“A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn revolutionized the idea of who makes history and how it’s taught in schools. Today, more than 40 years after the text’s initial publication, San Francisco’s annual Howard Zinn Book Fair is part of the author’s living legacy, convening in his name to celebrate freethinking, expression and resistance in perilous times.
“Howard Zinn was part of the tradition of history from below,” explains James Tracy, author and Labor Studies chair at City College San Francisco. Tracy and a committee of 12 volunteers coordinate the Zinn Fair, returning to CCSF’s Valencia Street campus on Sunday after a three-year pandemic hiatus.
“The fair resonates on a personal level,” says Reina Tello, a CCSF Ethnic Studies student who also serves on the fair’s coordinating committee. A working mother and housing organizer with Poder, a nonprofit supporting Latino immigrants, Tello comes from a family of organizers. She will be leading an Anti-Displacement Walking Tour through the Mission on Sunday at 4 p.m.
“My dad was a community organizer in the seventies in the city,” says Tello. “Working on housing justice, I’ve had the hard realization that we’re fighting the same battles.” She hopes her walking and talking tour of gentrification hotspots near Valencia will highlight the struggle, as well as solutions for a more equitable future.
“Knowing our history locally and in a broader sense, what works and what doesn’t work interconnects us,” says Tello.
Since 2014, the Zinn Fairs have manifested the idea of beloved community: One people, working together toward a harmonious and balanced existence on earth. Classrooms buzz with cross generational and cultural discussions; exhibit tables hum with good vibes and banter over shared interests and books. It’s a day of free-flowing ideas among changemakers and idealists of all identities and a way for organizers to fill their wells and keep up the good fight.
“We try to highlight books on workers immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ people and dissidents,” says Tracy, “Those are the books that are under attack nationwide and as long as we have the privilege of living in a state where that is not yet happening the same way it’s happening in Florida — though we’ve seen it in the Central Valley and as close as Hayward — we thought it was fitting to call our fair ‘Against Amnesia.’
“We’re not only against amnesia, we’re for remembering,” he says. “We give the same respect to a zinester as we would to a best-selling author. This is a wealth giving space whether you have 60 years in the movement or six days, just to come in and explore.”
Authors Robin D.G. Kelly, Rebecca Solnit, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Sonali Kolhatkar and many more join activists and everyday folks paneling on topics that often go uncovered by mainstream media. Among the 70 discussions on deck this year at Zinn Fair: “Our Covid Stories: Latinx Workers on the Frontlines”; “What Past Social Movements Can Teach Climate Organizers”; “Power Concedes Nothing: Lessons from 2020 as 2024 Looms” and members of the Bay Area Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in an intergenerational dialogue with today’s organizers.
“Robin Kelly is the type of historian that makes history come alive, that makes it a tool to understand the world we live in,” says Tracy, while at the same time, “It’s people like Reina and her cohort who give me inspiration every day as their teacher. I’m a student of my students…I never leave a class without them teaching me a way to organize more effectively.”
Tracy was pleased to note this year’s schedule has sessions run by students from CCSF’s
ethnic studies and social justice departments, on subjects ranging from LGBTQIA issues and decolonization to the war in the Middle East
“This moment brings so many possibilities,” said Tracy, author of several books on organizing, including “No Fascist USA!” (2020, City Lights Open Media) cowritten with Hilary Moore.
“This current iteration of labor movement is one of the most intersectional since the thirties,” he says. “The young people taking leadership are highly class conscious and were largely politicized under the George Floyd uprising,” says Tracy. “They know how critical race is in U.S. society, but they also tend to stand up for everybody. They stand up for their transgender coworkers and tend to take gender seriously in a way that sounds natural and not like a checklist.”
As a returning student sandwiched between generations, Tello says she too has observed what solidarity looks like among her colleagues at school, at work and from afar, whether mobilizing for fair wages or for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Even with all of life’s challenges, people are still taking it to the streets,” she says, “I’ve seen it over the last four-to-six weeks. The longshoremen are amazing,” she says, noting the effort made to stop a ship loaded with weapons leaving the Port of Oakland. “Especially with the looming threats of AI and self-driving vehicles, that’s a huge reduction in labor. We’re going to have to go to bat for them too,” she says.
“You can always benefit from reflecting on history and how people have organized,” adds Tracy, “What their victories and lessons were.”
“At the end of the day we’re all just people and I think we have to band together,” says Tello. “It’s all interconnected and how could it not be when people are at the core. People power is really where it’s at.”
The Howard Zinn Book Fair is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 3 at City College San Francisco Mission Center, 1125 Valencia St., San Francisco. Admission is free. Childcare is provided and masks are required. For information, visit zinnbookfair.org.