Zinn, a historian who has for decades agitated for labor causes and for civil rights, spoke immediately after Damon and Affleck.
"Can I really follow that?" he quipped to the crowd.
In his speech, Zinn called on Harvard to lead its students by example and treat its workers fairly.
"The University teaches more by how it behaves it the world than by what it says in the classroom," he said. "Harvard must teach compassion and caring for other people."
The Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM), the group responsible for the living wage campaign, organized Saturday's rally in response to Wednesday's report, authored by the University's Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies.
The 100-page document, which has been endorsed by Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine, recommended boosting benefits for workers--including health care, job training and greater access to Harvard's facilities--but rejected enacting a living wage.
While some PSLM members had initially praised the report's proposals as a step in the right direction, by Saturday most had come to oppose it as unresponsive and irrelevant.
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