REDS

[Comrade Corinna]

Have you ever seen it? I actually watched the entire thing (about three hours) and I loved it.

While the movie isnt by any means pro-Communist propaganda, it certainly is a pleasent surprise from all the vehemently anti-Communist shit from the 1980's and the Reagan (fascist) Era.

I love the part when Jack Reed and Louise Bryant make love during the Internationale.

The movie raises a question. Was Emma Goldman, the anarchist, against Communism? She said straightforward "this ideology cannot work!" I had a discussion about whether or not she was against Communism in general because it involved a form of government, or was she just against the Soviet system?

[JKP]

Leninism and communism are two very different things.

[Eoin Dubh]

Originally posted by Comrade [email protected] 31 2005, 09:18 PM

The movie raises a question. Was Emma Goldman, the anarchist, against Communism? She said straightforward "this ideology cannot work!" I had a discussion about whether or not she was against Communism in general because it involved a form of government, or was she just against the Soviet system?
'Red' Emma was deported on the orders of a young J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, for her anti war activities in America during WW1.
At first she was happy to go to the 'workers paradise' but her enthusiasm quickly waned. She detailed her experience in her book 'My further disillusionment in Russia'
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archi...her/mfdr_11.htm (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/further/mfdr_11.htm)

Emma Goldman was more into Anarcho-Communism, rather than the Bolshevik form of Communism.

[RedGeorge]

Originally posted by Comrade [email protected] 31 2005, 09:18 PM
The movie raises a question. Was Emma Goldman, the anarchist, against Communism? She said straightforward "this ideology cannot work!" I had a discussion about whether or not she was against Communism in general because it involved a form of government, or was she just against the Soviet system?
Great movie, bought it off e-bay for a fiver. In response to your question... I've only watched it once, but if I remember correctly, she was just against the Soviet system because she could see that it was turning into a communist party dictatorship rather than a proletarian dictatorship leading to true communism. But I could be wrong.

[timbaly]

I have been wanting to see it for a while but I can never find it in the libraries. I might just have to end up renting it. The film was so popular that it actually won some academy awards including best director.

[Eoin Dubh]

The movie was inspired by a book called "Ten days That Shook The World" by John Reed.
He wrote at least 2 others,,,"Insurgent Mexico" and there is a collection of selected writings titled "The Education of John Reed".

John Reed was buried with honours at the Kremlin.

[Severian]

Originally posted by Comrade [email protected] 31 2005, 03:18 PM
The movie raises a question. Was Emma Goldman, the anarchist, against Communism? She said straightforward "this ideology cannot work!" I had a discussion about whether or not she was against Communism in general because it involved a form of government, or was she just against the Soviet system?
Does it matter? She was against the revolution which actually took place. (And as an anarchist, it would seem she was against all governments.)

***

There's some historical inaccuracies in Reds which I think kinda spoil it politically. They smuggle in an anticommunist message about the Bolsheviks supposedly betraying the revolution from the beginning, and do it with historical falsehoods.

For example, there's the bit about a translator supposedly changing Reed's words in a speech at the Baku Congress. He's giving this moderate, timid speech cautioning against the excesses of anti-imperialism as well as imperialism, and the translator gives a rabble-rousing indictment of imperialism, getting cheers from a crowd of turban-wearing Central Asian workers. Reed is enraged that "you changed my words!" just like some reformist union bureaucrat once censored some pamphlet he wrote, earlier in the movie.

In fact, its the moviemakers who are putting words in Reed's mouth here, and falsifying his real political record. At the Baku Congress, he gave a rousing indictment of U.S. imperialism, with no caveats or hesitations. (http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/baku/ch04a.htm)

There is a story about a British delegate, Quelch, who supposedly gave a timid speech and the translator spiced it up. The moviemakers apparently took this story and applied it to Reed.

The moviemakers are apparently trying to give support to Emma Goldman's unverified claim that Reed, towards the end of his life, told her he was becoming disillusioned with the revolutionary Soviet government. There's no evidence in any of Reed's public statements or actions that this was the case, so the moviemakers apparently decided to invent some.