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Have You Ever Been Red-Baited From the Left?

You could have anticipated that other shoe to drop, but I didn't. An anarchist perceives in my recent post a sure sign of their sworn enemies, the communists. Let me ask at this point, doesn't this kind of thing make you all nostalgic for those old time fist fights over Proudhon and the the Grundrisse? Which anarchists and which communists I don't care about at all, not anymore than I care about cutthroat competition in men's cupstacking. And as attractive as your rococo arguments and accusations might be to you, sir, they don't go with my decor. So here is a quickly cobbled together, general answer.

Going against the leftist instinct of more than a half century, today I am surprised to find that I don’t really feel much like defending the communists of the United States. Not except to defend them against the likes of the House Unamerican Activities Committee and various Republican front groups. That it takes about as much courage to slam communists in the United States as it would to slam Louis Farrakhan in a meeting of the Friends of Meier Kahane doesn't mean that they are above criticism.

No, I am not going to answer for their follies and mistakes, nor for their way too late eye opening to the crimes of Stalin. On the one hand, I’m not answerable for them. For another thing, they are notable for producing little of use. And that little cost the left a lot more than they gave. Every one knows the best leftist folk songs were the product of Wobblies.

What they could produce were countless factions both through splits and expulsions of people who differed on slight points of orthodoxy. Few of the myriad of communist groups have ever held back from the most vicious attacks on each other, sometimes resulting in bloodshed. Change a few words and names, you’d think they were Baptists. A rule of thumb, any political party that has produced more splinters than office holders defines “politically failed”.

I don’t respect many of the leaders of the Communist Party in the United States. Not much. A lot of them were more interested in guarding their tiny little patch of turf than in producing anything of material benefit for working class people or the destitute. Their favorite weapon, doctrinal purity, wasn’t good for much else. While that isn’t peculiar to the CP, they were supposed to be better than that. Some of them bought into the idea that making the poverty of the poor more grinding through inaction would more rapidly bring about the glorious revolution. And for that they can go to to hell*.

But I will give them the fact that for a good part of the early decades of the twentieth century they were active in efforts against racism and racist violence in the United States while others dithered. They were also early, if shamefully inconsistent, opponents of European fascism. They were active in a number of worthwhile activities. No honest person would deny them that. Would they deny that many other leftists and even their most hated enemies, liberals, deserve some credit for the same?

Communists' largely unjust persecution over the decades makes them somewhat sympathetic. And let’s be honest, they had a certain romantic cachet. But they also provided the political right with a rather willing straw man, one with a lead pipe in it that was used to bludgeon the entire left. While they idiotically argued, fought, split, fought with those who hadn’t already been thrown out, again fragmented, and spat venom between each of the contending groups averaging eleven members each, they weakened the left They provided the right with a specter to frighten the general population about foreign subversion and to so gain power.

I have known former Communists who freed themselves of the fixations of doctrine. They were good people. I’ve never known a former fascist and have only heard a handful who seemed to be decent. The former communists only had to dump the dogma and the cult while working to promote their original ideals. In order to become decent, fascists, klansmen and even the odd Nazi have to entirely change their personalities, their beliefs, their hearts, and their friends. Sometimes tattoos have to be removed too.

The massive and interesting writings of former Communists constitute an encyclopedia of eloquent regrets and reasonable defenses. I refer you to them, excluding the writings of such former Communists as who found their next career opportunity by becoming fascists. The number of those alone raise doubts about their originating organizations. I will not give fascists a reference anymore than I’m going to waste another second considering their rights.

I also fully believe that, to this day, there are current members of the CP and contending parties who are sincere and good, just not very practical.

So. What about Stalinists?

Oh, for crying out loud. Where? You got a Stalinist who’s picking on you I’ll make him put his head against the building till recess is over. That goes for Trots too.

* Just yesterday I had a self-proclaimed anarchist make a similar argument to me. Anarchists who feel that way can go to hell too.