Howard Zinn is one of this country’s most celebrated historians. His classic work A People’s History of the United States changed the way we look at history in America. First published a quarter of a century ago, the book has sold over a million copies and is a phenomenon in the world of publishing—selling more copies each successive year. After serving as a bombardier in World War II, Howard Zinn went on to become a lifelong dissident and peace activist. He was active in the civil rights movement and many of the struggles for social justice over the past forty years. He taught at Spelman College, the historically black college for women, and was fired for insubordination for standing up for the students. He was recently invited back to give the commencement address. Howard Zinn has written numerous books and is professor emeritus at Boston University. He recently spoke at Binghamton University a few days after the 2008 presidential election. His speech was called “War and Social Justice.” [includes rush transcript]

Utah Phillips, the legendary folk musician and peace and labor activist, died earlier this year at the age of seventy-three. Over the span of nearly four decades, Utah Phillips worked in what he referred to as “the Trade,” performing tirelessly throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. The son of labor organizers, Phillips was a lifelong member of the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies. As a teenager, he ran away from home and started living as a hobo who rode the rails and wrote songs about his experiences. In 1956, he joined the Army and served in the Korean War, an experience he would later refer to as the turning point of his life. In 1968, he ran for the US Senate on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. For the past twenty-one years he lived in Nevada City, where he started a nationally syndicated folk music radio show. He also helped found the Hospitality House homeless shelter and the Peace and Justice Center. We spend the hour with an interview with Phillips from January 2004. [includes rush transcript]

Landowners in Tennessee have filed a $165 million lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority in the wake of last week’s massive spill of over one billion gallons of toxic coal ash next to a coal-burning steam plant. The sludge spilled out of a coal plant retention pond, burying homes and roads. It is believed to be the largest coal ash disaster in US history. The amount of ash released would fill 450,000 standard dump trucks. [includes rush transcript]

Part two of the 2005 Nobel Prize acceptance speech of the acclaimed British playwright, poet, actor, and activist Harold Pinter. He died last week at the age of seventy-eight. [includes rush transcript]

Israel has rejected a French proposal for an immediate emergency forty-eight-hour ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. As Israeli air and sea attacks against the Strip continued into its fifth day, basic food supplies in Gaza are running low, and hospitals are struggling to cope with the rising casualties. We speak to two Israelis opposed to the assault: Dov Khenin, a Knesset member with the Jewish-Arab party Hadash; and Jonathan Benartzi, an Israeli conscientious objector who spent more than a year in prison for refusing to serve. He also happens to be the nephew of Benjamin Netanyahu, a leading proponent of attacking Gaza and a favorite to win the upcoming Israeli elections. [includes rush transcript]

• Gaza Bombing Continues as Israel Rejects Truce Proposal
• 30 Palestinians Killed in Latest Attacks
• Foreign Journalists Challenge Gaza Ban
• Protests Worldwide Condemn Israeli Attack
• Thousands Join Protests Across US
• Defying Critics, Illinois Gov. Fills Senate Vacancy
• Franken Ahead 50 Votes in Minnesota Recount
• California Sues Over Bush EPA Rules
• Lobbyist Accuses NYT of Defamation for McCain Story
• Trial Delayed for Iraqi Journalist

Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor and political activist died last week at the age of seventy-eight after a prolonged battle with cancer. In his 2005 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Pinter excoriated US foreign policy. “The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law,” Pinter said. We play an excerpt from his speech. [includes rush transcript]

Considered the “Queen of American Folk Music,” Odetta introduced audiences worldwide to American roots music and especially African American folk, blues and gospel. She died earlier this month. When Rosa Parks was asked which songs meant the most to her, she replied, “All of the songs Odetta sings.” We hear Odetta in her own words and speak to Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, original member of the SNCC Freedom Singers and founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock. [includes rush transcript]

• Gaza Death Toll Tops 375
• Israel Vows to Wage “War to the Bitter End”
• UN: 64 Palestinian Civilians Killed
• Four Israelis Killed in Palestinian Rocket Attacks
• Ban Ki-Moon Accuses Israel of Using Excessive Force
• Israel Rams Activist Boat Carrying Aid to Gaza
• Kucinich Calls on UN to Investigate Israeli Attack
• Molotov Cocktail Thrown at Synagogue in Chicago
• Bangladesh Holds First Election in Seven Years
• Ugandan Rebels Accused of Massacring 189 in Congo
• Iranian Officials Raid Home of Shirin Ebadi
• Rare Suicide Bombing in Iran Kills Four
• Treasury Bails Out GMAC
• Gov't Pushes Oil Drilling Off California Coast
• Judge Rejects Class Action Suit from Katrina Survivors
• Washington Prison Doctor Quits Over Death Penalty
• Jazz Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, 70, Dies

Amidst worldwide protests, Israel is continuing its bombing campaign against Gaza for the third consecutive day and preparing to launch a possible ground invasion. Following months of a crippling blockade, this has been described as one of Israel’s bloodiest attacks on Palestinians since 1948. Latest reports indicate that 310 people have been killed and 1,400 injured in the aerial strikes across the Gaza Strip since Saturday morning. The latest targets of the air strikes include the Hamas Interior Ministry building and the Islamic University. Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced today that Israel is in an “all-out war with Hamas and its proxies” in Gaza. Fears of a ground invasion are growing after Israel declared a military buffer zone around Gaza, closing off the strip and its 1.5 million residents to journalists and civilians.

We speak to Dr. Moussa El-Haddad and Fida Qishta in Gaza, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti in Ramallah, Gideon Levy in Tel Aviv and Ali Abunimah in the US. [includes rush transcript]

• Over 310 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attack on Gaza
• Israel: International Community Should Condemn Hamas
• Hamas Accuses Israel of Causing a Holocaust
• UN Calls for “Immediate Halt to All Violence"
• US Officials Back Israeli Attack
• Tennessee Coal Disaster Three Times Larger Than First Projected
• Pakistan Redeploys Troops to Indian Border
• 14 Afghan Children Killed in Suicide Bombing
• Somalian President Resigns
• Brazil to Arrest Rancher in Death of American Nun
• 19 States Make Cuts to Medicaid Benefits
• Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds
• GOP Candidate Sends Out “Barack the Magic Negro” CD
• Playwright Harold Pinter, 78, Dies
• Singer & Actress Eartha Kitt, 81, Dies

Breyten Breytenbach is one of South Africa’s most famous poets. He’s also an award-winning writer and painter, and well-known as an anti-apartheid activist and outspoken advocate for justice around the world. The exiled poet was born to an Afrikaner or white South African family in 1939. He moved to Paris in the early 1960s and became deeply involved with the anti-apartheid movement. In 1975, Breytenbach returned secretly to South Africa under a false passport. He was arrested, charged with terrorism and imprisoned for seven years. One of his most famous books based on his experience in prison is called The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist. Today, Breytenbach divides his time between New York University, where he teaches creative writing, and the Goree Institute in Senegal, West Africa. [includes rush transcript]

His name might not be familiar to many, but his songs are sung by millions around the world. Today, a journey through the life and work of Yip Harburg, the Broadway lyricist who wrote such hits as “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” and who put the music into The Wizard of Oz. Born into poverty on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Yip always included a strong social and political component to his work, fighting racism and poverty. A lifelong socialist, Yip was blacklisted and hounded throughout much of his life.

Taking us on today’s trip through the music and politics of Yip is his son, Ernie Harburg. First, we’re going to go through Yip’s early life, his collaboration with the Gershwin’s, through “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” Then we’re going to take an in-depth look at The Wizard of Oz. And finally, we’ll hear a medley of Yip Harburg’s Broadway songs and the politics of the times in which they were created. [includes rush transcript]

And finally, on this Christmas Eve, I’m joined by a man who makes a compelling environmental case for a non-consumptive Christmas. Colin Beavan is also known as the No Impact Man. Beavan, along with his wife, their two-year-old daughter and dog, spent a year attempting to minimize their ecological footprint while continuing to live in the heart of New York City. [includes rush transcript]

This year, the Norwegian diplomat Martti Ahtisaari won the Peace Prize. But in this season of peace, we look at the eleven women who have won the prize. We speak to Anne Ruffer, author of Peace Women. [includes rush transcript]

Asha Hagi is the co-founder and current chair of the non-profit, Save Somali Women and Children. During the Somali peace talks in 2000, Hagi founded the Sixth Clan, the clan of women, to complement the traditional five male-dominated Somali Clans. This became the first time women were represented in a peace process in Somalia. Since the Ethiopian invasion two years ago, Hagi has been based in Kenya because of her vocal opposition to the US-backed invasion. [includes rush transcript]

This past year, Somalis have experienced the worst violence in a decade. In a new report, Human Rights Watch says the United States is only making the crisis worse. The report states, “The United States, treating Somalia primarily as a battlefield in the global war on terror, has pursued a policy of uncritical support for transitional government and Ethiopian actions, and the resulting lack of accountability has fueled the worst abuses.” We speak to HRW’s Leslie Lefkow. [includes rush transcript]

Parts of Tennessee remain buried under toxic sludge today after a major disaster at a coal plant. A forty-acre pond containing toxic coal ash has collapsed, spilling out millions of gallons of coal ash. Environmentalists say the spill is more than thirty times larger than the Exxon Valdez, but the story has received little national attention. Greenpeace is calling for a criminal investigation. [includes rush transcript]

• US to Fund, Train Afghan Militias
• Iraq Sets July 2009 Withdrawal Date for Non-US Troops
• Gaza Rocket Fire Follows Israeli Killing of 3 Palestinians
• Report: Cheney Admitted Wider Role in Plame Leak
• Obama: No Improper Contact with Blagojevich
• Housing Starts at Lowest Level in 50 Years
• AmEx to Receive $3.39B Bailout Aid
• Wal-Mart Agrees to $352M Settlement in Wage Lawsuits
• Starr to Defend Prop. 8
• Lesbian Woman Raped, Beaten in Anti-Gay Hate Crime
• Nixon to Kissinger: “Just Bomb the Hell Out of Them”

Harper’s Magazine is marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of its popular monthly feature, the Harper’s Index. The Index reports sometimes funny, often sobering political realities through statistics and unusual figures. Turn to this month’s edition, and you’ll find out things like how much the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount, or the estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving President Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations. [includes rush transcript]