Operation Abolition (sound)

Description: Description: A report on the resistance to hearings of the Committee on Un-American Activities in San Francisco. Created using subpoenaed news footage, the strongly authoritarian narrative perspective shows police abuse of protesters and City Hall flooded by firehoses. Includes sequences with members of the California Communist party such as Merle Brodsky and Archie Brown. A more detailed description written in 2019 states: "OPERATION ABOLITION is an infamous 1960 documentary produced by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (a.k.a House Un-American Activities Committee or HUAC). The film focuses on an incident on May 13, 1960 when the Committee convened in San Francisco’s City Hall. While the committee met, students protested in the hallways and outside the building, leading to clashes with the police and the arrest of 64 students. 'Operation Abolition' shows footage of the incident taken from subpoenaed San Francisco TV station newsreels, using that footage to allege that the students were Communists and/or instigated by Communist agents. The film’s narrators, Representative Francis E. Walter, Chairman of HUAC, and Fulton Lewis III, son of a prominent anti-communist radio commentator, suggest that the protesters were members of and/or 'duped' by groups whose ultimate goal was to destroy the committee, weaken the FBI, and reduce the enforcement powers of the Federal government. Despite being a newsreel produced by a government agency, Operation Abolition was surprisingly popular. According to Time Magazine, an estimated 15 million people saw this film. In response to 'Operation Abolition' a counter film was made entitled 'Operation Correction'. Operation Correction shows the same footage as Operation Abolition, interspersed with added commentary by Ernest Besig, the Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California." archive.org/details/86654OperationAbolition (accessed 4/23/2025) Reuse Statement: For information on reusing Prelinger Archives footage and obtaining written usage agreements, please visit www.prelinger.com. Subjects: 1960s, Politics and government, Activism, Communism, Cold War, Law enforcement, Abuse--Resistance to Tags: Harry Bridges; civic center; Lost Landscapes; San Francisco City Hall; picket lines; police lines; smoking cigarettes; longshoreman Archie Brown; union activism; Labor activism; Left activism; crowds; Merle Brodsky; chanting; hearing rooms; 4x5 press cameras; Graflex; Douglas Wachter; Union Square; integrated groups; Ralph Izard; Sally Attarian Sweet; clouds of smoke; "Open the Door" chanting; lighting a pipe; "What are you afraid of?"; Saul Wachter; Juanita Wheeler; firehoses turned on crowd; San Francisco City Hall; water pooled on marble floor; paddy wagons full of demonstrators; Daily Californian pages; sunglasses; William Mandell; Gordon Scherer; propaganda; Frank Wilkinson; right-wing activism; pamphlets; Congressman Francis E. Walters; men in suits; talking heads; Committee of Un-American Activities; United States Capitol Building; voiceover narration; protests; protestors; protest signs; politicians; interviews; microphones; crowds; students; police officials; Douglas Walker; statue of President Lincoln; cameras; panels; courthouses; students of color; African American students; Black students; integrated crowds of protesters; loudspeakers; podiums; people singing United States national anthem; clapping; photographers; streets of San Francisco; Union Square; Lost Landscapes; nonviolent resistance; police dragging protestors down staircase; use of force against demonstrators; police brutality; orchestral music; paddy wagons; ambulances; stretchers; covering face with hands; newspapers; right-wing activism; pamphlets; The Un-American Activities Committee Should Be Abolished pamphlet; James Roosevelt; communist agents; Congressman Francis E. Walters; protests; We Walk To Preserve Freedom protest sign; Protect Our Teachers from Intimidation protest sign; Fascism Is Not Our National Policy Yet protest sign; longshoremen's union; ILA; Ralph Izard; legal trials; hearings; chanting; William Mandel; Congressman Gordon H. Scherer; Frank Wilkinson; Citizens Committee to Preserve American Freedom; CCPAF; Congressman Edmond E. Willis; California Communist Party; Film Sponsor: Creator: Credits: Distributor: Contributor: Prelinger Archives Source Collection: Prelinger Archives Digitizing Sponsor: Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web (FFDW) and Internet Archive Production Date: 1960 Release Date: Geographical Location: USA; California; San Francisco, California; Washington, D.C. Genre/Form: documentary, nonfiction Language: eng Rights: Film Format: 16mm film Element: release print Color: b&w Color Process: Sound or Silent: sound Film Soundtrack Type: optical Edge Code: Frame Rate: 24 fps Length (feet): 1538

Online Copy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4I9XWcK-SU

Metadata Source:YouTube