Communism is dead
Ian | 1 September, 2008 | 22:54
After getting barely a bit into the Communist Manifesto, you start to realize that it hasn’t aged well at 160.
I just finished the epoch by Marx and Engels, although that word is deceiving because all-in-all it comes in at a mere 42 pages. My opinion: things have changed a lot since they wrote this manifesto.
The first major problem I encountered was that they assume this diametrically opposed class war. It’s the “us versus them” mentality that has led to many conflicts throughout time. The communists (I’ll use this word to denote the position taken by the manifesto) argue that the only way for the working class to ever gain anything is to destroy the current system. It’s a hugely false dichotomy now, however, may have rung truer in another time.
Today (in Western culture), there is no proletariat-bourgeoisie class rivalry. There is essentially a spectrum of wealth from the homeless to the worlds richest - and most are above the poverty line today.
To give a clear example of how things have changed consider property ownership. One key argument the communists bring up is that the majority (they claim 90%) do no own property, and because of low wages they never will. However, today in Canada about 70% of people own their own home (many own condos). Yet even if today a minority were still property owners, that would be a good argument for increased wages, not outright class warfare.
Is Communism Dead?
by Lee Edwards, Ph.D., Frank Calzon, Paul Goble and Harry Wu
Heritage Lecture #967
(Delivered August 2, 2006)
LEE EDWARDS, Ph.D.: It is a grave failing of our age that the full extent of Communism’s inhumanity to man is not known.
Who knows that the Soviet Union murdered 20 million people through mock trials, purges, famines, and the infamous Gulag?
Who knows that Mao Zedong and the other Chinese Communist leaders have slaughtered an estimated 50 million people through the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen massacre, and the Chinese version of the Gulag"the Laogai?
Who knows that Fidel Castro has executed thousands of political prisoners since coming to power in 1959 and continues to silence any open opposition to his rule?
Who knows that the Communist plague has exacted a death toll surpassing that of all the wars of the 20th century combined?
This tragic oversight must be corrected. A Memorial to the more than 100 million victims of Communism must be built"and it will be. Groundbreaking for the Memorial, located on Capitol Hill just three blocks from here, is scheduled for next month. [Editor’s Note: The groundbreaking is scheduled for September 27, 2006.]
The Memorial will feature a 10-foot-high bronze replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue erected by Chinese students in Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989 and then destroyed by Chinese Communist tanks. The statue was based on our own Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
On the front pedestal of the Memorial statue will be the words: “To the more than one hundred million victims of Communism and to those who love liberty.”
On the back pedestal will be the words: “To the freedom and independence of all captive nations and peoples.”
These words will serve to remind visitors that one-fifth of the world’s population still lives, and not by their choice, under Communism.
You and I are blessed to live in a free society. We have never had to worry about a knock on the door in the middle of the night and the secret police dragging us from our home. We have never had to endure the horrors of so-called reeducation camps that break the bodies and minds of dissidents. We have never seen families, communities, whole cities, eliminated at the order of a cold-blooded tyrant.
But for many millions of people over the past century these horrors were a daily fact of life.
Once asked who were the victims of Communism, a former occupant of the Soviet Gulag replied, “Everyone who lived in the 20th century was a victim of Communism.”
As Anne Applebaum, the Pulitzer Prize"winning author of Gulag, wrote, mere statistics cannot reflect “the cumulative impact of Stalin’s repressions on the life and health of whole families.”
Consider: A man was tried and shot as an “enemy of the people.” His wife was taken to a camp as a “member of an enemy’s family.” His children grew up in orphanages and joined criminal gangs. His mother died of stress and grief. His cousins and aunts and uncles cut off all contact with one another in order not to be tainted. Fear weighed heavily on those left behind, even when they did not die.
Today, 50 years after Stalin died, the remaining Communist dictatorships perpetuate the Leninist legacy of fear and intimidation, as you will hear from our distinguished panelists this afternoon.
There is one aspect of the Leninist legacy that directly affects every American today.
It is a fact, documented by the terrorism expert Michael Waller, that the U.S.S.R. and its proxies armed and built the international terrorist networks of the 1960s through the 1980s. The states supporting international terrorism are mainly former Soviet client regimes, including Cuba, North Korea, and Syria under the Assad family. It is a fact that Soviet sponsorship of Yasser Arafat and the PLO allowed Moscow to gain influence over terrorist groups like Hezbollah.
If the Communist-coordinated terrorists had been squashed or had never existed, Dr. Waller concludes, in all likelihood the world would not be plagued by the present-day terrorism of Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaeda, and the other violent organizations that commit mass murder in the name of God.
Beyond dispute, the specter of Communism still haunts the world"even in America’s largest city. A popular nightclub in New York City’s East Village is the KGB Bar. The place is jammed nearly every night and especially on Sundays when writers read from their latest works under the club’s symbol" the Hammer and Sickle. How long, I wonder, would a New York nightclub last if its name were The Gestapo and there was a large swastika on the wall?
Clearly, there is an urgent need for a Memorial to the victims of Communism. And Washington is the right city for such a Memorial because this city offers so many reminders of the history of our nation and the world.
In the past decade, we have seen the dedication of a memorial museum about the Jewish Holocaust as well as a memorial to the veterans of World War II. There are fitting tributes to the men and women who died in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
The Memorial to the victims of Communism will be a key part of this historical picture and will help illustrate why we fought and won the Cold War.
Visitors to the Memorial will remember the Hungarian patriots killed by Soviet troops and tanks in 1956. They will remember those who struggled for more than a quarter of a century to escape the concrete and barbed wire of the Berlin Wall. They will remember the brave “boat people” of Vietnam and Cuba who risked everything to gain freedom.
We cannot, we must not allow history to forget those who died and are still dying under Communism.
Our Jewish brothers and sisters understand what is at stake. They understand that history must not be forgotten lest it be repeated. They keep reminding the world of the Holocaust, crying, “Never again!”
As Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, said last week here in Washington, “What is the alternative? Not to tell the story? To let truth vanish? To let truth disappear together with the victims?” There can be only one answer to such questions.
We must remember and we must memorialize the sacrifice of more than 100 million victims of Communism so that never again will nations and peoples permit so evil a tyranny to terrorize the world.
Lee Edwards, Ph.D., is Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at The Heritage Foundation, and Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
@okie,
Quote:Your answer sounds a little hoky or contrived, but I will take your word for it.
I have some advice. Abandon your search for utopia on earth. Marx is not the answer. You will not find happiness through money or grinding an axe, through anger at the rich or anyone else. Envy is counterproductive, besides, alot of rich people are very miserable people. Class warfare is an idiotic thing to worry about. Find a line of work that you enjoy, and if an education is necessary, go to work on it. If you find a line of work or occupation that you enjoy, don't worry about the money, adjust your lifestyle to the money you will make, and enjoy the journey, don't worry about the destination, but be responsible, don't go in debt, enjoy family life if possible, and someday you will wake up to the fact that you were successful.
This country offers countless opportunities, be happy, quit complainin. Karl Marx is not the answer to your problems. Marxist theories have never worked very well, so give it up.
Very, Very good and well written advice.
I am already successful, I am not envious and I am not complaining. You are trying to make an excuse for me and yourself. My story looks very hoky and and contrived except it is also very true.
Utopia is fantasy. It has no application in this debate.
Poor Amigo-- You know so little about Communism. I am sure that you know the verbiae though.
You know, of course, Amigo, that the Communist Revolution was supposed to give power to the PROLETARIET--You know, the workers. But it didn't do so, instead people like Lenin and Stalin took over the Country so that they could get it ready for the PROLETARIET. You see, Amigo, the Proletariet was not ready and there were many reactionary elements, so Stalin and his thugs opened the Gulags where MILLIONS were killed. Why? So that the revolution could proceed to the time when the Proletariet took over.
But it is now over NINETY years since the revolution began and the proletariet STILL do not have power. Indeed, the Soviet system imploded because they were trying to keep up with reactionary systems like the USA which had a much better military machine.
My advice to you, Amigo, is that you should find some good History books and read about the Soviet Union. May I recommend the two volume work by Solzhenitsen on the Gulag and/or"A Century of Horrors" by Alain Besancon--a respected French Scholar who explains that Nazism and Communism were both heresies of SOCIALISM.
@genoves,
Ok then, well have socialism minus the Stalins.
Amigo's new Socialism:
No Stalins
A cap on Surplus value collected
No Accumulation by dispossession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accumulation_by_dispossession
@genoves,
Alexander Solzhenitsyn's two books on the Gulag!
@Amigo,
How are you going to make sure there are no Stalins, Amigo? Trotsky tried to see to it that there were no Stalins and he was murdered in Mexico.
You evidently do not know that the US is guided by its Constitution.
Article 1, Section 7. Clause 1--All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. How are you going to tax millions of voters who keep thier representatives in their seats every two years if those representatives are supposed to vote for taxing Surplus Value?
Are you going to lead a revolution? Where is your Army? Do you wear a tinfoil hat?
@genoves,
Capitalism and Communism in the same hands is the same thing.
@genoves,
Quote:You evidently do not know that the US is guided by its Constitution.
Our representatives are elected by a system perfected by corperations on the idiocracy/marketing subjects. The masses are Pavlovs dog.
This system mainly involves Media monopoly, Lobbying to name just two. In a capatalist society do you serve the people or the Capital?
You evidently do not know that the US is guided by its Constitution.
Article 1, Section 7. Clause 1--All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. How are you going to tax millions of voters who keep thier representatives in their seats every two years if those representatives are supposed to vote for taxing Surplus Value?
Are you going to lead a revolution? Where is your Army? Do you wear a tinfoil hat?
@genoves,
Quote:Do you wear a tinfoil hat?
Great tinfoil hat quotes from the past!!!
"Carbon dioxide is climbing and raising global temperature"
-1950s, amateur scientist G.S. Callendar
Other scientists dismissed his idea as faulty. In 1938, G.S. Callendar argued that the level of carbon dioxide was climbing and raising global temperature, but most scientists found his arguments implausible. It was almost by chance that a few researchers in the 1950s discovered that global warming truly was possible. In the early 1960s.
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm
You evidently do not know that the US is guided by its Constitution.
Article 1, Section 7. Clause 1--All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. How are you going to tax millions of voters who keep thier representatives in their seats every two years if those representatives are supposed to vote for taxing Surplus Value?
Are you going to lead a revolution? Where is your Army? Do you wear a tinfoil hat?
Accumulation by dispossession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accumulation_by_dispossession
The taking of your possesions and transferring them into the hands of the upper classes, the government, banks or corperations by the means of
Privatization:
Privatization and commodification of public assets have been among the most criticised and disputed aspects of neoliberalism. Summed up, they could be characterized by the process of transferring property, from public ownership to private ownership. According to Marxist Theory, this serves the interests of the capitalist class, or Bourgeoisie, as it moves power from the nation's governments to private parties. At the same time privatization generates a means for profit for the capitalist class, because after a transaction, they can then sell or rent to the public, what used to be commonly owned.
EXAMPLE:
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2008/world/north-america/nestle-granted-permission-to-drink-from-michigan-wells/
EXAMPLE:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=6670
"The price hikes that triggered the water war were driven by a 16 percent guaranteed rate of return negotiated by Bechtel's affiliate and the need to pay off a $30 million debt owed by the previous public water company."
Financialization:
The wave of financialization which set in the 1980s is allowed by governmental deregulation which has made the financial system one of the main centers of redistributive activity. Stock promotions, Ponzi schemes, structured asset destruction through inflation, asset stripping through mergers and acquisitions, dispossession of assets (raiding of pension funds and their decimation by stock and corporate collapses) by credit and stock manipulations, are, according to Harvey, central features of the post-1970s capitalist financial system.
EXAMPLE
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12266
[edit] The Management and Manipulation of Crises
By creating and manipulating crisis such as suddenly raising of interests rates, poorer nations can be forced into bankruptcy, and agreeing to such deals like that of the structural adjustment programs can yield more damages to those nations. Harvey reasoned that this is authorized by parties such as the U.S. Treasury and the International Monetary Fund.
State Redistributions:
The neoliberal nation state is one of the most important agents/actors of such redistributive policies/system. Even when privatization or commodification appear to be profitable to the lower class, in the long run it can affect the economy negatively. The state seeks redistributions through a variety of things, like changing the tax code to profit returns on investment rather than incomes and wages (of the lower classes).
You evidently do not know that the US is guided by its Constitution.
Article 1, Section 7. Clause 1--All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. How are you going to tax millions of voters who keep thier representatives in their seats every two years if those representatives are supposed to vote for taxing Surplus Value?
Are you going to lead a revolution? Where is your Army? Do you wear a tinfoil hat?
In the third world country the only value a person has for the corperation is how much they can produce for the least amont of money.
In other words it is to extract the highest possible SURPLUS VALUE.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/575313/surplus-value
In America they sell us these goods. OUR ONLY VALUE TO THE CORPERATION IS WHAT WE CONSUME.
Through corperate marketing we have become materialist and thus we have lost our spirit and are unhappy.
WE BUY GOODS MADE BY SLAVES...PEOPLE DIFFERENT BUT JUST LIKE US.
To the corperation the people of the third world and the first world have the same value ........PROFIT and death is there means.
DEATH IS PROFIT
(to be continued)
@Amigo,
LIFE IS ENERGY
You will spend you life using your energy for yourself or for the corperation. If you spend your life/energy for the corperation you lose all your SURPLUS VALUE.
SOME OTHER PERSON TAKES YOUR LIFE ENERGY as profit or paper money while you give them your SURPLUS VALUE.
