Pete Seeger Was A Movement Musician

http://dissidentvoice.org/2019/05/pete-seeger-was-a-movement-musician/
Date Written:  2019-05-01
Publisher:  Dissident Voice
Year Published:  2019
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23676

A memorial to Pete Seeger on what would have been his 100th birthday.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

As far as I know, he never resented the fact that he did well enough as a musician to tour the world and feed his family. But Pete talked on so many occasions in so many ways about how profoundly uncomfortable he was with all the attention. When I was younger I assumed this was just him being humble. But later, on reflection, it's very clear to me that he meant what he said - and pretty much everything he did in his life as a musician and organizer reinforced his words.

Pete certainly believed in the power of music, and surely wished music, including his music, would be used in many different circumstances - for the love of music, and for movement-building and community-building of all kinds. But throughout his life, though the spotlight repeatedly kept turning to him, among others, he was working for the movement....

As the Civil Rights movement got off the ground, Pete was there, naturally, going where the movement was. Same for the movement against the war in Vietnam, the movement against nuclear weapons and nuclear power, the environmental movement more broadly, the movement against intervention in Latin America, against invading Iraq, and, not long before he died, even Occupy Wall Street.