I picked up Ronald Radosh’s Commies: a Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left during a bout of insomnia last night. I was enjoying it mainly because Radosh’s family is like a cookie-cutter duplicate of the family of an old boyfriend of mine, right down to residence in the ILGWA coop in Chelsea and the dad (or uncle in Radosh’s case) in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain. It was from the top of a pile of books my husband had assembled after I’d asked him earlier last night about what was up with those pro-fascist lefty intellectuals of the 20s-40s, anyway? before optimistically going off to bed.
Most intriguing fact so far: Pete Seeger and his Almanac Singers somewhat unfortunately released an album of anti-war songs the exact same week Hitler broke the Hitler-Stalin pact and invaded Russia. Whoopsy! The album was quickly recalled and Seeger published an apology to FDR, explaining he was "ready to turn my banjo in for something that makes a little more noise," i.e. a machine gun. Apparently only a few copies of Songs for John Doe survived the recall, but through the miracle of the net you can read a complete set of lyrics here. My personal favorite:
WASHINGTON BREAKDOWN (PETE SEEGER/LEE HAYS) (1941) (Tune: "Ida Red")
Franklin D., listen to me,
You ain't a-gonna send me 'cross the sea,
'Cross the sea, 'cross the sea, You ain't a-gonna send me 'cross the sea.
You may say it's for defense,
But that kinda talk that I'm against.
I'm against, I'm against,
That kinda talk ain't got no sense.
Lafayette, we are here, we're gonna stay right over here...
Marcantonio is the best, but I wouldn't give a nickel for all the rest...
J. P. Morgan's big and plump, eighty-four inches around the rump...
Wendell Wilkie and Franklin D., seems to me they both agree,
Both agreed, both agreed,
Both agree on killin' me.
You gotta love the big FU to France just dropped right in the middle there. Some things never change! The web page itself is worth reading, both for an explanation of references in the lyrics and for quotes from people describing how Seeger was breaking various anti-sedition laws with this record. Different times.