Communism in America Today

There is a very small but vocal Communist movement afoot in America today. I see them at protests I attend.

I was curious to see the state of modern American Communism, so I spoke to a humorless woman who carried a communist banner. I spoke to her about Karl Marx, whom I have a lot of respect for. My tempered and qualified appreciation for Marx was not enough to cut through the ice with this woman. She was a hardcore communist who would not agree to any criticism of totalitarian communist regimes.
Later, I spoke to a young man who was the organizer of a local WorldCantWait.net chapter. I spoke to him about communism and the American left. From him, I found the same thing – A rigid adherence to communist doctrine, the lumping together of Marx, Lenin and Mao.

I challenged him on some specifics about Chairman Mao. I mentioned Mao had embraced Stalin. I asked him if he didn't think Stalin had serious problems.

He would hear none of it. He was a staunch advocate for big communism as exemplified by the Soviet Union and Mao's China.

At the time, I was already familiar at the time with the connection between Sunsara Taylor of WorldCantWait.net and Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP (Revolutionary Communist Party of America). That's why I was probing them with my questions.

I've noticed how O'rielly likes to have Sunsara Taylor as a frequent commentator. I think he believes it to the advantage of the American right to have a well-known apologist for totalitarian Communism. I believe O'rielly is right, and it does work to his advantage.

I notice there is an element to our anti-war protests which is taking us beyond anti-war, pro-democracy, beyond social justice and into uncharted territory.

I believe this is undermining the anti-war movement with political baggage we should not be willing carry. I'm not even willing to associate myself with it.

Just for the record, I'm a big fan of Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal and other members of WorldCantWait.net.

I'm also a big fan of Hugo Chavez and I'm excited about the progress of democratic socialism in Latin America. But I put my emphasis on DEMOCRATIC socialism and I am a critic of apologists of totalitarian communism.

I discussed this at DailyKos