Mario Savio's Free Speech
Mario Savio earned the respect and trust of his
comrades in the FSM and throughout life, less for the passionate eloquence that brought
him media renown than because he spoke from his heart through a powerful mind in a search
for moral clarity. Though he spoke for many, he never spoke or wrote as an authority. Even
at his most didactic, he testified as an individual openly striving to make sense from
fields of conflicting values; and in this represented us as deeply as by the sense he
made.
Mario was tormented by the media hype that cast
him as *MARIO SAVIO*, larger than life. He would have hated any advertisement of the words
he left, that claimed them to be more than they simply were. Though we've only begun to
assemble their sprawling array, we know that the sum of what can be retrieved will seem
small as the fruit of three decades; for he seldom spoke publicly or agreed to interviews
after the mid-Sixties, until the last years of his life. Considered as a political analyst
and moral philosopher, Mario's thought was never systematically developed or set forth. He
expressed it freshly instead in response to occasion, to particular, concrete
circumstances calling him to participate, to consider and commit himself -- as he had done
in the FSM, and before it acclaimed him as leader. Though one may trace through his later
words the faithful evolution of the concerns that moved us all in the FSM, what Mario left
is nothing grander than the reflection of a man responding to his time with passionate
concern, the scattered record of a consistent voice, a brilliant mind, and a remarkable
spirit.
Public
talks by Mario Savio
06/00/60 valedictory
speech at graduation, Martin van Bueren H.S., Queens
12/02/64 from the
steps of Sproul Hall, before the final sit-in
audio partial
transcript (aka "Mario's famous
speech")
05/21/65 speech at
Vietnam Day teach-in, printed in We Accuse
12/01/66 talk at
rally (?) before/during the Second Strike at Berkeley
01/1-/67 Unitarian
dialogue on crisis-issues
11/17/67 anti-war
teach-in
04/01/68 anti-war
rally on Sproul steps
04/2-/68 as Peace
and Freedom Party candidate for State Senate
06/26/69 noon
rally in People's Park
"Seize the Means of Leisure", Daily
Californian, 7/1/69
10/15/69 talk about
Vietnam war at U.C. San Diego (anno by A.P. 10/14)
10/02/84 noon
rally, FSM's 20th anniversary
audio transcript
10/02/84 (remarks
during "Story of FSM" panel discussion)
11/12/84 talk at
Columbia Univ., w/ Abbie Hoffman(60 min.)
11/13/84 talk at
Columbia Univ., w/ Abbie Hoffman (135 min., whole)
spring85 talk at
anti-apartheid rally (organized by Pedro Noguera)
11/14/85 address to
New Palz Student Senate at SUNY/New Palz (60 min?)
06/10/88 graduation
speech at son Nadav's Sidwell Friends School
"The Second Generation" (his edited
text; given transcript (?) on Web)
1/89-6/90 talk
about the Sixties in seminar at Modesto J.C.
04/20/93 address to
Philosophy Club at Sonoma State
"Philosophy of a Young Activist"
12/02/94 noon
rally, FSM's 30th anniversary
12/03/94 panel on
current political situation ("Why I am not a
Marxist")
transcript (also published in Threepenny
Review]
02/24/95 address at ACLU
dinner, Sebastapol
[anti-immigrant legislation, affirmative action
defense]
transcript as published
03/29/95 talk at
CCHRSJ rally/forum against Proposition 187
04/05/95 (talk?)
covered by Bay TV
07/20/95 rally to
protest Regents' anti-affirmative action decision (SF?)
08/17/95 affirmative
action dialogue at CCSF (120 min.)
11/15/95 talk at
History of Consciousness Colloquium, UC Santa Cruz
"Recollections of the Free Speech
Movement"
09/00/96 remarks
about Italian heritage (c. 7 min.)
at Dividing Line Conference, Sonoma State
10/00/96 talk on
Sonoma State Fee Referendum (c. 10/15)
11/01/96 talk on
Fee Hike panel at Sonoma State, with Dr. Arminana
01/28/9X talk on
Sonoma State quadrangle, reported by Sebastapol Times
Return to
top of page
12/03/64 by ?,
phone interview with L.A. Herald-Examiner, (c. 400 words)
00/00/65 by Marston
Schultz and Burton White (taped)
02/26/65 by Jack
Fincher for published version in Life; very evocative
05/11/65 by Max
Heirich (taped; also 6/05; transcripts still exist?)
[extensive, from personal background to the
recent conflict]
04/09/68 by Val
Miner, Daily Californian [State Senate candidacy]
06/02-04/80 by Mia
Ousley, Daily Californian [US military, FSM legacy; 3 parts]
06/07/82 by
Mandalit del Barco, Daily Californian [re DC's FBI articles]
09/30/84 by Lynn
Ludlow, S.F. Examiner
00/00/84 by Karlyn
Barker, Washington Post (edited from tape))
84/85 by
Don Fass (1 hr.; probably re Nicaragua)
03/05/85 by Brett
Eynon?? (120 to 180 min.)
01/22/86 (unknown)
(60-90 min.; defective tape, recoverable)
11/22/94 by Kevin
Zwick, Daily Californian(12/06?)
12/03/94 by Douglas
Gilles, Consensus Designs (45 min.; with M. Rossman)
excerpt:
personal meaning of free speech
12/03/94 by Steve
Jacobson, with Roy Fadden and Jack Weinberg
00/00/95? talk on Edgar Allen
Poe panel at Sonoma State (Philosophy Club?)
02/25/95 KSRO talk
show, right-wing host (1.5 hrs)
00/00/96 by Nathan
Durkee (c. 12 years old) in "FSM: History Day"
08/13/96 by R.
Schatz [phone interview, 2 hrs].
Return to
top of page
"An End
to History", Humanity, Dec.
1964
"The
Berkeley Student Rebellion of 1964",
in The Free Speech Movement and
the
Negro Revolution, News & Letters, July 1965
Introduction to Hal Draper's Berkeley: The New Student Revolt
(1965)
Speech
at Vietnam Day, in We Accuse, 1965
""The 'New Radicals': An
Exchange" in New Politics IV:4, Fall 1965
"The Uncertain Future of the
University", Harper's, Oct. 1966
"Seize the Means of Leisure", Daily
Californian, 7/1/69 (People's Park speech)
"Organizing
the Movement" in North Coast Express, 1995 (ACLU dinner address)
"Why I am
not a Marxist" in Threepenny Review #62, Summer 1995
edited by Wendy Lesser from reunion panel 12/94;
with Greil Marcus's talk
Autobiographical notes, distributed for Sonoma
ACLU dinner talk, 2/24/95
California at a Crossroads: Social Strife or
Social Unity (with Nadav Savio)
pamphlet by Campus Coalitions for Human Rights
and Social Justice, 5/95
"Diversity
is a Responsibility", Daily Californian Opinion 7/25/95
(undelivered
speech for Regents' meeting)