[PEN-L:11947] Re: Swing

[Nathan Newman <newman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 18 Aug 1997, Louis N Proyect wrote:

> On the other hand, Fortune magazine reported in 1942 that 25% of the
> American people were for socialism and that close to half thought it was
> worth considering. George Lipsitz's study of this period titled "Rainbow
> at Midnight" makes the case that the 40s were even more left-leaning than
> the 30s.

One reason that the 40s, especially the war years, might have created a
more socialist-mided public was the war itself.

First, you had the example of the expanded employment and opening of
factories due to government action for the war effort.  Factories that had
been closed or at low capacity reopened and new factories built where none
had even existed.  In the wake of the Depression, that was a powerful
example.

Secondly, the war-time alliance with the Soviet Union increased the
favorability of people towards that country, especially lessening
government and corporate media propaganda to its least dismissive of the
whole Soviet period.  Russia's economic and political system had
apparently created a people and war capacity that could resisty Hitler
even as France and most of the world was falling to the Axis attack.

The movie THE BEST YEARS OF THEIR LIVES (made for Hollywood by a CPers or
ally) reflected the ideological opening as those who attacked the Soviet
Union were seen not as evil capitalists but as semi-treasonous for not
respecting an ally.

So 25% of the population saying they were in favor of socialism or "worth
trying" does not seem that high in such a unique period especially as
fears of a return to the Depression after the war gripped people.

--nathan