Thanks to Tom Pohrt for this artifact from the archives
of his grandfather, Charles Pohrt.
of his grandfather, Charles Pohrt.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
10 comments:
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I wonder what year this was?
ReplyDeleteStrange that is against War AND Fascism.
It's not at all surprising that this outfit is based in Chicago. Chicago was always a hotbed of this particular connection. Consider William Ayers Weatherman War Council that convened at Fifth Ave. and Saginaw St. in 1969. He'd never have had a meeting against War AND Communism.
Yet the two philosophies are mirror image twins.
I believe this would have been from the 1930s, in the lead up to WWII. But I'm guessing here. Anyone have more info?
ReplyDeleteNot sure, but this may be related...
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_League_Against_War_and_Fascism
Ant yet Franklin Delano Roosevelt led us into a War against Fascism, and defeated it, at least militarily and temporarily. Militarily and Temporarily are the two big empty victories of history. We saw it in Vietnam, and now in Iraq, and in many other conflicts.
ReplyDeleteI'm puzzled. Personally, I'm against war and fascism. Which one do you support?
ReplyDeleteSure, you could argue that communism and war go hand in hand, but capitalism's penchant for violence in pursuit of resources, trade, and access has a much longer history.
W. S. Shattuck was Dean of Flint Junior College in this link. Other familiar names, Frank Manley, Eldon H. Baker (Founder of Baker College), and Richard T. Boyd, the only person I saw listed that I ever met.
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=2ZUVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA252&lpg=PA252&dq=W.+S.+Shattuck+Junior+College&source=bl&ots=R0bYTUqcWx&sig=A9Y9AaSlAtHgJXjkl2mH8AgkxlQ&hl=en#v=onepage&q=W.%20S.%20Shattuck%20Junior%20College&f=false
Sunday, October 7th 1934
ReplyDeleteThis link would imply Sunday October 7, 1934.
ReplyDeletehttp://mistupid.com/months/weekdaycalc.htm
If you are truly against War per se, then no war is justified.
ReplyDeleteCommunism is often excused by the teachers and professors who teach about it, by government that often endorses its policies (e.g. redistribution of wealth, Big Brotherism, etc.), and by corporations (and their capitalists) who trade with and make money from trading with Communist nations.
Here is a Wikipedia article that tells one set of statistics about deaths under Communism vs. deaths under Fascism. This is not to defend one OR the other, but to exhibit the hypocrisy often shown by supposedly objective journalists. Both are horrible if they killed or mistreated even one person.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Book_of_Communism
This small handout dates from the early 30's, perhaps 1933. My grandfather emigrated from Russia before the Revolution, never the less sympathised with various socialist movements. My father claimed his dad was a pacifist, leaving Russia in part to avoid being conscripted into the Russian army. (Pohrt family originally of French Huguenot descent) I think he probably saw the fire on the horizon and simply wanted to get out of Russia and find a better life in America. Family lore has it that once he made it through Immigration, off Ellis Island, he threw his Russian passport into the East River! I never knew him having been born after he passed away. I did know my great uncle, my gramps brother. He was another with a strong socialst bent. My father said that when his dad was buried my great uncle stepped forward at the last moment and draped a red flag over the coffin, symbolising Mother Russia. Those were different times, and difficult to imagine their experiences and viewpoint of the world. The paragraph below from wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteThe American League Against War and Fascism, though it attempted to attract as broad a following as possible and included members of the Roosevelt administration, was based primarily in the working class and its leadership was largely socialist and communist. By 1937, its Communist Party members boasted that 30 percent of the entire organized labor movement was represented in the League, and labor delegates occupied 413 of the 1416 seats at the national convention. Afro-Americans were also well represented in both the leadership and rank-and-file delegates.
In 1937 the organization changed its name to the American League for Peace and Democracy. Helen Silvermaster was associated with this group.[1] The League dissolved after the 1939 signing of the Hitler-Stalin pact discouraged its non-communist members.[2] Its communist elements then influenced the founding of the American Peace Mobilization front.