“A specter is haunting America; the specter of Communism!”.
Until recently this re-writing of the opening of “The Communist Manifesto” by Marx and Engels might have sounded like a sour joke. Now, however, we have American politicians who describe themselves alternately as Democratic Socialists or straight Communists.
Their morale boosted by the election of Zahran Mamadani as Mayor of New York and Abdul El-Sayyed as a shoe-in candidate for a senate seat from Illinois they openly talk of seizing control of the Democrat Party and reshaping it as an instrument for “creating an egalitarian system” in the United States. One of their stars Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio Cortez is even putting out teasers about a possible presidential run in less than two years.
This is not the first time that the Democrat Party which is based on a coalition of ethnic, religious and cultural minorities is taking a sharp left turn. In 1972 the party nominated George McGivern for presidency on a platform inspired by European Social-Democrat parties. In those days, however, it was Scandinavian Social Democracy that was hailed as the ideal form of government.
Since then, Scandinavian Social Democracy has faded into history and replaced by a neo-capitalist creed under unashamedly rightist parties.
Though Communism never became a major force in the United States it often lurked in the background like the specter drawn by Marx.
A case could be made for an older history of Communism in America.
In his “ancient Society” the American ethnographer Lewis Henry Morgan in the 19th century told theory of a vast confederation created by seven Red Indian tribes in large chunks of the US and Canada.
In it, led by the Iroquois there was no private property or money and the slogan “from each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her needs” was strictly applied.
Its capital Tecumseh was hailed as the Athens of the “primitive” communist way of life.
In 1725 Benjamin Franklin presented a plan to turn the 13 colonies into a confederation modeled on the Iroquois one emphasizing that since the new continent didn’t belong to any king or baron, all land should be commonly owned.
After the crushing failure of European revolutions in 1848 Marx pinned his hopes on the United States as the nation to build the first modern Communist society. In 1852 at the conference of the first Socialist International in The Hague Marx described the US as “the future of Socialism”, dismissing suggestions that Russia, which he called “a land of semi-savages” might lead the dreamed of revolution.
After the1848 disaster many Communist leaders among them Adolph Surge sought refuge in the US to escape European police. Most morphed into fat capitalists while giving the local politics a leftist accent which is still there.
In 1922 Lenin wondered why America was hesitating to launch the socialist revolution which would then be followed by the whole world.
Nevertheless, Communism never became a major force in American politics.
Some historians suggest that this was due to the US success in portraying Communism as a military-security or even an existential threat illustrated by the “reds under the bed” witch-hunt of the 1950s rather than a rival view of the world. Thus paradoxically the USSR by its very existence helped the US avoid Communism.
While Communism was a taboo word until now some American politicians used code words such as “social” and “collective” instead.
Fast forward, President John Kennedy’s “Ask not..” rhetoric, perhaps inspired by Mao Zedong’s “Little Red Book,” designated the individual as one who ought to do something for the state rather than query what the state does for him.
Bill Clinton’s election slogan “It’s the economy stupid!” was a rehash of Marx’s belief that the economy provides the infrastructure of society with politics as the superstructure.
In his 780-page autobiography, Barack Obama mocks critics who suggest he may be a “closet socialist.”
He then reveals his attachment to collectivism, praising “the collective spirit, a thing we all wish for, a sense of connection that overrides our differences.”
He adds: “Regulatory state has made American lives a lot better”-words that echo Benito Mussolini’s declamations about the big corporatist state that redistributes the fruits of national endeavor.
The gospel of American neo-Communists is ridden with contradictions. They want to defund the police and virtually abolish the armed forces while all Communist systems so far did the opposite by creating a police state backed by a huge military machine.
American neo-Communists talk of collective ownership of land while the federal government owns almost 30 per cent of the total territory. Add to that land owned by the 50 states and you already have the collective ownership under the founders of Tecumseh and imposed by Josef Stalin in Russia.
They also talk of collective ownership of “means of production and exchange.” Yet those “means” are owned by 58 per cent of Americans who hold stocks and won’t be glad to be dispossessed in the name of “collective control.”
And, that not to mention countless Americans who own small and medium businesses.
Mayor Mamdani’s housing officer suggests a freezing of rents and the creation of “powerful blocs of tenants”, a recipe to deepen the great city’s housing crisis. In such a situation who would want to invest in building housing for rent?
The neo-Communists internationalist profile consists of unconditional support for Hamas, sympathy for the Khomeinist regime in Tehran and systematic opposition to the United States projection of power regardless of the context.
Various forms of crypto-communism have been present in many US elections. This autumn’s mid-term elections may be the first in which cryptos discard their masks. And that is good news. Cryptos base their hopes on Marx’s prophesy about the law of history under which primitive communism leads to advanced communism after passing through feudalism, capitalism and imperialism.
However, don’t tell anyone: there is no law of history, only tendencies, circumstances, contingencies, accidents and good and bad luck.
