HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017414.jpg

4.2.12
WC: 191694

who had performed in South Africa. To me, this blacklisting constituted reverse McCarthyism,
even if it is in the interest of a just cause.

I wrote an article in 1985 exposing and condemning this new liberal McCarthyism. It included the
following:

...

This time, blacklisting is being practiced in the name of a progressive cause—the
antiapartheid movement.

It turns out that the Register of Entertainers to be shunned is officially published by the
United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid “as a means to promote the cultural
boycott of South Africa.” It included the names of entertainers and actors who have
performed in South Africa since 1981. Anyone whose name appears on the list is
prohibited from performing at any function sponsored by the United Nations. Other
organizations also use the U.N. blacklist to screen politically unacceptable artists.

The introduction to the U.N. blacklist boasts that “a number of city counsels and other
local authorities have decided to deny use of their facilities for entertainers” whose names
appear on the blacklist.

...

No advance notice is given to persons who are to be blacklisted, and the list includes some
performers who “were not aware of the cultural boycott.”
Among those currently on the blacklist are Ray Charles, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Sinatra,
the Beach Boys, Cher, Goldie Hawn, Sha Na Na, Ernest Borgnine, and the British rock
group Queen.

The recent flap that publicized the existence of the U.N. blacklist involved a proposed
concert to raise money for African famine relief. Among those volunteering to perform
was the rock group Chicago. But Chicago was on the blacklist. And because of the
absolute prohibition against using blacklisted artists at U.N.-sponsored events, plans for
the concert had to be postponed. It is ironic that some black African children may die of
hunger because of the U.N. blacklist.

The American Civil Liberties Union recently complained loudly when the Boston
Symphony Orchestra canceled a concert with Vanessa Redgrave because of her support
for and complicity with…terrorists. Though no blacklist was published, the ACLU
decried the “blacklisting” of Ms. Redgrave because of her politics as a violation of her
civil liberties. I am waiting to hear from the ACLU on the U.N. blacklist.

I never heard from the ACLU, but I did hear from Woody Allen, to whom I sent my article
because his film The Front had exposed the evils of blacklisting and he was also a strong
opponent of apartheid. He wrote me that:

327

HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017414