Based on living professionals, these are folks who stand for what they believe, in the face of powerful and organized opposition.
André Marin*, former Ombudsman of Ontario
Alison Weir* (link)
Anhar Kochneva*
Bruce Allan Clark* (and link) (and link)
Carla Del Ponte*, UN investigator and jurist
Anhar Kochneva*
Bruce Allan Clark* (and link) (and link)
Carla Del Ponte*, UN investigator and jurist
Chelsea Manning (formerly: Bradley Manning)
Chris Hedges*
Cornel West*
Cynthia McKinney
Denis Halliday*
Desmond Tutu
Dieudonné M'bala M'bala*
Edward Snowden*
George Galloway
Gideon Levy*
Glenn Greenwald*
Haneen Zoabi* (article)
Harry Kopyto*
Hillary Mann Leverett* (story)
Ilan Pappe*
James Petras*
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jeremy Scahill*
John Pilger*
Judith Curry* (video)(video)
Julian Assange*
Kevin Annett*
Kim Dotcom*
Leonard Peltier*
Lynne Stewart
Mads Gilbert*
Malalai Joya*
Marinella Correggia*
Megan Rice*
Michael Parenti*
Michele Brill-Edwards* (video)
Mordechai Vanunu*
Muntadhar al-Zaidi (GIF)
Norman Finkelstein
Pamela Palmater*
Peter C. Gøtzsche* (video)
Ralph Nader
Ramsey Clark
Ray McGovern (former CIA officer)
Richard Stallman*
Rocco Galati* (video)
Salah Lamrani* (video)
Sampat Pal Devi (Gulabi Gang)*
Seymour Hersh*
Shiv Chopra*
Sibel Edmonds*
Steven Salaita*
Vanessa Redgrave* (video)
Ward Churchill
Chris Hedges*
Cornel West*
Cynthia McKinney
Denis Halliday*
Desmond Tutu
Dieudonné M'bala M'bala*
Edward Snowden*
George Galloway
Gideon Levy*
Glenn Greenwald*
Haneen Zoabi* (article)
Harry Kopyto*
Hillary Mann Leverett* (story)
Ilan Pappe*
James Petras*
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jeremy Scahill*
John Pilger*
Judith Curry* (video)(video)
Julian Assange*
Kevin Annett*
Kim Dotcom*
Leonard Peltier*
Lynne Stewart
Mads Gilbert*
Malalai Joya*
Marinella Correggia*
Megan Rice*
Michael Parenti*
Michele Brill-Edwards* (video)
Mordechai Vanunu*
Muntadhar al-Zaidi (GIF)
Norman Finkelstein
Pamela Palmater*
Peter C. Gøtzsche* (video)
Ralph Nader
Ramsey Clark
Ray McGovern (former CIA officer)
Richard Stallman*
Rocco Galati* (video)
Salah Lamrani* (video)
Sampat Pal Devi (Gulabi Gang)*
Seymour Hersh*
Shiv Chopra*
Sibel Edmonds*
Steven Salaita*
Vanessa Redgrave* (video)
Ward Churchill
I welcome your suggestions (in comment below!) of those who should be prominently added to such a list.
And, from recent history:
Che Guevara
David F. Noble*
Douglas Christie (lawyer)*
The Gracchus Brothers*
Hajo Meyer*
John Brown (abolitionist)*
John Trudell*
John Virapen (Big Pharma whistleblower)*
Lenny Bruce*
Louis Riel*
Lucy Parsons*
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King, Jr.*
Mary Mother Jones
Mikhail Bakunin*
Michael Hastings*
Nelson Mandela*
Oscar Romero
Patrice Lumumba*
Paul Robeson*
Salvador Allende*
Thomas Paine*
David F. Noble*
Douglas Christie (lawyer)*
The Gracchus Brothers*
Hajo Meyer*
John Brown (abolitionist)*
John Trudell*
John Virapen (Big Pharma whistleblower)*
Lenny Bruce*
Louis Riel*
Lucy Parsons*
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King, Jr.*
Mary Mother Jones
Mikhail Bakunin*
Michael Hastings*
Nelson Mandela*
Oscar Romero
Patrice Lumumba*
Paul Robeson*
Salvador Allende*
Thomas Paine*
54 comments:
I'll emphasise what I suggested the first round: If the list is to make sense to me, the thinking behind it should be made more clear. I wonder, Why 'professional'? And how do you mean 'outstanding? And what suffered consequences are "significant"? Without a transparency about the thinking behind it, the list is apparently about making your own secular pantheon (sic).
And the paradox of being "outstanding" "in the face of powerful and organized opposition" can be deeply problematic, because any opposition to "a person" that is really "powerful and organised" tends to make the person NOT outstanding, in the sense of being neither distinguished, nor prominent, nor unresolved.
Anyway, to the nominees:
Adding:
1. Sibel Edmonds. There was a comment under your first entry that nominated her, but with stating wrong reasons. She suffered fairly significant consequences because of her speaking out as a professional. There was a youtube video of her being officially queried, she has her own book...
2. Anhar Kochneva, an Ukrainian citizen
3. Augusto Pinochet. The arguments are on the following links, arranged in order in which I initially read them:
* http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts189.html
* http://www.policyofliberty.net/HPdA/RobertsAraujo.html
* http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2010/08/social-security-and-chilean-afp-system.html
I post the link bellow because it contains a dispute that helps the reader reach a conclusion:
* http://www.opednews.com/articles/Is-America-Caught-In-The-C-by-paul-craig-roberts-110727-582.html?show=votes#allcomments
Removing:
* Edward Snowden *
All the reasons I know stated here: https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/?s=Edward+Snowden&submit=Search
Kevin Annet
Don't be mislead by his apparently 'unhinged' latter-day campaigning activities against the UK Crown and the RC and Canadian established church hierarchies/institutions. I doubt there is anyone alive who has suffered more, both professionally and personally, in pursuit of genuine recognition and atonement for the horrors inflicted on Native Canadians at the hands of the Canadian State, than Kevin Annet.
@Levantine, @Wikispooks:
That you both for important suggestions, now added your suggestions, except can't decide yet about Pinochet.
DGR
@Levantine
All your arguments for removing Snowden rest on his (supposedly) lack of a high school diploma. You're attacking the person, not the evidence. Most of what he said is indeed vague, but it's neither technically true nor false. It's undefined. Just because we can't imagine how they could have pulled it off doesn't mean they didn't. The NSA is nowhere near as smart as you think it is. You're grossly overestimating what computers can do. I presume you'll also include Jérémie Zimmermann, Andy Müller-Maguhn and Jacob Appelbaum in your Assange-Snowden control theory. I guess you should include everyone who wants to popularize crypto. After all, if we want privacy and we question authority it implies we are just government puppets.
By the way, the working assumption in cryptography is that you're being watched. Maybe this will help you understand that what matters are the technical details, not the size of his penis.
I just added Lucy Parsons !
Nicolas,
Thank you for the nontrivial response.
"All your arguments for removing Snowden rest on his (supposedly) lack of a high school diploma."
I accept the possibility that you may be right. Being neither a westerner nor a citizen of the country where Snowden resides, I lack the will to look into his case once again. What I do have passion for is for people to see - and make - the arguments pro and con and make their own judgements, in this as well as in every other case.
I might bring to attention
Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet physicist & dissident
Frank Serpico, the ex- policeman
Craig Murray, the UK ex-ambasador to Uzbekistan
Vladimir Chamov, the Russian ex-ambassador to Libya. Standards among diplomats are so low that even his brief, modest conflict against Kremlin was impressive.
People convicted of Holocaust denial offenses
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:People_convicted_of_Holocaust_denial_offenses
You might interpret some of their activities as fights for justice. Udo Walendy confronts the mainstream dogma as a professional historian.
Also,
Milovan Djilas, the Yugoslav dissident
H. Michael Sweeney, who I mention just because the reviews of his book “Professional Paranoid” sound intriguing and indicate he might fit the bill
…
Still, few of them seem to be a moral match to those professionals who declined lucrative offers to abandon their positions in countries targeted by imperialism. They mostly _chose_ to face the prospect of their annihilation. In 2011, such were a number of Libyan government officials and social / religious / cultural authorities. From among them, the ex- Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim is still alive and active.
Just added Shiv Chopra.
Just added Michael Parenti.
The Gracchus Brothers, WEB Dubois, Paul Robeson, and Thomas Paine.
Thank you mulligas !
I just added your suggestions of outstanding individuals from history.
Just added Sampat Pal Devi, od the "pink saris" Gulabi Gang.
X days passed since my last comment, that was answering your call.
It looks ignored, and even more: It looks boycotted.
My response is exactly like this:
“And they’re wandering, - “What is happening to me? All of a sudden, you know, I was … appreciated, and now I’m seen as a black sheep.”
And it’s really a dramatic thing that happens to them, because they didn’t understand the _underlying_ ideology of the system. Instead, they went with their hearts.”
Evita Ochel - Denis Rancourt - Aug 2013 29:37
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujvvSoce_f8)
Well, I doubt there is much system on the side of Activist teacher...
I just added John Pilger.
He has suffered in that his life-long contributions and risk-taking are disproportionately important compared to the establishment's peripheral recognition of his work. And, he has suffered the gargantuan stupidity of his service-intellectual critics.
I just added Aaron Swartz.
Richard Stallman and Derek Bryce-Smith.
Thanks Nicolas. I just added Richard Stallman! I won't add Derek Bryce-Smith at this time, because he simply (brilliantly) did what every establishment academic should do, and was not fired or shunned for his views and work.
Fascinating, nonetheless:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Bryce-Smith
Just added Megan Rice.
US political prisoner just released from jail on appeal.
85 year-old anti-nuclear direct-action peace-activist nun.
Just added Kim Dotcom (kim.com)!
That brilliant internet warrior.
Just added Lenny Bruce.
US freedom of speech icon.
Just added:
Steven Salaita
Michael Hastings
Just added:
Wilheim Reich.
Amazing case. How easily we are allowed to forget the brilliant radicals!
Mikhail Bakunin.
Like I have said: The list is incomplete! Possibly the most deeply influential political scientist in modern history.
Yanis Varoufakis, for his incredible bravery and resistance to the Fourth Reich.
I just added Yanis Varoufakis (Greece) and Malalai Joya (Afghanistan).
Reevaluating the status of Yanis Varoufakis, as per "What Stinks about Varoufakis and the Whole Greek Mess?". Also, why did he resign rather than stay and fight?
Just added Denis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary General of the UN, who resigned over the genocidal sanctions that killed 1 million people in Iraq.
Just added physicist and Nazi holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer. He was protected from harsh backlash because he was a holocaust survivor, but there is a clear effort to be remarkably silent about his politics and clear words.
Just added Dr. Peter C. Gøtzsche, who is taking on a critique of big pharma.
I just added the amazing Canadian native rights lawyer Bruce Allan Clark.
I just added Canadian lawyer Rocco Galati.
I just added Gideon Levy !
There is no excuse for the degree to which this list is incomplete. Please send me your suggestions.
I just added "John Brown (abolitionist)".
I found time to return to Snowden. I've just listened to this talk which well outlines the fishiness of the whole affair with him:
http://www.spyculture.com/operation-snowden-tom-secker-on-tmr/
As one of the talkers says, there is a possibility he really believes in what he was doing _and_ is used as a patsy.
a nomination: Alison Weir, the journalist not the historian
We could add
"Bobby" Fischer the chess player
James and JoAnne Moriarty, though I doubt they whistleblowed in 'professional' roles
Nicholas Kollerstrom
Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and Rocco Chinnici
Ricardo Semler: his conflict with corrupt state authorities is recounted in chapter 28 of his book “Maverick!” His struggle for participatory democracy is the book's story.
David F. Noble was fired from MIT because he was “too radical,” according to Chomsky
Lastly,
Down with faux heroes staring at us from the screens & pages of establishment media!
Thanks.
I just added Alison Weir and David F. Noble.
I just added John Trudell.
Better late than never!
I just added Muntadhar al-Zaidi.
He spent a year in jail for throwing a shoe at mass-murderer George W. Bush.
I just added Seymour Hersh. He should be recognized as an outstanding journalist in the mainstream. Instead, his articles barely get out. Given the importance of his work, and given his access to top establishment figures, this is a blackout.
I just added Dr. John Virapen, who died in 2015.
I just added Nelson Mandela.
I just added Dr. Michele Brill-Edwards, Canada.
I just added Hillary Mann Leverett.
I just added Salah Lamrani.
I just added James Petras.
I just added Cornel West and Chris Hedges.
Thank you Wayne Workman for those suggestions!
I need more help...
I just added Ray McGovern, former veteran CIA analyst
I just added Marinella Correggia, Italian anti-war activist.
I just added William J. Brennan, Jr., former US Supreme Court judge extraordinaire.
I just added Carla Del Ponte.
Balls of steel award.
I just added Andre Marin.
Fired by the Ontario Liberal government for doing his job too well.
I just discovered and added Vanessa Redgrave!
I just added Ilan Pappe.
I just added scientist Judith Curry.
I just added Israeli whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu.
I just added Knesset member Haneen Zaobi. Wow.
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