Tom Hayden

Senator Tom Hayden, the Nation Institute's Carey McWilliams Fellow, has played an active role in American politics and history for over three decades, beginning with the student, civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s.

"Tom Hayden changed America," wrote Nicholas Lemann, national correspondent for The Atlantic, of Hayden's role in the 1960s. Richard Goodwin, former speechwriter for John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, said that Hayden, "without even knowing it, inspired the Great Society."

Hayden was elected to the California State Legislature in 1982, where he served for ten years in the Assembly before being elected to the State Senate in 1992, where he served eight years.

Hayden has been described as "the conscience of the Senate" by columnist Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee, and as "the liberal rebel" by George Skelton of the Los Angeles Times. "He has carved out a key watchdog role," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

He is author of over 175 measures ranging from reform of money in politics, worker safety, school decentralization, small business tax relief, domestic violence, lessening gang violence in the inner city, stopping student fee increases at universities, protecting endangered species like salmon, overhauling three strikes, you're out laws, and a measure signed into law that will assist Holocaust survivors in receiving recognition and compensation for having been exploited as slave labor during the Nazi era.

Hayden is the author of eleven books, including his autobiography, Reunion; a book on the spirituality and the environment, Lost Gospel of the Earth; a collection of essays on the aftermath of the Irish potato famine, Irish Hunger (Roberts Rhinehart) and a book on his Irish background, Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America (Verso); Radical Nomad, a biography of C. Wright Mills (Paradigm Publishers); and, most recently, Ending the War in Iraq (2007). A collection of his work, Writings for a Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden Reader was published this year .

Currently

  • Iraq Pact Challenges Antiwar Movement

    December 1, 2008

    The US-Iraq Security Pact signals the war is ending--though not soon enough--and challenges peace activists to broaden their agenda against new quagmires.

  • Undecided Progressives: Make the Difference for Obama

    October 7, 2008

    Thinking of casting a symbolic vote for Nader or some other third-party progressive? Think again.

  • Obama's Bailout Strategy

    October 2, 2008

    Framing the financial crisis as a verdict on free-market fantasies, Obama can win with a mandate to end the war and build a better economy from the bottom up.

  • Defending Obama's Foreign Policy

    September 29, 2008

    When Robert Dreyfuss attacks Obama's policies on Afghanistan, it's not helpful to the progressive cause.

  • Turning Point in the Gang Crisis

    September 12, 2008

    Will the missing issues of gangs, poverty, dropouts, the inner city and policing redefine the presidential debate?

  • The Secret Behind the Surge

    September 10, 2008

    Bob Woodward's new book on the Bush years in Iraq raises the possibility that extrajudicial killings--not the surge--were the biggest factor in reducing violence.

  • The Problem Is Empire

    September 2, 2008

    The challenge to the peace movement is not to liberalize the empire; the task is to peacefully and steadily bring it to an end--and make democracy safe for the world.

  • Peace Voters Face New Challenges

    August 28, 2008

    It was a barely good week for the antiwar movement in Denver; peace voters face huge challenges in the election season ahead.

  • Warning to Obama on the New Cold War

    August 21, 2008

    McCain and the neocons are heating up a conflict in the Caucasus; it's up to the peace movement to keep Obama from signing on.

  • The Defunding of the Peace Movement

    August 15, 2008

    If millions are to be spent on an anti-Iraq, anti-McCain message, the money will come from the Obama campaign or not at all.

  • Obama From the Agora

    July 29, 2008

    Assessing Barack Obama's mythic destiny: will he become more Athenian than Spartan?

  • Maliki's Obama Endorsement

    July 19, 2008

    In a huge setback for John McCain and the Bush Administration, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki endorses Barack Obama's timeline for withdrawal--and the presumptive Democratic nominee could reap a windfall.

  • Obama, Iraq and Afghanistan

    July 15, 2008

    Obama's plan to de-escalate the war in Iraq only to ramp up another in Afghanistan just might work. It could also entrap the US in an even wider quagmire.

  • Pentagon Fights Peace Majorities in US and Iraq

    July 13, 2008

    The electorates in both countries are threatening to topple the principal warmakers at the ballot box.

  • Barack at Risk

    July 5, 2008

    Barack Obama could put his entire candidacy at risk if his audacity on the war in Iraq continues to shrivel.

  • Meet the New Dr. Strangelove

    June 20, 2008

    His name is David Kilcullen, an Australian academic and military veteran, who seeks to impose a mad science of counterinsurgency on Iraq.

  • Let the Resurrection Begin

    June 7, 2008

    Hillary Clinton's moving speech cemented a place for herself and the feminist movement in the unfolding drama of the 2008 presidential election.

  • Mixed Blessing

    May 25, 2008

    Obama calls for direct dialogue and new trade deals with Latin America, but continued counterinsurgency in Columbia, tensions with Venezuela.

  • Clintons in Denial

    May 7, 2008

    Tuesday's elections show the Clintons are beyond persuasion or capable of thinking beyond their own interests.

  • Dreaming Obama in North Carolina

    April 23, 2008

    Conversations with historian John Hope Franklin and civil rights heroes about race, memory and the possibility of change.

  • Why Hillary Makes My Wife Scream

    April 22, 2008

    By trying to inflict maximum damage on Obama, she's threatening the Democratic Party's chances for the White House. Progressives need to intervene.

  • Progressives for Obama

    March 24, 2008

    The future has arrived: progressives can make a difference to ensure Barack Obama is our next President.

  • Reviving Vietnam War Tactics

    March 13, 2008

    One of Gen. Petraeus's top advisors advocates a return to the global Phoenix program used during the Vietnam War.

  • Washington-Based Antiwar Coalition Re-emerges

    February 28, 2008

    Targets McCain, Iraq costs.

  • A Meeting of Minds

    February 21, 2008

    Thursday's debate revealed Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as solid progressives in sync with the broad base of the Democratic Party.

  • The Old Revolutionaries of Vietnam

    February 21, 2008

    Thirty-two years after the war, Communist Vietnam is a bustling market economy awash in foreign capital and consumer goods. So was the war necessary?

  • 'End the War in 2009'

    February 20, 2008

    Barack Obama has hastened his timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, setting the stage for an election battle with John McCain and the forces of neoconservatism.

  • Antiwar Group Collapses

    February 9, 2008

    Tom Matzzie, leader of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, has resigned his position and dissolved a major and well-funded coalition of anti-war groups.

  • Florida and Michigan: Vote Again

    February 8, 2008

    To avoid convention disaster, the DNC should reset caucuses and primaries in Florida and Michigan.

  • Memo: Where Do the Democrats Stand on Iraq?

    January 30, 2008

    A deep look into how the candidates propose to bring the troops home and deal with the continuing military dilemma.

  • Endorsing Obama

    January 28, 2008

    The movement he's inspired holds the promise of a new cycle of activism, reform and fresh thinking. So I will support him through the inevitable storms ahead.

  • Anti-War Lessons From New Hampshire

    January 9, 2008

    How will Democratic candidates end the war? None of the scenarios offered to New Hampshire voters really addressed the issue.

  • Amid Silence, Terror War Escalates

    January 7, 2008

    Bush's "war on terror" is escalating without discussion or dissent amid the most open and democratic of American processes--the presidential debates.

  • Edwards Calls to End US Training Effort in Iraq

    January 2, 2008

    His new stance could have an impact on Iowa caucus-goers.

2007

  • Thoughts for the Weary on Ending the War

    December 6, 2007

    Press Democratic front-runners on the tough questions and prepare for a real fight with whoever the Republican nominee turns out to be.

  • How the Peace Movement Can Win

    November 29, 2007

    For war opponents, the election year is a moment of great opportunity--and peril. The challenge is to leverage antiwar sentiment into a victory for peace.

  • San Francisco No Longer Sweat-Free

    November 3, 2007

    The city has backed away from its longstanding commitment to avoid procuring city workers' garments from offshore sweatshops.

  • The Secret State of Torture

    October 5, 2007

    After professing to abhor torture, the Bush Justice Department secretly authorized it. And the consequences for us all are grave.

  • Northern Ireland, South Africa in Secret Iraq Peace Talks

    September 28, 2007

    Peacemakers from countries that have moved from sectarian strife towards national reconciliation met with Iraq Sunnis and Shi'as in an effort to resolved the crisis.

  • Prelude to a Police State in Iraq

    September 19, 2007

    Widespread corruption and human rights abuses among Iraqi security forces could make Baghdad the capital of a Shiite police state employing the classic methods of dirty war.

  • The Surge in Baghdad

    September 11, 2007

    In this web video from Robert Greenwald's BraveNew Films, Tom Hayden counts the human cost of the US troop surge, as measured in the ruined lives of Iraqi civilians.

  • The New Counterinsurgency

    September 6, 2007

    The Army's updated Field Manual draws on an old, blood-steeped tradition.

  • Harvard's Humanitarian Hawks

    July 14, 2007

    Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights doesn't officially favor the war in Iraq, so why is it helping Gen. David Petraeus devise a counter-insurgency doctrine?

  • A Call to Bring All Troops Home

    June 24, 2007

    The Center for American Progress is calling to bring all combat forces--including trainers--home from Iraq.

2006

  • Iraq Is Dying

    August 9, 2006

    As an array of Iraqi leaders met with American peace activists this week in Amman, Jordan, a grim picture emerged of what the future will be, regardless of whether US troops stay or depart.

  • Shifting Winds on Iraq

    July 2, 2006

    Peace sentiments are rising among the American public and even in the much-divided Democrats. What does this mean for electoral politics and for the course of a war that seems to have no end in sight?

  • Hawks for Withdrawal

    May 17, 2006

    As centrist Democrats slowly but surely unite around a plan for military withdrawal from Iraq that is heavy with hawkish reasoning, what are the implications for the peace movement?

  • New Day for Bolivia

    January 27, 2006

    The inauguration of Evo Morales as Bolivia's first indigenous president opens a new era for Bolivia and a turning point for political, diplomactic and trade issues in the Americas.

  • Pacifying Iraq: Insurgent Scenarios

    January 10, 2006

    In informal but politically credible ways, factions of Iraq's armed national resistance are developing scenarios for an honorable withdrawal of US troops and a shared set of demands that could lead to peace.

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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