With the rise of the Popular Front during the 1930s, the American Left came together under the symbols of the “people” and “America,” and as its ranks swelled with modernity’s disenfranchised, radicals utilized the structures and discourses of modernity in the name of political struggle against exploitive American capitalism and fascism abroad. Science fiction and its devoted fan community were among these structures and discourses. Though both were largely conservative, entwined with American corporate capitalism, one group of fans embraced Communism and hoped to politicize science fiction and its fandom. The Michelists, as they called themselves, worked through the established channels of science fiction and fandom advocating a unique Marxist understanding of science fiction. This report situates them within the Popular Front, particularly its discourses of science and popular culture, and highlights how the particularities of the genre and its fandom shaped their political beliefs and actions. / text

This thesis examines the political trajectory of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the period from the 1982 eviction of the Palestinian factions from their headquarters in Beirut, to the 2006-07 division between Hamas and Fatah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). During this period, the PFLP experienced a process of decline that resulted in its marginalisation within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the wider Palestinian national movement. This study addresses the issue of the PFLP’s decline by focusing on its own political agency to determine the role of policy and decision making, ideology and political narrative in the marginalisation process. This work therefore, on the one hand, aims at putting the PFLP’s decline into historical perspective, identifying it as a process rather than simply the effect of outstanding events as it is often argued. On the other, its goal is to ascribe to ‘subjective factors’, namely aspects directly linked to the PFLP’s agency, the adequate weight in determining its decline. This appears particularly significant as the weakening of the Palestinian left has been frequently explained as a by-product of global and local external or ‘objective’ developments such as the downfall of the Soviet Union or the emergence of political Islam. By providing a comprehensive and processual analysis of the PFLP’s decline, this study not only aims at complementing the literature on the Palestinian national movement, which still lacks a focused approach on the main Palestinian leftist force. It also aims at shedding light on a major cause, and its historical origins, of the current Palestinian political impasse, namely the absence of an alternative between Hamas and the PNA’s governing entities, both crippled by a legitimacy crisis and unable to progress Palestinian interests. By virtue of its close survey of the PFLP’s conduct, a further goal of this thesis is to address the historical role of the PLO and its de-facto heir, the PNA. What is evidenced is the double, and contradictory, role of the essential but also constraining framework that the PLO and later the PNA represented for the PFLP’s policies. The focus on the PFLP’s political agency allows the identification of a pattern in its policy which affected negatively its standing within the Palestinian national movement. Throughout the period addressed, policy fluctuation marked the PFLP’s action, undermining the effectiveness of its political line and jeopardising its political weight. The present study highlights how such a policy fluctuation pattern originated from major dilemmas and contradictions that the PFLP had to consider while producing its policies. The main dilemma, informing all other sources of tensions affecting the PFLP, has been defined as an ‘opposition-integration’ dilemma. In other words, the PFLP, while opposing the PLO leadership’s policies, first and foremost its quest for a diplomatic settlement with Israel under US patronage, needed to maintain its integration within the PLO regime, which represented an essential economic and political framework. This produced inconsistent, ‘fluctuant’ policies that prevented the PFLP from maintaining its political weight and stopping its marginalisation process. This opposition-integration dilemma was combined with other sources of tensions marking the PFLP such as: relations with other PLO opposition factions, relations with Arab partners, its contacts with Palestinian Islamists, the confrontation with the PNA after the 1993 Oslo accords or the internal divide between the exiled leadership and the cadres located in the OPT. The PFLP’s official publications, mainly retrieved from its mouthpiece, Al-Hadaf magazine, embodied the main source upon which this study relies. Beside this corpus of documents, other primary sources, such as documents issued by relevant actors, have been scrutinised, while all information has been read against the background of the wider academic literature currently available on the Palestinian national movement. This research also drew information from interviews with former and current PFLP members as well as with experts of the Palestinian national movement.

L’objectif de ce mémoire consiste à mesurer l’impact de la guerre civile espagnole sur l’attitude du Front populaire français face à la collaboration avec l’Union soviétique de 1936 à 1937. Il prend forme dans une étude d’opinion publique et journalistique basée sur un sondage de trois quotidiens français rattachés au Front populaire durant les années 1930, c’est-à-dire L’Humanité, Le Populaire et L’Œuvre. L’analyse s’articule à travers les événements survenus de 1936 à 1937 comme la ratification du pacte d’assistance mutuelle franco-soviétique, l’élection du Front populaire et l’éclatement de la guerre civile espagnole. L’impact du conflit en Espagne se mesure en fait dans l’intensification de la polarisation politique qui influence l’attitude du Front populaire face à la collaboration avec l’Union soviétique. Malgré l’avènement d’un nouveau gouvernement de Front populaire, l’éclatement de la guerre civile espagnole élève la polarisation politique entre la gauche et la droite en France, entamée depuis 1934, à son point culminant. Sans une solide coalition entre la gauche et le centre droit, la sécurité collective menée par l’URSS ne pouvait réussir. Si certains journalistes sont tentés par la politique d’apaisement, d’autres élaborent une vision plus perspicace et réaliste sur la menace que représentent l’Allemagne nazie et l’importance du rapprochement franco-soviétique. / The objective of this research is to measure the impact of the Spanish Civil War on the attitude of the French Popular Front about the collaboration with Soviet Union from 1936 to 1937. It takes shape in a political and journalistic opinion study based on a survey of three French daily newspapers attached to the Popular Front during the 1930s, namely L’Humanité, Le Populaire and L’Œuvre. The analysis is articulated through the events of 1936 to 1937 such as the ratification of the Franco-Soviet mutual assistance pact, the election of the Popular Front and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The impact of the conflict in Spain is in fact measured in the intensification of the political polarization in France which influence the attitude of de Popular Front about the collaboration with Soviet Union. Despite the advent of a new Popular Front government, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War elevated the political polarization between the left and the right in France, which started in 1934, at its peak. Without a strong coalition between the left and the center right, collective security led by the USSR could not succeed. While some journalists are tempted by the appeasement policy, others develop a more clear-sighted and realistic vision of the threat posed by Nazi Germany and the importance of a close Franco-Soviet relationship.

En 1936, l’American Music League publiait le recueil de chansons afro-américaines Negro Songs of Protest collectées par le folkloriste communiste Lawrence Gellert. Puis en 1938 et 1939, grâce au financement du mouvement communiste américain, le producteur John Hammond présentait deux concerts intitulés From Spirituals to Swing au Carnegie Hall de New York. En plus de rendre hommage à l’histoire de la musique noire américaine, ces deux concerts défiaient la ségrégation raciale, permettant au Noirs et aux Blancs d’être rassemblés sur une même scène et de s’asseoir ensemble dans l’assistance. Au même moment, la chanteuse jazz Billie Holiday faisait fureur au Café Society, premier club « intégré » de New York et lieu de rassemblement de la gauche radicale, en interprétant soir après soir la chanson ‘’Strange Fruit’’ qui dénonçait l’horreur du lynchage toujours en vigueur dans le Sud des États-Unis. C’était l’époque du Front Populaire, la plus importante période d’influence du mouvement communiste aux États-Unis et, de surcroît, le moment de l’histoire américaine durant lequel la gauche organisée détenait un pouvoir sans précédent sur la culture de masse. Partant d’une discussion sur le potentiel révolutionnaire de la musique noire américaine et cherchant à comprendre le positionnement des mouvements sociaux vis-à-vis la culture, ce mémoire met en lumière le point de vue des communistes américains blancs face à l’émergence et à la popularité grandissante du blues et du jazz noirs aux États-Unis. En fonction des trois principales phases politiques du Parti Communiste américain (CPUSA) – la phase du colorblind class (1919-1928); la phase du nationalisme noir (1928-1935); le Front Populaire (1935-1940) – ce mémoire retrace les changements d’attitude de la vieille gauche envers la culture populaire et suggère que le mouvement communiste américain a tenté d’utiliser le blues et le jazz à des fins d’agit-prop. / In 1936, the American Music League published Negro Songs of Protest, a book of songs collected by the left-wing folklorist Lawrence Gellert. In 1938 and 1939, with the financial support of the communist movement, the producer John Hammond was able to present From Spirituals to Swing at Carnegie Hall, New York, two concerts that celebrated the contribution of African American music in American history. Moreover, the From Spirituals to Swing concerts broke the color line, by letting Blacks and Whites play music together on stage and sit together in the audience. During the same years, jazz singer Billie Holiday enjoyed a monstrous success with her anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit” at Café Society, the first integrated club and radical left-wing cabaret in New York. It was the time of the Popular Front; a time when the communist movement had a great influence on American society and when the organized left exerted unprecedented power over mass culture. Starting with a discussion of the revolutionary potential of African American music and trying to understand what social movements do with culture, this essay traces the developing point of view of white American communists toward the commercial explosion and growing popularity of blues and jazz music in USA during the interwar years. It asks the question of why there was so little mention of jazz and blues in Party organs during the 1920’s and early 1930’s , it explores the changing attitudes of the Old Left toward popular culture and suggests that the American communist movement used blues and jazz music for agitprop, during the last of the three main political phases of the Communist Party of America (CPUSA) – the colorblind class (1919-1928); the Black Belt Nation thesis (1928-1935); and the Popular Front (1935-1940).

Cette recherche a pour objet l’analyse de l’impact d’un événement d’importance, le Front populaire, sur un département, le Finistère, essentiellement rural et fortement marqué par la question religieuse.Les affrontements y sont nombreux pendant toute la période de l’entre-deux-guerres. Un puissant syndicalisme agricole s’y développe en s’appuyant sur une vie économique qui repose essentiellement sur le monde rural. Il cherche à filtrer les influences extérieures, y compris celles de la hiérarchie catholique, et à assurer son ascendant sur la société par le biais du corporatisme. En face, la société urbaine, qui a certes des velléités hégémoniques, vit ses propres antagonismes, entre un mouvement ouvrier en mutation et une élite qui durcit ses positions devant les manifestations d’émancipation du salariat. La pénétration des idées sociales est faible dans les campagnes, au regard des populations concernées. L’Église catholique, au travers d’un appareil militant bien implanté, cherche à conforter son emprise sur l’ensemble de la société. La crise radicalise les positions des uns et des autres. Les affrontements s’intensifient pendant la période nous utilisons les outils d’analyse sur les mouvements sociaux pour mesurer les capacités de mobilisation des acteurs, en croisant les sources afin de confronter les attitudes. Nous cherchons à voir comment se côtoient le monde urbain et le monde rural et comment cette situation apparente de blocs n’est pas perturbée par un troisième acteur, le bloc clérical .La lutte pour l’hégémonie se joue non seulement sur le terrain politique mais également dans le domaine social. / This research aims to analyze the impact of a significant event, the popular front on a department, Finistère, largely rural and heavily influenced by the religious question. Clashes are numerous throughout the period of the interwar period. A powerful agricultural union developed there based on an economy based mainly on rural areas. It seeks to filter out external influences, including those oft he Catholic hierarchy, and to ensure its influence over society through corporatism. Face, urban society, which certainly hegemonic ambitions, lives its own contradictions between a workers’ movementand changing an elite that hardens his positions before the emancipation of the wage protests. Penetration of social ideas is weak in the countryside, in view of the populations concerned. The Catholic Church, through a well-established militant unit, seeking to consolidate its grip on the whole of society, the crisis radicalizes the positions of each other. Fighting intensifies during the period. We use the analytical tools on social movements to measure the actors mobilization capacities, crossing sources to confront attitudes. We look to see how rub the urban and rural areas and if this apparent position of blocks is not disturbed by a third actor, the clerical bloc. The struggle for hegemony is played not only in the political field but also in the social field.

A presente dissertação tem como objeto a análise das propostas de política econômica do Partido comunista italiano de 1943 a 1947. O período analisado marca a transição do regime fascista à construção da república democrática e representa a única experiência de governo do partido ao longo de sua história. A partir do debate sobre o capitalismo italiano desenvolvido pelo partido, a pesquisa buscou identificar algumas das razões que originaram o fracasso de sua ação nos governos de unidade nacional num dos períodos que, por outro lado, registrou um forte enraizamento social do partido. Destacou-se, principalmente, o instrumental teórico subjacente à estratégia adoptada pelos comunistas italianos neste período, a democracia progressiva, como instrumento privilegiado para realizar a via italiana ao socialismo, uma alternativa ao processo revolucionário da Rússia de 1917 e ao mesmo tempo não assimilável à tradição da socialdemocracia europeia. Buscou-se detectar os entraves e as aporias teóricas que tal estratégia colocou na atuação governamental do partido, em particular no que diz respeito à elaboração de duas substanciais reformas, agrária e industrial. Identificou-se no moderantismo do partido a incapacidade de formular mantendo-se dentro da teoria marxista, mas ao mesmo tempo afastando-se do socialismo soviético um claro projeto econômico alternativo às propostas e projetos de reformas de tipo keynesiano que no mesmo período outros países europeus experimentavam. / This dissertation focuses the analysis on economic policy proposals of the Italian Communist Party from 1943 to 1947. The sample period marks the transition from the Fascist regime to the construction of a democratic republic and represent the only government experience of the party throughout its history. From the debate about capitalism development by the Italian party, the survey tried to identify some of the reasons that led to the failure of his action in national unity governments in a period, on the other hand, that recorded a strong social roots of the party. The survey highlighted mainly the theoretical tool underlying the strategy adopted by the Italian Communists in this period, the \"progressive democracy\" as a privileged instrument to perform the \"italian way to socialism\", an alternative to the revolutionary process of russian 1917 and at the same time different from the tradition of European social democracy. We attempted to detect obstacles and theoretical aporias that such a strategy put in the party´s performance in the government implementation, in particular with regard to the development of two substantial reforms, the agrarian and industrial ones. The research identified in the \"moderantismo\" party\'s the inability to formulate in a marxist theory perspective, but at the same time moving away from Soviet socialism - a clear alternative economic project to keynesian proposals and reform projects type that in the same period other European countries were experiencing.

A presente dissertação tem como objeto a análise das propostas de política econômica do Partido comunista italiano de 1943 a 1947. O período analisado marca a transição do regime fascista à construção da república democrática e representa a única experiência de governo do partido ao longo de sua história. A partir do debate sobre o capitalismo italiano desenvolvido pelo partido, a pesquisa buscou identificar algumas das razões que originaram o fracasso de sua ação nos governos de unidade nacional num dos períodos que, por outro lado, registrou um forte enraizamento social do partido. Destacou-se, principalmente, o instrumental teórico subjacente à estratégia adoptada pelos comunistas italianos neste período, a democracia progressiva, como instrumento privilegiado para realizar a via italiana ao socialismo, uma alternativa ao processo revolucionário da Rússia de 1917 e ao mesmo tempo não assimilável à tradição da socialdemocracia europeia. Buscou-se detectar os entraves e as aporias teóricas que tal estratégia colocou na atuação governamental do partido, em particular no que diz respeito à elaboração de duas substanciais reformas, agrária e industrial. Identificou-se no moderantismo do partido a incapacidade de formular mantendo-se dentro da teoria marxista, mas ao mesmo tempo afastando-se do socialismo soviético um claro projeto econômico alternativo às propostas e projetos de reformas de tipo keynesiano que no mesmo período outros países europeus experimentavam. / This dissertation focuses the analysis on economic policy proposals of the Italian Communist Party from 1943 to 1947. The sample period marks the transition from the Fascist regime to the construction of a democratic republic and represent the only government experience of the party throughout its history. From the debate about capitalism development by the Italian party, the survey tried to identify some of the reasons that led to the failure of his action in national unity governments in a period, on the other hand, that recorded a strong social roots of the party. The survey highlighted mainly the theoretical tool underlying the strategy adopted by the Italian Communists in this period, the \"progressive democracy\" as a privileged instrument to perform the \"italian way to socialism\", an alternative to the revolutionary process of russian 1917 and at the same time different from the tradition of European social democracy. We attempted to detect obstacles and theoretical aporias that such a strategy put in the party´s performance in the government implementation, in particular with regard to the development of two substantial reforms, the agrarian and industrial ones. The research identified in the \"moderantismo\" party\'s the inability to formulate in a marxist theory perspective, but at the same time moving away from Soviet socialism - a clear alternative economic project to keynesian proposals and reform projects type that in the same period other European countries were experiencing.

"Paul Strand and Cesare Zavattini's 'Un paese' (1955): the art, synergy and politics of a photobook" is a study of the genesis, production and reception of the photobook 'Un paese', created in a collaboration between the American photographer Paul Strand and the Italian neorealist screenwriter Cesare Zavattini. Set in Luzzara, a small town in northern Italy, Strand portrayed the community in a series of images of the landscape, the townsfolk and still lives. The thesis reconstructs the reasoning behind Strand's decision to abandon documentary filmmaking for the creation of photobooks. Strand and the critic Elizabeth McCausland are shown to have specifically conceptualised the photobook as a hybrid form capable of communicating a multifaceted political message through a narrative synthesis of text and image, utilising strategies drawn from documentary film, the photomural and mass media publications. It is shown how Strand and his collaborators combined image and text placed within a deliberately spare graphic design and layout, to emphasise the solidity and importance of the subject matter, and to privilege the communicatory capacity of the photograph. In addition, this thesis reorients the study of Strand from concentration on his early individual fine prints to the collaboratively created political artworks of his later career. It is argued that Strand's production of photobooks is directly related to his status as a Marxist American expatriate who left the United States to avoid blacklisting at the end of the 1940s. By carefully choosing the sites where he worked, utilising realist photographic strategies developed earlier in his career, and collaborating with sympathetic writers, Strand's photobooks present the idealised image of communitarian, primarily agrarian life. 'Un paese' is shown in this thesis to typify Strand's working method; to visually and materially embody his creative and political beliefs; and to exemplify the intermedial collaboration required by the photobook.