------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 13, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
WHO PUT THE WRAPS ON GUERNICA? By Leslie Feinberg A woven tapestry reproduction of the famous mural "Guernica" has hung on the wall outside the United Nations Security Council chamber since 1985. But on Jan. 27, it was covered up with a drape. Why? Screaming, shattering people and animals: Guernica. The painting is characterized as modern art's most powerful anti-war statement. Pablo Picasso painted the mural for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 World's Fair. Spain was rocked by civil war. Resistance fighters, joined by solidarity brigades from the United States and around the world, were battling hand-to-hand against Gen. Francisco Franco's fascist forces. On April 27, 1937, Franco gave the go-ahead for Hitler's air force to use a little Basque hamlet in northern Spain as bombing practice. For more than three hours, the village was pummeled from the sky with high explosives and incendiary bombs. When the smoke cleared, 1,600 civilians were dead or wounded. By May 1, word of the horror at Guernica reached Paris. More than a million enraged people poured into the streets in the biggest May Day march that city had ever witnessed. The world was stunned. The normally apolitical Picasso was moved to capture the massacre in his now-famous mural. Apparently the realities of war--particularly the terror, death and destruction at ground zero of bombing raids--are not the backdrop U.S. officials want for their photo opportunities. Dignitaries have long been filmed, photographed and interviewed in front of the painting. "So it was a surprise for many of the envoys to arrive at UN headquarters last Monday for a Security Council briefing by chief weapons inspectors, only to find the searing work covered with a baby-blue banner and the U.S. logo," reported the Feb. 3 Washington Times. The censoring curtain was draped on the days the council discussed Iraq. "A diplomat stated that it would not be an appropriate background if the ambassador of the United States at the UN, John Negroponte, or [Secretary of State Colin] Powell, talk about war surrounded with women, children and animals shouting with horror and showing the suffering of the bombings." (Washington Times, Feb. 3) - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
