Ron Ridenour
Axis of Logic has always been founded on the
principle that critical thinking, writing and political action are joined at
the hip, essential one to the other. Rarely do we find all 3 in one person.
Ron Ridenour brings a wealth of experience as a revolutionary thinker, writer
and activist to our group. In addition, he is a gifted translator. Born in
1939, in the "devil's own country" of a WASP military family, Ron Ridenour
says he experienced the pains and indignities of US imperial domination, its
chauvinism and racism at home and abroad, and its jingoistic wars. He explains
changes in his world view as a young man:
"Before I understood its essence, I joined the
USAF at age 17 when the Soviet Union occupied Hungary. Learning what the US
actually stands for from within its military, including experiencing racial
segregation on the tiny US radar base where I was stationed in Japan, I
began to question the American Dream. In shame and anger of what the US
really does against peoples at home and around the globe, I took
responsibility and helped build the budding student and anti-war movements
just forming when I entered college, in 1960."
His first demonstration was in Los Angeles
against the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. The Cuban revolution inspired him to
become an activist, and he soon became a writer for mass media until he was
black-listed. He then joined the underground media, including the Los Angeles
Free Press. He worked as a full-time employee or free lance journalist for
four decades. His political work included anti-war activism, student
democracy, solidarity with the Black, Chicano, and Native American movements,
and he supported the radical feminist movement. In the 1970s, he joined
solidarity movements with Latin America and participated directly in
Nicaragua, El Salvador and Cuba.
He has been the subject of investigation
by National Security Council covert-intelligence agencies and was able to
obtain 1000 censored pages of the dossiers they maintained on him.
He moved to Denmark from Los Angeles in 1980 to
be with Grethe. In 1982 and 1984, he worked for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
At the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, he lived and worked in Cuba from
1988 to 1996. He was a writer-editor-translator for Editorial Jos? Mart? and
Prensa Latina news agency. He has lived in Denmark since then, where he has
worked as an anti-war activist and has acted in solidarity with Cuba, the
resistance movements in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia and Palestine. He has also
written for the Danish alternative media, and sometimes writes debate pieces
in the mass media.
Books and other Publications:
Cuba: Beyond the Crossroads
Socialist Resistance, London, October, 2006. Available at: www.ronridenour.com .
Yankee Sandinistas
Curbstone Press, Connecticut, 1986;
Backfire: The CIA's Biggest Burn
Editorial Jos? Mart?, Havana, 1991, and in Germany, 1994;
Cuba at the Crossroads
Infoservicios, Los Angeles, 1994;
Cuba: A `Yankee? Reports
PapyRossa, Germany, 1997.
He has also co-authored five books including
"Revolutionary Visions," published in Denmark, in 2005. Ron has written
extensively on Cuba for many news agencies, newspapers and magazines, and
websites in many countries. We are very pleased to have him join our group of
columnists at Axis of Logic.
ARTICLES BY RON RIDENOUR - 2008
WORKING THE REVOLUTION - VOLUNTEER FARM WORK IN CUBA. THE SERIES: 1992-2006
ARTICLES BY RON RIDENOUR - 2007
TRANSLATIONS BY RON RIDENOUR FOR TLAXCALA
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