1940s

Anarchism in 1940s Glasgow

Two interviews with veterans of the anarchist scene in 1940s Glasgow.

1945: US responses to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

August 6, 1945, 8.15 am, the uranium atom bomb exploded 580 metres above the city of Hiroshima

Selected quotations from US officials about the dropping of nuclear weapons on Japan which demonstrate that the bombing was not to end the war, but was to issue a warning to its Cold War rival.

"...the greatest thing in history."
- Harry S. Truman
President of the United States during the Atomic Bombing

"It always appeared to us that, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse."
- General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold
Commanding General of the U.S. Army
Air Forces Under President Truman

The Ninety-third Division - Black US soldiers' struggles in World War II - Nelson Peery

93rd Division Infantryman Nelson Peery, Mojave Desert, California 1942

Extracts from Nelson Peery's Black Fire - The Making Of A Black Revolutionary. Peery describes here the racism and segregation encountered by black soldiers and their militancy in opposing it during WWII.

1914-1946: Third Camp Internationalists in France during World War II

An anarchist festival in Paris, 1936

Echanges et Mouvement describe the activities of internationalist groups during World War II.

The following pages describe succinctly the activities of the "Third Camp" internationalist nuclei in France during World War II. We do not know of any comprehensive study of this subject.

The role of the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia's holocaust - Seán Mac Mathúna, 1941-1945

Historical information about Catholic priests and Muslim clerics being willing accomplices in the genocide of the Yugoslavia's Serbian, Jewish and Roma population during the Second World War.

During the Second World War in Yugoslavia, Catholic priests and Muslim clerics were willing accomplices in the genocide of the nations Serbian, Jewish and Roma population.

"The Renewal of Medieval Times" in Yugoslavia, 1941

Article from the Fascist-controlled press in Italy in 1941. The author, Corrado Zoli, was traveling through Bosnia and witnessed the Ustase massacres - and the assistance of Franciscan priests in the butchery - firsthand.

There can be little doubt that this article appeared with the agreement of the Fascist Party in Italy, and the Italian Army had already begun to stand between the Ustase and their victims in zones of the NDH under their authority.

1942-1944: US musicians recording ban

James Petrillo on trumpet

The musicians’ union called a ban on all commercial recordings, as part of a struggle to get royalties from record sales for a union fund for out-of-work musicians.

The union, the American Federation of Musicians, led by trumpeter James Petrillo, had previously opposed the recording of music, or “canned music”. Musicians were replaced with records in radio, and in cafes and bars bands were replaced with jukeboxes.

Fedi, Silvano, 1920-1944

Silvano Fedi

A short biography of Italian anarchist, anti-fascist partisan and local hero Silvano Fedi. Fighting in the Resistance, he was killed in a Nazi ambush in 1944.

Silvano Fedi
Born 25 April 1920 - Pistoia, Italy, died 29 July 1944 - Italy

1941: Disney cartoonists strike

Picketers

A short history of a strike by Disney animators in 1941 and the organisation in the years building up to it.

Throughout the 1930s workers of the flourishing entertainment industry of Hollywood had been organising themselves into unions. Stagehands, actors, directors, editors and writers had all successfully, albeit slowly, formed their own organisations through this massive drive for union recognition.

1943-1945: Anarchist partisans in the Italian Resistance

Italian partisans patrol the streets of Milan, 1945

Historical notes on the activities of anarchist partisans in the anti-fascist Resistance in Italy during World War II.

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