9 June
'You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?' Council for the US army, John Welch
On 9 June 1954, on the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings of alleged communist infiltration of the Army Signal Corps, Senator McCarthy accused a junior partner in the Joseph Welch’s law firm of membership of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a group which J. Edgar Hoover was seeking to have designated as a Communist front organization.
Welch responded accusing McCarthy having no sense decency and demanded that the chairman called the next witness. The gallery erupted in applause.
The hearing was broadcast live on television and marked the beginning of the end for McCarthy’s communist witch-hunting.
Red Pepper by email
Get the latest articles and updates in your inbox
Hunger striking for peace in Turkey
Dougie Gerrard reports on the people taking extreme measures to protest Erdogan’s continued assault on Kurds.
The global networks of neofascism
Phil Hearse explores the worldwide allegiances which bind rising fascist movements across the world into a coordinated force.
‘We are confronted by the threat of civil war’
Edgardo Lander talks to Red Pepper about the mounting tensions in Venezuela
Gilets Jaunes and the security state
Olly Haynes reports on the violent crackdown on protesters on the streets of France
Criminalising political opposition in Catalonia
Ignasi Bernat and David Whyte explain why the political trials this week only reveal the tip of the iceberg.
The age of environmental breakdown
There is only a small window of opportunity to prevent further catastrophic change, writes Lesley Rankin.
