Marxism in the USA

[pieter]

[pieter]

Professor Wolff discusses the economic dimensions of our lives, our jobs, our incomes, our debts, those of our children, and those looming down the road in his unique mixture of deep insight and dry humor. He presents current events and draws connections to the past to highlight the machinations of our global economy. He helps us to understand political and corporate policy, organization of labor, the distribution of goods and services, and challenges us to question some of the deepest foundations of our society.

[pieter]

Understanding Marxism Q&A with Richard D. Wolff
Prof. Wolff talks about the impetus for the book and why Marxism is appealing to a growing audience.
Wednesday, June 12th, 2019 at 7pm
Judson Memorial Church

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[pieter]

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[karl]

Pieter

In conjunction with your above presentation on Socialism:

Reasons Covid-19 is a Socialist Takeover

2020-03-23 thecomingtribulationcoronaviruscoronavirus, Covid-19, socialism, socialist takeover

Regardless of your views of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is one thing you should be even more concerned about. It is the response to the corona virus by government leaders.

Karl Marx listed 10 steps needed to transform a free enterprise system into a socialist/communist system with an omnipotent government. If we look at the responses to Covid-19, by politicians, it is very clear that many of them are following these ten steps.

There are always some people with a lust for power, and the desire to maintain control over others. America already has a great many politicians with this lust for power and control, and they have been taking great strides toward socialism, in the past decades. The coronavirus, however, is a golden opportunity to take great leaps. Other countries, including socialist/communist countries, are doing likewise, to gain greater control over their citizens. This post will only focus on the United States. (See also- 40 Reasons Why America Will Fall To Socialism)

1. The first step, listed by Marx, is abolition of private property. Socialism seeks to abolish ownership of private property. Because of increasingly high property taxes, most Americans would already admit that the state governments are the true owners of all real estate. Add to this, the fact that the federal and state governments already own approximately one third of all real estate in America. As government authorities respond to this “public health emergency”, many have granted themselves the authority to confiscate or control private property. They have given themselves the right to control or destroy people’s businesses.

2. The second step is a progressive income tax, intended to discourage wealth. The federal government already has this well under control. Socialism always comes to power by delivering services which make the citizens dependent upon the government. Many American politicians have come to power by simply promising these services. Socialism is a “cash for clunkers” program that rescues those in poverty by bringing down the other 90% of citizens to their level. Remember this when you are living in what would now be called “poverty level”, and ask yourself why you, and every other American, didn’t do something about it while you still could. In America, today, there is much wealth to redistribute, but you cannot redistribute wealth when there is no more wealth to steal. Socialism does not, in truth, redistribute wealth. Socialism takes wealth from its citizens, and hands out whatever it wants, according to the wishes of the politicians in power. Through the Covid-19 pandemic, we see the government forcing “non-essential” businesses to close, and awarding blanket benefits to lesser income people.

3. The third step is the abolition of all rights of inheritance. Presently, inheritance is taxed heavily by the federal government through estate tax. We are only a short step away from government seizure. If great numbers of people were to begin dying, we should expect lawmakers to create special rules for the disposal of the property.

4. The fourth step, of Marx, is confiscation of property from “rebels”. Though not enforced broadly, in the past, the federal government has a number of methods of taking what they want from who they want. Socialists will always give up freedom to gain control. Not just all your freedoms and rights, but theirs also. Gun control has been a major grasp for control of everyone, in their push for globalism. You can’t have total control over someone who has the ability to defend themselves (See also- Why Socialists want To Ban Assault Weapons). While socialists grasp for power, at any cost, socialism generally seeks to change society through slow reform rather than through revolution. This is basically the only real difference between socialism and communism, even though we are constantly told they are different and all communist governments call themselves socialist. Socialism is shared poverty, and communism is socialism with a gun in you back. While Americans might readily stand against an oppressive uprising, they cower before peer pressure. It’s basically a crime to “offend” anyone. Any person who resists government oppression is a rebel. In this crises, many Americans have been threatened with police or military violence for refusing to obey some official’s self-proclaimed wisdom.

5. The fifth step, is the centralization of all credit in the hands of the state. Our banks are already regulated and nannied by the Federal Reserve. Many are now asking for bailouts, due to the virus. It’s easy to see where that can lead.

6. The sixth step is the centralization of all means of communication. Though not owned and operated by the government, the federal government already licenses and regulates pretty much all the media. In America, socialists already control most of the media, which controls what you are told about current, past, and future events They most likely have control over the operating system your computer uses, and over the search engine you use, which gives higher rankings to sites which promote socialist ideology. In other words, they have the ability to brainwash Americans from every direction. Even though most Americans are not really concerned about the Wuhan virus (we are concerned about others response to it), and don’t believe there is any great threat from it, the media talks of virtually nothing else. It is very clear mainstream media is following an agenda (see- Mob Mentality, And The Antichrist). The more fear they can create, the more money they make, and the more submissive the population becomes. Sadly, Americans have already developed an apathetic acceptance of whatever the government does, and whatever its false prophet says.

7. The seventh step is the control of factories and production by the government. Many Bureaus already have the power to take control of, or put out of business, any company in America. Whereas capitalism believes in a free market and mostly turns economics over to society, socialism is a government form centered around economics. The primary aim of socialism is the centralization of markets, all under government control. We now see various government authorities openly overstepping their authority, and taking control of, or shutting down, a great many businesses (by the way, Trump hasn’t yet done this, only governors and mayors are doing it).

8. The eighth step of Marx is the liability of all people to labor. While socialist politicians now love to hand out “lazy checks”, as a means of buying votes, history proves that this will all change soon after they gain complete control. Socialism is a cradle-to-grave offer of provision, in which the government is the arbitrator of all problems, and the master of all. The socialist “Green New Deal”, as well as addressing most of Marx’s ten steps, calls for the government creation of millions of jobs to put people to work. You have surely heard it a number of times, recently, “We must all do our part” and “we are all in this together”.

9. The ninth step is the combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; and gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. At present, this is accomplished by the various bureaus of the federal government, and by the federal government continually taking power from state governments. The abolition of inheritance (#3), breaks down large family farms by forcing survivors to sell off large portions of land to pay inheritance taxes. We are now seeing a forced breakdown of communities, as a supposed effort to combat this pandemic. We should expect “social distancing” to have a great impact on this country’s future. In fact, socialists always create strife among the population in order to break any solidarity, and to stifle opposition.

10. The tenth step of Karl Marx is free government education for all children. Socialism strongly promotes a taxpayer-funded public education system. With America steadily falling behind the rest of the world intellectually, in the past few decades, and government-schooled young people increasingly embracing socialism, it is easy to see that our educational system has become little more than indoctrination camps for socialism. Add to this, private schools are also regulated by the federal government. And socialism opposes all parental rights in their children’s education. Americans already understand this and continue sending their children to these POW camps. Now, due to the Chinese virus and the economic stress placed on Americans by various government agencies, higher education, at already overpriced colleges, will be impossible for many young people. Some have suggested that the government will have to take over many colleges.


Karl

[pieter]

Karl,

I agree with the American Marxist economist Richard David Wolff (born April 1, 1942, known for his work on economic methodology and class analysis that Socialism, Marxism and Communism are taboo subjects in the USA since the twenties. In the democratic and Freedom sense I consider that to be worrisome and wrong. Wether you agree or disagree with these leftist ideologies, economical theories and political practices they played a role in the world outside the USA.

I in a sense find it sad that a typical American way to socialism, an American Social Democracy or American socialism never developped, like you had a Polish form of Socialism in the form of the Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (PPS) from 1892 until 1947 and a Dutch kind of socialism in the Dutch Social Democracy from 1894 until today in the SDAP (Social Democratic Workers' Party) and PvdA (Labour Party), and the SPD in Germany (1863 - today) and Socialdemokraterne/Socialdemokratiet (1871 until today) in Denmark. An American way to socialism could have been an American reform of Marxism and an American transformation of European Social Democracy into an American Social Democracy that works in the American democratic system, society and economy.

Today in my opinion American Republican conservatives, Democratic liberals and Independent Libertarians are anti-socialist, anti-Marxist and anti-Anarchist and anti-Social-democratic (European Labour party ideology and policies/measures and practices) due to the deep rooted American anti-Socialism, anti-Social-democratic thinking (anti-Labour party idea), American exceptionalism and American anti-Marxism. In that sense a real American socialist alternative for European socialism, an American Social Democratic or Democratic Socialist alternative never had a chance.

Eugene V. Debs



The only succesful but short lived American socialist was Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926), an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) ("Wobblies") and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.

Debs was noted by many to be a charismatic speaker who sometimes called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical style of evangelism, even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion. Howard Zinn opined that "Debs was what every socialist or anarchist or radical should be: fierce in his convictions, kind and compassionate in his personal relations." Heywood Broun noted in his eulogy for Debs, quoting a fellow Socialist: "That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it myself".



Although sometimes called "King Debs", Debs himself was not wholly comfortable with his standing as a leader. As he told an audience in Detroit in 1906:

I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.

Cheers,
Pieter

P.S.- In Europe I am more sceptical towards socialist, social democratic, Marxist and communist movements, political parties, organisations, activists, politicians and leaders, because I have experience with European leftists. The left has been more powerful in Europe and for longer periods than in the USA, where conservatives, libertarians, free market laissez faire liberals and others were successful in keeping socialism, marxism and communism out. In Western-Europe, Central-Europe and Eastern-Europe Social Democracy (the Democratic Socialists of the Labour parties and Labour oriented Trade Unions), radical socialist organisations and the Marxist-Leninist (Bolshevik) communist movements, political parties and governments were more successful in developing, propagating, implementing and stearing and managing their forms of socialism. In China, Vietnam, North-Korea, Cuba and Venezuela until today 21th century versions of Marxism still rule these nations.

[pieter]

The legacy of Marx ideas



Marx's ideas have had a profound impact on world politics and intellectual thought. Followers of Marx have often debated among themselves over how to interpret Marx's writings and apply his concepts to the modern world. The legacy of Marx's thought has become contested between numerous tendencies, each of which sees itself as Marx's most accurate interpreter. In the political realm, these tendencies include Leninism, Marxism–Leninism, Trotskyism, Maoism, Luxemburgism and libertarian Marxism. Various currents have also developed in academic Marxism, often under influence of other views, resulting in structuralist Marxism, historical Marxism, phenomenological Marxism, analytical Marxism and Hegelian Marxism.



From an academic perspective, Marx's work contributed to the birth of modern sociology. He has been cited as one of the 19th century's three masters of the "school of suspicion" alongside Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud and as one of the three principal architects of modern social science along with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber. In contrast to other philosophers, Marx offered theories that could often be tested with the scientific method. Both Marx and Auguste Comte set out to develop scientifically justified ideologies in the wake of European secularisation and new developments in the philosophies of history and science. Working in the Hegelian tradition, Marx rejected Comtean sociological positivism in an attempt to develop a science of society. Karl Löwith considered Marx and Søren Kierkegaard to be the two greatest Hegelian philosophical successors. In modern sociological theory, Marxist sociology is recognised as one of the main classical perspectives. Isaiah Berlin considers Marx the true founder of modern sociology "in so far as anyone can claim the title". Beyond social science, he has also had a lasting legacy in philosophy, literature, the arts and the humanities.



Social theorists of the 20th and 21st centuries have pursued two main strategies in response to Marx. One move has been to reduce it to its analytical core, known as analytical Marxism. Another, more common move has been to dilute the explanatory claims of Marx's social theory and emphasise the "relative autonomy" of aspects of social and economic life not directly related to Marx's central narrative of interaction between the development of the "forces of production" and the succession of "modes of production". This has been the neo-Marxist theorising adopted by historians inspired by Marx's social theory such as E. P. Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. It has also been a line of thinking pursued by thinkers and activists such as Antonio Gramsci who have sought to understand the opportunities and the difficulties of transformative political practice, seen in the light of Marxist social theory. Marx's ideas would also have a profound influence on subsequent artists and art history, with avant-garde movements across literature, visual art, music, film and theatre.


The British historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner E. P. Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993) was inspired by Karl Marx


Eric Hobsbawm (9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work.

Politically, Marx's legacy is more complex. Throughout the 20th century, revolutions in dozens of countries labelled themselves "Marxist"—most notably the Russian Revolution, which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Major world leaders including Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, Beyond where Marxist revolutions took place, Marx's ideas have informed political parties worldwide. In countries associated with some Marxist claims, some events have led political opponents to blame Marx for millions of deaths, but the fidelity of these varied revolutionaries, leaders and parties to Marx's work is highly contested and has been rejected, including by many Marxists. It is now common to distinguish between the legacy and influence of Marx specifically and the legacy and influence of those who have shaped his ideas for political purposes. Andrew Lipow describes Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels as "the founders of modern revolutionary democratic socialism."


Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Marx remains both relevant and controversial. In May 2018, to mark the bicentenary of his birth, a 4.5m statue of him by leading Chinese sculptor Wu Weishan and donated by the Chinese government was unveiled in his birthplace of Trier. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker defended Marx's memory, saying that today Marx "stands for things which he is not responsible for and which he didn't cause because many of the things he wrote down were redrafted into the opposite". In 2017, a feature film, titled The Young Karl Marx, featuring Marx, his wife Jenny Marx and Engels, among other revolutionaries and intellectuals prior to the Revolutions of 1848, received good reviews for both its historical accuracy and its brio in dealing with intellectual life.


Karl Marx sculpture of Chinese sculptor Wu Weishan in Karl Marx's birthplace Trier

Source: Wikipedia

[pieter]

Harriet Fraad



Harriet Fraad (born 19 August 1941) is a feminist activist, psychotherapist and hypnotherapist in New York City. She has been practicing as a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist for 37 years. She is said to be a founding member of the Feminist movement, owed in part to her founding of the Women's Liberation Movement in 1968. She is the founder of the journal Rethinking Marxism and specializes in writing about the intersection between economics and psychology.

Personal life

Fraad was born to Lewis M. Fraad, a pediatrician, and Irma London, who both had leftist sympathies. She is the wife of Marxian economist Richard D. Wolff. Wolff and Fraad have two children together. She and Wolff co-write for Economy and Psychology, a blog on the interface of those two topics.

Her father worked for the Comintern in Vienna from 1932 to 1936 and was a member of the Communist Party of America from 1929 to 1957. Her maternal grandfather was Horace London, the brother and campaign manager of Meyer London. To remain an activist her entire life Fraad would contribute to works and become a founding member in movements like Second Wave women's movement. To keep updates on the Economics world she gives regular visits and talks on the Julianna Forlano Morning show on WBAI, MK Mendoza on KSFR, and Women's Spaces on WBBK. The latest work she contributed to was Knowledge, Class and Economics :Marxism, Without Guarantees.

[pieter]

[pieter]

Karl,

To my great surprise in the world of today we see a huge increase of government influence and state control, but maybe I should not be surprised, because history goes in curves and always shows that in the dynamics of politics you have the unpredictability of political, financial, economical, health and geopolitical developments.

It's true that the Covid-19 pandemic increased the government influence globally in the macro economical, micro economical (the level of private enterprises, cafe's, restaurants, Hotels, shops and free lancers), health care, state spending and state influence level. Even rightwing and centre right governments which were fiscal conservative, free market oriented and against large government spending today are spending huge soms of money to save their economies and are following a rather Keynesian economical course with New deal like government spending. Since the economical crisis of the Thirties (1933-1939) governments didn't spend such a large amounts of money like in 2020 and early 2021. You could say that in a short periode in 2020 the world economy went from a Laissez Faire oriented Global Capitalism towards huge etatist state spenditures in the National economies with Isolationalist, economical nationalist and socialist tendencies.

Karl, it is true that there are always some people with a lust for power, and the desire to maintain control over others. With that comes opportunist paths they follow, self interest, egocentric behavior, Narcissist traits that comes with the huge powers they get, absolute power due to the health care crisis, increasing influence of government institutions and international organisations and NGO's, and new doctrines, dogma's, ways of thinking and acting and alliances, pressures and influences and treaties, policies and safety/security policies and increasing powers of civil servants, enforcement agencies, police forces and security organs.

For as long as humanity exist and organised itself in groups, tribes and peoples there is lust for power and control. That is already taking place for thousands of years in different systems, civilizations and human conditions. Today we have to monitor, control, follow, critical comment on and be a counterveiling power as citizens for our rulers, politicians and civil servants. We shouldn't take anything for granted. We should respect our constitutions, bill of rights, Rechtstates, Trias politica (Separation of Powers) and check over and over again of the mechanism of 'Checks and Balances' is stil working. That is very important for a Free and a democratic country, nation and people, whom are Independent, Sovereign, Autonomous and self-sufficient.

The abolition of private property should be prevented at all costs. The Rechtstaat and the Trias Politica should stand for that with Commercial laws, property rights, protection of private property in national laws and the right to self determination, entrepreneurship, trade, manufacturing, production and sales. The protection of the Free market and a free flow of goods and thus distribution must be guaranteed in a liberal democracy where conservatives, liberals, liberal-conservatives, libertarians, Democratic socialists, social liberals, Green environmentalists, Reform party people, National Populists and Christian Democrats coexist.

Socialism that seeks to abolish ownership of private property is Marxist-Leninist Socialism, the Democratic Socialism of Social Democrats (the Labour parties) is against the abolishment ownership of private property, because they are revisionist. In 1875, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) adopted a Gotha Program that proposed "every lawful means" on a way to a "socialist society" and was criticized by Karl Marx, who considered the communist revolution a required step. One of the delegates to the SPD congress was Eduard Bernstein, who expanded on the concept, proposing what he termed "evolutionary socialism". Bernstein was a leading social democrat in Germany. Bernstein's reformism was quickly targeted by revolutionary socialists, with Rosa Luxemburg condemning Bernstein's Evolutionary Socialism in her 1900 essay Reform or Revolution? Bernstein was vilified by the orthodox Marxists as well as the more radical current led by Rosa Luxemburg for his revisionism. Nonetheless, Bernstein remained very much a socialist, albeit an unorthodox one as he believed that socialism would be achieved by capitalism, not by capitalism's destruction (as rights were gradually won by workers, their cause for grievance would be diminished and consequently, so too would the motivation for revolution). During the intra-party debates about his ideas, Bernstein explained that for him the final goal of socialism was nothing; progress toward that goal was everything. The present day German, Danish, Dutch, Belgian, French, British and Polish Labour parties follow Bernstein's reformism, Bernstein's Evolutionary Socialism.

It is true that the federal and state governments already own approximately one third of all real estate in America. I consider the US Federal government and it's institutions as a sinister huge organisation. The US Federal government is too powerful and to influential inside the USA and outside the USA. Wrong powers, wrong influences, wrong developments could drive the US Federal government in even more state control, obtaining more real estate in America and penetrating even more the lives of American citizens. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signals_intelligence ). I hope that many fellow Forum members and others saw 'Social dilemma' on Netflix.

That authority to confiscate or control private property is a dangerous development. The right to control or destroy people’s businesses is extremely worrisome.

Socialism always comes to power when pluriformity, diversity, Free thinking, Freedom of gathering, Freedom of speech, freedom of expression and Freedom of opinion are diminished. That isn't the case yet, but we have to be careful to monitor the administration and do not give to much powers to the authorities, by voting wisely and tactical and strategically with a pragmatic, realistic and clear mindset. Services which make the citizens dependent upon the government are all around us today due to the Pandemic. Socialism as an ideology and system is a system of leveling, forced equaltiy and etatism in staid of Laissez Faire, Free Market and capitalism. If you mean pure socialism in the Marxist, Neo-Marxist or Marxist-Leninist form.

In America, today, indeed there is much wealth to redistribute, but you cannot redistribute wealth when there are no more resources, reserves and capital. The USA already has huge state debts to China, Japan and Korea. If they USA would double or triple that state debt that would be disastrous for the American economy and independence on the long term. Healthy societies try to diminish or erase the state depth.

Authoritarian Socialism takes wealth from its citizens, and hands out whatever it wants, according to the wishes of Despotic state socialist politicians in power. European Social Democratic leaders in power often followed fiscal conservative paths and were closer to conservative or centre right market oriented liberals than communist leaders from Marxist Leninist socialist states.

The abolition of all rights of inheritance destroys families and family wealth which is based on both income of labour, free entrepreneurship (trade; buying and selling, marketing and thus commercial activities) and inheritance.

Socialism generally seeks to change society through slow reform rather than through revolution. This is basically the only real difference between the socialism of Social Democracy (Democratic socialists with their reformism or evolutionary socialism) on one side and the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist socialism of communism on the other side. Karl, there are many forms of socialism and you can't speak of one Socialist reality. You have rather liberal, moderate progressive, reformist, social capitalist forms of Socialism in Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, the Benelux countries, France, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK, and you have militant leftwing Populist, etatist, leftwing socialists in Greece, Spain, Latin American counties, South-Africa (the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters of the radical left Black nationalist and Marxist Julius Malema) and the Marxist-Leninist states China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.

The centralization of all credit in the hands of the state is extremely dangerous, because it can dump people in deep poverty, hunger and thirst and without means of a living.

The centralization of all means of communication is very worrisome as well. The ability to brainwash Americans from every direction is worrisome. The more fear they can create, the more money they make, and the more submissive the population becomes. Sadly, Americans have already developed an apathetic acceptance of whatever the government does, and whatever its false prophet says.

The control of factories and production by the government is a development of a state plan economy, and etatist economy, like the former communist COMECON and Warsaw pact countries and North Korea today. It is true that the primary aim of socialism is the centralization of markets, all under government control.

Socialism is a cradle-to-grave offer of provision, in which the government is the arbitrator of all problems, and the master of all.

The abolition of inheritance, breaks down large family farms by forcing survivors to sell off large portions of land to pay inheritance taxes. With America steadily falling behind the rest of the world intellectually, in the past few decades the level of knowledge and information of and in the hands of American students and Young Urban Professionals decreases. Higher education, at already overpriced colleges, will be impossible for many young people. Some have suggested that the government will have to take over many colleges.

Cheers,
Pieter