| Independent radical newsweekly | |
 Typical front page of theNational Guardian during the McCarthy era | |
| Type | weekly |
|---|---|
| Format | tabloid |
| Founder(s) | James Aronson Cedric Belfrage John T. McManus |
| Founded | 1948; 78 years ago (1948) |
| Ceased publication | 1992; 34 years ago (1992) |
| Political alignment | Socialism Anti-militarism New Left/Maoism (1968–1992) |
| ISSN | 0362-5583 |
| OCLC number | 4564405 |
The National Guardian was aleft-wing independent weeklynewspaper established in 1948 inNew York City. The paper was founded byJames Aronson,Cedric Belfrage andJohn T. McManus in connection with the1948 Presidential campaign ofHenry A. Wallace under theProgressive Party banner. Although independent and often critical of all political parties, theNational Guardian is thought to have been initially close to the ideological orbit of the pro-MoscowCommunist Party USA, but this suspected association quickly broke down in the course of several years.
In February 1968, the newspaper's editorial staff was reorganized. The paper gradually turned towards a pro-Chinese andMaoist orientation and support of theNew Communist Movement in the United States. During the early 1980s, the publication's ideological line shifted once again, this time towards an independent non-communist radicalism.
From the decade of the 1930s, theCommunist Party USA (CPUSA) cast a long shadow as the largestMarxist political organization in the United States of America.[citation needed] In addition to a vast array of monthly, weekly, and dailypublications in languages other than English, the Communist Party published an English-language daily newspaper in New York City, theDaily Worker. As an official organ of the CPUSA, this publication was constrained by tight central direction and rather mechanical adherence to the party's political line — factors which somewhat limited the paper's appeal to radical American intellectuals.[citation needed]
In 1945 an American plane carried a number of newspaper men to Germany, whoseNazi regime had recently been defeated inWorld War II. These were part of a "Psychological Warfare Division" consisting of American, British, and Canadian newspaper editors and writers given the task of purging those deemed as Nazi collaborators from the German newspaper industry and replacing them with a new crop of publishers, editors, and journalists with verifiable anti-fascist bona fides.[1] Among these journalists tapped to help "denazify" the country through establishment of a democratic press wereJames Aronson, a resident of New York City, and EnglishmanCedric Belfrage, a former theatre critic for the LondonDaily Express who had since the 1930s lived inHollywood, California where he worked as ascreenwriter.[2]
United by radical political beliefs, the two journalists vaguely discussed establishing a new radical newspaper in the United States following their demobilization.[2] This plan initially came to naught, however, as the two returned to the United States after their German mission and resumed their independent lives.[2]
Many American liberal and intellectuals were deeply disaffected with presidentHarry S. Truman and his hardline anti-Soviet foreign policy and perceived lack of commitment toNew Deal social programs and sought an electoral alternative in the1948 presidential election.[3] This took the form of a new political organization, theProgressive Party, which launched a national campaign with a ticket headed by former Vice PresidentHenry A. Wallace. A broad political movement, backed by the CPUSA, emerged in support of Wallace's insurgent candidacy.[2]
James Aronson and Cedric Belfrage were committed activists in the Wallace for President campaign and in the run-up to the Progressive Party nominating convention they renewed their acquaintance and revived plans for an independent radical newspaper in the United States.[3] The duo were joined in this effort byJohn T. McManus, a former staff member of the liberal newspaperPM and former head of the left wingNewspaper Guild in the state of New York, andJosiah Gitt, publisher of a liberal newspaper in the town ofYork, Pennsylvania.[3] In July 1948 these four — with Gitt listed as publisher and Aronson, Belfrage, and McManus as editors — launched a sample publication calledThe National Gazette and circulated it at the Progressive Party Nominating Convention.[3]
Response to the proposed new weekly publication among the Progressive Party conventioneers was positive and several hundred pledges for subscriptions to the new publication were obtained.[3] Gitt quickly dropped out of the effort, however, pleading lack of time to commit to the project, leaving Aronson, Belfrage, and McManus to finalize plans.[3] In the publication that would emerge the three apportioned definite tasks among themselves, with Aronson taking the role of Executive Editor, Belfrage becoming Editor, and McManus assuming the position of Managing Editor.[4]
The first issue of theNational Guardian saw print on October 18, 1948 — just three weeks before the November presidential election.[3] In concert with the Wallace for President campaign, the paper proclaimed itself a "progressive weekly" and declared its support for "a continuation and development of the progressive tradition set in our time byFranklin D. Roosevelt", albeit with an unabashedsocialist slant.[3]
The paper's form initially owed a great deal to the weekly newsmagazine style pioneered by such conservative journalistic mainstays asTime andNewsweek, with regular sections on "The Nation," "The World," "Sports," and so forth, with the coverage of "Business" by the glossy magazines transformed into coverage of the labor movement under the header "Labor's Week" in the new publication.[5] This subject-sectional approach favored by the glossy news weeklies was rapidly abandoned, with only a "Better Living" section surviving into the 1950s.[6] The paper initially maintained no editorial page but editorialized freely with the published content, selecting and rewriting news stories fromwire services and mainstream daily newspapers with a new radical focus.[6]
Regular contributors to theNational Guardian in its formative period included a broad range of Communist and non-party radicals, includingNAACP founderW. E. B. Du Bois, writerRing Lardner, Jr., economistPaul Sweezy, journalistAnna Louise Strong, activistElla Winter, and others.[6] The debut issue featured contributions by young novelistNorman Mailer, a supporter of the Progressive Party, as well as a piece written for the paper by head of the party's electoral ticket Henry Wallace.[4] The paper became known for its original foreign coverage, with contributions not only from Strong but also from veteran radical journalistsAgnes Smedley andWilfred Burchett.[4]
The National Guardian launched with a circulation of 5,000 and was initially received very positively, with its press run approaching the 100,000 mark by the end of the paper's first year.[6] The editors envisioned continued growth and a lowering of the paper's cover price, with a view to establishment of an influential mass weekly with a circulation of 500,000 or even 1,000,000 copies.[7] With over 1 million voters casting ballots for Henry Wallace in November 1948, such a goal seemed within realization, and the editors tied their hopes to the continued growth and success of the Progressive Party movement.[8] Circulation peaked at 75,000 by 1950.[9]
However, the paper's initial financial needs were met by a one-year subsidy provided byAnita McCormick Blaine, an heir to theMcCormick Harvesting Machine Company fortune, which soon expired, leaving the editors in charge of a paper with a production cost of 12 cents an issue and a cover price of just 5 cents.[10] The paper skipped issues and slashed pay of its office staff, barely surviving the financial crisis.[11] The paper's cover price was hiked to 10 cents in an effort to balance costs and revenues.
In addition to falling returns, theNational Guardian found its growth hampered by its connection to what was seen by many to be a faltering political movement. Seemingly damaged by its close linkage to the personality of defeated Presidential aspirant Henry Wallace and subjected to severe criticism for its suspected connections to the Communist Party, the Progressive Party dissolved in the 1950s.[8] Similarly, the New York-basedAmerican Labor Party (ALP), a local organization strongly supported by theNational Guardian, lost considerable support when its most popular figure, CongressmanVito Marcantonio, lost his reelection in 1950.[8] An even greater blow was struck in 1950 with the advent of theKorean War — which theNational Guardian vehemently opposed.[11] Attacked for Communist sympathies or worse, circulation of the newspaper plummeted, falling to 50,000 by 1951.[11]
A slow attrition of readership continued throughout the years of the "Second Red Scare" andMcCarthyism, with circulation dipping to 45,000 in 1953; to 35,000 in 1957; and to just 29,000 in 1961.[11]
The National Guardian revisited several themes with regularity in its news coverage throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Chief among these was the publication's opposition to theCold War and militarism, with the paper serving as one of the few public voices that stood in opposition to the Korean War.[4] The paper also supported emerginganti-colonial movements in Africa and Asia, with reporters dispatched abroad to provide first-hand coverage of these revolutionary movements.[4]
The paper was also deeply involved in the defense of controversial American political figures during the McCarthy era, including Soviet spiesJulius and Ethel Rosenberg andAlger Hiss, union leader and deportation targetHarry Bridges, the blacklisted writers remembered as theHollywood Ten, and jailed Communist Party leaders prosecuted under theSmith Act.[4]
The National Guardian's coverage of the twists and turns of the Rosenberg case was particularly passionate, with the paper helping to coordinate the legal defense efforts on behalf of the jailed New Yorkers at a time when the Communist Party and itsDaily Worker attempted to distance itself from the unpopular case.[9] The paper was so closely tied to the Rosenberg defense that after the pair were executed on theelectric chair forespionage,National Guardian editor James Aronson was named a trustee of the fund established on behalf of the couple's orphaned children.[9]William A. Reuben, theNational Guardian's main reporter on the Rosenberg case, later published an expanded version of his journalism in book form asThe Atom Spy Hoax (1954).[citation needed]
A third area of emphasis for theNational Guardian was the ongoingCivil Rights Movement in America, including ongoing coverage of efforts to integrate the educational system, to expand voting rights, to end discrimination in housing and employment, and to resist terrorist acts such as the murder ofEmmett Till.[9] As part of these efforts the paper forged close bonds with leading black intellectuals such as W. E. B. Du Bois and singerPaul Robeson.[9]
Throughout it all theNational Guardian maintained friendly ties with the Communist Party USA, generally advancing a similar pro-Soviet and anti-militarist political line.[9] The paper differed with the Communist Party primarily on the question of independent political action, which the CPUSA had abandoned as futile during the 1950s but which theNational Guardian continued to support.[9] Additional separation took place afterKhrushchev's Secret Speech of 1956, including support ofYugoslav independence from theSoviet bloc and efforts at honest coverage of purges in Eastern Europe and theHungarian Revolution.[9]
As the decade of the 1960s progressed, the United States government became deeply embroiled in the bloody and divisiveVietnam War, while the Civil Rights Movement intensified and radicalized with the emergence ofBlack nationalism and theBlack Panther Party. A new radical youth movement emerged, typified by such groups asStudents for a Democratic Society (SDS), theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), theYoung Socialist Alliance, and theNational Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Areinvigorated feminist movement also exploded on the scene. This broadNew Left tended to reject the cautious party politics approach of theirOld Left forebears, favoring thedirect action tactics of street protest.
TheNational Guardian evolved with these changes, but nevertheless developed its own internal strife between James Aronson and the publication's Old Left tradition with a new generation of explicitly revolutionary staffers, who sought to turn the paper into a more radical and activist publication. The break came in February 1968 when Aronson sold hisNational Guardian stock to the newspaper's staff and the paper was reorganized under new editorial leadership and a new name —The Guardian.[12] Continuity with the earlier incarnation of the paper was limited, with radical foreign correspondents Anna Louise Strong in China and Wilfred Burchett inSoutheast Asia continuing in their previous roles.[12]Jack A. Smith began his 13-year stint as editor of the revamped paper as part of the change, stepping down only in 1981.[9]
An intensified orientation towards revolutionary events in thePeople's Republic of China and the armed struggle againstcolonialism in theThird World came into vogue. With respect to domestic American coverage, the newGuardian shaped its activity around the slogan "The duty of a radical newspaper is to build a radical movement" attempting in particular to forge closer ties with SDS and SNCC.[13] "We are movement people acting as journalists," theGuardian′s staff now proudly declared.[14]
A factional split developed among the editorial staff in 1970, leading to the creation of a short-lived rival publication, theLiberated Guardian.[9] This controversy severely impacted the original publication, withThe Guardian′s circulation falling to just 14,000 in the aftermath.[9]
In the 1970s, theGuardian began to outspokenly embrace aMarxist–Leninist ideology aligned with theThird-worldist andMaoistNew Communist Movement, later orienting itself toward a political tendency known asThe Trend. The paper editorially called for a new Marxist–Leninist party in the United States. The paper attempted to carve an independent role for itself, never formally aligning with any particular group and remaining critical of the plethora of small New Left party organizations which emerged after the demise of SDS in 1970. The traditional news-first approach of the originalNational Guardian was gradually attenuated in the paper's outspokenly revolutionary 1970s incarnation, with editorial and commentary material supplanting straight news reporting.[15]
These party-building efforts ultimately failed, owing in some measure to the exhaustion of theCultural Revolution in China as well as the lack of popular support for extreme political solutions and revolutionary phrasemaking in the United States. By the decade of the 1980s the paper had begun to moderate its tone, lending critical support to revolutionary movements of whatever stripe, without regard to the Sino-Soviet split, and opening its pages to a range of diverse views by a broad spectrum of political activists.[15] Circulation recovered somewhat, floating in the 20,000 to 30,000 range throughout this interval.[15]
Correspondents includedGeorge Shaw Wheeler in Prague.[16]
