Autobiography of Protest in Hawaii

by Robert H. Mast

Autobiography of Protest in Hawai‘i explores the state's social and economic fabric through the comments of 35 progressive activists. The activists, ranging in age from the mid-30s to the late 70s, comment on their involvement on issues such as housing, labor, land use, poverty, environment, sexual harassment, seniors, and sovereignty. Almost one-half are women and there is an even split between those born in Hawai‘i and those born elsewhere.

The book begins with an overview of political activism in Hawai‘i, and then records the oral history of the individual activists. Each was asked to respond to factors that shaped their moral and political lives. They were invited to explore the forces and events in their past that led them to take on an activist role. The activists were also asked to provide personal assessments of insights gained from their experiences and how they can be applied today, their analysis of Hawai‘i at that time, and some speculation on Hawai‘i's future.

The result is a book that produces some very interesting and controversial viewpoints on Hawai‘i's political socialization and history.

456 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Artnoose McMoose]

This is a series of interviews with activists in Hawaii, I would say Marxist or Marxist-leaning. I didn't love it, and part of it may be that I read it directly after Hanahana, which was a book of interviews with working class Hawaiian people. The thing that Hanahana really had going for it was that the editors had interviewed hundreds of people from all walks of life and had included the ten or twelve interviews that were the most complete and provided a good representation.

The (now-deceased) editors of this book admit in their introduction that they did not spend much time in Hawaii doing these interviews and that they stayed on one island. They also say that they only came to the Native Hawaiian sovereignty activists partway through their interview period. I think this book suffers from their focusing on narrow social circles but including several similar activists per circle. After reading several interviews, I realized I was hearing about the same organizations and university departments over and over. Also, several of the activists had somewhat of the same trajectory--- grew up on the mainland, were radicalized in college, and moved to Hawaii to apply their Marxist activism. I think the editors would have ended up with a more comprehensive book if they had cut some of the superfluous interviews and expanded their range to other islands or kinds of projects. I have to admit that in the middle of the book, I started skipping interviews that sounded like previous ones and jumped to the Native Hawaiian sovereignty section, which I found the most compelling.

Despite the criticism, I appreciate that the book recorded the experiences of this group of people.

[Wolf Cola]

It seems like this collection of interviews wasn’t meant to have a broad reach and I just so happened to find it on the street. Some interesting stuff but lots of overlap between movements and organizations so I found it to be repetitive. I need to find a more expansive look at the history of protest in Hawai’i.

[Corinne]

This is a powerful anthology of various activists and organizers connected with the social justice history of Hawaii.