Carey McWilliams and Antifascism, 1934-1943

Abstract

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Recasting the Movement and Reframing the Law in Risa Goluboff's The Lost Promise of Civil Rights

“…But this did not happen overnight, and while it was taking place a highly creative redefinition of what constituted a radical and racially pluralist democracy was on offer. This is the thrust of Dan Geary's (2003) important portrait of the California Popular Front radical Carey McWilliams, whose definition of antifascism, like that of so many other non‐Communist progressives, became increasingly synonymous with one that advanced an activist ethnoracial democracy, not only in the nation's factories, but in its fields, barrios, and ghettos.…”

The Origins of Lewin’s Three-Step Model of Change

“…To appreciate why Lewin, a German Jew, became a social activist, we need to understand that he left Germany for America in 1933 as the position of Jews grew increasingly untenable (Marrow, 1969). Lewin admired much about America but was appalled by the general acceptance of racism and anti-Semitism, even in academia, and the growth of Nazism (Allport, 1948; Bernstein, 2013; Geary, 2003; G. W. Lewin, 1948a; Marrow, 1969; Sokal, 1984).…”

Steinbeck as Anti-Fascist

“…directed its attention solely to international developments, such as the Spanish Civil War, at the expense of domestic concerns." 16 In terms of Steinbeck's published work, the first extended analysis of farm fascism and its devastating impact on farm workers appears in his 1936 novel In Dubious Battle. Here Steinbeck clearly identifies corporate farming as the cause of the workers' misery and as a kind of proto-fascism that fundamentally threatens American democracy.…”

“…64 By then under the editorship of Ella Winter (Steffens's widow), Pacific Weekly "ran numerous articles about the threat of fascism in the state, nation, and world under such titles as 'Fascism at Our Fingertips,' 'Seeing America Fascist,' and 'Fascist Signs Everywhere.'" 65 Steinbeck's story described a shared breakfast with two migrant workers who were enjoying a period of steady employment, an account that emerged from his visits "to the migrant camps in the Salinas area to listen to the workers talk" in preparation for In Dubious Battle. 67 That same year, Steinbeck's own Popular Front profile was further raised by the creation of the John Steinbeck Committee to Aid Agricultural Organization.…”