Opinion Showing anti-communism the red card – Morning Star Online
THE first English language translation of Marx and Engelss Manifesto of the Communist Party opened with the following: A frightful hobgoblin stalks throughout Europe. We are haunted by a ghost, the ghost of Communism. All the powers of the Past have joined in a holy crusade to lay this ghost to rest the Pope and the Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police agents.
So we see that anti-communism has a long and sordid history. Indeed, Yanis Varoufakiss preface to a recent edition of the Communist Manifesto is an anti-communist and inaccurate diatribe, with phrases like card-carrying Stalinists and now defunct Communist regimes. He also claimed that the Communist Manifesto was commissioned by English revolutionaries which is blatantly untrue.
By contrast, AJP Taylors introduction to the 1967 Penguin edition states: Anti-communism causes more trouble in the world than ever communism does or did.
Anti-communism is a terrible form of bigotry with tragic consequences for humankind and it needs to be recognised as such. Other forms of bigotry like racism, sexism, and homophobia really start their transition from respectable, normal, acceptable and even policy, to being clearly understood to be out of order when the victims make a clear challenge. So far, we in Britain have not really called out home-grown anti-communism.
Addressing a World Marxist Review symposium in the late 1980s, the late Bert Ramelson, legendary former industrial organiser of the Communist Party said this: Anti-communism is often referred to as a subjective phenomenon but it is an objective factor in todays world. Anti-communist hysteria has been with us for four generations and it would be unrealistic to believe that anti-communism in the West has not struck deep roots in politics, ideology and consciousness.
Anti-communism is also anti-humanity, for it impedes the development or progress of society to its full potential and keeps us in a dystopian rat race. The last sentence of Chapter 2 of the Communist Manifesto reads: In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.
Anti-communism blocks our goal of achieving what John Lennon sings about in his classic track Imagine.
We call it out in other countries but not here, it seems. We demonstrated outside the Ukranian embassy in 2014 when that regime had banned the Communist Party. We need to do more of that sort of thing.
New members of Nato and the EU feel no shame in outlawing communist symbols, the most recent being Finland, that exemplar of social democracy. Anti-communist legislation is still on the statute books of a number of states in the US; Texas forbids members of the CPUSA from standing in elections to its local and state legislatures.
It was only in 1991 that Communist Party members were no longer denied jobs in Britains Civil Service departments.
In this country, the first place to tackle anti-communism is the labour movement. Officialdom within the Labour Party and trade unions, with notable exceptions, carried on a crusade against the Communist Party from its formation.
The Communist Party History Group, in the Appendix to Noreen Branson and Bill Moores July 1990 pamphlet Labour-Communist Relations 1920-1951, listed 71 organisations on the proscribed list, of which only two were fascist the rest were the sort that Communist Party members were or might be part of.
In 1933, Labour proscribed the European Anti-fascist Congress and in 1934 the Relief Committee for Victims of German and Austrian Fascism and in 1941 it proscribed the Anti-Fascist Relief Committee and in 1950 the League for Democracy in Greece. Aside from banning organisations which opposed fascism, it also banned 41 peace and solidarity organisations, although CND was too big to ban.
The post-war Labour government led by Clement Attlee was involved in fighting communism in Greece and Malaya, and during the McCarthy era, he wrote in the US quarterly review Foreign Affairs: We are pardonably annoyed at being instructed by a beginner like McCarthy. The British Labour Party has had nearly 40 years of fighting communism in Britain.
In the Chicago Daily Tribune he wrote, The British Labour Party and I myself have been vigorously opposing the Communist Party in this country ever since its formation long before Senator McCarthy was ever heard of.
Instead of being ashamed of his anti-communism, he proclaimed it. This was despite British communists having held up a banner saying British Battalion Major Attlee Company International Brigade. He dishonoured those who had honoured him.
Let us make clear our rejection of and contempt for anti-communism wherever it rears its ugly head.
See the rest here:
Opinion Showing anti-communism the red card - Morning Star Online
- Florida Governor DeSantis signs new law mandating teaching the evils of communism to children as young as five - WSWS - May 1st, 2024 [May 1st, 2024]
- Trump, Biden, communism and more: Letters to the Editor, April 28, 2024 - Florida Today - May 1st, 2024 [May 1st, 2024]
- Communists to run in Karl Marx hometown's election - In Defense of Communism - May 1st, 2024 [May 1st, 2024]
- Slow Down. How Degrowth Communism Can Save the Earth book review - Counterfire - May 1st, 2024 [May 1st, 2024]
- Ron DeSantis wants to teach young people about communism. He should use rock n roll - Washington Examiner - May 1st, 2024 [May 1st, 2024]
- A Survivor of the Cultural Revolution Reviews New Book, 'The Devil and Communist China' - The Stream - May 1st, 2024 [May 1st, 2024]
- European Communist Action: Long live the 1st of May Long live socialism! - In Defense of Communism - May 1st, 2024 [May 1st, 2024]
- Florida children to learn that communism is evil, slavery a skills training program - The South Florida Times - May 1st, 2024 [May 1st, 2024]
- 'Unbridled Agenda of Communism or Socialism, Not in the Constitution Today': SC - ETV Bharat - May 1st, 2024 [May 1st, 2024]
- Pol Pot's Atrocities Still Matter, 45 Years After Khmer Rouge's Fall - Reason - January 12th, 2024 [January 12th, 2024]
- Taiwan election: victory in the face of Chinese communism as country gears up for 'fair election' - GB News - January 12th, 2024 [January 12th, 2024]
- Lenin lives! Join the communists to celebrate his life and ideas! - Socialist Appeal - January 12th, 2024 [January 12th, 2024]
- Goodbye Socialist Appeal The Communist is coming! - Socialist Appeal - January 12th, 2024 [January 12th, 2024]
- Xi Jinpings once-unquestioned authority is showing cracks - The Hill - January 12th, 2024 [January 12th, 2024]
- UK told to 'wake up' to Poland crisis with Donald Tusk 'turning back clock to communism' - Express - January 12th, 2024 [January 12th, 2024]
- The Reality of CommunismWhat Is Social Democracy and Why Is It a Capitalist Dictatorship? - revcom.us - January 12th, 2024 [January 12th, 2024]
- Why Did the Berlin Wall Fall? - The Imaginative Conservative - November 13th, 2023 [November 13th, 2023]
- 1947 and now - The Interpreter - November 13th, 2023 [November 13th, 2023]
- Albania's deal with Italy on migrants has been welcomed by many ... - Las Vegas Sun - November 13th, 2023 [November 13th, 2023]
- Grothman's Bipartisan Hmong New Year Resolution | U.S. ... - Glenn Grothman - November 13th, 2023 [November 13th, 2023]
- Another View: DeSantis was strong, Haley was sharp, Ramaswamy ... - Press Herald - November 13th, 2023 [November 13th, 2023]
- Communism in Britain: The unbroken thread - Socialist Appeal - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- November 7 as Victims of Communism Day - 2023 - Reason - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Fate of the West - Breakpoint - BreakPoint.org - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Cruzs new book Unwoke shows readers how to defeat cultural ... - 1330 WFIN - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- The aftermath of the Velvet Revolution was justice delivered? - Radio Prague International - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Remember, Remember, the 9th of November - The Imaginative Conservative - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Country Road Chronicles: Communist camp in Westerly in the '30s - The Westerly Sun - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- The Russian Revolution: The greatest event in history - Socialist Appeal - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- What Happened to the ACLU by Helen Andrews | Articles - First Things - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Open Forum: Thinking of Donald Trump after Tuesday's election - The Winchester Star - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Was the USSR Socialist?: an Interview with Alexander Nogovishchev - Lefteast - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Remembrance Day: the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month - Fairfaxtimes.com - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- New York Man Sentenced on Felony Assault Charge for Actions ... - Department of Justice - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- U.S. Rep. Grothman: Bipartisan Hmong New Year resolution - WisPolitics.com - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- 'Nazigate' Has Been Quickly Forgotten, But Scholars Warn Its ... - The Maple - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Defining the US-China cold war - - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Green Township voters remove 5 officials who support Gotion ... - FOX 17 West Michigan News - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Louisiana's 'In God We Trust' law tests limits of religion in public ... - American Press - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Czechast with Irena Kalhousov, Director of the Herzl Center for ... - Radio Prague International - November 11th, 2023 [November 11th, 2023]
- Letter to the editor: We mustn't forget communism's many victims - Bozeman Daily Chronicle - October 19th, 2023 [October 19th, 2023]
- Writing triumphed over 'hell of communism', says Albania's Kadare - Yahoo News - October 19th, 2023 [October 19th, 2023]
- Letter to the Editor: The Minnesota Daily is against communists ... - Minnesota Daily - October 19th, 2023 [October 19th, 2023]
- Long before the Kentucky legislature waged war on 'woke,' it ... - The Hastings Tribune - October 19th, 2023 [October 19th, 2023]
- All the traditions lost after the Communists entered Beijing The China Project - The China Project - September 9th, 2023 [September 9th, 2023]
- Communism, the youth, and the fight for revolution - Socialist Appeal - September 9th, 2023 [September 9th, 2023]
- Salazar, 27 GOP cosponsors offer bill to educate students about ... - Ripon Advance - September 9th, 2023 [September 9th, 2023]
- Head of Zeus seizes history of communism by broadcaster and ... - The Bookseller - September 9th, 2023 [September 9th, 2023]
- Death threats, communism claims swirl around EV battery project - Automotive News - September 9th, 2023 [September 9th, 2023]
- The New Useful Idiots - Shield of the Republic - The Bulwark - September 9th, 2023 [September 9th, 2023]
- Rift in Samastha over stand towards CPM - Times of India - September 9th, 2023 [September 9th, 2023]
- South Korean president's anti-communist taunts are opening up ... - The Conversation - September 9th, 2023 [September 9th, 2023]
- Argentine priests celebrate reparation Mass after presidential ... - America: The Jesuit Review - September 9th, 2023 [September 9th, 2023]
- Oppenheimer: communism, McCarthyism, and the bomb | United ... - In Defence of Marxism - August 12th, 2023 [August 12th, 2023]
- When teachers have more say than parents, communism has arrived - Hernando Sun - August 12th, 2023 [August 12th, 2023]
- 130 years of Mayakovsky: Art, communism, and revolution - Socialist Appeal - July 20th, 2023 [July 20th, 2023]
- Captive Nations Week Marked for First Time in Ukraine - Jamestown - The Jamestown Foundation - July 20th, 2023 [July 20th, 2023]
- What Was the Marshall Plan? - The Collector - July 20th, 2023 [July 20th, 2023]
- Politics of the Rift: On Thorie Communiste - Notes - E-Flux - July 20th, 2023 [July 20th, 2023]
- The return of EU enlargement | The Strategist - The Strategist - July 20th, 2023 [July 20th, 2023]
- Putin's holy war on Ukraine - UnHerd - July 20th, 2023 [July 20th, 2023]
- The zing zazz factor in a slogan - RNZ - July 20th, 2023 [July 20th, 2023]
- Family who carried Sacred Heart statue were carried by Sacred ... - Catholic Diocese of Lincoln - July 20th, 2023 [July 20th, 2023]
- Risk and Revolution | Wen Stephenson - The Baffler - July 20th, 2023 [July 20th, 2023]
- Victims of Communism, Victims of Modernism - Heritage.org - June 7th, 2023 [June 7th, 2023]
- Communism: FIU event discusses Soviet influence in Cuba and the ... - PantherNOW - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- Nuclear communism: Lukashenka offers 'nukes for everyone' - TVP World - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- Georgi Gospodinov and Angela Rodel win International Booker ... - NPR - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- The China Dragon Roars Back Whether the US Likes It or Not - KCRW - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- EU, US might not be best digital ID models, but they can help African ... - Biometric Update - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- Opinion: Young Canadians should learn about the Polish ... - The Hub - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- Gig Line: Memorial Day - The Coastland Times | The Coastland Times - The Coastland Times - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- What's on? 10 top TV and streaming tips for Wednesday - RTE.ie - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- Putin Wants You to Think He's an Anti-Woke Crusader - Foreign Policy - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- Turkey elections: Erdogan's win highlights political fault lines - Middle East Eye - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- Is History Written by the Winners? - History Today - May 29th, 2023 [May 29th, 2023]
- The AI Capitalists Don't Realize They're About To Kill Capitalism - Worldcrunch - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Alaska House follows Senate to pass bill authorizing sale of carbon ... - Alaska Beacon - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Victims of Communism Day - 2023 - Reason - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- A Case Of Communism, Incompetence And Politics? - Walterboro Live - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]