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bsmall2

> .. the business world warned of “the hazard facing industrialists” in “the newly realized political power of the masses,” and the need to wage and win “the everlasting battle for the minds of men” and “indoctrinate citizens with the capitalist story” until “they are able to play back the story with remarkable fidelity”.. an impressive flow, accompanied by even more impressive efforts... surely one of the central themes of modern history.
chomsky.info/199711__/

Digital camera photo of two books: _Selling Free Enterprise_ by Elizabeth A. Fones-Wolf and _Business as a System of Power_ by Robert A. Brady. The image on the covers of Fones-Wolf's books looks like a block print of serious urban buildings, offices and maybe a bank on a blue background. The image between the author's name and the title _Business as a System of Power_ is a heavy black block print (like Otto Neurath's old 'unvierssal' images maybe?) of a hand in a fist grasping what at first looks like a green banana or missile but, with a closer look, is a dollar sign $. Douglas Dowd wrote the introduction to Brady's book, Fones-Wolf's book covers the years for 1945-60.
Digital camera photo of two books: _Taking the Risk out of Democracy_ by Alex Carey and _The Transformation of American Law_ by Morton J. Horowitza. Like the two books in the other photo for this post these books were recommended or cited by Noam Chomsky in books, speeches, and/or interviews.. Most likely in the book _Deterring Democracy_ from about 1992 or so... These book covers don't have images but Carey's has a foreword by Noam Chomsky ad the subtitle "Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty", Horowitz's subtitles is "The Crisis of Legal Orthodoxy"...
Feb 27, 2025, 01:33 AM·Public·Web
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bs2

🧵
> ^[See]..work on these topics by #AlexCarey, in his Taking the Risk out of Democracy..1995, and.. #ElizabethFonesWolf, #SellingFreeEnterprise: the Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-1960.. Stuart Ewen, PR!: A Social History of Spin.. 1996..[for].. context, see.. Intellectuals and the State and #ForceAndOpinion, reprinted in #DeterringDemocracy..1991

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bsmall2

A political argument among people that identify with Democrats, Republicancs, and Trumpists got me thinking about these old PR images: anti-tax and pro-gun activities, the oligs used to accuse unions and regulators as threatening systemic destruction. The captive audience, a tied-up worker under a top-hat owner brings to mind the Starbucks CEO and Bezos at WaPo. The big union services guy reminds me of Noami Klein's worker-run factor in Argentina.

@bsmall2@mstdn.jp @bsmall2@writing.exchange
#SellingFreeEnterprise #ElizabethFonesWorth #OrganizedLabor #AFLCIO #ForcedListening

Collage of 3 digital camera photos showing the cover for Elizabeth Fones-Wolf's _Selling Free Enterprise_ beside two 1950 PR images and their captions found inside the book. One PR black and white photo shows a Quaker Oats event to get people to write anti-tax letters to their representatives. The other photo is a rifle event for chidren. Olin Industries would saw the barrels of their Winchester rifles so the little kids could shoot too.
This digital camera photo of a book page shows the top part of a Republic Steel flier that was part of "The Advertising Council's economic education campaign, begun in late 1948, [which] emphasized that the solution to America's economic problems was not radical change but expanded productivity through mechanization and increased efficiency. Reprinted from Time, Jan. 3 1949; courtesy of LTV Corporation." The image shows 3 men with axes working over a piano.
The cartoon in this cropped digital photo of a book page shows an injured worker tied down to a chair with 7 coils of rope that cover most of his torso. Other coils fasten each of his hands to the chair's arms. The fat man with the big open mouth wears a top hat and suite and holds reads from papers labeled 'poison'. Angry tophat man is shouting into a funnel with the wide entrance at his mouth while the narrow exit is placed in the worker's left ear. The right ear is taped shut.. Behind the tophat is the name Allis Chalmers. The caption is "In this cartoon, the UAW lampoons Allis-Chalmers' mandatory economic eduation program. Allis-Chalmers' workers filed grievances, complaining that "forced listening" was a violation of their rights. Reprinted fomr United Automobile Worker, Jan. 1950; courtesy of the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University.
This digital camera photo (cropped) of a book page shows a large worker in an AFL-CIO cap holding a "Community Services Activities" sign and looking down and behind bemused at a fat, suited man in a top hat with the sign "anti-labor progaganda". The cartoon's title is "Big Man -- Little Man!". The captions is: Organized labor's community service activities served as an antidote to business propaganda. Reprinted from AFL-CIO News; courtesty of the George Meaney Memorial Archives.
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