Ismail
4th September 2017, 08:26
I wrote this elsewhere, but I figure I'd post it here as well.
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I'll use the United States as an example.
The Communist Club of New York, founded in 1857, required its members to "recognize the complete equality of all persons—no matter of whatever color or sex." The first Marxists in this country were active in the abolitionist movement, campaigned for Lincoln, and fought in the Union Army. Marxism has continued to be associated with the struggle for Black civil and economic rights, such as the founding of the NAACP being partly the work of Florence Kelley and other Marxists, and the major role of the Communist Party in defending the Scottsboro Boys. MLK noted in one of his last speeches that, "We cannot talk of Dr. [W.E.B.] Du Bois without recognizing that he was a radical all of his life. Some people would like to ignore the fact that he was a Communist in his later years. . . It is time to cease muting the fact that Dr. Du Bois was a genius and chose to be a Communist. Our irrational, obsessive anti-communism has led us into too many quagmires to be retained as if it were a mode of scientific thinking."
As early as 1853 Marxists in the US were organizing laborers to unite and strike. William H. Sylvis, leader of the first nationwide labor federation in the US, sought to affiliate the federation to the First International. Marxists had a hand in the founding of the AFL in 1881, while the importance of their organizational work in the CIO in the 1930s and 40s has been amply documented.
At a time when American politicians and media were praising Hitler and Mussolini, Communists were exposing the dangers of fascism and organizing the Lincoln Battalion to fight it in Spain. 15,000 American Communists volunteered to fight in World War II.
Marxists were active in the struggle for women's suffrage. The activities and writings of women Communists in the 1930s-50s helped shape the feminist movement of the 1960s-70s (as noted in Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation by Kate Weigand.)
These are just a few brief examples in a single country. Fascists not only have no comparable record, but are obviously against everything I just mentioned. For all the anti-communism that permeates pop culture and textbooks, it is not difficult for most people to distinguish between the Marxist and the fascist position on these and other issues, no matter what these people have heard about the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, or whatever.
At the same time the US government has never displayed magnanimity toward the left whenever the latter appeared to become a serious threat to capitalism. The Haymarket martyrs, the Palmer Raids, McCarthyism, COINTELPRO, and numerous other examples right up to the present day (e.g. the continued employment of provocateurs and the FBI's raid on the FRSO in 2010) demonstrate this.
It is therefore easy to see why a Neo-Nazi will receive more flack among the public for advocating the extermination of Jews or police brutality against Blacks compared to the Marxist who argues against anti-Semitism and in favor of the liberation of Blacks.
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I'll use the United States as an example.
The Communist Club of New York, founded in 1857, required its members to "recognize the complete equality of all persons—no matter of whatever color or sex." The first Marxists in this country were active in the abolitionist movement, campaigned for Lincoln, and fought in the Union Army. Marxism has continued to be associated with the struggle for Black civil and economic rights, such as the founding of the NAACP being partly the work of Florence Kelley and other Marxists, and the major role of the Communist Party in defending the Scottsboro Boys. MLK noted in one of his last speeches that, "We cannot talk of Dr. [W.E.B.] Du Bois without recognizing that he was a radical all of his life. Some people would like to ignore the fact that he was a Communist in his later years. . . It is time to cease muting the fact that Dr. Du Bois was a genius and chose to be a Communist. Our irrational, obsessive anti-communism has led us into too many quagmires to be retained as if it were a mode of scientific thinking."
As early as 1853 Marxists in the US were organizing laborers to unite and strike. William H. Sylvis, leader of the first nationwide labor federation in the US, sought to affiliate the federation to the First International. Marxists had a hand in the founding of the AFL in 1881, while the importance of their organizational work in the CIO in the 1930s and 40s has been amply documented.
At a time when American politicians and media were praising Hitler and Mussolini, Communists were exposing the dangers of fascism and organizing the Lincoln Battalion to fight it in Spain. 15,000 American Communists volunteered to fight in World War II.
Marxists were active in the struggle for women's suffrage. The activities and writings of women Communists in the 1930s-50s helped shape the feminist movement of the 1960s-70s (as noted in Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation by Kate Weigand.)
These are just a few brief examples in a single country. Fascists not only have no comparable record, but are obviously against everything I just mentioned. For all the anti-communism that permeates pop culture and textbooks, it is not difficult for most people to distinguish between the Marxist and the fascist position on these and other issues, no matter what these people have heard about the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, or whatever.
At the same time the US government has never displayed magnanimity toward the left whenever the latter appeared to become a serious threat to capitalism. The Haymarket martyrs, the Palmer Raids, McCarthyism, COINTELPRO, and numerous other examples right up to the present day (e.g. the continued employment of provocateurs and the FBI's raid on the FRSO in 2010) demonstrate this.
It is therefore easy to see why a Neo-Nazi will receive more flack among the public for advocating the extermination of Jews or police brutality against Blacks compared to the Marxist who argues against anti-Semitism and in favor of the liberation of Blacks.