June 19: 60th anniversary of the execution of Comrades Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
At the height of the Cold War witch-hunts, two Communist Party members were framed for “passing atomic secrets” to the Soviet Union. Despite a massive international outpouring of protest, these parents of two young children were executed at Sing-Sing Prison in upstate New York on June 19, 1953.
In the midst of the Chinese Revolution, the Korean War, the purge of the U.S. labor movement and the McCarthy hearings, the relentless anti-communist and anti-Semitic propaganda demanding the Rosenbergs’ legal lynching was meant to silence dissent in the belly of U.S. imperialism.
Despite the threats to themselves, their children and their supporters, the Rosenbergs stood strong and upheld their principles to the very end.
The executioners’ state attempted to tear sons Michael and Robert away from their parents’ supporters. Luckily communists Abe and Anne Meeropol won the ensuing custody battle and adopted the boys, who disappeared from public view for nearly two decades. Eventually they resurfaced and founded the Rosenberg Fund for Children to support the kids of political prisoners and other persecuted activists — which Robert has called “our constructive revenge.”
Comrades Ethel and Julius, presente! Hasta la victioria siempre!
This day in history: On June 19, 1920, Soviet Russia formed a committee for the elimination of illiteracy.
An important aspect of the early campaign for literacy and education was the policy of “indigenization” (korenizatsiya). This policy, which lasted essentially from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s, promoted the development and use of non-Russian languages in the government, the media, and education. Intended to counter the historical practices of Russification, it had as another practical goal assuring native-language education as the quickest way to increase educational levels of future generations.
Lou Stathis returns with capsule reviews of newbies Echo and the Bunnymen, Devo, The Teardrop Explodes and U2 (with a casual mention of the Psychedelic Furs at the beginning). Above that is a profile of Elvis Costello. And turned sideways is a review of the second issue of Raw, which includes the first chapter of Spiegelman’s new feature Maus.
(Heavy Metal issue #51, June 1981 - Page 90 Ri-‘vyu-ed)
