Ron Ridenour
RONRIDENOUR.COM


 
Home
About Ron Ridenour
Articles
Themes
Poems
Short stories
Books
Links
Search
Contact
 
Dansk
Español
 
 

 

 

CURRICULUM VITAE

AUTHOR

"Cuba at Sea", Socialist Resistance, London, May day 2008

"Cuba: Beyond the Crossroads", Socialist Resistance, London, 2006; 2nd edition 2007

"Cuba: a `Yankee´ Reports" (Kuba: ein `Yankee´ berichtet), PapyRossa, Cologne, 1997

"Cuba at the Crossroads", Infoservicios, Los Angeles, 1994

"Backfire: The CIA’s Biggest Burn", Editorial José Martí, Havana, 1991, and
in German, Drucktechnik Odenthal, Hamburg, 1994

"Yankee Sandinistas", Curbstone Press, Connecticut, 1986

CO-AUTHOR

"Revolutionære Visioner", Foreningen Oktober Forlag, Copenhagen, 2005

"Eyes see what eyes want to see: Western media & the peace movement",
International Organization of Journalists, Prague, 1987. Also printed in Danish, "Øjne ser hvad øjne vil se"

"Fredsinvasion: Stemmingsbilleder fra en fredsmarch i mellemamerkia"
(Mood pictures from a Central American peace march), Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, Copenhagen, 1986

"Glass House Tapes", Avon, New York, 1973

JOURNALIST

2006—Special Cuba correspondent for Morning Star, English daily. “Beyond the Crossroads” series, April to August

1997-2009—Free lance and debate writer in Denmark for: Bornholms Tidende, Arbejderen, Skub, Kommunist Politik, Historie and Samfundsfag, Politiken, Ekstra Bladet, Fagbladet, Kristeligt Dagbladet, Cuba Bladet, and many websites

1967-1996—Staff reporter, editor, correspondent for two score newspapers and magazines, and free lance for some 100 publications

1993-1996—Cuba correspondent for Morning Star, feature writer and translator for Cuba’s foreign news agency, Prensa Latina. Free lance for Granma International, Dutch and Scottish publications

1988-1992—Staff writer and consultant for Cuba’s Editorial José Martí publishing house. Correspondent for Radio Pacifica (Washington DC and KPFK). Correspondent for South magazine (London) and Tierra Nuestra (Mexico-Nicaragua); free lance for Reuters

1980-1988—Free lance based in Denmark, Iceland, Nicaragua and Mexico. Published in US: Duluth Herald News-Tribune, In These Times, Los Angeles Reader, Guardian weekly, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Working Woman; England: New Statesman, The Guardian; Mexico: Mexico Journal; Denmark: Information, Aktuelt, Politisk Revy, Kontakt, København

1984—Senior editor for US national newsweekly Rebel

1979—Labor reporter for US national weekly Hollywood Reporter

1973-1980—Free lance, stringer, editor for scores of US newspapers, news agencies and magazines, such as: Washington Post (free lance), New York Times (debate), San Fernando Valley News, Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram, Guardian, Berkley Barb, In These Times; Pacifica News Service, Liberation News Service, Alternative Feature Service; Playboy, Chic, Nation, Review of Southern California Journalism, Forum for Contemporary History, The People’s Justice, Juris Doctor, Bookswest, Civil Liberties, Tennis Illustrated, Skeptic, Sevendays, Coast…

1978—Managing editor for weekly Los Angeles Free Press.

1976—News editor and reporter for weekly Los Angeles Vanguard.

1974-1975—Editor for monthly Open Forum and public relations director for its publisher, Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

1973-4—Political editor, reporter for Los Angeles Free Press

1972-3—City editor and reporter for weekly Los Angeles News Advocate

1971—Reporter for Hollywood weekly Citizen News

1970—Editor local pages for California daily Riverside Press-Enterprise

1969-70—Sports editor and reporter for California daily Hanford Sentinel

1968—Reporter for California weekly People’s World

Besides using words in an effort to eradicate racism, inequality and wars, I have been an activist against wars, racism, chauvinism and for socialist solidarity.

¤


Born in the “devil’s own country” of a WASP military career father, I sought the “American Dream” until I entered the Air Force, in 1956, to fight the “commies”. Here, I witnessed approved segregated barracks in the Yankee base it established in Japan, and imposition of racism in Japanese establishments. I protested and was tortured by my white “compatriots”. This, and the fact that we had orders to shoot down any Soviet aircraft over “our” territory in Japan—which never appeared—while we flew spy planes over the Soviet Union daily, led me to question American “morality”.
The first time I exercised my democratic right to demonstrate was in Los Angeles, where I protested with others the Yankee invasion of Cuba, at the Bay of Pigs. Cuba’s revolution, and my hate for racism, led me to become a radical then a revolutionary.

During the early 1960s, I was a college student and joined the budding student movement, the civil rights movement (Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964), the anti-Vietnam war movement, and supported liberation movements by blacks, browns, native Americans, and women, and revolutionary movements throughout Latin American and Africa.

In the mid-70s, the Southeast Asians, aided by international solidarity movements, won its sovereignty. Soon thereafter, I obtained 1,000 censored pages of dossiers various National Security Council “intelligence” agencies had on me. I began working as a reporter in 1967. I was fired from three dailies for failing to self-censor my reportage and for union organizing efforts, as well as support for the Black Panthers.

FBI, CIA, Los Angeles Police Department's red squad all tailed and harrassed me, even to the point of forging tax return papers in an attempt to show the left and anti-war movement that I was one of their many spies.
During the 1960s and 70s, I was jailed a dozen times, once for half-a-year, and spent a week in a Costa Rica prison for trying to travel to Cuba during the October 1962 missile crisis. In 1980, I moved to Denmark. Between 1982 and 1996, I traveled to and lived for several years in Nicaragua and Cuba, where I translated, wrote articles and edited copy.

In my years in Denmark, besides journalism, I have worked in ecological agricultural, lecturing in schools, social work with refugees, painting houses and other work.


Copyright © 2006-2009 Ronridenour.com

About Ron Ridenour