Settlers - San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

VIII. IMPERIALIST WAR &
THE NEW AMERIKAN
ORDER
1. G.I. Joe Defends His Supermarket
FULL COOPERATION of organized labor in efforts to win World War I1 was
enlisted by President Roosevelt. Roosevelt insisted that labor be represented on
the War Labor Board as equals with business to help maintain both production
and labor standards and to settle disputes. Labor's drive to sell revenue-raising
war bonds was symbolized in this poster presentation to Roosevelt at the White
House by then AFL President William Green and Sec.-Treas. George Meany.
"The Saturday Evening Post ran a series by G.1.s
on 'What I Am Fighting For.' One characteristic article
began: 'I am fighting for that Big House with the bright
green roof and the big front lawn. " (I)
World War I1 was the answer to every settler's
prayer - renewed conquest and renewed prosperity. The
New Deal's domestic reforms alone could not get
capitalism going again. And even though the CIO had won
large wage increases in basic industry, the peace-time
economy was incapable of providing enough jobs and profits.
As late as early 1940, the unemployment rate for
Euro-Amerikan workers was still almost 18%. (2) Expansion
of the Empire was the necessary basis of new prosperity.
Although wars are made of mass tragedy and
sacrifice, this most successful of all Amerikan wars was a
happy time for most settlers. That's why they look back on
it with so much nostalgia and fondness (even with a
pathological TV comedy about "fun" in a Nazi P.O.W.
camp). We could say that this was their last big frontier.
Historian James Stokesbury notes in his summation of the
war:
"One of the great ironies of the American war effort
was the way it was born disproportionately by a
relatively few people. In spite of the huge numbers of men
in service, second only to Russia among the Allies, only a
90 limited number of them saw combat ... For the vast majori-