On 7 August 1941 the sister papers the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday Pictorial each published an identical article by Greenwood in which he argued that the War was being fought not just to defeat Nazi Germany but also to defeat the ‘social evils’ of the nineteen-thirties and to bring into being a more equal and truly democratic post-war ‘New Britain’. In other words it was what was beginning to be called ‘a People’s War’. Greenwood regretted that only a war could introduce this progressive mood to Britain, but linked the People’s War to the message of the recently released and very successful film of Love on the Dole which he had waited for so long. Though I have written a little before about this rare political statement by Greenwood, I have only just realised how significant the whole substantial piece is in understanding Greenwood’s thinking during the war.
See Walter Greenwood’s People’s War Manifesto (Sunday Mirror, 1941)
- Enjoy, best Chris.
Walter Greenwood: Not Just Love on the Dole 