The 8th grade protest: democracy in action

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How did we get sensitized to the Hazel Scott issue?

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The 8th grade protest: democracy in action

Philip Roth Writer

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As a result of this action, the class was invited to send representatives to a... a convention of the CIO Political Action Committee. The CIO is the Congress of Industrial Workers, Congress of Industrial Organization or whatever it's called. It's a labor union, it's the collective labor union. It was the most left-wing labor union we had in America. And we went, and I was one of those kids that went. There were about a half a dozen of us, and we all sat on a platform and watched this convention, and they all stood up and applauded us when we were introduced. And one of the speakers, a man named Dr Frank Kingdon, he was a liberal columnist in the newspaper, walked over to us kids and - I'll never forget it - he said, 'Boys and girls, you're seeing democracy in action'. And it was thrilling.

The fame of the American writer Philip Roth (1933-2018) rested on the frank explorations of Jewish-American life he portrayed in his novels. There is a strong autobiographical element in much of what he wrote, alongside social commentary and political satire. Despite often polarising critics with his frequently explicit accounts of his male protagonists' sexual doings, Roth received a great many prestigious literary awards which include a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1997, and the 4th Man Booker International Prize in 2011.

Title: The 8th grade protest: democracy in action

Listeners: Christopher Sykes

Christopher Sykes is an independent documentary producer who has made a number of films about science and scientists for BBC TV, Channel Four, and PBS.

Tags: CIO Political Action Committee, Congress of Industrial Organization, Frank Kingdon

Duration: 59 seconds

Date story recorded: March 2011

Date story went live: 18 March 2013