IT'S ALL RELATIVE

Einstein in 1905

The 30^th June appears to be a science day. 106 years ago today, in 1905, Albert Einstein presented his article “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper" ("On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies").  It was the third paper he presented in 1905 and it apparently ‘reconciles Maxwell’s equations for electricity and magnetism with the laws of mechanics, by introducing major changes to mechanics close to the speed of light’. This later became known as Einstein’s special theory of relativity.

The paper is part of the Annus Mirabilis Papers, which are the papers of Albert Einstein published in the Annelen der Physik scientific journal in 1905. The four articles contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed views on space, time and matter. 1905 is referred to as the ‘Miracle Year’ in English and ‘Wunderjahr’ in German.

The paper mentions the names of only five other scientists, Issac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Heinrich Hertz, Christian Doppler, and Hendrick Lorentz. It does not have any references to any other publications.

Maxwell

Newton

Hertz

Doppler

Lorentz

It was also on the 30^th June 1972, that the first leap second was added to the UTC time system. 

A leap second is a positive or negative one-second adjustment to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) time scale that keeps it close to mean solar time. UTC, which is used as the basis for official time-of-day radio broadcasts for civil time, is maintained using extremely precise atomic clocks. To keep the UTC time scale close to mean solar time, UTC is occasionally corrected by an intercalary adjustment,  or "leap", of one second. Over long time periods, leap seconds must be added at an ever increasing rate. (see ∆T). The timing of leap seconds is now determined by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS). Leap seconds were determined by the Bureau International de l’Heure (BIH) prior to January 1, 1988, when the IERS assumed that responsibility.

I am not sure what any of this means, but it is important in terms of understanding the universe and how real objects, moving through space and time, relate to each other. That is the theory of relativity. 

I knew a man in New York whose grandmother came from a little village in Poland. As he was growing up, his grandmother told him stories about her village. She seemed nostalgic about the past and quite wistful.  She painted a lovely rosy picture of her childhood and adolescence. One day, much later, he found a collection of photographs of his grandmother's village in an old bookshop. He bought them and, with great glee, he presented them to his now much older grandmother. She glanced through the pictures and showed no sign of emotion at all. He was quite taken aback and asked his grandmother why she didn't seem to care anymore about the village she'd gone on about at such length. She looked at him and said "People move".

Just part of the theory of relativity.

WHAT PRICE TREATIES?

Ninety two years ago on the 28^th June 1919, The Treaty of Versailles was signed. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21^st October 1919 and printed in the League of Nations Treaty Series. It came into force on the 10^th January 1920.

The Treaty was the first of a series of treaties, which came out of the Paris Peace Conference, which opened on the 18^th January 1919. Part I of the Treaty of Versailles contains the 26 Articles of the Covenant of The League of Nations.

THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES,

IN ORDER TO PROMOTE international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security

by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war

by the prescription of open, just and honourable relations between nations

by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among Governments, and

by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another

AGREE to this Covenant of the League of Nations.

The most controversial aspect of the Treaty, which would prove almost fatal to the allies, was contained in Part VIII, Reparation - Articles 231 to 247, which became known as the War Guilt Clauses.

Article 231

The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.

The following articles required that Germany, disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay heavy reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers. The total cost was assessed at 132 billion Marks, which in 1921 was roughly equivalent, in 2011 terms, to £217 billion or $442 billion.

The treaty was undermined by subsequent events from 1930 on and was widely flouted by the mid 1930’s, Germany was not pacified or conciliated, nor permanently weakened, and the reaction to it would prove a factor leading to later conflicts, in particular the Second World War.

Here is some original footage taken at the time. One catches a glimpse of Lloyd-George, Clemenceau and Wilson arriving.

Here is a BBC documentary program - follow the episodes.

TO RATIFY OR NOT TO RATIFY

I am ashamed to admit that I have paid little or no attention to certain United Nations organisations, which ought to have been higher on my agenda. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is a specialised agency of the UN that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva. It was first established in 1919 after the First World War, and its new constitution came into effect after World War II on the 1^st November 1945. Its membership includes states that were members on that date. The ILO organises the International Labour Conference in Geneva every year in June, where conventions and recommendations are drafted and adopted. Each member state is represented at the conference by four people; two government delegates, an employer delegate and a worker delegate. All of them have individual voting rights, and all votes are equal regardless or the population of the delegate’s member state. The employer and worker delegate are normally chosen in agreement with “the most representative” national organisations of employers and workers.

It so happens that on the 27^th June 1989, at the 76^th session of the Conference adopted C169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 – The preamble to the convention reads: (I draw your attention in particular to the section in italics)

Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its 76th Session on 7 June 1989, and

Noting the international standards contained in the Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention and Recommendation, 1957, and

Recalling the terms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the many international instruments on the prevention of discrimination, and

Considering that the developments which have taken place in international law since 1957, as well as developments in the situation of indigenous and tribal peoples in all regions of the world, have made it appropriate to adopt new international standards on the subject with a view to removing the assimilationist orientation of the earlier standards, and

Recognising the aspirations of these peoples to exercise control over their own institutions, ways of life and economic development and to maintain and develop their identities, languages and religions, within the framework of the States in which they live, and

Noting that in many parts of the world these peoples are unable to enjoy their fundamental human rights to the same degree as the rest of the population of the States within which they live, and that their laws, values, customs and perspectives have often been eroded, and

Calling attention to the distinctive contributions of indigenous and tribal peoples to the cultural diversity and social and ecological harmony of humankind and to international co-operation and understanding, and

Noting that the following provisions have been framed with the co-operation of the United Nations, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and the World Health Organisation, as well as of the Inter-American Indian Institute, at appropriate levels and in their respective fields, and that it is proposed to continue this co-operation in promoting and securing the application of these provisions, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the partial revision of the Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957 (No. 107), which is the fourth item on the agenda of the session, and

Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention revising the Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957;

adopts this twenty-seventh day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine the following Convention, which may be cited as the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989;

The current Director General of the ILO is Juan Somavia, a very kindly looking gentleman, along the lines of Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34^th Street.

Juan Somavia

Edmund Gwenn

You can find the whole of the document C169, at:

http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/convdisp1.htm

What is surprising, to me, in fact extraordinary, is that 22 years after the ILO adopted this convention, it has yet to be ratified by the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Austria etc.. Indeed the only countries to have ratified ILO-Convention 169 are:

Argentina
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Central African Republic
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Denmark
- Dominica
- Ecuador
- Fiji
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- México
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- Nicaragua
- Norway
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Spain
- Venezuela.
I cannot understand why it is taking so long to adopt this convention round the world.

The Current Delegates for the United Kingdom are:

Government Delegates:

Stephen Richards, Head ILO, CoE and UN(Employment) Team, Department for Work and Pensions

Nathaniel Wapshere, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission, Geneva

Advisers and substitute delegates:

Peter Gooderham. Ambassador, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission, Geneva

Jonathan Joo-Thomson, First Secretary, Permanent Mission Geneva

Annette, Warrick, Head ILO, CoE and UN (Employment) Team, Department of Work and Pensions.

Francis Roodt, Policy Adviser, ILO, CoE and UN(Employment) Team, Department for Work and Pensions

Advisers

Paul Russell, Senior Policy Adviser, ILO, CoE and UN(Employment) Team, Department for Work and Pensions

Selby Weeks, Permanent Mission, Geneva

Gerald Weldon, Senior Policy Adviser, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Liz Tillett, Head, International Unit, Department for Work and Pensions

Employers’ Delegate

Christopher Syder, Representative, Confederation of British Industry

Adviser and substitute delegate

Anita Mishra, Appointed representative, Confederation of British Industry.

Advisers

Maxine Cahal, Policy Adviser, CBI Employment Policy Directorate

Jim Bligh, Senior Policy Adviser, Employment CBI

Neil Carberry, Appointed Representative, CNI

Workers’ Delegate

Sam Gurney, International Policy Officer, Trades Union Congress (TUC)

Advisers

Amanda Brown, Head of Legal Department National Union of Teachers

Marissa Begonia, Justice for Domestic Workers, Unite the Union

Richard Exell, Senior Policy Officer, TUC

Other Persons attending the Conference:

Diana Holland, Assistant General Secretary, Unite the Uniopn

Christine Blower, General Secretary, National Union of Teachers

Fe Jusay, Respect Network

Pat Brown, European Union and International Relations Department, TUC

Owen Tudor, Head European Union and International Relations Department, TUC

Ben Moxham, Policy Officer, European Union and International Relations Department, TUC

Bandula Kothalawala, Officer, European Union and International Relations Department, TUC

Jennifer, Moss, Officer, Kalayaan

Abdullah Muhsin Pullum, International Representative, GFTW

Sean Bamgord, Policy Officer, TUC

If anyone knows any of these 30 people, perhaps they could exert a bit of pressure to find out what is taking so long to ratify Convention C169.

SCULPTURE IN THE AIR LIFT

I am in somewhat of an artistic quandary after visiting an exhibition of sculpture at Lord’s Wood near Marlow, Buckinghamshire, yesterday. I found a wonderful house and garden displaying a variety of magnificent sculptures by a variety of artists, in a variety of styles. In particular there are some magnificent pieces by Dido Crosby depicting a number of animals. There is also some very fine work by Bridget McCrum, whose work is more abstract. On the left column below are some works by McCrum and on the right work by Crosby.

Opposite The Raven, by Crosby, is a piece entitled Poised Bird, by McCrum. Both present the simple image of a bird. The raven draws us in. There is something about its reality that gives it life. It is not a feather for feather reproduction, but it is very much a living creature with a personality all its own. The poised bird on the other hand reveals an impression of a bird about to take off in flight. It is a glimpse, a blur of the bird in that split second of motion at take off. Both pieces are clearly the result of a great deal of thought and work.  Whilst there is an instant recognition of bird life in the Raven, the Poised Bird takes a bit longer to see. Not a lot longer, but as a viewer, I am not altogether certain I would get there without the written title to guide me. Is that a problem with the abstract? Whilst not all abstract work requires guidance, approaching such work can sometimes be more difficult; although, the piece need not require written words to create an impression or for the viewer/reader to fully appreciate it. There are also certain works which do not seem to have required the same degree of hands on endeavour to create, but which present an instant recognition. These pieces are usually associated with a clever use of objects, such as Alexander Calder’s Dog (below) and much of Marcel Duchamp's Object Trouvé or Readymades.

Alexander Calder, Dog, 1926-31, Wood, clothespin, and wire,
3-7/8 x 5-5/8 x 1-1/2", Calder Foundation, New York

So what's my point? I'm not sure I really have one. Things speak for themselves? Just be willing to listen.

In remembrance, 63 years ago on the 26^th June 1948 the allies began an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin.

INDEPENDENCE, RIGHTS AND LIFE

Statue of Robert the Bruce by Pilkington Jackson,
near Bannockburn Heritage Centre

The 24^th June is a day most celebrated in Scotland. The decisive battle in the First War of Scottish Independence was the Scottish victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn (worth a listen) in 1314. Troop numbers seem to vary quite a bit, depending on whose history you read, but the English force was approximately twice the size of the Scottish. The Scottish victory was complete. 

Other acts of independence are also celebrated on the 24th June. It was on this day in 1793 that the constitution of the First French Republic was established.

The Constitution of 24 June 1793: (Acte constitutionnel du 24 juin 1793), also known as the Constitution of the Year I, or the The Montagnard Constitution (French: Constitution montagnarde), was the constitution which instated the First Republic during the French Revolution. Following a referendum, it was ratified by the National Convention on 24 June 1793. The Constitution was inspired by the Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1789, to which it added several rights: it proclaimed the superiority of popular sovereignty over national sovereignty; various economic and social rights (rights of association. right to work and public assistance, right to public education); the right of rebellion (and duty to rebel when the government violates the right of the people); and the abolition of slavery written in what is known as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1793.

What is of note in this constitution is the citizen's "duty to rebel when the government violates the right of the people".  This duty is supported the the citizen's right of rebellion. This right is clearly being exercised rather dramatically in North Africa and the Middle East. It is not surprising that the French were among the first on the political scene in trying to come to the assistance of those demonstrating. It was part of their first democratic constitution; although, their own colonial past and behaviour  (Indo China, Algeria...) is not particularly supportive of that proposition. Nevertheless they are a supportive presence now.

Another act of independence or liberation of a sort occurred on the 24th June 1982. BA Flight 9 lost all four engines in a volcanic cloud. Due to the brilliance of the crew, everyone survived. There were 248 passengers and 15 crew.

On the 23rd June 1972, President Richard Nixon conferred with his Chief of Staff Harry Robbins "Bob" Haldeman. This conversation, known as the 'smoking gun', was the final blow which led to the resignation of Richard Milhous Nixon as 37th President of the United States. The break-in at the Watergate Office complex had only occurred 6 day earlier on the 17th June 1972. This conversation was indicative of the attempts to cover up the participation of the Nixon White House in clearly illegal activities. What is even more extraordinary is that the participants, many of them lawyers, were blind to the fact that they had entered into a criminal conspiracy.

As curious a collection of public servants as one could expect to find. These men sat in the White House, and all but one went to gaol.

CONTIGUITY

There is a certain contiguity of particular events on the 22^nd June. On this day in 1940 France was forced to sign the Second Compiègne armistice with Germany. When Adolph Hitler received word from the French government that they wished to negotiate an armistice, Hitler selected Compiègne Forest near Compiègne as the site for the negotiations. As Compiègne was the site of the 1918 Armistice ending the Great War with a humiliating defeat for Germany, Hitler saw using this location as a supreme moment of revenge for Germany over France. Hitler decided to sign the armistice in the same rail carriage where the Germans had signed the first armistice in 1918.
The Armistice site was demolished by the Germans on Hitler's orders three days later.  The carriage itself was taken to Berlin as a trophy of war, along with pieces of a large stone tablet which bore the inscription (in French):

HERE ON THE ELEVENTH OF NOVEMBER 1918 SUCCUMBED THE CRIMINAL PRIDE OF THE GERMAN REICH. VANQUISHED BY THE FREE PEOPLES WHICH IT TRIED TO ENSLAVE.

The Alsace-Lorraine Monument (depicting a German eagle impaled by a sword) was destroyed and all evidence of the site was obliterated, with the notable exception of the statue of Marshall Foch: Hitler intentionally ordered it to be left intact so that it would be honouring only a wasteland. The railway carriage itself was taken to Crawinkel in Thuringa in 1945, where it was destroyed by SS troops and the remains buried.

It was also on the 22^nd June 1898 that the German writer Erich Maria Remarque was born. He is best known as the author of Im Westen nichts Neues, translated as All Quiet on the Western Front, one of the best anti-war novels written and which was made into a film which won the academy award for best picture in 1930. The film was produced by Carl Laemmle (see 8th June blog entry)

On 10 May 1933, the Nazis, instigated by the then Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels banned and publicly burned Remarque's works and produced propaganda claiming that he was a descendant of French Jews and that his real last name was Kramer, a Jewish-sounding name, and his original name spelled backwards. This is still cited in some biographies despite the complete lack of evidence. The Nazis also claimed, falsely, that Remarque hadn't done active service during World War I.

E. Remarque

In 1943, the Nazis arrested his sister, Elfriede Scholz, who had stayed behind in Germany with her husband and two children. After a short trial in the "Volksgerichtshof" (Hitler's extra-constitutional "People's Court"), she was found guilty of "undermining morale" for stating that she considered the war lost. Court President Roland Freisler declared, "Ihr Bruder ist uns leider entwischt—Sie aber werden uns nicht entwischen" ("Your brother has unfortunately escaped us—you, however, will not escape us"). Scholz was guillotined on 16 December 1943..

In 1955, Remarque wrote the screenplay for an Austrian film, The Last Act (Der letzte Akt), about Hitler's final days in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, which was based on the book Ten Days to Die (1950) by Michael Musmanno. The film was directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst. Here is a clip from the film.

Checkpoint Charlie taken out

As a sort of coda to Germany’s various struggles towards civilized democracy, it was on the 22^nd June 1990 that Checkpoint Charlie was dismantled in Berlin. Another erasure. Indeed there is no significant sign left to indicate that Germany was ever divided into occupied zones.


The idea that history and past events can be destroyed, buried, executed, demolished or erased is not a particularly successful concept. Contiguity, no matter how remote, will always, one way or another, bring events back into focus.

MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI AND PENNSYLVANIA

Chaney

Schwerner

Goodman

More in the continuing saga of the civil rights movement in the United States. Forty seven years ago on this day, in 1964, three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner were murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippt by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The killing of the three men occurred shortly after midnight on June 21, 1964, when they went to investigate the burning of a church that supported civil rights activity. James Chaney was a local Freedom Movement activist in Meridian, Michael Schwerner was a CORE organizer from New York, and Andrew Goodman, also from New York, was a Freedom Summer volunteer. The three men had just finished week-long training on the campus of Western College for Women (now part of Miami University), in Oxford, Ohio, regarding strategies on how to register blacks to vote.

The following You Tube entry is well worth a look. (follow on from part 1)

How does a country, founded on the concept of liberty of the subject, breed such monstrous bigotry? How long must it take to deal with the perpetrators of such malevolence? It is not good enough to blame the justice system. It seems clear that it is the responsibility of the people who are meant to enforce the law and who should abide by the rule of law. Is it the democratically elected individuals, who seek to bury the truth and shield themselves from exposure, who are the persons responsible? Or is it the people who elected them, knowing they would bury the truth and attempt to shield them all from exposure?

The spectre of that malevolence seems once again to be rearing its head in Northern Ireland. Why did we think those 'troubles' were at an end? It was also on this day 21st June 1877 that another sad chapter in America's history of misguided abuse of power took place. Ten Irish immigrants, labeled The Molly Maguires, were hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.

After one of the trials, a Carbon County judge, John P. Lavelle, stated: The Molly Maguire trials were a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows.

Was it all just about unions or is there something deeper going on? State Sovereignty, if the state values the rule of law, should never be surrendered, but then, if it does not value the rule of law, what does sovereignty matter? In the case of Mississippi in 1964 and Pennsylvania in 1877 it amounted to precious little.

GOING TO FRANCE

Going to France for a week in a campervan - will report back in a week

REBELLION AND REMEMBRANCE

John Ball

In June 1381, 630 years ago, Kentish rebels formed behind Wat Tyler and marched on London to join the Essex contingent. When the Kentish rebels arrived at Blackheath on 12 June 1381, the renegade Lollard priest, John Ball, preached a sermon including the famous question that has echoed down the centuries: "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" The following day, the rebels, encouraged by the sermon, crossed London Bridge into the heart of the city.

Anne Frank

For her 13th birthday on 12 June 1942, Anne Frank received a book she had shown her father in a shop window a few days earlier. Although it was an autograph book, bound with red-and-white checkered cloth and with a small lock on the front, Frank decided she would use it as a diary, and began writing in it almost immediately. While many of her early entries relate the mundane aspects of her life, she also discusses some of the changes that had taken place in the Netherlands since the German occupation.

On the morning of Monday, 6 July 1942, the family moved into their hiding place, a secret annex. She wrote in her diary on Wednesday, 5 April 1944:

“I finally realized that I must do my schoolwork to keep from being ignorant, to get on in life, to become a journalist, because that’s what I want! I know I can write ..., but it remains to be seen whether I really have talent ...And if I don’t have the talent to write books or newspaper articles, I can always write for myself. But I want to achieve more than that. I can’t imagine living like Mother, Mrs. van Daan and all the women who go about their work and are then forgotten. I need to have something besides a husband and children to devote myself to! ...I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death! And that’s why I’m so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that’s inside me! When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that’s a big question, will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?”

In 1963 Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered in front on his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Byron De La Beckwith. Here is a 2008 you tube video in remembrance of his death:

REPRISALS & MASSACRES

Following on from D Day the German Army, in the shape of the SS, took reprisals and massacred a number of civilians as retaliation against the Free French Resistance,

On the 9^th June 1944, the town of Tulle, in the Limousin region of central France, was chosen. A large number of male civilians were rounded up by the 2^nd SS Division Das Reich division of the Waffen SS. Of these, 97 were randomly selected and then hanged from lamp posts and balconies in the town. Additionally, another 321 captives were sent to forced labour camps in Germany.

On the 10^th June, that same division 2^nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” under the command of Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann sealed off the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, having confused it with nearby Oradour-sur-Vayres, and ordered all the townspeople – and anyone who happened to be in or near the town – to assemble in the village square, ostensibly, to have their identity papers examined. In addition to the residents of the village, the SS also apprehended six people who did not live there but had the misfortune to be riding their bikes through the village when the Germans arrived. The village was almost totally razed and 642 inhabitants murdered in a matter of hours.

This was not unusual behaviour for the German Army at the time.

Lidice is a village in the Czech Republic just north-west of Prague. It is built on the site of a previous village of the same name, as part of the Nazi created Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. On direct orders from Heinrich Himmler (having received orders from Berlin) Lidice was completely destroyed by German forces in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in the late spring of 1942. On June 10, 1942, 192 men over 16 years of age from the village were murdered on the spot. The rest of the population were sent to Nazi concentration camps where many women and nearly all the children were killed.

The day before, on the 9^th June, the decision was made to "make up for his death". Karl Hermann Frank, Secretary of State for the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, reported from Berlin that the Führer had commanded the following concerning any village found to have harboured Heydrich's killers:

1. Execute all adult men

2. Transport all women to a concentration camp

3. Gather the children suitable for Germanisation, then place them in SS families in the Reich and bring the rest of the children up in other ways

Burn down the village and level it entirely.
This was done apparently with great efficiency.

There is little one can say about the smiling men in this film. The, then, German propaganda film unit must have had its reasons for filming the atrocity. This is only a 56 second segment of it. I cannot imagine what the rest of it is like

Here is an historical account of what led up to and what occurred at Lidice. Some of this is not pleasant viewing. Follow the links there are 11+ parts.

FOUNDED BY THE FBI

The 8^th June brings us back to the movies. Universal Pictures, one of the oldest American movie studios still producing films, was founded by Carl Laemmle in 1912. Laemmle was born in Laupheim, Wurttemberg, in Germany, in 1867. He emigrated to the United States at the age of 17 in 1884. He lived in Chicago working as a bookkeeper and store manager. He had been working in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and returned to Chicago sometime in 1905 and was struck by the popularity of nickelodeons. He started buying them up and shortly after established a film distribution company, The Laemmle Film Service. In 1909 he went on to form The Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP). On the 8^th June 1912, in New York, Laemmle merged his IMP company with Pat Powers of Powers Picture Company, Mark Dintenfass of Champion Films, and Bill Swanson of American Éclair. Charles Baumann, of Crescent Film Company and Bison Life Motion Picture Company, as well as Adam Kessel (who had the New York Motion Picture Company with Baumann) may also have been involved. In any event, together, with Laemmle at the helm, they formed the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company. Universal will be celebrating in centenary next year. Carl Laemmle’s niece Carla Laemmle, is, I believe, still with us, having been born on the 20th October 1909 and now going on 102. (see blog for Monday 7^th Feb 2011)

Current Logo

1936 Logo

Carla Laemmle

Carl Laemmle

As the studios grew in power, and films became increasingly influential, actors, writers, producers and directors came under greater scrutiny. At the end of the Second World War, the red menace reared its head and an FBI report issued on the 8^th June 1949 named a number of celebrities as Communist Party members; including, Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Frederic March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson. This report fuelled the anti-Communist hysteria in America during the late 1940’s and the 1950’s. The FBI report relied largely on accusations made by "confidential informants," supplemented with some highly dubious analysis. It began by arguing that the Communist Party in the United States claimed to have "been successful in using well-known Hollywood personalities to further Communist Party aims." The report particularly pointed to the actions of the Academy Award-winning actor Frederic March. Suspicions about March were raised by his activities in a group that was critical of America's growing nuclear arsenal (the group included other well-known radicals such as Helen Keller and Danny Kaye). March had also campaigned for efforts to provide relief to war-devastated Russia. The report went on to name several others who shared March's political leanings: Edward G. Robinson; the African-American singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson; the writer Dorothy Parker; and a host of Hollywood actors, writers, and directors.

Edward G. Robinson declared, "These rantings, ravings, accusations, smearing, and character assassinations can only emanate from sick, diseased minds of people who rush to the press with indictments of good American citizens. I have played many parts in my life, but no part have I played better or been more proud of than that of being an American citizen."


 They were clearly on the FBI's wanted list.

 This is the current list provided by the FBI website. Note the man at the end:

Ten Most Wanted

The FBI is offering rewards for information leading to the apprehension of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Select the images of suspects to display more information.

Facts on the Program | Historical Photos of Each Top Tenner | 60th Anniversary Booklet

JASON DEREK BROWN

JOE LUIS SAENZ

VICTOR MANUEL GERENA

EDUARDO RAVELO

ROBERT WILLIAM FISHER

ALEXIS FLORES

SEMION MOGILEVICH

GLEN STEWART GODWIN

JAMES J. BULGER

USAMA BIN LADEN