La propaganda humanitaria y el Socorro Obrero Internacional: antecedentes de la red transnacional de intelectuales antifascistas

Laura López Martín

doi:10.14198/pasado.24415

Authors

Laura López Martín Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1532-5134

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/pasado.24415

Keywords:

Propaganda, Humanitarian aid; , Anti-fascism, Media, Intellectuals

Abstract

The situation generated by the First World War led to the emergence of multiple humanitarian organizations aimed at the civilian population whose humanitarian action was developed at a transnational level. Those actions were also developed as tools for political influence-supported by the mass media– involving progressive intellectuals who facilitated the mobilisation of broad social strata. The International Workers’ Relief was established with the twofold aim of carrying out propagandistic action while developing action in support of the workers and their families, providing resources in periods of strike, setting up canteens, children`s homes or schools. The struggle against fascism facilitated the involvement of filmmakers, photographers, writers, painters, etc. in the elaboration and dissemination of messages often supported by images that allowed the establishment of the right emotional bridges for the creation of the network of anti-fascist intellectuals, active during the inter-war period and the Second World War. The aim of the article is to explore the organisations and circumstances that preceded this network from a transnational and diachronic approach based on the concept of international solidarity and its political implications. For the study, publications and archives of the linked film organisations as well as Willy Münzemberg’s writings related to propaganda have been reviewed. As a result, the messages and images shared and disseminated in the media made it possible to shape opinion, establish shared emotions that facilitated humanitarian mobilisation and served as an ideological justification for humanitarian and cultural mobilisation.

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