Meyer Schapiro's Choice

There were several issues which paradoxically united representatives of the Old Left with those agents of corporate USA who subscribed to an official modernist culture, as represented by museums, such as MoMA, and a 'free press', however compromised, as represented by Walter Cronkite and CBS news. One of these issues was a fear of losing what were perceived as liberaldemocratic gains in culture and education if 'left-wing' protesters, with 'an infantile disorder', were allowed to go unchecked. However, the fear and impatience of the constituency for Howe's journal Dissent was always in danger of playing into the hands of those with real power the real power of those who actually ran the corporations, feeding off and fuelling the views of, in Howe's words, 'millions of ordinary Americans' for whom 'student protestdrugs-hippiedom-Negro rioting forms a stream of detested association'.1 Continuing the story of the And babies poster provides a specific example of this dilemma and one in which an Old Leftist such as Schapiro became enmeshed. On 18 December 1969 the colour-plate for the poster was completed and the print shop awaited MoMA's approval of the final credit line as jointly sponsored by the AWC and MoMA. While the Museum staff still supported MoMA's participation, Arthur Drexler and Wilder Green decided that they had better check with the trustees. Both the AWC's and MoMA's press releases make clear that they took the final mock-up of the poster to Walter S. Paley, President of the Board of Trustees and head of CBS. Petlin recalls that the Rockefellers were also involved. Drexler returned after a few minutes with the trustees 'white-faced' saying that the joint project was off and asking all from the AWC

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