THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM What Is A Communist? In the April issue The Progressive reprinted a Madison (Wis.) Capital Times feature quoting 100 replies to the question "What Is a Communist?" We...
...Iowa State College Ames, la...
...Call a man "a Communist" in the United States today and there you have, in just one word, all the known and the feared unknown evils of this world and the next—a new, fatal low in name-calling...
...Communists are two types: First, the starry-eyed idealist advocating the strict Marxian principles of collective ownership of all means of production and distribution, with individuals sharing according to ability and need—all brought about by a "proletarian revolution...
...John C. Standing Earlham, la...
...Thus far, Communism remains an ideal, without successful historical incidence...
...C. E. Payne Aberdeen, Wash...
...What would you do then —divide again...
...Leonard May Jersey City, N. J. Communists and anti-communists alike forget human individuality and divineness in their efforts to find a group scapegoat for human inequalities and injustice which only superhuman intelligence, love, and sacrifice in each person could overcome...
...Communism is an economic system which abrogates private property and restricts individual enterprise...
...The word "Communist" has become so emotionally charged connotatively speaking, and so nebulous denotatively speaking that it cannot be defined in any accurate sense...
...The means of produce tion, capital, and all land would be communally owned, but everything would be regulated by the government...
...those condemned as being...
...This deadly "C-Bomb" can be planted under anyone who refuses to conform...
...advocates revolution, peaceful if possible, bloody if necessary...
...O. P. Dyar Lancaster, Calif...
...A Communist is one who repudiates private property, and the capitalistic system...
...A Communist is a party member or fellow traveler who submits to the discipline of the Communist Party in its drive to extend the Soviet dictatorship's power...
...repudiates religion, and believes in and strives for a one-world communistic state...
...He also believes in abolition of all private property, and that means of production should be under community control...
...G. Marty Madison, Wis...
...Communism and fascism differ from democracy in that a clique which cannot be peacefully voted out of office controls the government...
...Second, the bandwagon opportunist furthering personal ends while giving lip-service to Marx...
...Amelia Heilman Anacortes, Wash...
...otherwise it is unchristian and undemocratic and must be maintained by a dictatorship...
...A superfluous classification...
...His ideal is attainable if and when the public mental health and education produce a society that is voluntarily able to live cooperatively in harmony...
...The Communist believes in an Utopia of a classless society with no government and he believes that the end justifies the means, to obtain this goal...
...Charles Beaulieu Cumberland, Wis...
...The Brehmers Sheboygan, Wis...
...Louis, Mo...
...Bernice Evans Harding Berkeley, Calif...
...Meticulously used the term usually applies to Marxist-Leninist-Stalinists, Trotskyites, Titoists, and the Red-Dean-of-Canterbury...
...Rev...
...A Communist is one who believes that all the wealth should be equally divided...
...in North America, a bunch of people who do not realize our industrial revolution is practically completed, but talk in terms of 200 years ago...
...The party considers any means acceptable to bring its ideology into power, whether by peaceful or bloody ways...
...Miss Pat Arrowsmith Chicago, 111...
...William F. Doyle Westminster, Md...
...J. F. McDaniels Inglewood, Calif...
...Wesley A. Watts First Methodist Church Mesa, Ariz...
...Paul Bixler Antioch College Yellow Springs, O. A Communist is a person whose political, economic, and cultural faith is rooted in the Karl Marx school of thought for the organization and government of human society...
...A Communist with the spirit of dishonor is one that does not look or believe in a Supreme Creator for his welfare...
...A Communist is a member of the Communist Party, nothing more or less...
...Stephen R. Best St...
...Consider the theory of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need...
...Murray West St...
...Communism is Machiavellian Utopianism...
...Nancy Cross Law Student Stanford, Calif...
...This belief accounts for the ruthless, persistent, and, often, unethical actions...
...Pauline Alderman Musician Los Angeles, Calif...
...He believes that the production and distribution of goods should be "from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs...
...Communism means dictatorship...
...Concerning the display of wisdom under the heading "What is a Communist...
...A Communist is a person who believes basically in the Marxist theories but differs from a Socialist in that he believes in the violent overthrow of the government, distribution of wealth according to need instead of the amount of contribution to production, complete government ownership of everything...
...is 100, and that half the population is below average to balance the half above...
...But, Communists believe, "the end justifies the means...
...Louis, Mo...
...We invited readers of The Progressive to submit their own definitions, in 50 words or fewer, and thereby opened the gates to a near record flood of mail...
...A Communist is a person who advocates government ownership of all land and means of production, who works for a dictatorship oi>er the proletariat to bring this about, and believes that the end justifies the means...
...Dorice McDaniels Inglewood, Calif...
...Charles R. Eckert Attorney Beaver, Pa...
...In Russia and Asia, the Communists are a bunch of people who are driving barbarians toward civilization by industrializing...
...Robert Cerniglia Cornell College Mt...
...Bud Torgerson Hayward, Wis...
...Earl Loganbill "~ Burns, Kan...
...Thus he enters the conspiratorial service of the Kremlin...
...Leslyn MacDonald Mocabee Stockton, Calif...
...The Communists, as a disciplined, militarized political party, intend to lead the workers in and after this revolution...
...Alfred Baker Lews New York, N. Y. A Communist is another human being whose apparent thoughts of life's use are so far divergent from ours we cannot fully understand it...
...in the denial of personal liberties, and the repression of all dissent, political or otherwise...
...Communism is an economic and political system under which the means of production are entirely owned by the state but the government is controlled by a party, not by all the eligible electorate...
...He believes world economic revolution to be desirable and expects to fight for that end...
...W. F. Hollander Genetics Dept...
...A Communist is a person who believes in the collective ownership of land and the means of production so that each works according to his ability and receives according to his needs, in theory...
...W. G. Arlt Salt Lake City, Utah A Communist is a social fanatic who is inspired by socialist zeal to act on a plane for which he is neither mentally nor morally fitted...
...However: a Communist is an articulate sound useful for arousing fear and irrational hatred in the minds of many Westerners...
...It involves a one-party state with domination by that party's head...
...Alan P. Gooding Roslyn Heights, N. Y. A Communist is one who is devoutly irreligious, selfishly generous, incarcerated in his dream of freedom, who will kill another man in order to prove his own saintliness— a bad case of split personality, and, in need of mental hygiene...
...A Communist is an adherent of communism, a political and economic system under which (theoretically and ideally) the sources of wealth and instruments of production are socially owned and democratically managed, with the product distributed for the common welfare...
...He is a revolutionary but not a liberal...
...Gordon H. Sandberg College Student Long Beach, Calif...
...Fran Eliot North Little Rock, Ark...
...A Communist is anyone who believes in community ownership and operation of all natural resources, production, industry, transportation, communication, etc., for the common good of all and favors for none...
...In a free country a Communist is a person mistrustful of his own soul and of democratic methods...
...Farrar Burn Carpenter Trona, Calif...
...This term should never be employed loosely to apply to anyone else...
...Joel Picker Topeka, Kans...
...But if the Communist and all those who be more or less related—the spendthrifts, the thoughtless, wasteful and lazy—would spend their share again, we would be in same condition as before...
...Vernon, la...
...To each other they are outs and ins, sin and perfection incarnate...
...Inability to master all difficulties individually, lack of right judgment, insufficient patience and faith in God, limitations in skill and performance of work, unemployment, illness, accidents, and incapability to balance family budgets, causes free people to seek salvation in communism...
...Communists advocate social ownership of land and capital goods, to be achieved by the working class in a world-wide revolutionary class struggle, sometimes violent, against the present owners...
...One who is dissatisfied with the status quo, no longer feels he has any chance in it but has no plan of his own to improve it, looks to Russian leadership to overthrow it...
...Dick A. Givens New York, N. Y. Communists are not born...
...With neither a wealthy, or a very poor class on the earth, the world could realize Utopia...
...Its intention is to realize the brotherhood of man in a classless society by substituting state socialism for capitalism under a Cornmunlst dictatorship...
...Guy E. Whitaker Burley, Ida...
...It involves denial of civil liberties such as rights of free speech, press, and assembly, secret balloting between parties after free discussion, and the right to a jury trial before conviction...
...Martin Bronfenbrenner Economist University of Wisconsin Madison, Wis...
...For this reason he does not believe in inherent rights, equal under the law...
...A Communist is one who by irrefutable action or public statement has asserted his belief in the social theories of Karl Marx and in their success as demonstrated in the government of communist states...
...Washington, Wis...
...It rejects "Christian morality" as impractical and unrealistic and accepts, instead, methods of expediency and force similar to those advocated by Machie-avelli (and used by many "Christians...
...Communists, with their communal living and "to each according to his need" philosophy, range from Utopianists like Fourier to the Early-Christians...
...A Communist is a bad product of bad government—one whose policy to improve social conditions is on a par with the person who would burn down his house to get rid of the rats...
...A Communist is an individual who loyally adheres to or advocates destructive means, including violent revolution, deceit, hate, and coercion to absolutely and dicta-torially perpetuate a universal materialistic economic and social doctrine which neglects or destroys individual personality and conscience to edify the state so that society may be saved...
...Therefore he seeks special privilege by parliamentary action, destroying the fundamentals of our form of government...
...Oliver B. Lindsay Brownsville, Tex...
...If later circumstances bring "enlightenment," he may then entrust himself to God, to the Vatican, to mysticism—or more rarely, to democracy...
...A Communist cherishes equal, economic status, under one government, for all citizens...
...A Communist is a person with convictions concerning ownership of property, management of industry, social and economic equality such that he willingly submits to the party's authority and discipline, sees only two sides to any issue—"those not for us are against us,"—and permits ends to justify means: intellectual dishonesty, trickery, unreasonable self-sacrifice, violence...
...is it really news that the average I.Q...
...Distort this theory in a political-totalitarian way, in the name of expediency, and you have Stalinism, Titoism, and Maoism—all brands of contemporary "communism," in contradistinction to the original communism that the theory implies...
...A Communist is a person who believes in a dictatorial form of government and principally in socialism in the economic sphere...
...We can't possibly use all we've received, but are carrying a sample chosen strictly on the basis of first-come, first-used.—The Editors Dear Sirs: In this country, a Communist is one who is loyal to the dictatorship of Russia...
...Today Communists are of two kinds: those claiming to be...
...He lacks democratic sense and social character...
...Frank Niederkorn Pt...
Vol. 17 • May 1953 • No. 5
