{"id":27737,"date":"2023-06-19T11:59:57","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T15:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redphoenixnews.com\/?p=27737"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:50:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:50:22","slug":"hollywood-blacklist-salt-of-the-earth-and-a-demand-for-political-reckoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2023\/06\/hollywood-blacklist-salt-of-the-earth-and-a-demand-for-political-reckoning\/","title":{"rendered":"La lista negra de Hollywood: "La gente del mundo" y la exigencia de rendici\u00f3n de cuentas pol\u00edtica."},"content":{"rendered":"
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A page from the June 20, 1953 issue of the Fitchburg Sentinel, reporting on the previous day’s execution of civilians Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Ed Rampell, Red Phoenix guest contributor, California.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 19, 2023 is the 70th anniversary of the electrocution of the so-called \u201catomic spies\u201d Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Believed to be members of the Communist Party USA, the Rosenbergs were convicted of violating the Espionage Act by helping to pass atomic secrets to the Soviets and were the only U.S. civilians executed during the Cold War. Trump is also charged under the Espionage Act and is widely reported to have purloined and refused to return classified documents containing nuclear and other top secret national security information. At the conclusion of The Hollywood Ten at 75<\/em> film series the issue of restitution for those who were persecuted by the Red Scare in the motion picture industry is considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Still from the film “Salt of the Earth.” Made by three blacklisted filmmakers\u2014director Herbert J. Biberman, producer Paul Jarrico, and writer Michael Wilson\u2014the film depicts the struggle for fair wages of Chicano workers and their wives in a New Mexico zinc mine. Courtesy of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(Note: This is the edited text for Rampell\u2019s final introduction to the April 30 screening of Salt of the Earth at the Academy Museum for The Hollywood Ten at 75 Film Series from April 13-30, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Hollywood Blacklist. In a rather glorious surprise, Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, joined the onstage panel discussion that followed the screening of Salt.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we end our Hollywood Ten at 75 <\/em>film series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Hollywood Blacklist. I\u2019d like to thank the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and its staff, especially KJ Relth-Miller, and all of you who have been attending. Our film today, Salt of the Earth<\/em>, is arguably the apotheosis of the blacklistees, the fullest expression of their artistic vision and their political testament. It gives us a tantalizing glimpse of what American culture might have been if the most conscious and conscientious members of the creative community hadn\u2019t been largely censored and silenced by conservative cancel culture from 1947 to about 1960.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In most of the movies screened during this series we see celluloid samples of the credo of these progressive filmmakers. In 1943\u2019s WWII desert drama Sahara<\/em>, written by John Howard Lawson, the character who saves the Allied combatants and kills the Nazi is a Black African soldier, played by Rex Ingram. And 1944\u2019s None Shall Escape<\/em>, probably the only Hollywood studio feature made during WWII to show Jews rising up to militantly resist the Holocaust, was written by Lester Cole. Like Lawson, Cole was one of the Hollywood Ten and a member of the CPUSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the Cold War started, Lawson, Cole and about 300 La-La-Land leftists were made to pay for their progressive beliefs on- and off-screen. They were persecuted for expressing ideas in the land of the free and denounced for being \u201csubversive.\u201d But I for one am glad they put ideals into their movies and feel we owe them a debt of gratitude for the stands they took. Thank you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2020, with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, many believed time had come for America to have a racial reckoning. After the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the Motion Picture Academy realized it needed to become more inclusive and diverse, and this new Museum affiliated with the Academy presented the Regeneration exhibition, summit and film series highlighting the cinematic contributions of African Americans. The Academy Museum appointed African American film historian Jacqueline Stewart to be its President and Director, and we are experiencing a new era of heightened sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as America needs a racial reckoning, we now require a political and cultural reckoning. I don\u2019t mean to sound disrespectful when I say: \u201cRed Lives Matter,\u201d too. The U.S. must rectify and atone for its persecution of Communists, independent leftists such as Charlie Chaplin, who was driven into exile, honest progressives like Marsha Hunt and director John Cromwell. To this end, a new Blacklist community-based group is being formed called the Alliance for the First Amendment, and here are some of the things we\u2019re crusading for for those who were persecuted by the Hollywood inquisition and for the survivors and their families:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hollywood Ten and all of the 300-plus Blacklisted talents will be recognized with an Honorary Academy Award presented during the annual live Oscars telecast;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hollywood Ten and all of the 300-plus Blacklisted talents will be honored with a star on Hollywood Blvd.\u2019s \u201cWalk of Fame\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appropriate Guild or other organizations will resolve all outstanding screen credit disputes, especially for Blacklisted screenwriters who used fronts and pseudonyms;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We request the Academy Museum presents an exhibition of Blacklist artifacts and memorabilia;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House of Representatives must officially apologize for the House Un-American Activities Committee, and its weaponization of government against Hollywood\u2019s creative community;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate must officially apologize for its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations persecution of Dashiell Hammett, Langston Hughes, Pete Seeger, Howard Fast and other artists under Senator Joe McCarthy\u2019s tyrannical rule;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House of Representatives must rescind its resolution \u201cDenouncing the horrors of socialism\u201d and the Senate will not approve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We demand an apology from the FBI and other intelligence agencies that persecuted artists \u2013 and all others victimized by the Red Scare \u2013 simply for using constitutionally-guaranteed First Amendment rights. Dissent is not espionage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we turn our attention to the final movie of our Hollywood Ten at 75 <\/em>film series. If there was anything good about the Hollywood Blacklist, it was the creation \u2013 against all odds \u2013 of Salt of the Earth <\/em>by blacklisted talents, a landmark in independent filmmaking. Even though Michael Wilson was forbidden from getting screen credit for co-writing with Carl Foreman 1957\u2019s El<\/em> Bridge on the River Kwai <\/em>\u2013 and one of the hit\u2019s seven Oscars, a screenwriting Academy Award, was given to a Frenchman who didn\u2019t speak English \u2013 and Wilson couldn\u2019t get screen credit for 1962\u2019s Lawrence of Arabia<\/em> for years, Wilson did<\/strong> get screen credit for 1954\u2019s Salt of the Earth<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To close our film series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Hollywood Blacklist, we have the perfect movie for the day before May Day. After the screening we have a special discussion with the granddaughter of Salt of the Earth\u2019s<\/em> star Rosaura Revueltas, Eve Bodenstedt; the daughter of co-star Will Geer, Ellen Geer; and the son of producer Paul Jarrico, Bill Jarrico. (As mentioned, legendary labor leader Dolores Huerta joined the discussion.) Sit back and enjoy the revolution \u2013 even if it might make you want to stand up and cheer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article is the final installment of our Hollywood Blacklist series by film historian and critic Ed Rampell. The complete series can be found below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n