Video: Pete Seeger And Arlo Guthrie Perform For Occupy Wall Street UWS March

It is good to see Seeger and Guthrie show up, as much as they "fit the mold." Honestly, what do we expect from the network and corporate media, except that they'll frame OWS in the most derisive and convenient means possible? The only reporters who won't really follow those bad journalism habits are independent bloggers and alternative/non-profit media, like Democracy Now!. Their coverage has been a stark contrast to most of the swill we have to deal with otherwise. They had Cornel West and Michael Moore on the program today, check it out: http://democracynow.org

Many of the details of the Stalin-era purges were unknown outside of the USSR until Khrushchev's secret speech, at which point many members of the Communist Party USA (Seeger included) withdrew their support for Stalin and admitted the fallibility of the Soviet communist experiment. Seeger, and many like him, were and are much more accurately described as philosophical communists, who generally accepted a Marxist historical critique and agreed with the ideological underpinnings of communism in opposition to unregulated, winner-take-all capitalism, which, you know, has kind of precipitated this current "shit storm."

This whole "Stalin's songbird" construct is a tired old straw man that's been deployed in attacks on Seeger for the last 50 or so years, and is clearly much more useful as an ad hominem smear than as any kind of cogent argument for why Seeger should be considered a "enemy" of the US or general villain. 

If you want to actually read about the contribution Pete Seeger has made to this country for seven decades, and then argue that he doesn't deserve to be considered a part of the most elite class of unselfish, dedicated social activists in the last century, be my guest. But I doubt you will.

The Ribbentrop act was enough not to stick with the party but many did. Seeger as many in the Party jumped when they said jump didnt want to get into ww2 until they were told to."But after the Hitler-Stalin pact, he and his group the Almanac Singers put out an album titled Songs of John Doe that called Franklin D Roosevelt a warmongering lackey of JP Morgan.

Franklin D, listen to me,
You ain't a-gonna send me 'cross the sea.
You may say it's for defense
That kinda talk ain't got no sense". Thats the fundamental wrong. When you dont  question  the things you get behind and later give a big I didnt know. That doesnt make someone innocent. Hes a punk.As the ex-communist scholar Ronald Radosh puts it, "Seeger was antiwar during the period of the Nazi-Soviet Pact; pro-war after the Soviet Union was the ally of the United States; and anti-war during the years of the Cold War and Vietnam".

Do you really want someone who repudiated Stalin AFTER Kruschev?  I think the Tea Party should trot out some former Nazi's to play to the crowd.

when bruce comes down, then i'll start to pay attention.

Pete Seeger has been showing up for over seventy years - not for photo ops, but to make real change in the world.  He doesn't need to come to the city every day for his presence to mean something.

Nice to see Pete sporting the baked bean teeth, dentists must be part of that 1%

Let me know how your teeth look when you're 92.

Pete Seeger also thought Stalin was a great guy.

Stalin and Fidel and Hugo Chavez aren't great guys ????

A lot of people thought that Joe McCarthy was swell. The difference is that the vast majority of folks who admired Stalin saw the light but McCarthy still enjoys the love of authoritarian assholes who don't know what it means to be an American.

How many millions did McCarthy kill?

How many lives did his stupidity ruin?

Killing and starving MILLIONS is not the same as deluded Hollyfucking wood writers losing theyre fucking trivial jobs of writing screenplays and movies.Wah.They wrote about how the working man this and that. Not one ever went to live over in the great ol USSR, land of free. Know why? Cause it sucked and still sucks. Stalin, anyone who can spend his life praising a murder like this is dangerous and fuct in the head.. Fuck  Pete Seeger sings Blue tail fly and Red river valley. Who can listen to that crap. . The names that were given , were people in the party. Like it or not.

First of all, the USSR is dead and gone. Secondly, your appreciation of writing or lack thereof is fortunately not a requirement for judging its worth. Third, go listen to your Bon Jovi albums and pump your fist in the air because that's about your speed. Anything with depth is beyond you so please avoid it at all costs.

You dont address the biggest fallacy  mr Dipshit, Yes you.Stalin was a tyrant in the highest degree. Killed everyone around him that posed any sort of threat.And boy did he kill.That can NEVER be overlooked . Only by fools like yourself. The question of choices of music and which movies one like have no place in this. Im straight up Louie Armstrong. Bon Jovi is your guilty pleasure.No fist pumping here just truth.

"That can NEVER be overlooked" -- OK, then don't overlook it. I acknowledge it as something that happened. I don't see your point at all. There were all manner of Communists in America primarily in the 1930s and 40s. Not all of them were in lockstep with the Kremlin because some of them saw it as merely a way to try and bring people together for the cause of the working class in this country. Even if some of these folks fooled themselves into thinking that Stalin was a swell guy, I don't think a one of them would have suggested starving entire regions of America to achieve a political goal. Were some of the people at the head of the American Communist Party in fealty to the USSR's brand of the ideology? Yes. But your suggestion that a pacifist folk singer performing songs about the working class somehow condoned the murder of millions is silly.

every famous  Liberal is showing up for their photo-op , then scampers away never to be heard or seen again

Of all people, Pete Seeger has spent his whole life walking the walk. He is not some publicity hound who can't back up what he says. I wish more artists were as selfless and honest as this amazing American.

yawn