"bodies upon the gears" speech
E31495
The "bodies upon the gears" speech is Mario Savio’s famous 1964 address at UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement rally, in which he passionately urged students to nonviolently disrupt the university’s oppressive bureaucratic machinery.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| "bodies upon the gears" speech canonical | 1 |
| “Bodies upon the gears” speech | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T239528 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "bodies upon the gears" speech Context triple: [Mario Savio, knownFor, "bodies upon the gears" speech]
-
A.
The Gadget
"The Gadget" was the codename for the first nuclear explosive device ever detonated, tested by the United States at the Trinity site in New Mexico in 1945.
-
B.
Mister Speaker
Mister Speaker is the traditional formal address used for a male Speaker presiding over the United States House of Representatives.
-
C.
Geeks Bearing Gifts
Geeks Bearing Gifts is a book by computing pioneer Ted Nelson that reflects on the history, philosophy, and future of digital media and information technology.
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D.
Literary Machines
Literary Machines is a seminal book by Theodor Nelson that outlines his visionary concepts for hypertext, non-linear writing, and the structure of digital information systems.
-
E.
Enquire Within Upon Everything
Enquire Within Upon Everything is a 19th-century British household reference book offering practical advice and information on a vast range of everyday topics.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "bodies upon the gears" speech Target entity description: The "bodies upon the gears" speech is Mario Savio’s famous 1964 address at UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement rally, in which he passionately urged students to nonviolently disrupt the university’s oppressive bureaucratic machinery.
-
A.
The Gadget
"The Gadget" was the codename for the first nuclear explosive device ever detonated, tested by the United States at the Trinity site in New Mexico in 1945.
-
B.
Mister Speaker
Mister Speaker is the traditional formal address used for a male Speaker presiding over the United States House of Representatives.
-
C.
Geeks Bearing Gifts
Geeks Bearing Gifts is a book by computing pioneer Ted Nelson that reflects on the history, philosophy, and future of digital media and information technology.
-
D.
Literary Machines
Literary Machines is a seminal book by Theodor Nelson that outlines his visionary concepts for hypertext, non-linear writing, and the structure of digital information systems.
-
E.
Enquire Within Upon Everything
Enquire Within Upon Everything is a 19th-century British household reference book offering practical advice and information on a vast range of everyday topics.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
historical event
ⓘ
political speech ⓘ protest speech ⓘ |
| addresses |
students
ⓘ
university administration ⓘ |
| advocates | nonviolent direct action ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Mario Savio
ⓘ
surface form:
Mario Savio "bodies upon the gears" speech
Mario Savio Steps at Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley ⓘ
surface form:
Mario Savio Sproul Hall steps speech
Mario Savio ⓘ
surface form:
Mario Savio machine speech
|
| associatedWith |
New Left
ⓘ
civil rights era activism ⓘ |
| audienceSize | hundreds of students ⓘ |
| callsFor |
collective action by students
ⓘ
moral responsibility of individuals within institutions ⓘ |
| city |
Berkeley
ⓘ
surface form:
Berkeley, California
|
| context | student protest against restrictions on political activity at UC Berkeley ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| critiques |
complicity with unjust authority
ⓘ
university bureaucracy ⓘ |
| date | 1964-12-02 ⓘ |
| famousLine |
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part."
ⓘ
"You've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop." ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | 1960s American student movement ⓘ |
| influenced | later campus protest movements in the United States ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| legacy |
iconic expression of 1960s student radicalism
ⓘ
symbol of resistance to dehumanizing systems ⓘ |
| location |
Sproul Hall
ⓘ
surface form:
Sproul Hall steps
|
| medium | public oral address ⓘ |
| movement | Free Speech Movement ⓘ |
| place | University of California, Berkeley ⓘ |
| politicalOrientation | left-wing ⓘ |
| recordedAs |
audio recording
ⓘ
film footage ⓘ |
| referencedIn |
histories of the Free Speech Movement
ⓘ
scholarship on social movements ⓘ |
| rhetoricalDevice | mechanical metaphor for institutional power ⓘ |
| speaker | Mario Savio ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
archival collections at UC Berkeley
ⓘ
documentaries about Mario Savio ⓘ |
| theme |
civil disobedience
ⓘ
free speech ⓘ nonviolent resistance ⓘ opposition to bureaucratic oppression ⓘ |
| year | 1964 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: "bodies upon the gears" speech Description of subject: The "bodies upon the gears" speech is Mario Savio’s famous 1964 address at UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement rally, in which he passionately urged students to nonviolently disrupt the university’s oppressive bureaucratic machinery.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Mario Savio
this entity surface form:
“Bodies upon the gears” speech