THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM

 

 It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.

 

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HISTORY OF SOCIALISM FROM MARX TO OBAMA

Excellent presentation from Yuri N. Maltsev, Rusian defector.

COMMUNIST GOALS PRESENTED IN 1963

An Interview of Former KGB Agent - The Takeover of A Nation

Life under Communism

By Charlotte Cushman

 

I am worried because too many people, especially our youth, don't even have a clue as to what living under a totalitarian regime is like. Here is my story, how I learned about the evils of government domination and became the patriotic freedom-fighter that I am today.

I am a descendant of immigrants from Yugoslavia. They immigrated to the United States around 1900. As a young child, I took it for granted that my grandmother and mother spoke in a different language when they got together. I took it for granted that we ate different food at Grandma's house such as potica, blood sausage, sallata, and homemade noodles. It was when I was five years old that something happened to make me painfully aware that something was, indeed, very different about my family.

At that time, my mother disappeared for a while. I didn't really understand where she was, but when she came back, she brought a stranger with her, a stranger to live in our home. His name was France. He was my mom's cousin, and he lived with us for about a year. He was very nice and a lot of fun, but he was very nervous. He was nervous all the time. When we would go out in the car he would constantly be looking around, smoking a cigarette, with hands shaking, glancing continuously at the cars behind us or next to us. He would say things like, "They are after me." "They have followed me here." "They're going to get me."

There were other things peculiar about him, also. He ate fast, and one day he filled up a table top with stacks of food and my brother took a picture of it. France laughed and said he was going to send this picture to Tito. "Who is Tito?" I wondered. "And why does France want him to know that he has all this food?"

Then he started talking about his life in Yugoslavia. He said his family used to live on a beautiful farm, but the government took it away from them. He said the Communists controlled everyone and everything. They couldn't even cut a tree down on their own property for firewood. He was afraid to walk from the house to the barn for fear of being shot. You had to be careful of everything you said because if you said something against the government, you put your life at risk. France's brother, August, did speak out and was pushed in front of a train and his legs were cut off. The Communists called it an "accident." August survived and went to the hospital, where he was poisoned -- another "accident." We had a collie dog that I loved. One day I was hugging the dog and France told me that people couldn't have dogs in Yugoslavia because they couldn't afford them. He said people would stand around eating with both hands up to their mouth for fear of dropping crumbs on the floor -- they couldn't afford to drop any food because they didn't have enough to eat. He told me that the Communists brainwashed the citizens with propaganda and changed the history of their country. I couldn't believe it. "How could they get by with that?" I thought.

He told me that leaving his country, his home, was very difficult. I later learned that he had had a girlfriend in Yugoslavia, and when he left with my mother, she fell on the ground, sobbing, "I know I'll never see you again."

But here is the scariest thing he told me. "It is coming here, Char," he said. "It is coming here." Needless to say, that terrified me.

At Grandma's house, there was a lot of talk about Yugoslavia, but she didn't tell me all the horrors of living under Communism like France did. All I heard was that they missed their farm and how beautiful it was, but that the government owned it now. There was always a cloud of extreme sadness around this subject. Also, Grandma and Freddie would send money to Yugoslavia because the family that remained there had no money.

France had a sister named Mimi. When she was twenty-nine, she left Yugoslavia. Here is her story:

"My parents and grandparents were farmers. They used a horse in the fields. They lived in the same house. The roof on their home was made of straw. It didn't leak, and animals and insects did not live in it. A man came to fix the roof once every ten years. Inside the house there were two bedrooms, one pantry, and one large living and cooking area.

"My mother was a happy person. She was sick in bed for ten years with multiple sclerosis and died at age forty-five. My father was a happy man and died of a heart attack. My grandmother was a tough lady, serious, and died old. My grandfather drank. He went back and forth from the U.S. to Yugoslavia. He would go to Yugoslavia, sell part of the farm, and go back to the U.S. He died in the U.S. and died old. My brother, Carl, worked in the mines. He developed a disease in the lungs where if they took it out he would die and if they left it in he would die. My brother, August, was murdered by the Communists, and Albina, my sister, stayed in Yugoslavia.

"Life under communism was very hard. Oh, how the people suffered! On the farm in Ljubljana, my family got up at 4 AM and worked until 10 PM, and the government took everything. When I decided that I would leave, I took my shoes to a shoemaker and asked him to cut a hole in the bottom (here I put my American money that relatives had sent me), then the shoemaker covered the hole with another sole. I did not want to be caught with money because then people would know I was going to leave, and this would be very dangerous. This was my idea to do this. I kept the shoes dirty and muddy. When I left Yugoslavia I put what few possessions I had in a bag and left without saying goodbye to my father. I did that because if the Communists asked him where I was, he could honestly tell the truth and say he didn't know.

"I wore black as a disguise. People only wore black if there was a death in their family and since our family had had no deaths, the guards in Ljubljana would not suspect who I was. There were guards everywhere. From Ljubljana I walked to Maribor. There I gave a farmer some money and he told me which way to go to get out of the country. He told me which way through the mountains, and then I had to go through a river. The first time I tried it, it was too dangerous, so I came back. The second time I was successful. I went through the mountains, through the river, changed my clothes, waited until the changing of the guards at noon, and walked through."

We told her that must have taken a lot of courage. Wasn't she scared? Did she ever think that she could be killed?

"No, I never thought of dying because I had no life where I was, so how could anything be any worse?"

We asked her, Wasn't it hard to leave all her things?

"I had no possessions, just two outfits, so no, it was not hard.

"When I crossed the border, I went to Graz. (I chose Austria because it was quicker to get to America from there; in Italy, one had to wait two to three years.) In Austria, I had to stay in a camp until I could get permission to go to America. I was in a camp three months and did a lot of work. I wrote to the neighbors of my family and told them that I was in Austria and was flying to America. I told the people in the camp that I had left Yugoslavia for a better life. As it ended up, I could not go to the U.S. because their quota of immigrants was full, so I had to go to Montreal, Canada. Before I left Austria I kept reminding the man that I had worked for to bring me my shoes, that the ones I had were uncomfortable. Right before I left he brought me the muddy, dirty shoes.

"When I opened my bank account in Canada the teller asked me, 'Where did you get this money' [because it was so flat and musty]? I told him that someone gave it to me; I did not tell him that the money had been in my shoes."

Life, if you can call it that, under Communism was miserable -- so miserable, they would do anything to get out. Have you ever wondered why immigrants from all over the world wanted to come to the United States? Do you know why our country was once known as the melting pot?

The answer is that our country was originally founded on the principle of individual rights. The Founding Fathers thought that each person had inalienable rights. These were the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to pursue one's own happiness, and the right to property (to earn and keep what you work for). That meant that if a family owned a farm, they had a right to keep what they worked for on that farm. They could criticize the government and not live in fear of being shot at or being pushed in front of a train. It meant that they could live the way they wanted without government interference, could freely trade with each other and make money. They could decide how they wanted to live and could live that way as long as they respected the rights of others.

The amazing thing was that the government in the United States protected its citizens instead of seeking to control them. This was the first time in the history of the earth that a country had been founded on the principle that man had rights and that the purpose of the government was to protect these rights rather than to trample on them.

So how could France say Communism would come to America? Well, as the old saying goes, history repeats itself, and he could see when he arrived here that the United States had already put into place laws and regulations that his own country had done. Those laws pave the way for Communism. If he were alive today, what do you think France would have to say about the concept of political correctness? I know what he would say. He'd say that's how they take steps to take your freedom of speech away and control your mind. What do you think he'd say about a government that takes over banks and car companies? He would say that is no different from when they took over his farm. What do you think he'd say about the government taking over your health care? I know what he would say. He would say Americans are fools.

So here I am, an adult, watching France's prediction come true. How can this happen here in America? The reason is that over time, the concept of rights has been corrupted. "Rights" has now come to mean "wants." You want an education? Or food? Or health care? Or a car? A cell phone? No problem, it will be provided. But who will be providing it? The taxpayers -- you and me. And when we are forced to pay for someone else's wants, we become slaves. It is no different from my ancestors on the farm in Yugoslavia.

It was when I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand that the pieces fell into place for me and I began to understand that the concept of individual rights has been corrupted by the belief that we need to live our lives for others rather than ourselves.

My ancestors were immigrants, and just like a lot of immigrants, they came to America for a better life. But a lot of immigrants came to America for a better life, so I learned as an adult that they really weren't that different after all. But to a five-year-old child, the impressions of seeing a grown man shake and sweat with fear while simply riding down the street in a car left a lifelong impression on me.

I think about Mimi when she said, "Oh, how people suffered!" I think about France on his deathbed, when he was dying of cancer, and I think that I, for one, will not give up my country without a fight. We owe it to them, to what they struggled for, and most of all, to ourselves. I credit France for my riveted commitment to capitalism, to freedom, today. It is because of what he taught me about freedom that I won't give it up. You see, when people talk about their heritage, they can either make it their own or they can walk away from it. And I, for one, will never walk away from mine.

 

A Warning From UK

By Matthew Richardson, Executive Director, Young Britons Foundation

I know that we have had our troubles in the past, but for the best part of 200 years the United States, and the United Kingdom have been friend—friends with benefits.  Those benefits being the special relationship, and as we celebrate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, we can all realize what the world would have been like had our two nations not been such close allies—if Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan had not stood shoulder-to-shoulder against the Red Menace.  It would have been pretty bad, to put it mildly.

Now, a generation later the words “freedom is only one generation from extinction” have never been more true.  Reagan is speaking to both of our nations from the grave and warning us not to forget about socialism. Unfortunately, his voice is drowned out by the fanfare of welcome for your new President.

The United States has started experimenting with socialism, and as your friends, it is the job of the United Kingdom intervene. Friends don’t let friends play with socialism.  Like any good rehab sponsor, we have been where you are now; we have toyed with socialism.  We have used an addict’s classic lines: “Don’t worry. We can take it. We know the risks,” “We’re not addicted. We can give up any time we like,” and “We’re not spending more than we earn on socialism.” In reality, none of that was true.

Our country has been ruined by 12 years of socialism. Our freedoms have been eroded, and our once great nation lies withered and broken.  In 1997, when Tony Blair was victorious by advocating change (sound familiar?), he promised us a better country, no tax increases, more prosperity, better education, lower crime, and an end to the “Boom and Bust” economy of the Thatcher years.

You don’t have to be a genius to work out that that was all snake oil.  In the last 12 years, there has been a dramatic drop in the quality of education and law enforcement and the freedoms we once took for granted have all but disappeared.  Alarmingly the United Kingdom now contains 20 percent of the entire world’s CCTV cameras; the government watches us everywhere we go—all in the name of the big state socialism government and what is allegedly best for us.

Worse than all of that, however, is the creation of and increase in more than 100 taxes—an unprecedented amount.  The prosperity of the nation has been stifled by over-regulation and taxation, and the productive element of the economy has been squeezed dry to pay for incredible engorgement of public services and the money bonfire that is the National Health Service (NHS).

We became addicted to socialism and the United States will as well if you do not stop soon.

It is a known fact that NHS is the 3rd largest employer in the world after the Chinese Red Army and the Indian State Railways. That is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are some parts of the UK where state employment accounts for more than 35 percent of employment in that region.  The more people you have working for the state, the less chance you have to get rid of socialism. State employees are not going to vote for a free market-loving government just like turkeys are not going to vote for Thanksgiving.

Finally, the number one hallmark of an addict:  spending more than you earn on your addiction.  Well, we have been, and so have you, and it has to stop.  As your national debt doubles in a year and ours reaches levels not seen since World War II, we have to wonder what is the matter we us?  Why don’t we just quit socialism once and for all?

Like any 12-step program, you have to admit that you have a problem. Our problem is socialism, and both the United Kingdom and the United States have to realise that the solution lies with a higher power, and there is no higher power than free markets and free men.

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A SHORT STUDY OF SOCIALISM

In this study, we will deal primarily with two forms of government and we

are talking about forms only, mind you, not management

or methods of management . We are dealing with these two

forms because, unless we appreciate their position in the picture in

which radicalism, Socialism, Communism and all allied isms play

so prominent a part, we can not understand the aims of those following

these isms, or the reason why we suffer because of them .

 

One of the forms to be considered is called a Capitalist government.

That is the form concerning which we know considerable .

the one under which we live and enjoy security ; the form so generally

accepted that it seems fixed and permanent . The other is the

Socialist form, technically called a cooperative commonwealth, the

form that gives rise to all our isms, and which is now being tried

in Russia . The fundamental difference between these two forms

and the occasion for all the trouble, is the private property right . The

Capitalism form sustains and defends that right as it is given to the

individual . The Socialist form denies the private property right

and the establishment of a Socialist form of government is urged in

order to destroy that right . All other differences are merely superstructures on this one foundation.

 

The world has been cursed by many physical plagues . The

"black death", smallpox, diphtheria, etc ., have swept millions of

persons into untimely graves . But as soon as men and women, after

extensive study, located and ascertained the nature of the germs that

caused these afflictions, means were found to destroy them and the

diseases that existed because of them . Today, plagues of this type

which once devastated great areas, are mere memories .

For every effect there is a cause and every effect partakes of the

qualities of the cause . We are experiencing certain effects manifested

in unrest, distrust, class hatred and a pronounced revolutionary

spirit ; in organized movements to advance atheism, to destroy the

sentiments of national loyalty and patriotism, to instill a spirit of

contempt in the minds of the rising generation for our institutions

and our ideals, to destroy all forms of national defense and to prevent

the enactment of any laws that will curb the influx of undesirable

foreigners, or secure the deportation of such persons should

they succeed in entering.

 

There are those who insist, and with great zeal, that these manifestations

are the aftermath of the World War . No doubt some

who so urge are sincere in their belief but their conclusion is not

sustained by facts . The manifestations or effects I have mentioned

are not the direct result of the World War. The World War merely

produced a fertile mental soil in which the true germ could breed .

These effects are caused by a germ of quite another kind, one which

the world must understand before the effects, the diseases of the body

politic can be cured .

 

This germ is found in certain theories concerning government

and economics . The name we commonly give to it is Socialism, but

remember all the time that Socialism means far more than a theory

held by certain individuals who call themselves Socialists . The word

Socialism, as we shall use it, covers also Communism, bolshevism,

radicalism, often "liberalism" and "internationalism" . Sometimes

it includes pacifism and all other isms which predicate the overthrow

of our form of government with its institutions, including

the private property right, in order that a wholly different form of

government, one which sets up different institutions and denies the

private property right, may be established .

 

Although we go more fully into this phase of the subject later,

a brief statement here as to just what Socialism and Communism are

may be in order . The fundamentals of the theory advanced by those

termed Socialists and of that espoused by those termed Communists,

are the same . In other words, Socialism and Communism are identical

insofar as theory is concerned . The difference comes in methods

to attain the ends sought, which at all times, remember, is the overthrow

of our form of government with its institutions including

the private property right . Those called Socialists adopt what is

technically termed "legislative (or parliamentary) action ." Those

called Communists adopt what is technically called "mass (or direct)

action".

 

It is the purpose of these lectures to present the evidence, leaving

each of you to draw your own conclusions . At times, naturally, we

will indulge in comment and you should accept this as a jury accepts

the summing up of an attorney . Our statements are not evidence .

They will be made only for the purpose of introducing or clarifying

the evidence . We have no thought of dealing exhaustively with the

questions involved in this course . All we are seeking to do is to

present certain fundamental facts and lay a ground-work that will

enable each of you to pursue the study with understanding . We are

here to gather and analyze evidence.

 

It may be somewhat difficult for me to make clear to you just what

the Capitalist form of government, now operating in the United

States, and the Socialist form of government, now operating in

Russia, mean to us as individuals . We have so long enjoyed the one,

and know so little about the other, that the gravity of the situation,

possibly, is not appreciated . We are dealing with a mental germ .

 

One can not see it, hear it, taste it, smell it or touch it . It can not

be isolated, as our medical friends say . Therefore, it does not appear

to exist.

 

Again, in going into the nature and extent of this germ we call

Socialism, we find so much misunderstanding as to just what Socialism

means, what it is and what it proposes to do, that when

one presents it stripped of the gaudy clothes in which it is usually

dressed, each of its exponents exclaims, "Oh, that is not the kind

of Socialism I stand for ."

 

Now, there is just one kind of Socialism, notwithstanding the

fact that its followers have interpreted the theory in a hundred different

ways.  Primarily and fundamentally the object of Socialism which

is also the object of Communism-is to destroy the private

property right .   Marx, in his "Communist Manifesto," the bible

of all who accept Socialism or Communism, was particularly emphatic

upon this point . He says ("Communist Manifesto," Rand

School edition, page 30), " * * * The theory of Communism may

be summed up in the single sentence : Abolition of the private property

right ." And again (page 32-3), "You are horrified at our

intending to do away with the private property right . * * * Precisely

so ; that is just what we intend ."

 

Prof. F . J . C. Hearnshaw of London ("A Survey of Socialism,"

page 425) writes, "Socialism, in short, in all its protean forms, seems

to me to be either a delusive snare or a devastating terror ." The

writer says that if he had been called a Socialist twenty years ago,

he would not have felt "insulted." He adds : (page vi) "I have

reluctantly but decidedly been compelled to come to the conclusion

that its (Socialism's) diagnosis of the diseases of the body politic

is so entirely wrong, and the remedies which it proposes so dangerously

 

This terse statement from one who has made an extensive study

of the question and from whom we will quote many times, will

strike you with force when you begin to discuss the subject with

some one who is following the Socialist theory with utter lack of

comprehension . The chances are nine out of ten that the person

nursing this dangerous germ is not a Socialist at all but a plain

idealist . The chances are ninety-nine in one hundred that this person,

who probably wears the label of "liberalism," hasn't the slightest

conception of the true purposes of Socialism .

 

"Let us repeat once again that the alpha and omega of

Socialism is the transformation of private and competing capitals

into a united collective capital ." In other words, place all capital

into one great trust and place the management of that trust in the

hands of men who have not, by their energy, skill, ability, intelligence,

etc ., created that capital .

 

Some Definitions of Socialism

 

Prof. Ramsay Muir, ("The Socialist Case Examined," page 3 )

"Socialism is a chameleon-like creed . It changes its colour according

to its environments . For the street-corner and the club-room it

wears the flaming scarlet of class war ; for the intellectuals its red

is shot with tawny ; for the sentimentalists it becomes a delicate

rose-pink ; and in clerical circles it assumes a virgin-white, just

touched with a faint flush of generous aspiration ."

 

J. S . Nicholson ("Revival of Marxism," page 139), "It is the

immediate redistribution of the property of others that gives the

driving force to revolutions of the Bolshevist type ."

 

Prof. Richard T . Ely ("Outlines of Economics," page 608),

"Socialism, at its best, is an abstract and vaguely defined ideal ."

Prof. O. D. Skelton ("Socialism, a Critical Analysis," page 1),

says that it is "impossible to label Socialism with the cheerful finality

with which the scientist treats a palcolithic fossil," and that the

term is further clouded by the tendency "of sundry well-meaning

sentimentalists to adopt the label to denote their half-baked yearnings

."

Prof. F . J . C . Hearnshaw ("A Survey of Socialism," page 59),

"Socialist principle, then, demands the complete expropriation,

without compensation, of all owners of land, whether large or

small ; and the total abolition of rent ."

 

It is because of the contrary and antagonistic features of this

germ of world unrest, distrust, class-hatred and a revolutionary

spirit, that it is so little understood by those whose very lives depend

upon a better understanding . While preaching love to win the support

of the emotional, it practices hate to gain the support of those

of an opposite nature . While urging sacrifices to attain its ends it

intensifies greed . While expressing pity for those in misery or suffering

from some economic or similar ill, it incites envy of all who

are better situated . While holding aloft the banner of peace, it has

declared war on every capitalist government and is urging a bloody

revolution to attain its ends .

 

Another thing that causes a lack of understanding of this germ

is that those who advocate the adoption of the theories expressed

by Socialism, make it a practice to confuse issues by using words

and terms which have little meaning to us, by giving a false inter-

pretation to words and terms, and by dealing in half truths or

perverted truths . In reading Socialist literature words and expres

sions are encountered which convey little or no meaning to the

average American . For that reason this literature fails to gain the

attention of such persons . Not catching the true sense concealed in

certain words and terms, the casual reader might go through several

Socialist books and not understand just what the writer was advocating.

We hear much about the proletariat and the bourgeoisie . The

terms mean little to us . They are not in common use in this country .

As a matter of fact we have no such classes as are indicated by these

words . We possibly think of the proletariat as those who draw

wages and the bourgeoisie as those who are in the employing group .

The truth is, as the words are used, the proletariat comprises those

who would do away with the private property right and destroy

all that goes with it, while the bourgeoisie are those who believe

in sustaining that right .

 

The literature of Socialism is filled with the word "revolution ."

Now most of us know what that word means, but the average person

who calls himself a Socialist will say that it does not mean "revolution"

as we interpret the word at all, but rather "evolution ." Although

insisting he wants to change society in an evolutionary, or

orderly manner, he often talks in the language of the blood-thirsty

highwayman. The constituents of the Communist wing of the

Socialist movement frankly admit that they mean just what they

say-that they are blood-thirsty. No wonder Prof . Shadwell is

forced to the conclusion that while "it wears the badge of the gentle

emotions, Socialism makes most appeal to the destructive ones ."

When one touches on the destructive side of Socialism, its sponsors

at once proceed to confuse the issue in order to cause the belief that

they do not approve of violence .

 

 

 

A COMMUNIST TAKEOVER?  The video

AGENDA - GRINDING DOWN AMERICA

The Socialism Experience