Communist Propaganda

[R_P_A_S]

Im friends on my space with some people who claim to be communist and have lots of communist propaganda and banners on their pages. however some of this banners i think portrait the wrong image of communism. and I think people who dont know about it wont really learn anything about communism or would simply get the wrong messege or idea of communism. I also feel that people like this give communism a bad name. i doubt they read anything probably just think is 'cool" that these people who claim to be communist are rebels of imperialism and capitalism. ANWAYS. one of the banners said..

"COMMUNISM OR DIE" and it had a picture of Kim Jong Il, CHE, Stalin, Mao and Lenin. I don't agree is a proper messege or that is illustrated with the right people.

not saying Che, or Mao is less or mor than the other. just saying that some of those guys there aren't or weren't even communist. if not they did more damage to the ideology.

Who would you say is 'the poster child" for a communist ad?

[Si Pinto]

To be honest, I think we need to be looking further than banners and flags.

These have their uses but to push our message we need to be thinking a bit bigger.

This is the 21st century, we need to be using the technology available to get our message across. Newspapers, Radio, TV, and the Internet.

As for leftist icons, I'm not sure the population is going to be greatly interested with a TV ad extoling the virtues of Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Che or anyone else. We have to let go of our past and move on.

Show them the damage capitalism is doing and show them what we aim for, why it's beneficial to everyone not just a select few.

For instance, on a TV add I would be very hard-hitting, show them the people starving around the world, the soldiers dying fighting pointless wars, the civilians caught up in it all.

Show them the deforestation, the acid rain damage, the ice caps melting and the resultant floods around the world.

This capitalist world provides us with enough ammunition already, surely we don't need to use 50, 60, 100 year old 'bullets' from our past?

Let's move on people.

[Honggweilo]

"COMMUNISM OR DIE" and it had a picture of Kim Jong Il, CHE, Stalin, Mao and Lenin. I don't agree is a proper messege or that is illustrated with the right people.

I think something got lost in tranlations there then, cuba uses "patria o muerte" to. The meaning is some more like "we shall not give up our ideals until we die".

http://www.powerdev.it/ebay/trepesosChe1.jpg

Also try to live in the the mentality of that time, the us had similar kind of propaganda. Its sickening to american propaganda from the 50's too. And indeed its not just banners and flags , its the ideas that count. And most communist movements do use modern day propaganda aimed at the horrors of society but also give an alternative.

[Rawthentic]

I believe that we should stop extolling any figures at all and start critically attacking the capitalist system with everyday things that they can relate to such as their work, poverty, hunger, drugs, war, ect. It would grab their attention to their situation and hopefully help them realize that it is for a specific reason that they live in the conditions that they do.

[emma_goldman]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2006, 09:35 PM
I believe that we should stop extolling any figures at all and start critically attacking the capitalist system with everyday things that they can relate to such as their work, poverty, hunger, drugs, war, ect. It would grab their attention to their situation and hopefully help them realize that it is for a specific reason that they live in the conditions that they do.
AGREED.

Labor especially. ;)

[Eleutherios]

Originally posted by [email protected] 10 2006, 12:17 PM
I think something got lost in tranlations there then, cuba uses "patria o muerte" to. The meaning is some more like "we shall not give up our ideals until we die".
No, it means "fatherland or death". Patria ("fatherland", more or less) comes from the same root as patriot, expatriate, paternal and patriarchy, with all the sexist and nationalist overtones that brings with it. I don't think Patria o muerte is a good revolutionary motto.

And I don't think the revolution needs a "poster boy". It doesn't need an intelligent leader everybody is encouraged to look up to. It needs real substantive ideas. It doesn't matter who came up with the idea or what their revolutionary "credentials" are; if it's a good idea, let's focus on spreading the idea and not the names. Flashy graphics and catchy slogans are one way of getting attention while looking cool, but class consciousness isn't going to catch on unless the proletariat really understands what's happening and can formulate rational solutions for its problems. Our propaganda needs to go way beyond simple marketing techniques.

Not that flashy graphics and catchy slogans should be completely avoided. I love the black-and-red flag, and I think the hammer and sickle is a cool symbol even if it has become associated with Lenin and Stalin, whom I don't particularly care for. I just think a lot of people have a tendency to dwell on symbolism and their ideological leaders too much and to not put as much thought into the actual ideas behind the message. If our purpose is to educate and liberate, then we can't just try to look cool and appeal to people's emotions—we have to encourage people to think critically, and offer them reasoned arguments combined with comprehensive social analysis, which quite frankly isn't something that can be compressed into a poster or a TV commercial.

But we still should try to look cool at the same time, I guess. I mean, who's going to join a revolution if you can't wave around cool looking flags? :P