The Mickey Mouse Copyright Law and the lost history of the left

[starroute]

The period from about 1937 to 1953 was a pivotal time in the history of the 20th century. But whenever I try to find out more about it, I run into a brick wall. It seems that only the blandest, most middle-of-the-road accounts of that period are available, with all the hot issues and controversial personalities wiped away.

This was the period during which the fascist or near-fascist right of the 30's reconstituted itself under a variety of more acceptable labels, such as anti-Communism and states' rights. But conventional history would have us believe that there was no connection between the fascists of the 30's and the Paleocons of the 50's. It's only through recent scrutiny of the Bushes and their allies that the real continuity is starting to be documented.

This was also a period of great left-wing heroes, people my parents told me about when I was little. But most of them are entirely forgotten -- or else, like Woody Guthrie, their names are remembered but their politics conveniently lost.

I was trying to pump my father the other day for what he could tell me about the period, but he wasn't coming up with much. "Why don't you look it up online?" he said. "I've tried and it isn't there!" I answered. "There's plenty of stuff from the 19th century, because that's all out of copyright. But there's nothing from the 30's and 40's." And as I said it, I realized what a destructive effect copyright extension has had on non-mainstream political history in this country.

Have you heard of the Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act? It's got a more official name, of course, but everybody knows that the real purpose was to extend copyright terms so that Disney could keep control of Mickey Mouse. As a result, nothing published since the early 20's is in the public domain. It's well known that this is having a terrible effect on the cultural history of this country -- old movies, for example, are crumbling away because the copyright holders don't care about them and nobody else can reissue them. Old music, old books -- it's all being lost.

But what I've never seen mentioned is that it's crippling and distorting political history as well. Old right-wing tracts somehow seem to go on forever -- there are always creepy little right-wing publishers ready to keep reprinting them, and right-wing funding sources ready to supply the needed cash. But reprints of old left-wing books and magazine articles and pamphlets are nowhere to be found.

I would really love to see this remedied. If only someone who knows the territory could pick out the essential documents of the mid-20th century left and put them online -- with permission from copyright holders if possible, but in defiance of our current screwed-up copyright laws if necessary. We could learn a lot of vital information from reading them, would be inspired by the heroism of our spiritual foreparents in very dark times, and could begin the essential work of recreating the lost history of the left in America.

[MadHound]

1. Oh the history is out there

You just have to know where to look. I don't think that it is a matter of copyright laws that is keeping matters of history out of the mainstream, I think it is because the history of the conservative movement in America would horrify most Americans if they knew the truth. While we had American facists before WWII, they really became an integral part of society during the Cold War. Project Paperclip, among others actively recruited former Nazis into high governmental positions. And the fact of the matter is that Hitler would have never risen to power without the backing of several prominent Americans, Henry Ford and Prescott Bush among them.

If you want to learn this sort of history, you have to go outside the mainstream press. I would suggest this book,<http://www.guilford.com/cgi-bin/cartscript.cgi?page=politics/berlet.htm&cart_id=> Right Wing Populism in America. A great place to start. I'm sure if you went to your local alternative bookstore you could find many more.