Political Activism

Nadine Gordimer's newest novel, A Sport of Nature, follows a white anti-apartheid worker as she traverses a complicated terrain of sex, race, and politics.

Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman has recently published a number of articles critical of his home country's repressive government.

EMILE DE ANTONIO is regarded as one of the most important political filmmakers of the American Left.

Pete Seeger has dedicated his career to celebrating working people and civil rights. He was blacklisted in the 1950s, which kept him off television for decades. He joins Fresh Air to talk about how he developed his repertoire and honed his craft as a performer.

Lady Borton is an American Quaker who has done extensive aid work in Vietnam and with Vietnamese refugees. In 1980, she served as Health Administrator of Pulau Budong, the largest Vietnamese refugee camp in Malaysia. Borton describes the conditions as terrible, including, overcrowding, lack of food, and a rat infestation. Borton has a written a memoir of her time working in the camp, "Sensing the Enemy: An American Among the Boat People of Vietnam."

Bishop Desmond Tutu is an Anglican parish priest in Soweto, South Africa. Tutu is the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, and is one of the most prominent figures in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Tutu is seen as a moderate, and does not endorse violence. He travels extensively to mobilize support for the cause. His passport has been revoked twice.

The famed clergyman was involved in anti-war protests during the Vietnam War. He now leads a church in New York City, where he champions the poor, gays and lesbians, and helps organize against the nuclear arms race. Love, he says, is at the heart of his activism.

Liv Ullmann gained fame as an actress in Ingmar Bergman films. Recently, her work has involved traveling around the world and fundraising as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. Bergman has just completed a tour of East Africa. Ullman has also directed a sequence in the film "Acts of Love."

Activist Falaka Fatah is the co-founder of Umoja House, an organization that currently runs 21 house on North Fraser Street in Northwest Philadelphia serving gang members and street kids. The program began when Fattah and her husband, David, invited a gang to live with them after discovering their son, Robin, had joined. The Fattahs work with gangs led to a city wide meeting and truce among Philadelphia gangs. Their new project is "Boys Town," which will serve ex-offenders. Fattah joins the show to discuss strategies for reaching youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

President Richard Nixon's White House Counsel John Dean served time for his role in the Watergate affair. He reflects on his new life as a writer, his reputation and how he has since distanced himself from Washington politics. WUHY reporter Ralph Flood later joins the conversation.

Tuli Kupferberg was in the radical rock band the Fugs. He and Lannes Kenfield perform in the Revolting Theater group. They discuss the role their political convictions play in their creative pursuits.

Scott Tucker of the Lavender Left, director of the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force Rita Addessa, and Women Against Violence Against Women Member Peggy O'Donnell address the controversy behind William Friedkin's film Cruising, which stars Al Pacino as an undercover cop infiltrating the gay S&M scene in New York. The guests take a close look at the film's exaggerated and dehumanizing portrayal of gay people and discuss their planned protests. Fresh Air listeners call in with their questions and comments.

Ralph Flood speaks with two groups of protestors gathered at City Hall in Philadelphia. They oppose Jimmy Carter's 1979 budget proposal and the First Bank of Pennsylvania's support of Food Fair in spite of a strike, respectively.

Sandra Boston and Raymond Torres are members of the Christian and economic justice group Campaign for Global Justice. They join the show to discuss their work.

Blanche Wiesen Cook is the author of the new biography "Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume 2 1933-1938. (Viking) This edition covers The Great Depression, the New Deal, and the build-up to World War II. Cook a professor of history at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is author of "Eleanor Roosevelt," "Crystal Eastman on Women and Revolution," and "The Declassified Eisenhower."