2-15-2006 Lecture 9 Birth Civil Liberties

Outline 2/15/2006 Lecture 9 – Conservative Backlash (notes on Zionism Ottomans & Vietnam)

Freedom of Speech fragile & much suppressed early 20^th century

not much celebrated or protected by courts in 1920

Story of American Freedom picks one glimmer of hope From excesses of repression around WWI

: backlash = pro-civil liberties later.

Courts move to construct legal basis to protect free speech.

modern Federal legal system 1933 till approx 1980

generally expands protections and opportunities implicit in the Bill of Rights

“incorporated” (made the states abide by) bill of rights.

Last lectuure – Progressive Idealism rules

Committee on Public Information – most successful advertising campaign in American history

beginning of “public relations” profession – marketing etc

BUT: not just propaganda - real difference German aristocracy - democracy and justice at home

solve problems of poverty justice oppression ridiculous gulf rich and poor

We make big moves toward “industrial democracy”

8-hour day living wages arbitration not class-war

Progressives believed in Federal government as an agent to rationalize society

national unity “unity” to support War effort and Progress

instead of class war – impose justice in labor relations

Maybe even disseminate progressive values around the globe with Wilson's vision

Disillusion:

failure of Self determination - not applied to “backward countries” -

Europe gets self-determination

Africa, Asia, Middle East – colonialism in disguise with “mandates”

Prohibition- government can do dumb stuff

Repression & conformity = other side of “Unity” or “communal purpose”

Labor rights – state courts in progressive era forbid public speech, picketing, distribute literature

Laws passed to limit anti-labor injunctions overthrown by courts

IWW main crusader for Labor rights - killed, turned over to vigilantes

they're “not Patriotic”

Workers After War

Capitalists want to reassert control - resumption of anti-union activities

Propaganda campaign – link unions and socialism – foreigners influence on American life

“Industrial Liberty” Business siezes on rhetoric of democracy

open shop – collective bargaining impedes personal liberty

Carrots :Private pensions , medical insurance, job security

Poison Pill in carrot

Scientific management – Fredrick W Taylor – efficiency experts –

rigid control work process

As Kramer found out in the cigar-roller's episode

People with the best special skills are worth a little extra $ - exploding crepes

Armistice – 4 million workers back from war -lower demand labor -

1919 – postwar violence and paranoia –

Greatest wave of labor unrest US history 3000 stirkes 4 million workers

Workers had believed wartime propaganda – hopes too high

Steel Strike 1919-1920 crushing defeat of labor and progressive hopes

Political paranoia :

Boston Police strike – public safety threatened – outrage –

Governor Calvin Coolidge Calls out Nationa Guard to great Public approval

(Reagan and Air Traffic Controllers)

March 1919 - USSR creates Communist International “We will bury you”

and kill anyone with a few extra $ or a horse

Red Scare – labor unrest and Russian Revolution

deportation of aliens

“criminal syndicalism” is any advocacy of change in industrial ownership

Palmer Raids : arms, bombs ........... Bupkus

Black disillusion – had thought war would prove their loyalty and lead to rights

orgy of violence - 11 lynchings Ga 1918

NAACP driven out of South

African lack of Self-Determnation – WEBDuBois goes to Paris

disappointed hopes lead to separatist movement Marcus Garvey – demagogue

Women's Rights – Unified movement on fight for voting rights – splits afterward

“Difference” feminism based on Motherhood

against Equal Rights Amendment ERA –

would sweep away mothe's pensions and protective legislation

suffer setback in Conservative reaction after war -

courts overule federal child labor law in 1923

congress repeals 1921 federal assistance infant and child health in 1929

“Equality” or “egalitarian” feminism

– includes “lyrical Left” Dewey's “community of free inquiry” Isadora Duncan

free expression on matters economic, artistic, and sexual

feminiest, artists, socialists

Women's emancipation – autonomy, free sexual expression and reproductive choice

birth control information

“Obscenity “ regulations stop distribution of sex-education and birth control

political expression of new sexual mores

separate sex from reproduction -

women control own body – not control by men

Margaret Sanger – directly challenge laws banning birth control device & information

one of 11 children sees her mother suffering

Feminism degenerates into “lifestyle” - advertising and mass entertainment- no political content

Scandelous pursuit of sexual pleasure becomes device to market goods – fashions, cars, cigarettes

cigarettes “torches of freedom”

consumerism sapping engagement with public issues

PROGRESSIVE FUNDAMENTALS

Idea of conscious creation of now political order requires democratic self-directed citizen

IQ tests – large numbers not fit for self-government

Freud – we got sex on the brain and are easily manipulated

Advertising – emotions not rationality

Reagan turns every issue into an emotion

Lippman Public Opinion & The Phantom Public

government by expert

voters easily mnipulated “manufacture of consent”

Progressives rediscover danger in Government

– can do prohibition etc

Civil Liberties give protection against the state they had such high hopes for

ACLU – antistatist – Baldwin profound distrust of government power

Scientific Racism

“America must be kept American” Women who marry Asians forfeit their nationality

Cut off immigration Eastern Europe – Jews

more moving from Palestine to US than into Palestine until approx 1924

no Israel problem today if .... NO HOLOCAUST if .....?

Conservatives “Back to Normalcy” ascendent

Taxes shift back to Tariff – income distribuition back towards Guilded Age

lack of consumer power ---> Depression

Deflation = too few consumer dollars chasing too many goods

ZIONISM -

history of gruesome anti-semitism – Jews as "Christ Killers" and usurers

Jews think they are making serious progress toward assimilation

increasingly more secular European states – Napoleon 1800 Civil Code

until the late 1800's.

Assassination Tsar Alexander II Russia 1881 - huge new wave of anti-Semitism - "Pogroms"

Flight of Russian Jews increases anti-Semitism in the countries they're fleeing to

yiddish speaking insular clannish villagers didn't assimilate well.

France: Jewish officer framed as a spy – Dreyfuss Affair

Austria: populist anti-Semitism

attracts frustrated young artist, Adolph Hitler, Jewish artists get all the commissions.

New scientific racism anti-semitism

Jews couldn't escape even by converting to Christianity.

Populism in service to Tsarists & aristocrats &Religious power

Liberalism & science & enlightenment are enemies.

Jews are “Liberals”

Zionism – Jews need a refuge - their own nation just like many other people.

ZZ mostly secular, not religious Jews

25,000 Jews in Palestine

Balfour Declaration - Zionism gains support of a major power

Arthur Balfour, British Prime Minister 1917.

Jewish scientist Weizmann – invents chemical process to produce gunnite

gunpowder of the English navy – no raw materials access because of the war.

Balfour tried to stop Jewish immigration - "Aliens Bill"

simulatneously ashamed at the treatment of the Jews by Christianity

in awe of the contributions of Jewish scientists and artists.

Right to decide who will fit into the "community" of a country.

English religious elements read Old Testament literally

the Second Coming of Christ and the end times

require Jews take “Holy Land” again & build Temple.

Ottomans

"Sick man of Europe" – falling apart – Russians, Brits, French Engl, Germans all want a piece –

geologists knew there was very serious oil under Iraq and discovered under Iran 1908

bullied by everyone and try to play the powers off against each other.

Wary of:

Russians to north - have always wanted a warm-weather port

French were the first to invade directly - around 1800. Napoleon came to Egypt

DeLesseps dug the Suez Canal –

became a point of contention between England and France.

Brits won 1880's thanks to machinations of one of their greatest Prime Ministers

Benjamin Disraeli – a very proud Jew, a writer of romantic novels,

English nationalist devoted to and loved in turn by Queen Victoria.

Help from?

Germans – late to the race for colonies

only unify1880' - agressively trying to make up for lost time.

Agressive Ship-building worries British.

French beaten and humiliated in war around 1870.

extracted reparations from French after war.

Ottomans and Germans treaty 1903 – Berlin to Baghdad RR

RR gets oil rights either side track

Winston Churchill – English naval minister

strongly focused on OIL - navy switching over cumbersome & less efficient coal.

Anglo-Persian Oil Company already concession in Iran.

1914 – WWI - Ottomans side with the Axis Powers – Germany & Italy & Austria-Hungary.

Brits invade – grab Iraq – (boundaries = oil concession)

Armies get as far north as Mosul (big oil city) -

Declare oil concession "enemy property"

"Our armies come not as conquerors or occupiers but as liberators"

Lawrence of Arabia - British agant among Arabs

Arab intellectuals & Turks see weakness of Ottomans

turn to nationalism

Faisil – elected rep – deal with Brits –

A. you can have Palestine for Jewish immigration (agreement Weitzman)

you can have Iraq and it's oil

B We get Syria – center of Muslim faith and Arab Nationalism

July 24 1920 – League of Nations announces Mandate –

Brits have another secret agreement with French Duble-crossed

France gets Syria & Lebanon (split for French religious reasons)

give Christians state they can control.

French kick Faisil out of Syria - 8000 Arab warriors on horses wiped out

-tanks and machine guns –

"YEAR OF CATASTROPHE" Christian infidel gets dominion over all Muslim Arabs

Jews get homeland Palestine

1800 - 90% Muslim Arab 8% Christian Arab 2% Jewish

Financial conquest – Jews purchase land with outside $

Faisil warns peace conference of long Jihad

Random example of colonialism:

Vietnam – troublesome colony for the French – but $ and pride in their "mission civilizatrix"

5000 Brits rule 300 million Indians – same # French needed to tame 1/10 the Vietnamese

Brits rule thru "association" : native institutions

French debate “association” – they have " a national history and ethnic identity far older than ours"

decide on assimilation "no greater honor could befall a people than to absorb ideas and culture of France"

CATHOLICS RULE!!!!

Young educated Viets study in Paris – enjoy freedom & comradeship of Latin Quarter

have books & newspapers confiscated by colonial police - possible subversives

treated as inferiors

Emperors had forbidden rice exports – feed deficit areas, save for bad years

French make it a "lucreative export"

commercial success impoverishes peasantry –

Rich French and Viets landgrab expand cultivated acreage –

– 70% landless peasants desperate – cheap labor for mines,

RRs & rubber plantations 30% uneconomical small plots

Interlocking companies – Bank of Indochina – colossus owned French govt & Paris banks

Labor recruited im manner reminiscent of abduction of black slaves by African tribal chiefs

Rubber – Michelin - indentured workers blighted by mlaria, dysentery, malnutrition

Protected market for French goods

French intransigence & primitive capitalism drives Viet nationalists from moderation to Communism

Ho Chi Minh – anti Japanese – they want colonies too –

"Drive the tiger out the front door while letting the wolf in through the back"

visits San Fran, Boston, New York – dazzled by skyscrapers –

in Harlem impressed that Chinese have rights of citizen –

decides when he declares Viet independence will quote Declaration of Independence

Goes to 1919 Peace Conference – begs US for Audience

Lenin “Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism”