Commentaries by Historical Figures on Socialism, Capitalism, and Imperialism

Commentaries by Historical Figures on Socialism, Capitalism, and Imperialism "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."-Benito Mussolini "We stand for the maintenance of private property... We shall protect free enterprise as the most expedient, or rather the sole possible economic order."--Adolph Hitler "These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people." --Abraham Lincoln • Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein. The great physicist Albert Einstein was a life-long socialist and anti-racist. Einstein's essay, Why Socialism?, was published in the first issue of the Monthly Review,May 1949. Einstein co-authored a letter dated Dec. 2, 1948 to The New York Times that condemns a terrorist, right wing faction in Israel, headed by Menachem Begin, whose ideology has since come to dominate Israeli politics. The letter by Einstein et al begins: "Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the 'Freedom Party' (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine." See also the Monthly Review article, Albert Einstein, Radical: A Political Profile, by John J. Simon. • War is a Racket, by Smedley Darlington Butler. Smedley Darlington Butler (1881-1940) was a United States Marine Corps Major General. Twice wounded in action and twenty times decorated, Smedley Butler was also one of the few Americans to be twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. At the end of his distinguished military career, Smedley Butler came to the conclusion that the U.S. military was a racket in the service of (in his words) "SuperNationalistic-Capitalism." In a 1933 speech, General Butler said, "I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket." In General Butler's words: "I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to MajorGeneral. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism." • Manufacturing Consent (the movie) explains many of the insights and ideas of Noam Chomsky. According to the New York Times Book Review, "Judged in terms of the power, range, novelty and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive..." Articles, interviews, books, and videos may be found at http://www.chomsky.info/ • Notes for the Study of the Ideology of the Cuban Revolution, by Ernesto Che Guevara. The revolutionary leader Che Guevara had this to say about Marxism in 1960: "There are truths so evident, so much a part of people's knowledge, that it is now useless to discuss them. One ought to be "Marxist' with the same naturalness with which one is "Newtonian" in physics, or "Pasteurian" in biology, considering that if facts determine new concepts, these new concepts will never divest themselves of that portion of truth possessed by the older concepts they have outdated. Such is the case, for example, of Einsteinian relativity or of Planck's "quantum" theory with respect to the discoveries of Newton; they take nothing at all away from the greatness of the learned Englishman. Thanks to Newton, physics was able to advance until it had achieved new concepts of space. The learned Englishman provided the necessary stepping-stone for them." "The advances in social and political science, as in other fields, belong to a long historical process whose links are connecting, adding up, moulding and constantly perfecting themselves. In the origin of peoples, there exists a Chinese, Arab or Hindu mathematics; today, mathematics has no frontiers. In the course of history there was a Greek Pythagoras, an Italian Galileo, an English Newton, a German Gauss, a Russian Lobachevsky, an Einstein, etc. Thus in the field of social and political sciences, from Democritus to Marx, a long series of thinkers added their original investigations and accumulated a body of experience and of doctrines." "The merit of Marx is that he suddenly produces a qualitative change in the history of social thought. He interprets history, understands its dynamic, predicts the future, but in addition to predicting it (which would satisfy his scientific obligation), he expresses a revolutionary concept: the world must not only be interpreted, it must be transformed." • Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break Silence, by Martin Luther King. This is the least well known of King's speeches. In his April 4, 1967 address, Dr. King confronts the effects of imperialism both at home and abroad: "During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military 'advisors' in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru." "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." • Malcolm X and the Fight Against Imperialism: an Interview with Malcolm X, January 18, 1965. Malcolm X argued: "It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it's more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody's blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless." On December 16, 1964, Malcolm X spoke at a Harvard Law School forum entitled, "The African Revolution and Its Impact on the American Negro." He explained the role of the American press in justifying imperialism: "Victims of racism are created in the image of racists. When the victims struggle vigorously to protect themselves from violence of others, they are made to appear in the image of criminals; as the criminal image-is projected onto the victim. The recent situation in the Congo is one of the best examples of this. The headlines were used to mislead the public, [to create] wrong images. In the Congo, planes were bombing Congolese villages, yet Americans read that (How do they say it?) American-trained anti-Castro Cuban pilots were bombing rebel strongholds. These pilots were actually dropping bombs on villages with women and children. But because the tags "American-trained" and "anti-Castro Cubans" were applied, the bombing was legal. Anyone against Castro is all right. The press gave them a "holier than thou" image. And you let them get away with it because of the labels. The victim is made the criminal. It is really mass murder-murder of women, children, and babies. And mass murder is disguised as a humanitarian project. They fool nobody but the people of America. They don't fool the people of the world, who see beyond the images." For more information, see: Malcolm X : A Research Site • Education of the Heart, Cesar E. Chavez In His Own Words "Society is made up of groups, and as long as the smaller groups do not have the same rights and the same protection as others - I don't care whether you call it capitalism or communism -it is not going to work. Somehow, the guys in power have to be reached by counter power, or through a change in their hearts and minds, or change will not come." • Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell (1936), gives insight into the nature of imperialism through the author's first hand experiences. Though critical of many groups on the Left (as well as the Right), Orwell was, and remained to his death, a self-avowed socialist, anti-imperialist, and anti-Zionist. In his 1946 essay, Why I write, Orwell stated, "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it." Listen via video streaming to Democracy Now! Radio's "The Two Georges, Orwell and Bush: A Dramatic Reading of George Orwell's Classic Work 1984 Interspersed With Recent News Clips From President Bush and Others." Other works by Orwell are available from the George Orwell Library. • How I Became a Socialist, by Helen Keller, first published in the NewYork Call,November 3, 1912, is one of her many articles on socialism, available from the Helen Keller Reference Archive. The inclusion in the Archive of Helen Keller's FBI file illustrates the threat to U.S. capitalist interests posed by this articulate and inspiring blind and deaf woman. • Proposed Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism and Syndicalism, by Bertrand Russell, 1918. Russell was one of the most influential philosphers of the 20th century, and a Nobel laureate in literature. He was a feminist, a socialist, and a staunch critic of nuclear weapons and the U.S. invasion of Vietnam. In the Introduction to his book, he wrote: "The pioneers of Socialism, Anarchism, and Syndicalism, have, for the most part, experienced prison, exile, and poverty, deliberately incurred because they would not abandon their propaganda; and by this conduct they have shown that the hope which inspired them was not for themselves, but for mankind." More information on Bertrand Russel is available from Sparticus Schoolnet and the Anarchist Reading List.