Doug
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THERE WILL BE A PROTEST DEMONSTRATION AMONG ALL THE LOVELY GOWNS AND BLACK TIES AT THE ACADEMY AWARD CEREMONY.
WE WILL PROTEST THAT THE BLACKLIST IS NOT OVER.
That forgiving Elia Kazan should not mean forgetting the hundreds of Hollywood people and the thousands of others throughout the country who suffered from the blacklist.
We will protest that it is not for the Academy to forgive informers since the Academy was guilty of supporting the blacklist and failing to give deserved awards to writers and artists who earned Oscars during the blacklist years.
The bad old days of McCarthyism was a period when dissent was denied the American people. Without dissent, without the right to express unpopular ideas, there is no democracy.
Today, it is unpopular and even risky to express feelings against the renewal of humongous defense budgets, against the endless focus and spending on drug repression, against the rights of immigrants, against the death penalty when we are virtually the only major country in the world which still kills people for crime. We have more prisoners in jails than any other country; our Black young men head from poverty stricken homes to unavoidable joblessness and then straight to prison where they outnumber all other groups. Don't cure the evils of the ghetto, just pour billions into defense and drug repression and shove the Black youth into prison.
We invite you to join us outside the academy awards on March 21.
Bernard Gordon, Chair,
The Blacklist Isn't Over Committee.
Gordon is a blacklisted screenwriter, and the author of the forthcoming memoir,"Hollywood Exile," U. of Texas Press, Fall 1999
Endorsed by: Abraham Polonsky, blacklisted screenwriter
Co-Sponsors(Partial List):
Sara Amir, 1998 Green Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor of California Leone Hankey, immigration attorney, Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba Dave Rasmussen, Board Member and Former President, California Association of Professional Scientists Don White, Comittee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
L.A. Greens Orange County Greens Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, Los Angeles Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba
To add your name or organization's name to the list of sponsors, or for more information, e-mail LSandraH at aol.com or call 310-837-6684