On this day in history.....

On this day in 1947, HUAC – the House Un-American Activities Committee began it's witch hunt of communists in Hollywood. Many people saw their careers shattered as this violation of First Amendment Rights proceeded.

This grew into the McCarthy Era insanity where communists were everywhere and had to be hunted down and, in some cases (like the Rosenbergs), murdered by the state on trumped up charges. (You can put a pun in there if you want.)

So many people that were abiding by their First Amendment rights had their lives destroyed. Freedom of speech and of the press. Freedom of association (peaceably assemble). Redress of grievances. All violated by the state out of some form of paranoia.

This paranoia dragged the US into the Vietnam war, which saw 58,000+ American servicemen and women die in combat and over 1 million Vietnamese killed as well. The aftermath of the war was worse – Agent Orange poisoning and PTSD with its high rates of alcoholism & drug abuse. Dare we look at the damage done to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos?

This happened before in American History. Look at the work that people did to organize unions. And the capitalists turned the power of the state against the workers.

Look at the WWI era United States, where President Wilson put the research of Walter Lippman into practice, lied the US into a war that was none of its business (sound familiar?) and jailed prominent socialists, like Eugene V. Debs. (By the way – running for president from jail, he still pulled in an incredible amount of votes. Over 100,000 when you had to be a 21+ year old male in order to vote at that time.)

Post WWI was as bad. Socialists were denied their seats in congress, driven out of political positions they were democratically elected to across the US. People were jailed. And J. Edgar Hoover began a reign of terror that lasted into the 1960's that would make Hitler, Stalin, and the East German Stasi proud.

Look at the Minneapolis strikes, Cleveland, and any time that workers rose up for their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and you will see the capitalists using (or trying to use) brutal force and the power of the state to put them down.

Thankfully it is hitting a wall. In the 18-30 year old demographic socialism is as acceptable as capitalism as an economic system. Even in the 30-50 year old range  support is growing as well. Look at the unemployment and under-employment rates among these groups and you can see the cracks in the facade of capitalism forming and growing.

People are getting tired of the stresses of capitalism and want something different. They are reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, and the many inspired additions to it. They are reading Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA and liking what they see.

We are approaching the Rubicon. Socialist ideas are being introduced and no matter how hard the media tries to ignore them, they keep leaking out. People are seeking out socialist writings and reading them on their own. The Internet, e-readers, and independent book shops are helping them get what they want – something different.  Something better.

Chicken Little is starting to scream “The sky is falling” again. And the people are saying “No. We remember the past.  And it's not worth the price .”

It's time for some socialist action. 

 

Let's go. 

We have nothing to lose but our chains.