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She is not so beholden because the organizations to which she demonstrated loyalty, most notably the Soviet Union, are no more. They were destroyed by the people who they had oppressed for decades. An event that likely still fills her with regret.

After all, the great humanitarian was feted by the usual commie states. Fidel Castros Cuba was afavorite spot which she visited. After one trip she decided that only under socialism could the fight against racism be successfully executed.

In December 1979, about three weeks before Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan, Davis was in Moscow to receive the Lenin Peace Prize and receive an honorary degree from Moscow State University. Sheaccepted the former with abroad smile, receiving afloral bouquet along with the requisite three kissesfrom the Soviet official who pinned the award onto her dress. She noted with approval that the prize bore the glorious name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin here on the very soil where he led the great October Revolution. Ah,the glorious, peaceloving, freedompromoting, justiceinspiring Lenin. Davis made quite an international splash withher praise for the USSR.

Davis twice visited East Germany, more formally known as the (SoCalled) German Democratic Republic, where she received an award, the Star of Friendship of the People of the World, and an honorary degree from the University of Leipzig. She had apleasant meeting with Erich Honecker, who took over the communist party in East Germany in 1971.Aphoto shows the two smiling broadly, lovely and loving servants of the people no doubt discussing how they could better serve the masses. She also met the Stalinist leader ousted by Honecker, Walter Ulbricht, who ordered construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

Of course,among the points of interests she visitedwasthe infamous fortified barrier, where she expressed her condolencesfor the East German border guardwho was shot by afleeing citizen,calling the formera loyal soldier, who sacrificed his life for his socialist country. She promised that on her return to America she would undertake to tell our people the truth about the true function of this border. Alas, apparently even the East German people failed to understand the Berlin Walls real purpose since they tore it down the moment they could.

In fact, German workers were notoriously fickle,having revolted against the Sovietinstalled leadershipin 1953. That, after all the work loyal communists had done to suppress dissent! So Honecker &Co. were forced to rule what amounted to anational prison which famously walled its people in. Around athousand were murdered trying to escape. The last East German to be shot down seeking freedom, a20yearold restaurant worker named Chris Gueffroy, was killed in February 1989, just nine months before the border fortifications fell.

Tragically, Honecker did not enjoy as pleasant aretirement as Davis. He lost his job in October 1989. Ungrateful proletarians just did not appreciate his devotion and hard work. He reportedly wanted acrackdown against growing protests across the workers notso paradise,especially in Leipzig ironically the same city in which Davis received her honorary degree. However, the rest of the Politburo balked: the Soviet Unions Mikhail Gorbachev said the Red Army would remain in its barracks and East German officials could not be sure which direction their own troops would fire. Davis dictatorial friend found himself seeking other opportunities, as the saying goes.

Still, the USSR was her greatest promoter. In theFederalistauthor David Harsanyinoted that Davis became afocus of Soviet propaganda, with more resources devoted to her than was being spent on propaganda directly about the Vietnam War. Harsanyi cited Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, author ofThe Gulag Archipelagoabout the Soviet system of prison camps,who observed: We had our ears stuffed with Angela Davis. Little children in school were told to sign petitions in defense of Angela Davis. Sovietborn Cathy Young remembers her elementary school class being obliged to sign postcards on Davis behalf.

Davis friendship toward the Soviet state and its Stalinist spinoffs was no passing fancy for someone unfamiliar with the USSR as aprison state. For instance, when Czech dissidentsmade amoving appeal to her for assistance, she responded: They deserve what they get. Let them remain in prison. Daviss spokeswoman (imagine, aproletarian heroine having aspokeswoman!)said that Davisdid not think people should leave socialist countries to return to the capitalist system. Precisely what one would expect from agreat and respected human rights activist.

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who consulted on Davis legal defense, similarly requested that she speak out on behalf of Soviet Jews seeking to emigrate to Israel. Her response? According to Dershowitz: Several days later, Ireceived acall back from Ms. Davis secretary informing me that Davis had looking into the people on my list and none of them were political prisoners. They are all Zionist fascists and opponents of Socialism. Davis would urge that they be kept in prison where they belonged.

Naturally, Davis has her academic defenders, whodance on pinheadswhiledismissing her affection for human tyranny. But even they should ask why adevoted representative of the working classes would have asecretary. What could be amore typical example of an oppressor and beneficiary of accumulated capital living off the labor and effort of the proletariat held in bondage by the capitalist system? Surely Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, or at least the glorious Lenin said something about this situation. How forgiving would Vladimir Ilyich be if confronted with such an outrageous example of capitalist oppression? Had Americas communist revolution actually occurred, Davis head also might have ended up on apike!

Angel Davis is amodel member of the tyrannical left, which seeks to destroy everyone and everything that stands in its way. Davis sanctimoniously claimed moral authority to judge others while endorsing amonstrous system which imprisoned more than abillion people, starved and impoverished entire societies, and murdered tens of millions of opponents, critics, independents, and innocents. This was no minor mistake. It was an overwhelming, debilitating ethical failure that undermined her credibility to speak even on other issues, such as racism.

America and Western societies have much to answer for. But they have acted to redress past errors and crimes, and undoubtedly will do more in the future. And they never had to wall their people in, something which Davis saw firsthand on her visit to East Germany. But she chose to take the side of the oppressors. When it comes to communism, proponents really should have to say they are sorry. And say it again and again. As should Angela Davis, before mercifully, finally, and quietly retiring from public life.

Original post:
Communism Collapsed, but Communists Are Still with Us - Cato Institute