Dispatches

The American Communist Party condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent passing of H.R. 5349 — the “Crucial Communism Teaching Act” — in the U.S. House of Representatives. This act, attempts to institutionalize the falsifications and lies propagated by the so-called "Victims of Communism Foundation" by forcibly inserting them into all public high school curriculums. The stated purpose of the bill is to teach students that "communism has led to the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims worldwide," to promote understanding of its "dangers," and that "1,500,00,00 people still suffer under communism."

The bill passed with 327 yays, 62 nays, and 43 abstentions. Noticeably, Democrats and Republicans voted to pass this bill in similar proportions. The overwhelming majority of the so-called "progressive caucus" also voted in favor of this bill, which seeks to institutionally exonerate Nazi collaborators.

The Party draws its attention to these facts in order to demonstrate clearly that by no means do the Democrats and Republicans represent a "left-right" axis in this country, but rather one unified Right. The Party would also like to congratulate all those in congress who voted Nay for taking a principled stance in defense of the American people’s freedom of conscience.

It is obvious why the American Communist Party rejects this anti-Communist provocation. The notion that Communism is responsible for the deaths of 100 million people is a blatant falsification conjured up by the authors of the so-called "Black Book of Communism," who later admitted to having skewed the data beyond reasonable proportions in order to reach such a dramatic and sensational number. Moreover, the notion that 1.5 billion people "suffer" under Communist governments today is preposterous, and even directly contradicts independent studies conducted by universities like Harvard, which found that 95.5% of Chinese citizens, for example, support the central government.

The American Communist Party challenges the “Victims of Communism Foundation” to a public debate, where the American people can see for themselves whether their various falsifications of history they seek to imprint upon the young and impressionable minds of their children can hold up to minimal scrutiny by independent-minded adults. Further, we call for an independent commission to, first of all, determine the factual veracity of their claims.

However, we would like to draw attention to the fact that one need not be a Communist or a member of our Party to comprehend the dangers posed by this bill to the rights and liberties of the American people. Firstly, it is a violation of the American people’s freedom of conscience to institutionally determine how they should appraise Communist ideas. The topic of Communism continues to be a subject of debate and discussion, and lobbies funded by billionaires should not be at liberty to arbitrarily restrict the range of opinion available to the American people and their children.

Secondly, H.R. 5349 is wholly anti-American not only in form but in spirit, in its attempt to set the precedent for European-style “anti-totalitarian” legislation that serves to limit and restrict freedom of speech. Questions pertaining to Communism and other ideologies for that matter should be determined by the free conscience of independent citizens rather than the U.S. government.

Thirdly, H.R. 5349 institutionalized the curriculum of what is effectively an organization whose power and scope of activity is non-enumerated by our constitution. The ‘Victims of Communism’ foundation, alongside the various federal agencies, represent the rise of shadowy, dangerous, and unaccountable powers in no way enumerated by the sovereignty of the American people. The ‘Victims of Communism’ foundation is an arm of globalist and neoliberal deep-state forces, which are attempting to further penetrate into the institutions of government by having their power formalized unconstitutionally and illegally. Such foundations have no right whatsoever to exert any kind of control whatsoever upon the American people.

Fourthly, all independent-minded citizens concerned with protecting the constitutional liberties of the American people, communist, non-communist, or even anti-communist, should see the writing on the wall based on the experience of events like the Maidan coup in Ukraine, which were precipitated by the adoption of similar such legislation. Victoria Nuland is on record having admitted to the fact that the Department of State allocated billions to mold and brainwash the minds of the Ukrainian people for decades before the coup in Maidan.

This law lays the foundation and sets the precedent for an eventual complete usurpation of the U.S. constitution in order to implement a Ukraine-style fascist dictatorship. It is institutionalizing precisely the ideology that would sanction such a usurpation. The purpose of such anti-communist legislation is the exoneration of Nazi collaborationism and Nazism historically. It represents an attempt by the deep state to expand its ‘Ukraine project’ to the United States itself.

Our constitution does not sanction the institutionalization of ideologies and opinions, which belong to the realm of the individual conscience. If the ideologists at the ‘Victims of Communism’ foundation are so confident in their opinions and claims about history, they should be able to defend those based on their merits to independent adult citizens so-inclined to hear them, rather than attempt to forcefully shove them down the throats of their children.

Executive Board
American Communist Party (ACP)