Whuppin' Hate with a Banjo

Pete & his banjo

Pete Seeger has been a hero of mine since I was a teenager. I was upset when I read that he might be a communist, so, as a naive teen, I wrote him a letter and asked him about that. He wrote me back! I was shocked and pleased to get the letter. He did not deny that he had been a member of the party, but did point out that many folks had been accused of being communists up to and including President Eisenhower. Even thugh I WAS naive, I read between the lines that he had been a communist and probably still considered himself a socialist. I als=ways knew he was farther to the left than me, but what a principled and small-d democrat. I loved his singing and his songs and afmired his activism, especially his strong support for civil rights.

When I saw this story on Facebook, I wanted to store it here so I could be reminded of it occasionally. I have no information documenting the story, but don't doubt that it is largely true. It is at least true to his spirit. It is taken from a Facebook post from someone named Chip Patullo and is used without permission. If anyone knows Chip feel free to let him know. I doubt he minds that the tens of people who read my blog see this. <grin>

Pete & Toshi Seeger

"In the 1970s, Pete Seeger was invited to sing in Barcelona, Spain. Francisco Franco's fascist government, the last of the dictatorships that started World War II, was still in power but declining. A pro-democracy movement was gaining strength and to prove it, they invited America's best-known freedom singer to Spain. More that a hundred thousand people were in the stadium, where rock bands had played all day. But the crowd had come for Seeger.

"As Pete prepared to go on, government officials handed him a list of songs he was not allowed to sing. Pete studied it mournfully, saying it looked an awful lot like his set list. But they insisted: he must not sing any of these songs.
Pete took the government's list of banned songs and strolled on stage. He held up the paper and said, 'I've been told that I'm not allowed to sing these songs.' He grinned at the crowd and said, 'So I'll just play the chords; maybe you know the words. They didn't say anything about *you* singing them.'

"He strummed his banjo to one song after another, and they all sang. A hundred thousand defiant freedom singers breaking the law with Pete Seeger, filling the stadium with words their government did not want them to hear, words they all knew and had sung together, in secret circles, for years. What could the government do? Arrest a hundred thousand singers? It had been beaten by a few banjo chords and the fame of a man whose songs were on the lips of the whole world."