Smear tactics of Socialism

[okeefejmc]

I am writing a column on the attempts by people on the right to demonize socialism under Obama's campaign. My focus on this, is how America is NOT going to a socialist government, and how we have been a fascist, state controlled capitalist, country.

I wanted some of your thoughts, and to expand on this topic.

[Davie zepeda]

I think it is true. The policies we have been using are same as hitler's and leaving the fascist laws from bush administration show's the true intention of America which is to keep consolidating the power into the bankers and coprations intell they finally just unlesh there new empire. When i mean hitlers policy i mean his ecnomic package used to save the motherland rember he ran on the same campgain CHANGE!

[h9socialist]

Socialism is making some in-roads. Perhaps not as fast or as functional as we would like, but we are at least getting back in the game. Marx noted that the really important advance tied to capitalism was that it made THE STRUGGLE of workers and the poor possible -- it gave little else. But the possibility of class struggle aimed at a classless society became possible due to capitalist development. The real questions to answer today are: (1) How do we develop a new vision of socialism as a viable, realistic alternative to capitalism?; (2) How do we balance consumption, production and ecology to enable a just world society?: (3). How do we create solidarity among the various working classes and social movements on a global scale? By arguing that capitalism equates fascism, you are only examining the fact that capitalism is a hierarchy with authority applied in key aspects of social life, in order to ensure compliance, if not obedience. While such power structures make revolutions necessary, the key to winning over the masses is to make socialism a more viable possibility. Merely proving that Bush and Cheney are fascists doesn't increase the understanding of our world at all. It just repeats what we already know!

[Dimentio]

I am writing a column on the attempts by people on the right to demonize socialism under Obama's campaign. My focus on this, is how America is NOT going to a socialist government, and how we have been a fascist, state controlled capitalist, country.

I wanted some of your thoughts, and to expand on this topic.

Let people believe that Obama is some sort of socialist. When he is failing to deliver socialism, socialism will get some sort of renaissance in America. Possibly to the level of early 20th century.

[Davie zepeda]

Yes we can say we need revolution but we do not follow the step's towards achieving revolution which in fact is a united front or some sort of unity within the movement as welll as criticizing are self's to emlimate those who work against us in own rank's .
Like one comrade said we need to revape the image of the worker's state and not let these capppies define it.

[Bitter Ashes]

Well, we all know the root cause.

The most distributed media is owned by the bourgeois who employ editors to ensure that thier positions as the ruling class are justified. Since Labour decieded that its party was to be funded by the bourgeois instead of unions, they have to sing, in a pro-bourgeois tune, for thier suppers.

The bourgeois will prey on the greatest fears of the non-class-conscious working class to achieve thier smears. If they hadnt had Stalin volunteer to be thier example of the "evil of socialism" then I'm sure that they would have been quick to remind us all that the "Nationalist Workers Socialist Party" had the word "socialist" in it and said that we support everything Hitler did instead.

All we can do is reinforce the fact that socialism has never been achieved in our world yet and that these rightfully tarnished images do not represent our beliefs, as well as drawing attention to the other villans of the world who are very happy to, whenever they are challenged, wave around a picture of Stalin and say "Dont look at us! Look! Look! It's Captain-Purge!". You will never be able to achieve this on TV or newspapers, while the bourgeois still holds the main media sources in our world, otherwise you can gauruntee that some inventive editor will ensure your words are twisted well out of proportion. So, dont play into the hands of big media bourgeois by giving them the rope to hang us with.

[cb9's_unity]

While it is evident that neither Obama or the democratic party are socialist it is also clear that America is not fascist.

Fascism is hard to define simply, but does have some definite characteristics that are needed in order to be called fascist. First of fascism completely and openly rejects any form of democracy and though democracy in the U.S is heavily flawed (do to the fact that only politicians are able to win) people are stilled allowed to pick their leader. Again, this is heavily flawed and I'm not defending it but even that small amount of democracy is enough to distance itself from fascism.

Next fascism also uses certain rhetoric to gain and maintain power. Hitler and Mussolini glorified struggle, openly rejecting peace as weak and appealing to nationalism for this continued war effort. U.S imperialism is simply a practical tool to gain dominance and exploit others around the world. They also usually present this imperialism as "peace keeping" or "necessary for democracy".

There are more but the last i'll bring up is the cult of personality and the lack of civil liberties. In fascist countries the leader is often looked at as god-like where in the U.S leaders are allowed to be criticized. Things such as freedom of expression and speech are largely allowed in the U.S where they are harshly banned in fascist countries.

Basically, definately go ahead and clarify the situation around Obama but don't combat one exageration with another.

[okeefejmc]

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” -Mussolini

If we follow this definition of fascism, the US should be considered fascist. Look at the March AIG bailout which the only other person outside of the Federal Reserve and Washington was Lloyd Blankfeid of Golden Sachs, who got 13 billion of taxpayer money, so GS would not take a lose on the AIG bailout. Treasury Secretary at the time was former CEO of Goldman Sachs, Timothy Geithner. Obama brought in Ed Liddy, from Goldman Sachs to run AIG for the Federal Government.

[okeefejmc]

I meant September, sorry.