Taking a stand
From a 1937 anti-fascist speech in defence of Republican Spain:
“Every artist, every scientist, must decide now where he stands. He has no alternative. There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights.
There are no impartial observers.
Through the destruction, in certain countries, of the greatest of man’s literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of racial and national superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged.
The struggle invades the formerly cloistered halls of our universities and other seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. … The artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”
– Paul Robeson
From a 1937 anti-fascist speech in defence of Republican Spain:
“Every artist, every scientist, must decide now where he stands. He has no alternative. There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights.
There are no impartial observers.
Through the destruction, in certain countries, of the greatest of man’s literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of racial and national superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged.
The struggle invades the formerly cloistered halls of our universities and other seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. … The artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”
– Paul Robeson
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