new book The People’s Spiral of U.S. History: From Jigonsaseh to Solartopia.
This conversation is a wild ride as Harvey gives us an overview of his long life including stories of Democratic National Convention riots in 1968, writing a pro-marijuana article in his youth that caused him to appear on multiple TV shows, dropping acid in the 1960s, living in a hippie farming community, discovering the life and times of socialist leader Eugene V. Debs, the COINTELPRO-era FBI’s attempts to infiltrate and destroy a radical news service Harvey was involved with called Liberation News Service, and helping to kickstart the anti-nukes/”No Nukes” movement as well as his encounters with Howard Zinn, Martin Luther King, Jr., Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman, and many, many others. Additionally, Harvey and I also manage to discuss:
– California Governor Gavin Newsom, Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors, and the problems with nuclear power
– The People’s Spiral of U.S. History as dealing with a cyclical interpretation of U.S. history influenced by William Appleman Williams that details a dialectical struggle between the indigenous and puritanical elements in America’s cultural DNA that Wasserman traces back to America’s earliest origins
– Harvey’s “Law of Unintended Consequences” in history, J. Edgar Hoover, and helping to pioneer organic farming
– LSD, mushrooms, Gordon Wasson, ergot poisoning and the Salem Witch Trials, the CIA’s involvement in spreading acid, whether Timothy Leary was working for the U.S. intelligence community and MKULTRA, and Terence McKenna’s “Stoned Ape” theory
– Organizing protests that shutdown a nuclear power plant and why that campaign succeeded
– Nuclear energy, Fukushima, and Chernobyl; Putin, nuclear reactors, and the war in Ukraine; nuclear reactors built on earthquake faults
– Nuclear power vs. solar and wind power
– Republican Election stealing and Harvey’s work with political scientist and Columbus Free Press journalist Bob Fitrakis on unusual activity in Ohio related to the 2004 Presidential election that pitted George W. Bush against John Kerry
– And much, much more!
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE.
