Harry Belafonte @ Global Exchange

Harry Belafonte, the singer and activist, received the 2004 Human Rights Award by Global Exchange in San Francisco. His acceptance speech was broadcast on Democracy Now!. This is an excerpt:

«I believe that we may march and we may show our numbers in great volume from time to time. We do that. Women marching on Washington in large numbers. Peace activists turning out occasionally to demonstrate their passions of peace. These things go on and we see them. But what we don't seem to understand is that we have not yet, in some profound and meaningful way, interrupted the way in which the enemy does business. [applause] early on, I was introduced to a song in my youth and I was aspiring to find my place in the world as an artist. I remember a song that said calculate carefully and ponder it well and remember this when you do, "My two hands are mine to sell a major machine and they can stop them, too." [applause] It is the stopping of the machine that we seem to falter. For some reason we have not understood clearly what the blueprint was when we recall and think about what happened in the Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement and the Women's Movement in its early manifestations. The one thing that all those movements had in common was that they stopped the machine. And until we stop the machine, and in the way in which they -- they hungrily pursue profit, until we tell them you will not turn another moment of profit until you deal with our spiritual bankruptcy as a nation , until you find a new codes of honor in which to deal with the world, we will not tolerate any longer your banks, your institutions, we'll no longer tolerate your military interventions and your military impositions. [applause] and we are ready to put our bodies and our lives on the line to do that. (...) We must just understand that the sacrifice we have yet to make is demanded of us. Somebody is going to have to, in cleaning up the air, talk about not driving anymore. Somebody, in trying to get a better price for good, is going to have to say that we just can't keep running after the fast food market. Somebody is going to have to make a sacrifice. Somebody is going to have to put their body in front of the machine. Somebody is going to have to die. It's the way things are. It's the way things have been. And we, in our efforts to try to change and make a better world, will have to pay a price. Truth is -- we must ask ourselves, are we willing to go all the way? Ask yourself if you are truly willing to die for what you believe and you might come up with an answer that will explain to you why we haven't quite moved as far ahead as we should be moving. What are we prepared to give? What are we prepared to do? And should it be any less than those who have gone before us and who are willing to pay the price?»

A crucial question indeed, that any activist must pose himself, to realize the true extent of his commitment, of his compassion for the oppressed and their suffering, for those who die not because they willingly 'place their lives on the line' but rather because the machinery has engulfed them. How important is it to aid the millions of refugees? How important is it that biotech research institutes study malaria, cholera, and AIDS, instead of penile erectile disfunction or hair loss? How important is it to stop the use of land-mines, kalashnikovs, cluster bombs, and nuclear weapons? Enough to sacrifice a 1/2 hour of reading, an afternoon of protesting, evenings of organizing, a professional career, one's life?