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37-873: The League's origins traced back to a project of the Workers International Relief (WIR), a Communist association based in Berlin. In 1930, the WIR established the Workers Camera League in New York City, which soon came to be known as the Film and Photo League . Its goals were to "struggle against and expose reactionary film; to produce documentary films reflecting the lives and struggles of the American workers; and to spread and popularize

74-533: A Left-wing counterweight to the generous relief supplies sent to Soviet Russia by the ARA and other bourgeois agencies to mitigate the horrors of the famine. German workers undertook to work overtime and set aside their surplus production of machines or consumption goods for Soviet Russia; later, collections of money were made for Soviet workers and a loan was floated; and [Mezhrabpom] began distributing popular literature and propaganda on behalf of Soviet Russia." WIR

111-692: A method of raising money from a broad coalition of left-wing groups for famine relief in Soviet Russia while simultaneously concealing the Soviet government's role in organizing such groups (a fact which might have otherwise impeded fundraising efforts). In the FSR, socialist politician and women's rights campaigner Clara Zetkin served as president until her death in 1933. In subsequent years WIR supported workers in Germany and other countries suffering from

148-619: The PATCO workers' refusal to return to work, the Reagan administration fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order, and banned them from federal service for life. The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist instituted in 1947 to block screenwriters and other Hollywood professionals who were purported to have Communist sympathies from obtaining employment. It started by listing 151 entertainment industry professionals and lasted until 1960 when it

185-459: The list ; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considered to have done something wrong, or they are considered to be untrustworthy. As a verb , blacklist can mean to put an individual or entity on such a list. A blacklist is synonymous with a list of banned persons or organizations, and is the opposite of a whitelist . The English dramatist Philip Massinger used the phrase "black list" in his 1639 tragedy The Unnatural Combat . After

222-466: The restoration of the English monarchy brought Charles II of England to the throne in 1660, a list of regicides named those to be punished for the execution of his father . The state papers of Charles II say "If any innocent soul be found in this black list, let him not be offended at me, but consider whether some mistaken principle or interest may not have misled him to vote". In a 1676 history of

259-585: The Bolshevist government as ineffective and incompetent. This attitude was echoed by left-leaning commentators and editors in the United States, with the Nation speculating that Hoover might "use his food to overturn the Soviet government." In the view of Marxist historian E.H. Carr , the original purpose of the WIR was both humanitarian and ideological : "Its initial function was to provide

296-759: The Harlem Document Group of the League and a New York Times photographer); Dan Weiner ; Bill Witt; Martin Elkort ; Lou Bernstein ; Sy Kattelson ; Louis Stettner ; and Lisette Model . In the early 1940s, the list of notable photographers who were active in the League or supported their activities also included Margaret Bourke-White , W. Eugene Smith , Helen Levitt , FSA photographer Arthur Rothstein , Beaumont Newhall , Nancy Newhall , Richard Avedon , Weegee , Robert Frank , Harold Feinstein , Ansel Adams , Edward Weston and Minor White . The League

333-410: The League as early as 1936, was Photo Notes editor and board chair of the League's school. Sonia Handelman Meyer was both photographer and secretary, the league's only paid position. Many of the members who joined before the end of World War II were first-generation Americans who strongly believed in progressive political and social causes. Few were aware of the political origins of the movement of

370-726: The Photo League appeared on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO) published on March 20, 1948, in the Federal Register . At first the League fought back and mounted an impressive This Is the Photo League exhibition in 1948, but after its member and long-time FBI informer Angela Calomiris had testified in May 1949 that the League was a front organization for the Communist Party ,

407-430: The Photo League was finished. Recruitment dried up and old members left, including one of its founders and former president, Paul Strand , as well as Louis Stettner. The League disbanded in 1951. After the League's demise, and with the return of more women to domestic roles in the postwar era, the careers of many promising women artists, such as Sonia Handelman Meyer and Rae Russel , did not continue. The Photo League

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444-534: The Soviet Union. Münzenberg recognized the potential for cinematic propaganda , and therefore the WIR imported Soviet films as well as producing their own films. In 1922 Münzenberg founded Aufbau Industrie und Handels AG to distribute Soviet films. Hermann Basler led the office for film distribution, which in March 1923 with Polikuschka (director Alexander Sanin , 1922), production of Mezhrabpom-Rus for

481-888: The WIR began to produce communist documentary films via the specialized film production company World Film . The WIR was active in the United States, known for organizing the filming of the Passaic Textile Strike in conjunction with providing strike relief, and being instrumental in the founding of the Workers Film and Photo League . The WIR was supported by numerous left intellectuals, among them Martin Andersen Nexö , Henri Barbusse , Maxim Gorki , George Grosz , Maximilian Harden , Arthur Holitscher , Käthe Kollwitz , George Bernard Shaw , Upton Sinclair and Ernst Toller . After Nazi takeover in 1933

518-767: The WIR was severely disrupted. The Secretariat of the Executive Committee of the Communist International decided to abolish WIR in October 1935, although the decision was not announced publicly. Some of the organization's functions were continued by the International Red Aid . Blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making

555-552: The communist "Workers as Photographers" ( Arbeiterfotografen ) in Berlin. This had in fact little to do with what the organization did as it evolved, but helped its downfall after the war, when it was accused by the FBI of being communist, subversive and anti-American. In December 1947, the Photo League was formally declared a subversive organization and placed on a U.S. Department of Justice blacklist of subversive organizations by Attorney General Tom C. Clark . Following this announcement,

592-756: The effects of strikes , armed conflict, and natural catastrophes by distribution of clothes, food, and funds by adding an industrial assistance program . Initial funding of WIR was through secret Soviet funding in the form of ten million paper rubles ( sovznaki ) issued directly from the Soviet Central Bank. Most of WIR's funding assistance was provided through bank credits backed by the Kremlin; other sources included fund drives and tool/technology donations from other countries, from sales of confiscated assets, and from sales of donated foreign equipment such as tractors to private bidders and enterprises inside

629-504: The enemies and rivals, who had traduced his merit, opposed his greatness, or insulted his misfortunes". The first published reference to blacklisting of an employee dates from 1774. This became a significant employment issue in American mining towns and company towns , where blacklisting could mean a complete loss of livelihood for workers who went on strike. The 1901 Report of the Industrial Commission stated "There

666-697: The events leading up to the Restoration, James Heath (a supporter of Charles II) alleged that Parliament had passed an Act requiring the sale of estates, "And into this black list the Earl of Derby was now put, and other unfortunate Royalists ". Edward Gibbon wrote in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776) of Andronicus that "His memory was stored with a black list of

703-496: The first time brought a Soviet film into German cinemas. As Weimar Republic Germany imposed regulations against the importation of foreign films, the WIR moved in 1924 to Vienna , Austria . WIR at first brought out only one film at its Austrian location however: Kurt Bernhardt 's directorial debut Nameless Heroes (1924). Eventually, the Viennese center took over and produced later films like Kuhle Wampe (1931/32). In 1928

740-535: The great artistic and revolutionary Soviet productions". In 1934, the still photographers and the filmmakers in the League began having differences of opinion over social and production interests, and by 1936 they had formed separate groups. Paul Strand and Ralph Steiner established Frontier Films, to continue promoting the original goals, while Strand and Berenice Abbott renamed the original group "The Photo League". The two organizations remained friendly, with members of each group often participating in activities of

777-520: The library of documentaries dedicated to remembering the cultural work of the old left." ( Source : The Jewish Museum New York) Workers International Relief The Workers International Relief ( WIR ) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe ( IAH ) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь ( Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom ) in Russian —

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814-551: The members of the League were co-founders Sol Libsohn and Sid Grossman (director of the Photo League School); Morris Engel (from 1936); Arthur Leipzig (from 1942); Ruth Orkin , Jerome Liebling , and Lester Talkington (all from 1947); Walter Rosenblum (editor of the Photo League Photo Notes ); Eliot Elisofon (a Life magazine photographer); Aaron Siskind ; Jack Manning (a member of

851-426: The other. The goal of the newly reformed Photo League was to "put the camera back into the hands of honest photographers who ... use it to photograph America". The League quickly became active in the new field of socially conscious photography. Unlike other photography organizations, it did not espouse a particular visual style but instead concentrated on "integrating formal elements of design and visual aesthetics with

888-598: The petition to recall President Hugo Chávez , together with their national identity card numbers ( cédula ). The list "made sectarianism official", and Venezuelans who signed against Chávez were denied jobs, benefits, and documents, and often subjected to harassment. Once the list was posted, Chávez, on a Venezolana de Televisión broadcast, encouraged use of the website to "verify illicit use of national identity cards". Roger Capella, Minister of Health declared that "those who signed against President Chávez would be fired because they are committing an act of terrorism". There

925-490: The powerful and sympathetic evidence of the human condition". It also offered basic and advanced classes in photography when there were few such courses in colleges or trade schools. A newsletter, Photo Notes , was printed irregularly, depending upon who was available to do the work and if they could afford the printing costs. More than anything else, though, the League was a gathering place for photographers to share and experience their common artistic and social interests. Among

962-483: The practice continued in common use. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 made amendments which sustained blacklisting by affirming the right of employers to be anti-union , and by requiring trade union leaders to make loyalty oaths which had the same effect as the Hollywood blacklist . Since then, lawsuits for unfair dismissal have led to blacklisting being covert or informal, but it remains common. In 1981 following

999-496: Was a public outcry, in particular by the organization Súmate , and because of reports that people who worked for the government were fired, denied work, or denied issuance of official documents because of their appearance on the list. In July 2004, access to the database under management of Comando Maisanta was granted to members of the "Batallones Bolivarianos de Internet (BBI)" (Internet Bolivarian Battalions), which previously had to register on Tascón's website to gain access under

1036-605: Was an adjunct of the Communist International initially formed to channel relief from international working class organizations and communist parties to famine-stricken Soviet Russia . The organization, based in Berlin , later produced films and coordinated propaganda efforts on behalf of the USSR. The Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH), also known as International Workers' Aid or Workers International Relief (WIR)

1073-673: Was created in Berlin on August 12, 1921, in response to a call by Lenin , in order to recruit international support in response to a drought and famine in the Volga area, particularly those lands occupied by the Volga Germans . The drought and reduced crop production in the area was turned into a humanitarian disaster when Bolshevik forces known as "The Iron Broom" began a campaign of massive "tax collections" (food requisitions) to seize food supplies and redistribute them to other parts of Soviet Russia. Lenin's call for international support

1110-791: Was due to his volunteering in this cause and his beliefs. During World War I , the British government adopted a "blacklist" based on an Order in Council of 23 December 1915, prohibiting British subjects from trade with specified firms and individuals in neutral countries; the lists were published in the London Gazette . In the summer of 1940, the SS printed a secret list called Sonderfahndungsliste G.B. ("Special Search List Great Britain ") as part of Nazi Germany 's preparations for invasion code-named Operation Sea Lion – when this booklet

1147-582: Was effectively broken by the acknowledgement that blacklisted professionals had been working under assumed names for many years. At least one Scottish volunteer ( George Drever ) in the International Brigades who went to Spain to fight Franco 's fascists and who was also well known in the British Communist Party in the 1930s was informed by the police Special Branch that his failure to progress in military or career

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1184-667: Was formed by Willi Münzenberg , a member of the German Communist Party (KPD) and a skilled propagandist. Münzenberg came to Lenin's attention through his activities as leader of the Young Communist International . With Soviet government funding, Münzenberg promptly set up a series of benignly-titled front organizations such as the Friends of Soviet Russia (FSR). The FSR and similar relief organizations set up by Münzenberg were conceived as

1221-640: Was found after the war, it was commonly called the Black Book and described as a blacklist. In 1907, the Transvaal Medical Union in South Africa blacklisted patients if they could not pay cash in advance. There was a physical list kept by the community of physicians . After the 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum , ruling party deputy Luis Tascón published on his website a database of more than 2,400,000 Venezuelans who had signed

1258-527: Was motivated by a desire to counteract the influence of Herbert Hoover's American Relief Association (ARA) in providing food aid to the people of the Volga as well as in the rest of Eastern Europe, as Soviet troops were in the process of confiscating food supplies in the Volga region. Lenin regarded the ARA as "mercenaries" who were seeking to defeat Bolshevism by alleviating hunger in Soviet Russia, thus embarrassing

1295-657: Was no doubt in the minds of workingmen of the existence of the blacklisting system, though it was practically impossible to obtain evidence of it." It cited a news report that in 1895 a former conductor on the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad committed suicide, having been out of work ever since a strike: "Wherever he went, the blacklist was ahead of him". Though the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 outlawed punitive blacklists against employees who supported trade unions or criticised their employers,

1332-530: Was the caretaker of the Lewis Hine Memorial Collection, which Hine's son had given the League in recognition of its role in fostering social activism through photography as his father had done. Unusually for artist groups at the time, about one third of League members and participants were women and they served in visible leadership roles such as secretary, treasurer, vice president, and president. For example, Lucy Ashjian , who joined

1369-537: Was the subject of a 2012 documentary film: Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League's New York by Daniel Allentuck and Nina Rosenblum . The film traces the rise and demise of the Photo League between 1936 and 1951, and includes interviews with surviving members and a soundtrack including Woody Guthrie , the Andrews Sisters , and the Mills Brothers . Cineaste Magazine calls the film a "fine addition to

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