Good
news and bad news.
Good
news. The Civil Rights Committee’s
report, “To Secure These Rights,” was released and urged adoption of a federal
anti-lynching statute, abolishing poll taxes and other barriers to voting,
integration of the U.S. armed forces, and a halt to segregation on all public
interstate transportation. H.A. has
strongly endorsed the recommendations and will fight to get them implemented.
Bad
News. HUAC [House Un-American Activities
Committee –AS] is going Hollywood. Two
“good” Americans - - Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan testified before the
committee. Disney has recently created
the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals that offers
the following advice to movie producers: “Don’t smear the free-enterprise
system,” “Don’t smear industrialists,” Don’t smear wealth,” “Don’t smear the
profit motive,” “Don’t glorify the collective,” and “Don’t deify the ‘common
man’.” The last I can only assume was
directed against H.A. Ronald Reagan
[president of the Screen Actors Guild and loyal American –AS] attended the
hearing to publicly out colleagues and friends as Communists and Communist
sympathizers.
This
insanity all started with a series of columns in the “Hollywood Reporter” by
the rag’s publisher and founder Bill Wilkerson in which he named actors,
writers, directors and others who he thought were Communists or Communist
sympathizers. The accused are allegedly
part of a vast and Soviet-run conspiracy to plant Communist propaganda in our
movies. Personally, I see J. Edgar
Hoover’s fingerprints all over this. But I see J. Edgar behind all the stupid fascist activities -- perhaps I overestimate his reach, perhaps not.
As
a result HUAC subpoenaed many of those named and testify before them. Of the 11 who attended only one agreed to
testify. The rest refused to answer questions. Alvah Bessie, a Spanish Civil War veteran and
screenwriter for Warner Brothers, has gotten caught up in all of this.
This
insanity has got to end. H.A. has promised to speak out against these witch-hunts. I wanted to
host the accused and their supporters at a White House event to show support,
but our travel schedule prevented it.
H.A. has to take direct action and fire Hoover to show that this fear
mongering will not be tolerated.
© 2014 Ron Millar
