Front Organization - Hollywood

Hollywood

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, states that Eastern Propaganda, such as that from former Communist countries, is usually conducted from within a country. Infiltrating and placing agents of influence is an ideal way to manipulate public opinion. Communist front organizations have been uncovered in many places within America, but none influence media as much those in Hollywood. Hollywood front organizations have existed since the first Communist Party Conference on Cinema in March of 1928. Grigori Zinoviev, Lenin's head of the Comintern, declared that the motion pictures "can and must become a mighty weapon of Communist propaganda and for the enlightening of the widest working masses." Targeting the cinema requires a focus on Hollywood.

A Communist front organization is defined as groups of people meeting openly for some common purpose, while being organized in the background by one or more Communists.These groups will often be controlled by bigger groups as well and will rarely, if ever, reveal their true motives or sponsors. Examples of front organizations can be advocacy groups, crime syndicates, shell corporations, or political action committees. Communists, in Hollywood, often use advocacy groups. Advocacy groups are difficult to discover who is funding them and are less likely to have an opposition due to the idealistic nature of their purported motivations.

Radosh and Radosh explore the Communist Party's influence in Hollywood during the 1930s-1950s to stress the CPUSA policy of secret membership and control of front organizations that fostered an allegiance to Soviet communism in Hollywood. They argue that the Party had at its peak about 300 members, and thousands of sympathizers who were active in numerous front groups controlled by the Party.