Howard Zinn still influential on the left

British philosopher Bertrand Russell pointed out many years ago that FREE SPEECH in America is mostly a joke.( from his own experience teaching here ). I read a whole essay on our " problematic " FREE SPEECH by this leftist intellectual Howard Zinn. Zinn also has lot to say about America as a class divided society. A Jew, Howard Zinn is highly critical of modern Apartheid Zionist Israel. He is a better American than rabid Islamophobe troublemaker Pamela Geller-banned in Britain - but hailed as a " Jewish Heroine " by a right wing periodical. In the late 60s I was one of many who opposed the Vietnam War. I was influenced by Howard Zinn's anti-war book " The Logic of Withdrawal ".