Anti-communism

“ Supreme Court justices; prominent churchmen, businessmen, financiers, entertainers, judges, union officials; newspaper and magazine editors; famous columnists and radio-television commentators.
Although the cry of "peace" is the perennial clarion call of all world-government advocates, many of them have, in recent years, added the claim that their recommendations (for converting America into a province of world government) are means of "fighting communism." ”

“ I am unalterably opposed to communism because it exalts the State over the individual and over the family; and because its system contains a lack of freedom of speech, of protest, of religion, and of the press, which is characteristic of a totalitarian regime. The way of opposition to communism, however, is not to imitate its dictatorship, but to enlarge individual human freedoms. There are those in every land who would label as Communist every threat to their privilege. But may I say to you as I have seen on my travels in all sections of the world, reform is not communism. ”

“ They represent the victory of common interests over hideous Egoism.
To turn institutions of common interest to the use of all is the tendency of the age, and however people may curse at Communism they are bound to obey its mandates. Everywhere common interests press their claims, and Communism, proudly elevating its head, marches on triumphantly with all conditions of human life in its train.
He who declares himself an enemy of Communism declares himself an enemy of common interest, an enemy of society and mankind! ”

“ In every state, the army is for the property owner; in every European conflict, the working class is duped and sacrificed for the benefit of the governing class, the bourgeoisie, and the parasites. Therefore the XVth Congress approves and extols every action the anti-military and anti-patriotic propaganda, even though it only compromises the situation of all classes and all political parties. ”

“ I am compelled frankly to admit that, in my opinion, this attempt to construct a communist republic with a strongly centralized state communism as its base, under the iron law of the dictatorship of a party, is bound to end in a fiasco. ”

“ All non-Communist parties being 277 denounced as counter-revolutionary, the entire populace, except for a few intrepid individuals who courageously proclaimed their adherence to non-Bolshevist Socialist parties, sheltered itself behind the title of “non-partisan,” and having no programme but an anti-Communist one, put forward none at all. To put one forward was impossible anyway, for the use of the printing press, the right of free speech, and the right to use firearms (which played a great part) were confined exclusively to Communists. ”

“ The FPA's Councils on World Affairs are supported by patriotic community leaders. Yet, these Councils have done more than all communists have ever managed to do, in brainwashing the American people with propaganda for governmental intervention in the economic affairs of the people, and for endless permanent entanglement in the affairs of foreign nations–thus preparing this nation for submergence in a one-world socialist system, which is the objective of communism. ”

“ Communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil, which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the citadel of rule. ”

“ I would doubt that there is a village, let alone a city or county or state, which the Communists could carry. Communism in the world scene is no bogeyman; but Communism as a political faction or party in this country plainly is. Communism has been so thoroughly exposed in this country that it has been crippled as a political force. Free speech has destroyed it as an effective political party. It is inconceivable that those who went up and down this country preaching the doctrine of revolution which petitioners espouse would have any success. ”

“ The Administration has accordingly maintained relentless vigilance in combating the infiltration of communism in vital sectors of the Government and our society. Through our suc­ceeding program of economic and social progress under the aegis of democracy, the communist enemy is being pushed into retreat and defeat. ”

“ So is the whole continent divided. And so, too, is all the world.
The divisive force is International Communism and the power that it controls.
The designs of that power, dark in purpose, are clear in practice. It strives to seal forever the fate of those it has enslaved. It strives to break the ties that unite the free. And it strives to capture—to exploit for its own greater power—all forces of change in the world, especially the needs of the hungry and the hopes of the oppressed. ”

“ How is the conflict to be solved, since there is no longer one single common principle between the partisans and the enemies of the existing form of society, between liberalism and the worship of equality? Their respective notions of man, duty, happiness—that is to say, of life and its end—differ radically. I suspect that the communism of the Internationale is merely the pioneer of Russian nihilism, which will be the common grave of the old races and the servile races, the Latins and the Slavs. ”

“ In nearly every case in which we have called upon the United Nations to do our thinking for us, and to make our policy for us—whether during the Korean War, or in the Suez crisis, or following the revolution in Iraq—we have been a less effective foe of Communism than we otherwise might have been. ”

“ For nearly twenty years we and our Allies have striven to halt the Communist advance.But one of the weaknesses in our common front has been the restraint on freedom sponsored by our Allies and accepted by ourselves. ”

“ On the basis of its detailed investigations Congress has found that there exists a world Communist movement, foreign-controlled, whose purpose it is by whatever means necessary to establish Communist totalitarian dictatorship in the countries throughout the world, and which has already succeeded in supplanting governments in other countries. ”

“ It rejects the entire religious and cultural heritage of Western civilization, as well as the American economic and political systems. This Communist movement is a belated counter-revolution to the American Revolution, designed to undo the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and our Bill of Rights, and overturn our system of free, representative self-government. ”

“ These terrorized victims in every country are our most powerful potential allies, and we must do all in our power to make them understand that we are in sympathy with them—with their hopes and prayers for liberation—and that the only thing we reject is Communist despotism. ”

“ Communists had warned unceasingly in every country of traitors, fifth columnists, pro-fascists in government and among the economic royalists, scheming capitalists who flout the rights of the people, and who preferred Hitler to democracy. Communists had warned of those who would divide the people and pit one group against another by Red-baiting and Jew-baiting, labor-baiting and Negro-baiting—which were Hitler's sharpest and most divisive weapons. ”

“ In spite of military dictatorship and press censorship, in spite of the downfall of the Social-Democracy, in spite of fratricidal war, the class struggle arises from civil peace with elemental force: from the blood and smoke of the battlefields the solidarity of international labor arises. Not in weak attempts to artificially galvanize the old International, not in pledges rendered now here, now there, to stand together after the war is over. ”

“ The evils inherent in the party dictatorship have grown because of the war conditions in which this party has maintained itself. The state of war has been the pretext for increasing the dictatorial methods of the party as well as the reason for the tendency to centralize each detail of life in the hands of the government, which has resulted in the cessation of many branches of the nation’s usual activities. The natural evils of state Communism have been multiplied tenfold under the pretext that the distress of our existence is due to the intervention of foreigners. ”

“ Professional demagogues who make their living by exploiting the patriotism of the uninformed or the real or fancied grievances of the discontented, are exciting the masses with incendiary speeches and literature. Communism has also been active during the last few years and while its propaganda has not been particularly effective the forces of law and order have to be constantly on guard. ”

“ This leaves us without a policy of our own, and makes it impossible for us to take any action in our own interest or against the interests of communism, because communists have more actual votes, and infinitely more influence, in all the international agencies than we have. At the same time, our enemies, the communist nations, set and follow their own policies, contemptuously ignoring the international agencies which hamstring America and bleed American taxpayers for subsidies to our mortal enemies. ”

“ On one side, a testament to the triumph of our ideals over a totalitarian Communist ideology bent on the oppression of millions and millions of people; on the other, a painful reminder of the barbaric evil that still exists in the world and that we must confront and defeat together as a group, as a world. ”

“ This self-same government, which is too unscrupulous to refrain from periodical aggressions upon the territory of its neighbors, and too weak to resist the importunate promptings of its own subjects, has fomented within its own borders a new species of cosmopolitan revolutionary communism, whose doctrines and methods exceed in audacity and strangeness all the previous disintegrating theories of the century. ”

“ Goals so extreme and offensive to American tradition and aspiration obviously could not be attained or approached through order or with tranquility. If, by their better organization and discipline, they were successful, more candid Communists admit that it would be to an accompaniment of violence, but at the same time they disclaim responsibility by blaming the violence upon those who engage in resistance or reprisal. ”

“ Our troops must not be used to police people who yesterday welcomed them as liberators and today are coming to regard them as agents of American imperialism. We want our soldiers back—as private citizens—in the shop, on the picket line, in the voting booth, and we welcome them into the ranks of the Communist Party, to continue the fight against fascism on the home front. ”

“ And they will remain with us so long as the king-idea continues to be acceptable to the human mind. The Allies will never destroy the idea of Communism with their guns. The Communists can never destroy the idea of kingship and capitalism with their scaffolds. ”

“ Recognizing that the designation, rightly or wrongly, of petitioner organizations as communist impairs their ability to carry forward successfully whatever legitimate objects they seek to accomplish, we do not accept their argument that such interference is an abridgment of First Amendment guarantees. [14] They are in the position of every proponent of unpopular views. Heresy induces strong expressions of opposition. ”

“ This was purposely to exclude the Communists because groups in which there are Communists cannot be anti-Communist, but purely Social-Democratic groups may be anti-Communist. The Social-Democrats of Germany figured that they would have to fight with arms in hand against the Communists, and the German Social-Democratic cabinet ministers and government leaders are taking every precaution against the creation of such self-defense groups, especially against such mixed groups. ”

“ The Communist members must make use of the parliamentary tribune to denounce not only the bourgeoisie and its hangers-on, but also for the denunciation of the social-patriots, reformists, the half-and-half politicians of the centre and other opponents of Communism, and for the propagation of the ideas of the Third International. ”

“ Whoever wishes to annihilate Communism will have to destroy the common roads, the schools, he will have to destroy the public gardens and parks, he will have to abolish the public baths, the theatres, the waterworks, ail the public buildings; for instance, town halls, courts, all the hospitals, the alms-houses; he will have to destroy the railroads, the telegraphs, the post-office! For all these belong to Communism.
Communism cannot be annihilated. It has its origin and root in human nature, like egoism. ”

“ That is the role that the Social-Democracy must play as the leader of the fighting proletariat. Instead of covering this imperialistic war with a lying mantle of national self-defense, the Social-Democracy should have demanded the right of national self-determination seriously, should have used it as a lever against the imperialistic war.
The most elementary demand of national defense is that the nation take its defense into its own hands. ”

“ Such elements constitute at once one of the greatest dangers and problems of the organization. Indifferent, incompetent, dishonest, and sometimes even counter-revolutionary, they tend to bureaucratize the Party, lower its moral standard, and discredit it in the eyes of the masses. The militant Communists look upon them as a menace and wage ceaseless war against them. ”