Is communism legal in the US?

[Lefty Scaevola]

There was a south Texas county run by a communistic chicano farm workers party, La Raza Unida, for many years, untill it the party and country goverment collapsed from corruption

[:) Smiley]

Communists in the US are thrown from helicopters.

[MrFun]

If communism was illegal in United States, SlowwHand and MTG would have strung Chegitz, Mono, and a few others on here, up a tree.

[java4me]

Lots of people don't seem to differentiate between the true Marx communism and the Lenin/Stalin communism. They are very different.

The Marx communism is far more better than the Lenin/Stalin communism which people think of when they hear the word "communism".

[Provost Harrison]

Well bear in mind that Leninism/Trotskyism is a means of implementing Marxism relevent to the social and political conditions of the event. Marxism alone is not quite so 'practical'.

[JohnT]

Cute, but I would remind you that thousands of Americans defected to the Soviet Union during the depression.

Cute, but I would remind you that the US survived the depression while Communism collapsed among a general global economic boom.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by java4me
Lots of people don't seem to differentiate between the true Marx communism and the Lenin/Stalin communism. They are very different.

The Marx communism is far more better than the Lenin/Stalin communism which people think of when they hear the word "communism".

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
Ask the Rosenbergs then tell me

They were executed for espionage, not for party membership.

[JohnT]

Thanks for not allowing me to kill this thread, LOTM...

looks at current "last post by"

Edit: Awwwww, sh**!

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DanS
Of course, the law won't really protect you from what your neighbors think about your communism

Nor will it protect you from what your communist and fellow travelling neighbors think about your anti-communism.

I guess having grown up in NYC, even after the 1950's, gives you a different perspective.

[DanS]

NYC is its own, separate country.

[chequita guevara]

As LOTM mentioned, there was a little thing called the Smith Act. From 1941-2 to 1977, it was against the law to be a memeber of any organization which advocated the overthrow (violent or otherwise) of the United States government.

The 1930s was probably the largest period of communist membership in the U.S., because of the Great Depression. As many as a million people joined the Communist Party during that decade (thought the membership itself was never that high). Even Ronald Reagan applied for membership in the party, though he was rejected because he wasn't considered smart enough to be a Commie. Too bad they didn't let him join, woulda killed his chances of being President.

At various points in American history, socialism has grown and then ebbed away: the 1870s-80s, the 1930-40s, and the 1960s-70s. Whatever issue that caused people to drift towards the left eventually was resolved, which removed the material cause for being a revolutionary.

We had an abortive revolution in 1877, but it was unplanned, incoherent, and unled. Despite a commune in St. Louis, pitched battles between workers and soldiers in Chicago and elsewhere, it wasn't very likely the workers were going to seize control.

The closest the U.S. has ever been to communist revolution was in the 1930s, and everyone knew it. Only the fact that FDR's Administration had the appearance of doing everything possible to alieve the suffering of the poor and solve the crisis prevented one from happening. Had Hoover won a second term, we'd be living in a communist world today. People will put up with a lot, but government indifference to the suffering of many is one thing they won't put up with for long.

During the 1960s and early 70s, despite the radicalization of certain sectors of the population (minorities, women, students), the White working class was still solidly pro-government. Though the government at the time was very worried about revolution, it wasn't ever a real possibility, despite the fantasies of the Weathermen.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the labor movement began radicalizing again, slowly, in fits and starts. It resulted in then ouster of the SDUSA frmo the leadership in most of the unions and it's replacement by former DSA types. (SDUSA is socialist in name only, politically having been on the right-wing of the Democratic Party. DSA is on the left-wing of the DP.) During the 90s, many unionists became radicalized by their struggles and I've met more than a few socialists who became such because of their struggles, and not because somenoe convinced them it was a set of good ideas. The decade culminated with Teamsters and anarchists marching side-by-side in Seattle.

The left had it's teeth kicked in by 9/11, but Bush apparently had a great dental program for us, because his stupid war on Iraq has breathed new life into the left once more.

[Kropotkin]

As a side note to the issue. Even if it hasn't been or is illegal to be for example a communist in the US, thew country has a history of immigration laws that stops people of certain political leanings to enter the county. 1903 they signed the Anarchists exlusion act as a result of the assassination of President McKinley. After that the country has in a number of ways tried to stop people with different religious, ethnic or political backgrounds to get to the land of the free.

But, this really doesn't make it worse than pretty much any other country in that aspect. The worst of the western countries are probably Australia with quite a recent history of a more or less racist migration policy.

[DanS]

After that the country has in a number of ways tried to stop people with different religious, ethnic or political backgrounds to get to the land of the free.

This puts a somewhat misleading spin on the matter.

But, this really doesn't make it worse than pretty much any other country in that aspect.

Clearly, given the overall level of immigration, the US has almost always been much better than any other country in this respect.

[Arrian]

Had Hoover won a second term, we'd be living in a communist world today.

That's an awfully bold claim, Che. I call bull****. As you said yourself, a TOTAL of 1 million joined the party throughout the 1930s, but party membership was never near that mark. It would have taken something beyond a second term for Hoover to turn the US into a commie "utopia." However, unlike the USSR, PRC, DPRK, etc., we have elections in this country, and Hoover was tossed.

-Arrian