> This Country Needs a Few Good Communists > > Posted on May 31, 2010 > > By Chris Hedges > The witch hunts against communists in the United States were used to silence > socialists, anarchists, pacifists and all those who defied the abuses of > capitalism. Those “anti-Red” actions were devastating blows to the political > health of the country. The communists spoke the language of class war. They > understood that Wall Street, along with corporations such as British > Petroleum, is the enemy. They offered a broad social vision which allowed > even the non-communist left to employ a vocabulary that made sense of the > destructive impulses of capitalism. But once the Communist Party, along with > other radical [and communist] movements, was eradicated as a social and > political force, once the liberal class took government-imposed loyalty oaths > and collaborated in the witch hunts for phantom communist agents, we were > robbed of the ability to make sense of our struggle. We became fearful, timid > and ineffectual. We lost our voice and became part of the corporate structure > we should have been dismantling.<
though I'm all in favor of small-c commies, it's not just us "good guys" who are important. We need mass movements. > Hope in this age of bankrupt capitalism will come with the return of the > language of class conflict. It does not mean we have to agree with Karl Marx, > who advocated violence and whose worship of the state as a utopian mechanism > led to another form of enslavement of the working class, but we have to speak > in the vocabulary Marx employed. < what? Marx didn't say any of this. > We have to grasp, as Marx did, that corporations are not concerned with the > common good. They exploit, pollute, impoverish, repress, kill and lie to make > money. They throw poor families out of homes, let the uninsured die, wage > useless wars to make profits, poison and pollute the ecosystem, slash social > assistance programs, gut public education, trash the global economy, loot the > U.S. Treasury and crush all popular movements that seek justice for working > men and women. They worship only money and power. And, as Marx knew, > unfettered capitalism is a revolutionary force that consumes greater and > greater numbers of human lives until it finally consumes itself. The > nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico is the perfect metaphor for the corporate > state. It is the same nightmare seen in postindustrial pockets from the old > mill towns in New England to the abandoned steel mills in Ohio. It is a > nightmare that Iraqis, Pakistanis and Afghans, mourning their dead, live each > day. < right. -- Jim Devine "Those who take the most from the table Teach contentment. Those for whom the taxes are destined Demand sacrifice. Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry of wonderful times to come. Those who lead the country into the abyss Call too ruling difficult For ordinary folk." – Bertolt Brecht. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
