Re: OT - A True Hero

mozark wrote:

This was one great truth-telling speech. Wow.
Thanks for posting it.

> Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize speech:
> A brave artist speaks the truth about US imperialism
> By Barry Grey
> 9 December 2005
>
>
> British playwright Harold Pinter, this year's Nobel
> laureate for literature, delivered a passionate, truthful
> and courageous acceptance speech to the Swedish Academy
> on Wednesday. The renowned author of such plays as The
> Homecoming and The Caretaker, Pinter has spoken out
> tirelessly and powerfully against the war in Iraq and the
> depredations of American imperialism in the Balkans,
> Central America and elsewhere that preceded it.
>
> He utilized his acceptance speech to extend and develop
> that struggle, giving a blistering critique of the entire
> course of US foreign policy in the period since World War
> II, and indicting Britain for its role as Washington's
> junior partner and accomplice. Mincing no words, Pinter
> called Bush and Blair war criminals, and made an
> impassioned call for mass political resistance to
> militarism and war.
>
> The 75-year-old playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor and
> antiwar activist gave his address in the form of a
> videotape, made in Britain and shown on screens to the
> assemblage in Stockholm. Pinter was recently treated for
> cancer of the esophagus and remains in fragile health. On
> the advice of his physicians, he refrained from making
> the trip to Sweden.
>
> He appeared on tape sitting in a wheelchair, with a rug
> over his knees. His voice was hoarse, but, according to
> published accounts, no less commanding for that.
>
> Pinter's address, entitled "Art, Truth and Politics," was
> refreshing and even liberating in its honesty and
> bluntness about the catastrophic impact of US subversion,
> violence and aggression over many decades and in many
> parts of the world. Even sections of the establishment
> press in both Britain and the United States, such as the
> Guardian and the New York Times, which have fully
> participated in the dissemination of lies and the coverup
> of crimes associated with US foreign policy, were obliged
> to register in some measure the powerful impact of
> Pinter's words.
>
> Pinter prefaced a discussion of his body of dramatic work
> and his approach to art with the following observation:
>
> "In 1958 I wrote the following: 'There are no hard
> distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor
> between what is true and what is false. A thing is not
> necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and
> false.'
>
> "I believe that these assertions still make sense and do
> still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So
> as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As
> a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?"
>
> Pinter proceeded to give some insight into the complex
> and elusive process by which he composed his dramas,
> making clear that his primary concern was the utilization
> of language, plot and character to discover important
> human and social truths.
>
> Concerning the relationship between art, language and
> truth he said: "So language in art remains a highly
> ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a
> frozen pool which might give way under you, the author,
> at any time.
>
> "But as I have said, the search for the truth can never
> stop. It cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. It
> has to be faced, right there, on the spot."
>
> This theme of the responsibility to seek and present the
> truth was the connecting link between his remarks on
> drama and his remarks on history and politics. He said:
> "Political language, as used by politicians, does not
> venture into any of this territory since the majority of
> politicians, on the evidence available to us, are
> interested not in truth but in power and the maintenance
> of that power. To maintain that power it is essential
> that people remain in ignorance, that they live in
> ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own
> lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of
> lies, upon which we feed."
>
> He continued: "As every single person here knows, the
> justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam
> Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of
> mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45
> minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were
> assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that
> Iraq had a relationship with Al Qaeda and shared
> responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September
> 11, 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not
> true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of
> the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true."
>
> Pinter then moved to a discussion of US foreign policy
> since the end of the Second World War. "Everyone knows
> what happened in the Soviet Union and throughout Eastern
> Europe during the post-war period: the systematic
> brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless
> suppression of independent thought. All this has been
> fully documented and verified.
>
> "But my contention here is that the US crimes in the same
> period have only been superficially recorded, let alone
> documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognized
> as crimes at all.... Although constrained, to a certain
> extent, by the existence of the Soviet Union, the United
> States' actions throughout the world made it clear that
> it had concluded it had carte blanche to do what it
> liked."
>
> Pinter then spoke of Washington's record of international
> subversion: "In the main, it has preferred what it has
> described as 'low
> intensity conflict.' Low intensity conflict means that
> thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a
> bomb on them in one fell swoop. It means that you infect
> the heart of the country, that you establish a malignant
> growth and watch the gangrene bloom. When the populace
> has been subdued-or beaten to death-the same thing-and
> your own friends, the military and the great
> corporations, sit comfortably in power, you go before the
> camera and say that democracy has prevailed. This was
> commonplace in US foreign policy in the years to which I
> refer."
>
> He then went on to describe the mass murder and
> destruction wreaked by the US-backed Contra terrorists in
> Nicaragua in the 1980s. "I should remind you," he said,
> "that at the time President Reagan made the following
> statement: 'The Contras are the moral equivalent of our
> Founding Fathers.'"
>
> Pinter elaborated on the US role in Nicaragua and Central
> America as a whole. Noting the social achievements of the
> left-nationalist Sandanista regime that overthrew the
> US-backed dictator Samoza in 1979-the abolition of the
> death penalty, land reform, gains in literacy and public
> education, free health care-he said:
>
> "The United States denounced these achievements as
> Marxist/Leninist subversion. In the view of the US
> government, a dangerous example was being set. If
> Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social
> and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the
> standards of health care and education and achieve social
> unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries
> would ask the same questions and do the same things.
> There was of course at that time fierce resistance to the
> status quo in El Salvador....
>
> "President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a
> 'totalitarian dungeon.' This was taken generally by the
> media, and certainly by the British government, as
> accurate and fair comment... The totalitarian dungeons
> were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala.
> The United States had brought down the democratically
> elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is
> estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of
> successive military dictatorships....
>
> "The United States finally brought down the Sandinista
> government. It took some years and considerable
> resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000
> dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan
> people. They were exhausted and poverty stricken once
> again. The casinos moved back into the country. Free
> health and free education were over. Big business
> returned with a vengeance. 'Democracy' had prevailed.
>
> "But this 'policy' was by no means restricted to Central
> America.
> It was conducted throughout the world. It was
> never-ending. And it is as if it never happened.
>
> "The United States supported and in many cases engendered
> every right-wing military dictatorship in the world after
> the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia,
> Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the
> Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course,
> Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile
> in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven."
> [Editor's
> note: There are other countries that could be added to
> Pinter's list, including Argentina, Iran and Pakistan].
>
> Moving on to the US establishment's well-honed and
> sophisticated propaganda methods, Pinter said: "Language
> is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words
> 'the American people' provide a
> truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance... This does not
> apply of course to the 40 million people living below the
> poverty line and the 2 million men and women imprisoned
> in the vast gulag of prisons, which extends across the
> US."
>
> Pinter continued: "The United States no longer bothers
> about low intensity conflict. It no longer sees any point
> in being reticent or even devious. It puts its cards on
> the table without fear or favour. It quite simply doesn't
> give a damn about the United Nations, international law
> or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and
> irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb
> tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine
> Great Britain.
>
> "What has happened to our moral sensibility?... Look at
> Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of people detained without
> charge for over three years, with no legal representation
> or due process, technically detained forever. This
> totally illegitimate structure is maintained in defiance
> of the Geneva Convention...
>
> "The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant
> state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the
> concept of international law... A formidable assertion of
> military force responsible for the death and mutilation
> of thousands and thousands of innocent people.
>
> "We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium,
> innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation
> and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing
> freedom and democracy to the
> Middle East.'
>
> "How many people do you have to kill before you qualify
> to be described as a mass murdered and war criminal? One
> hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought.
> Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned
> before the International Criminal Court of Justice. But
> Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the
> International Criminal Court of Justice. Therefore if any
> American soldier or for that matter politician finds
> himself in the dock Bush has warned that he will send in
> the marines. But Tony Blair has ratified the Court and is
> therefore available for prosecution. We can let the Court
> have his address if they're interested. It is Number 10,
> Downing Street, London....
>
> "The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are
> transported
> to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive,
> out of harm's way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some
> for the rest of their lives."
>
> Summing up, Pinter said: "I have said earlier that the
> United States is now totally frank about putting its
> cards on the table. That is the case. Its official
> declared policy is now defined as 'Full spectrum
> dominance.' That is not my term, it is theirs. 'Full
> spectrum dominance' means control of land, sea, air space
> and all attendant resources...
>
> "Many thousands, if not millions, of people in the United
> States itself are demonstrably sickened, shamed and
> angered by their government's actions, but as things
> stand they are not a coherent political force-yet. But
> the anxiety, uncertainty and fear which we can see
> growing daily in the United States is unlikely to
> diminish...
>
> "I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist,
> unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual
> determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of
> our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which
> devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.
>
> "If such a determination is not embodied in our political
> vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly
> lost to us-the dignity of man."


.

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