by Ayfer Selamoğlu 

Hit the McCarthy mentality, not the pigeons

As the American intellectual Howard Zinn said, we don’t need big, heroic acts to participate in the process of changing the world. Small actions, when multiplied by millions, can change the world…

I congratulate those who protested the removal of Dostoevsky lectures from the program of the University of Bicocca in Milan…

They showed the whole world that art, culture and artist are our “universal value”…

They made the university take a step back with the attitude of “Let the McCarthy mentality die, not the Rosenbergs”.

And they ensured the continuation of Dostoevsky’s lessons, whose immortality will continue as the world turns…

The Italians joined the process of changing the world with their combined reaction…

As it is known, McCarty is an American senator. During his tenure, the Second World War was over and the cold war period had begun. In the atmosphere of fear created in the spirit of the time, the Presidency of the Anti-American Activities Committee was established, and Joseph McCarty was appointed as its head. McCarthy and his men began campaigns accusing people of being communists or sympathizers. The allegations of McCarty, which created fear of communism, which were based on no evidence, targeted many important figures of the period, questioned, forced confessions, imprisoned, and brought the end of the professional lives of some people. During this witch hunt, many people were subjected to dismissals, workplace destruction and arrests. In particular, the winds of pressure and fear were blown on the intellectuals. Many of them had to leave their country.

Who was not on the black list of the McCarthy mentality? Scientist Albert Einstein, writer Arthur Miller, writer Bertold Brecht, producer, director, screenwriter and actor Orson Welles, actor and director Charlie Chaplin, director Elia Kazan, Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed on charges of espionage. . Hundreds of professors and lecturers were laid off. Many of them could not stand the pressure and resigned themselves.

One of the people who were asked to testify against his friends is Arthur Miller. Miller adamantly refuses. Thereupon, his passport is cancelled and he is forbidden to go abroad. And even convicted. When the witch hunt created by the USA condemns the Rosenbergs to death, the murders reach their peak.

Julius Rosenberg was taken from his home to testify one morning in 1950. “See you in the evening,” he said to his wife, Ethel, as he left the house. They met 3 years later, on 19 June 1953. Just ahead of sitting in the electric chair. The husband and wife were accused of “sending the Atomic Bomb plans to the Soviets”. Prosecutors had no evidence. So they negotiated confessions with the Rosenbergs. They said, “You will escape the death penalty, you will be sentenced to 30 years”. Later, they reduced this period, but the Rosenbergs insisted that “we are innocent”. Finally, the death sentence came out…

By 1954, the Senator had raised the bar. Politicians, soldiers and bureaucrats were also on McCarty’s list. Edward Murrow of CBS was blocking McCarty. He televised a file called “The Joseph McCarty Report” on March 3, 1954. The practices of McCarthy’s era, contrary to human rights and democracy, which amounted to absurd and insane, were exhibited.

At the same time, Arthur Miller was writing a play called “Witch Cauldron”, which is a world classic today, in McCarthy America, which has turned into a witch’s cauldron. The Crucible, written by Miller, who was among the victims of the Witch Hunt, tells a true event that took place in the American town of Salem in 1692. The priests of a conservative sect who want to establish their hegemony in the region cooperate with the big landlords who covet other people’s lands. According to the agreement, a witch hunt was to be started in the town. Children would be used in this operation as well. The town of Salem becomes a veritable witch’s cauldron. Teenage girls, who were manipulated into the plot, were drooling and screaming “Witch” for anyone pointed out to them. Those who were accused were immediately arrested, and those who said “I am innocent” were executed immediately. The way to escape was by confessing, asking for forgiveness and declaring the names of his relatives whispered in his ears as “Witch”.

After McCarty’s witch hunt reached unbearable proportions, the Senate found McCarty guilty of “contrary to senatorial tradition” and dismissed him in 1954. This was the end of McCarty. But the McCarttian years were added to America’s journal of shame as a black page that is remembered and looked back at every similar event.

That’s why whenever a witch hunt begins, I think of McCarty. Looking at what happened during the Russia-Ukraine war in the last week, I remembered the shameful period of the Cold War period. Who was not on the list! Our global immortal values ​​Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky and their works… Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina… Tchaikovsky’s white swans… Producers, directors, writers, musicians, screenwriters and actors who were prevented from participating in the Cannes Film Festival… Cancelled culture and art collaborations… Removed cultural and artistic events… Producers who banned their films to the Russian people… Cancellation of all concerts of the world-famous Russian Orchestra Conductor Valery Gergiev in Europe… Eurovision ban, the arena of global cooperation… Sports tournaments that shut their doors and excluded athletes… Awards won for personal success in sports…

We are in 2022. It’s tragicomic but it’s true! Years later, the French historian Alain Decaux evaluated his long research and wrote the play ‘Rosenbergs Must Not Die”. Will a play called “Hit the McCarthy mentality, not the pigeons” be written in the future? From the heart of Europe…