On Wednesday, over 550 celebrities relaunched a group first organized during the post-World War II Red Scare: the Committee for the First Amendment. Their intent is to stand up in what they call a "defense of our constitutional rights,"
Repression is certainly in the air, its effects likely to be as chilling as intended: people are afraid and have good reasons to be afraid. Reviews of two recent books on Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the Long War Against American Communism.
A Racist, Anti-Worker Judge? Not This Year (1930), Curtains for Smallpox (1980), Covid Kills Jobs, Too (2020), The Road to Revolution (1775), A Bad, Bad, Day in Augusta (1970), Even a King’s Word Is Not Law (1215), Red-Baiters Go Home! (1960)
Between 1935 and 1939, the New Deal-sponsored Federal Theatre Project staged over a thousand productions nationwide, reaching an audience of 30 million. It was an early target of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC).
Telling the story of a slave revolt in ancient Rome, the 1960 film Spartacus was penned by two blacklisted Communist writers. Its arrival in theaters was a middle finger to the McCarthyist witch hunt in Hollywood and publishing.
The American movie industry has been one of the most consistently unionized sectors of the economy since the 1930s — but to achieve that, workers had to overcome “the iron fist of the moguls” and organized crime, says historian Gerald Horne
With rising global tensions, unsurprisingly the same old McCarthyite playbook is again being dusted off. We reject these smears.
125 years after his birth, Paul Robeson, the civil rights titan, remains a role model for battling racism and fascism. The words written on his gravestone: “The artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”
AOC & Jordan Klepper on Trump, Clarence Thomas & Ending Violence. Here's Why Writers Are Ready to Shut Hollywood Down. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. | Movie. Paul Robeson Testifying Before HUAC. Farmworkers | John Oliver.
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