A Manifesto on the “Manifesto”

At a time when many Americans are saying "what's wrong with government handouts?", "what's wrong with government takeover of certain industries and banks?", "what's wrong with Socialism?" ....... we need to remind (educate for the first time?) them of the tenets of Communism as expressed in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto.  [clipper]

We constantly hear the claim: Communism in theory is not as bad as communism in practice. If you read Marx, you’ll see that communism promotes sharing, equality, love of man.  [Paul G. Kengor - author]

HOWEVER, Marx’s common thread, which we need to remember, was his contempt for private property. .....  he emphasized something all Americans should know, particularly students suffering the perverse professor who somehow admires communism. Stated Marx: “the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”

....... Marx interrupted his meandering sophistries with a 10-point program of specific policy recommendations. I’m not going to shy from stating the obvious: Marx’s list is chillingly similar—in some respects, certainly not all—to what to what the American left has pushed for decades, from progressive income taxes, to inheritance taxes, to centralization and nationalization. Here they are, in direct quotation:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of all property of emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal obligation of all to work….
9. … gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools…

 [Paul G. Kengor - author]