Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 18:24:09 -0500 From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu> Subject: M-G: Images of American Radicalism "Images of American Radicalism" (Christopher Publishing, Hanover, MA), by Paul Buhle and Edmund B. Sullivan, is an astonishing new book. It consists of photos, drawings, old magazines, leaflets, posters and buttons from the 1600s to the modern era, with extensive informed commentary. As you turn from page to page, you are both edified and entertained. The biggest pleasure is finding out about leftist connections to the broader culture that you never dreamed possible. Buhle's vision of the American left is like my own. It is inclusive and nonsectarian. This means that the images are drawn from Socialist, anarchist, Communist, Trotskyist and other sources. Whatever your particular affiliation, there will be material here to delight you. For an eclectic like myself, every image is a delight. Here are some tidbits: --A cartoon protesting the invasion of the Philippines from 1901. It is a mountain of skulls being guarded by American soldiers. The caption says, "And this is what they call civilization!" --A 1935 painting of Metacomet, the Pokanoket Chief who led an allied Indian force in 1675 to defend southern New England Indians against appropriation of their lands. The artist is Thomas Hart Benton, who was sympathetic to leftist causes. --various advertisements from the International Socialist Review in the 1910s, including one how to become a "successful socialist speaker." For only a SASE with 2 cents postage, you will get word on the "WINNING METHOD" that is used by lawyers, orators and leading socialist speakers. --A photo of a May Day parade in NYC, 1940. The marchers include members of the pro-Soviet International Workers Order (IWO) in baseball uniforms from their IWO chapter teams. Their signs demand: "Admit Negroes into Big League Baseball" --A stunning photo of Raya Dunayevakaya, CLR James and Grace Lee from the 1940s. The 3 Trotskyists developed a "state capitalist" analysis of the USSR in the 1940s, but are much more interesting for their general analysis of American society. The text that accompanies the photo mentions that Lee was the daughter of a prominent Chinese restaurateur, earned a PhD in philosophy from the U. of Chicago, and married black autoworker James Boggs. Now known as Grace Lee Boggs, she still writes occasionally for MR. --On the opposite page is a flyer for a New Year's "Atom and Eve" Ball for the Brooklyn Communist Party. It says "Bring Uranium and I'll Bring Mine." Featured bands are The Duke of Iron, a Calypsonian and Frankie Newton, famed trumpet player and Communist. --A photo of a lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro, NC, 1960. It includes legendary disk jockey and rock-and-roll pioneer Johnny Otis, a white man. I have heard his radio show in Los Angeles and never would have dreamed that he was an activist. The text says that he met with Langston Hughes around this time, who Otis often acknowledged as his inspiration. --A circular from the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. This center of civil rights education and a religious based socialism existed from the 1930s on and had a strong CP influence. Martin Luther King Jr. was trained there. The circular states that it provides "steward training," where you can learn how to handle grievances. --A photo of Dave Dellinger and my friend David McReynolds from an anti-nuclear demo in 1980. David's is wearing shades and looks like a beat poet. Louis Proyect --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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