Soviet/Marxist Equivalent to the pledge of allegiance?

[Dimitri Molotov]

Hello, comrades! i was wondering, is there a soviet equivalent to the pledge of allegiance i have to say every horrid morning i arrive at school? is there some sort of marxist/anarchist/communist "pledge"? i am just curious, thanks:D

[fa2991]

Every Cuban student stands and says "We will be like Che!" every morning before school, or so I've been told.

[Dimitri Molotov]

haha lol that would be a better pledge than the one i have to say now lol. that reminds me, im looking cuban pledges too along with soviet or marxist ones.

[mykittyhasaboner]

You know, you don't have to say the pledge if you don't want to. US law provides a wonderful contradiction which entitles you to "freedom of religion". Since the pledge mentions the word 'god', you don't have to say it.

In case you didn't know.

[Dimitri Molotov]

Every Cuban student stands and says "We will be like Che!" every morning before school, or so I've been told.

oh my gods i just looked it up and you weren't joking lol thats awesome!

[mykittyhasaboner]

You have to make sure that you declare to your teacher or whatever, privately, that you don't want to. Otherwise you will just get into trouble.

[Tablo]

I just never did it. People do give me weird looks at sports games and public events when I refuse to stand though...

[Dimitri Molotov]

well it is sort of the freedom of religion thing with me not liking the pledge, but mostly it is just my overall disaproval of the american pledge and how i am expected to be loyal and serve a country that i do not agree with and cannot live up to its own pledge. i dont say the pledge at all in the morning or put my hand on my chest or anything i just stand there, i wish i could just sit down and not even participate in it but it would not go over well with my father..

[AK]

Hello, comrades! i was wondering, is there a soviet equivalent to the pledge of allegiance i have to say every horrid morning i arrive at school? is there some sort of marxist/anarchist/communist "pledge"? i am just curious, thanks:D
Just wow. They make you do that? I haven't sung my national anthem in about 5 years. Luckily, most of my mates are just too damn lazy to care either way.

[bcbm]

op- the internationale

[meow]

a "socialist" pledge would sort of go against well the idea of socialism...
sure the ussr might have had one but they werent really socialist.

as for "we will be like che". yeah shot after being captured for trying to lead a ultimly unsuccessful revolution in a forign country. we will be like che!

(we being me anyway):
we are beyond nationalism and patriatism. the only allegience we have is to our ideas ideals and the people who will work with us to bring about a better world. we reject all government as oppressive.

so with that what are we pledging to?

[fa2991]

as for "we will be like che". yeah shot after being captured for trying to lead a ultimly unsuccessful revolution in a forign country. we will be like che!

Yeah, nothing more anti-communist than trying to start a revolution!


so with that what are we pledging to?

International communism?

[graymouser]

The Pledge of Allegiance, interestingly, was written by a Christian socialist minister named Francis Bellamy. It was written to underline the meanings of the American Revolution and the Civil War as emancipatory events; unfortunately with the imperial history of the country since it was written, it is all bitter ashes today.

I'd agree with bcbm that the closest we have are our songs; certainly L'Internationale, maybe also Solidarity Forever.

[meow]

Yeah, nothing more anti-communist than trying to start a revolution!

it was not being anti communist. rather it was being failure that meant that we should not want to be like che. you know he was so successful cuba is even now the very model of a modern major general. err sorry. i mean communist society without a state or market and all that shit.


International communism?
so how does one go about pledging to international communism and what does it achieve apart from group think? we want people to support us because they think we are correct. not because we have brainwashed them from an early age with pledges and tv shows about how great we are.

[Queercommie Girl]

In PRC schools there is indeed an explicit "pledge of allegiance": (It's mainly for younger people though)

我是中国少年先锋队队员。我在队旗下宣誓：我决心遵照中国共产党的教导，好好学习，好好工作，好好劳动，准 备着为共产主义事业，贡献出一切力量！

I'm a member of the Young People's Vanguard Brigade. I shall swear an oath under our Brigade banners: I am determined to follow the teachings of the Communist Party, I will study and work diligently and always be prepared to give all of my strength for the realisation of Communism!

[Obs]

Do we need one?

[Revolution starts with U]

I was reprimanded for not pledging many times. After 7th grade, I never said it again, and even before that I would not put my hand on my chest. Finally in 9th grade I made a deal with them, I will stand if you stop suspending me ;)
I pledge allegiance to charity, compassion, and progress. One world, indivisible. Science is cool, and if you don't like that, you can fuck off!

[maskerade]

I find the whole pledge of allegiance so absurd. Having a socialist one seems like a perfect way to alienate people from the revolution

[Adil3tr]

Every Cuban student stands and says "We will be like Che!" every morning before school, or so I've been told.

We don't need pledges. Revolution is our pledge. :marx:

[Adil3tr]

You know, you don't have to say the pledge if you don't want to. US law provides a wonderful contradiction which entitles you to "freedom of religion". Since the pledge mentions the word 'god', you don't have to say it.

In case you didn't know.

At mys school you have to be respectful, and if you don't do it, you're parents have to sign a written conscientious objection form.

[Magón]

I don't pledge to anything, I only show support! (And when the Revolution arrives, of course a helping hand.)

[Sexy Red]

My choice for our pledge!

"I pledge allegiance to the flag,
Of the United Socialist States of America.
And to the People for which it stands,
One Nation, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All!"

[Revolution starts with U]

I could almost agree with that, except the "one nation" part. I don't even really like to say "one world." The best would be to say "one existence, indivisible"

[zimmerwald1915]

My choice for our pledge!

"I pledge allegiance to the flag,
Of the United Socialist States of America.
And to the People for which it stands,
One Nation, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All!"


Blech. At least the one we've got now attempts to be poetical, while this one's politics aren't much better.

[Pretty Flaco]

You don't have to say it. Hell, you don't even have to stand.

I never say it, but i do place my hand on my heart and stand. I've never gotten in trouble for not declaring my allegiance.

This is unrelated but... is the pledge creepy for anybody else too? I mean, it wouldn't be so creepy if we had to say it once, but we say it daily.

[Dimitri Molotov]

guys sorry if the question came off wrong, i wasn't looking for a leftist pledge to say instead of the american pledge, i am also opposed to pledges and don't think we need one, i i was simply wondering if they ever had one, i mean if the US has one then surely the soviet union had one i thought. i was thinking about it one day when i was thinking "i wonder if other countries have a pledge to their flag like this."

[Dimitri Molotov]

hah i also came up with my own pledge that might as well replace our the us pledge. "i pledge resistance, to the flag, of the united states of america. and to the hypocrisy, for which it stands, one nation, under the rich, with poverty and violence for all" (all being the small/weaker countries around the world that the us always bullies and picks on)

[Revolution starts with U]

Brilliant. I wish I could go back to school to recite it :D

[Sixiang]

The Pledge of Allegiance, interestingly, was written by a Christian socialist minister named Francis Bellamy. It was written to underline the meanings of the American Revolution and the Civil War as emancipatory events; unfortunately with the imperial history of the country since it was written, it is all bitter ashes today.

I'd agree with bcbm that the closest we have are our songs; certainly L'Internationale, maybe also Solidarity Forever.

I was about to say that too. Also, the words "under God" were not originally in it. Those words were not added until 1954, when the American government was all afraid of anything involving socialism. He originally wrote it as:

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all"

[Omnia Sunt Communia]

The Pledge of Allegiance, interestingly, was written by a Christian socialist minister named Francis Bellamy. It was written to underline the meanings of the American Revolution and the Civil War as emancipatory events; unfortunately with the imperial history of the country since it was written, it is all bitter ashes today.

As a subject of the US I object to this historical analysis.

You could just as easily attempt to pass Huey Long and Charles Coughlin off as "Christian socialists", all the same they were nothing more than fascist parasites and enemies of humanity.

The "emancipatory events" of the American Revolution consist of federalists mercilessly crushing every political force that stood for human freedom, from American Indian tribes, to African slave revolts, to tax riots among European workers.

The "emancipatory events" of the US Civil War consist of the indiscriminate industrial-scale massacre of random workers to protect the federal sovereignty of a fledgling capitalist empire, the compulsory expropriation of the southern agrarian African working-class into urban industrial labor, (its realized modern form being the US prison system which enslaves millions of Africans) the unadulturated conquest of the most westward Indian territories, (as fully embodied by private maximum-security prisons) new stages of capitalist valorization for Appalachia and the Deep South, etc.

It's obvious from US skirmishes with African "land pirates", and the collaboration of elements of the US military with Confederate slave-drivers in capturing escaped slaves, that the US preferred even the antiquated and inefficient exploitation of the CSA to any genuine manifestation of "emancipation".

Francis Bellamy made a living celebrating mass-produced US flags to capitalist-run schools which exist to impose bourgeois ideological hegemony upon the youth through prolonged rituals of physical obedience and psychological demoralization. In other words, the Pledge of Allegiance has always been nothing more than a humiliating ritual of child abuse to reinforce allegiance to a bourgeois empire. The pledge was originally printed in an issue of Youth's Companion celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of America, one of the greatest genocides of the modern era.

The Pledge of Allegiance is not a salute to a republic of the working-class, but the capitalist "republic" of the U.S. "nation", which has no right to exist.

http://homeschoolblogger.com/principia/files/2010/07/american-school-children-bellamy-salute.jpg http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/images/b26-4.jpg

The child abuse rituals of "socialist" nationalism in both US and Germany

[Omnia Sunt Communia]

In PRC schools there is indeed an explicit "pledge of allegiance": (It's mainly for younger people though)

我是中国少年先锋队队员。我在队旗下宣誓：我决心遵照中国共产党的教导，好好学习，好好工作，好好劳动，准 备着为共产主义事业，贡献出一切力量！

I'm a member of the Young People's Vanguard Brigade. I shall swear an oath under our Brigade banners: I am determined to follow the teachings of the Communist Party, I will study and work diligently and always be prepared to give all of my strength for the realisation of Communism!

If the youths were actually "determined to follow the teachings of communism", they would duck out of school, as many of them do anyway, and spare themselves from revisionist brainwashing.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

If the youths were actually "determined to follow the teachings of communism", they would duck out of school, as many of them do anyway, and spare themselves from revisionist brainwashing.

I don't think "ducking out of school" is a option in china.In the U.S sure but I don't think the PRC allows such behavior (not at least to my knowledge).

[∞]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtU3vUOa2sw
UNCLE JOE WE LOVE YOU!

[∞]

Anarchist anthem,

I pledge allegiance to no flag,
I take no pride in worthless rag,
FUCK YOU!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4ZDASXwwuI

[Reznov]

I really like the The Red Army is the Strongest.

But like others have said, the internationale is a good pledge/anthem like song.

[Reznov]

Anarchist anthem,

I pledge allegiance to no flag,
I take no pride in worthless rag,
FUCK YOU!

Can I just sit down and say Fuck You?

If people could do this, I'd expect a huge increase in Anarchist membership.

[Omnia Sunt Communia]

I don't think "ducking out of school" is a option in china.In the U.S sure but I don't think the PRC allows such behavior (not at least to my knowledge).

It's not allowed in the US either, except maybe in some conservative states such as Texas and Virginia, but only then when the parents consent to "homeschooling".

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Robert Anton Wilson (whose politics were always confused but interesting) said "Freedom defined is freedom denied". I would completely agree with Omnia Sunt Comnia that making kids say the "Pledge" is ritualistic indoctrination and is a form of child abuse. I would argue though that the American Revolution was more radical and had more liberatory potential than many leftists today think.

I worked as a public school teacher for a time. I had to have my kids say the pledge for a "homeroom" I ran. I was in a bit of a sticky situation. I actually did have everyone say the pledge the first few days of the semester. Than I quietly stopped doing it. No one said anything. My students knew "something was up" but no one challenged me on not pledging. The school was more or less "liberal" and there were a few leftist or liberal/left teachers so I got away with this, at least it wasn't an issue, but I'm sure for schools in more conservative areas it can be an issue. School is a system of indoctrination, on several levels.

I would say to the OP first find out what you can get away with. You could plead conscientious objection to it. If that doesn't work then see if you can get away with standing up and not saying anything. If that doesn't work, well mouth whatever gibberish they want you to to their fetishistic flag totem. In the mean time use school instead of letting it use you. Most schooling is boring, tedious and sometimes scary bullying and indoctrination. The advantage though is that its free. Read and try to learn as much as you can about communism, anarchism, world events, and especially economics. Try to find kids who share your alienation. There might be one or two teachers you could connect with and actually learn something. Use your school's resources to read and learn, in spite of the system, not because of it.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

I have mixed feelings about national symbolism and I find the idea of a "pledge of allegiance especially repugnant, but, well, I can't help trying to think up my own alternate version.

I pledge allegiance
To The Union of American Socialist Republics
and to the worker's democracy upon which its based
Ruled by the working classes
governed though our democratic worker's councils
I pledge to help my sisters and brothers worldwide
Knowing they will be here for me

I pledge to strive for the continued liberation of oppressed peoples
Supporting the equality of all humanity
and to work for the dignity and freedom of all my comrades


A little more new agey than I would have liked.

[AK]

I've got a better one:
I pledge allegiance to the working class and its struggle to achieve a free and equal society.

That's it. Simple, really.