Can We Call Them Commies Now?

[Odysseus]

SEIU, Obama's favorite union, co-sponsored and participated in the Mayday parade in downtown Los Angeles. Among the other sponsors were:

• Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
• Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition
• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights-Los Angeles
• ANSWER Coalition
• Multi-ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network
• LIUNA (Laborers' International Union of North America)
• National Day Laborer Organizing Network
• COFEM (Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas en Norteamérica)
• Party for Socialism and Liberation
• Students Fight Back
• March Forward!
• AF3IRM (Association of Filipinas, Feminists Fighting Imperialism, Re-feudalization, and Marginalization)
• Alliance-Philippines
• KmB Pro-People Youth

Among the photos of the event found here and here, are these shots of the SEIU contingent being led by a member carrying a communist red banner.





Other photos at the site show banners with images of Che Guevara, the hammer and sickle, exhortations to destroy capitalism, advance socialism and communism. Red banners were ubiquitous.

Whenever somebody says that these guys are communists, they are very quick to throw around charges like McCarthyism and Red-Baiting, but is it okay to call someone a communist if they co-sponsor and march in a communist parade behind a communist banner, surrounded by people who openly call themselves communists? Just asking...

[Arroyo_Doble]

You can call them green peas for all I care.

[megimoo]

SEIU, Obama's favorite union, co-sponsored and participated in the Mayday parade in downtown Los Angeles. Among the other sponsors were:

• Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
• Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition
• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights-Los Angeles
• ANSWER Coalition
• Multi-ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network
• LIUNA (Laborers' International Union of North America)
• National Day Laborer Organizing Network
• COFEM (Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas en Norteamérica)
• Party for Socialism and Liberation
• Students Fight Back
• March Forward!
• AF3IRM (Association of Filipinas, Feminists Fighting Imperialism, Re-feudalization, and Marginalization)
• Alliance-Philippines
• KmB Pro-People Youth

Among the photos of the event found here and here, are these shots of the SEIU contingent being led by a member carrying a communist red banner.





Other photos at the site show banners with images of Che Guevara, the hammer and sickle, exhortations to destroy capitalism, advance socialism and communism. Red banners were ubiquitous.

Whenever somebody says that these guys are communists, they are very quick to throw around charges like McCarthyism and Red-Baiting, but is it okay to call someone a communist if they co-sponsor and march in a communist parade behind a communist banner, surrounded by people who openly call themselves communists? Just asking...

"If you sup,(Faustian bargain) with the devil you need a long spoon"that is, don't get too close to some evil people.

[CaughtintheMiddle1990]

SEIU, Obama's favorite union, co-sponsored and participated in the Mayday parade in downtown Los Angeles. Among the other sponsors were:

• Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
• Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition
• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights-Los Angeles
• ANSWER Coalition
• Multi-ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network
• LIUNA (Laborers' International Union of North America)
• National Day Laborer Organizing Network
• COFEM (Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas en Norteamérica)
• Party for Socialism and Liberation
• Students Fight Back
• March Forward!
• AF3IRM (Association of Filipinas, Feminists Fighting Imperialism, Re-feudalization, and Marginalization)
• Alliance-Philippines
• KmB Pro-People Youth

Among the photos of the event found here and here, are these shots of the SEIU contingent being led by a member carrying a communist red banner.





Other photos at the site show banners with images of Che Guevara, the hammer and sickle, exhortations to destroy capitalism, advance socialism and communism. Red banners were ubiquitous.

Whenever somebody says that these guys are communists, they are very quick to throw around charges like McCarthyism and Red-Baiting, but is it okay to call someone a communist if they co-sponsor and march in a communist parade behind a communist banner, surrounded by people who openly call themselves communists? Just asking...

Too bad you just can't lock 'em all in a prison camp, eh? Their being able to openly march, and talk to the President, must really bother you.

[Rockntractor]

Too bad you just can't lock 'em all in a prison camp, eh? Their being able to openly march, and talk to the President, must really bother you.

I think we are losing you.

[CueSi]

Too bad you just can't lock 'em all in a prison camp, eh? Their being able to openly march, and talk to the President, must really bother you.

~QC

[CaughtintheMiddle1990]

I think we are losing you.

Possibly, although, my girlfriend got me hooked on the idea that public education shouldn't exist. Had an interesting discussion with her--she was at my house when I wrote the Great Society thread. She put forth a very good argument as to why public education shouldn't exist. Essentially she said that if you are a parent of a child in a parochial school, you shouldn't have to pay taxes relating to pubic education funding, and that parents who send their children to public schools should pay for it--an amount around 300$.

She also argued that jobs being "off the books" should be more closely investigated and that a person should only be able to collect welfare for six months and they should while on it be given some kind of community service job.

She also agrees with the idea of eugenics in theory, however---that certain people--really only drug users--shouldn't be allowed to have children as their drug use could damage the child in utero, and out of the womb.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Socialist/Communist organizations share some (not all) common goals with Labor Unions. They are both focused on workers' rights. It doesn't mean they are the same. Why are you using "communist" as an insult? Clearly the people who support communism or who are anti-capitalism are open about saying it, as your pictures show. There is no need to conflate groups just because they attend the same rallies.

There are conservative groups and border enforcement groups such as the Minute Men who attend and march in anti-immigration rallies, and there are also Neo-Nazi's and white supremicists who attend and march in those rallies. They may share one or two things in common, but it's a major fallacy to equate their ideologies because of that.

[BadCat]

I think we are losing you.

I'd like to lose him.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Possibly, although, my girlfriend got me hooked on the idea that public education shouldn't exist. Had an interesting discussion with her--she was at my house when I wrote the Great Society thread. She put forth a very good argument as to why public education shouldn't exist. Essentially she said that if you are a parent of a child in a parochial school, you shouldn't have to pay taxes relating to pubic education funding, and that parents who send their children to public schools should pay for it--an amount around 300$.

That implies that taxes should only be used for things you personally consume. That's not what taxes have ever been used for. Taxes are used for common social goals. If someone buys a gun to protect their home, they can't stop paying for the police with their taxes.

You shouldn't think of paying taxes the same way you think of purchasing a good, it is not the same. This is a fallacy that I see all the time on issues of taxation, the idea that paying taxes is the same as purchasing a good. My taxes go towards maintaining highways that I never drive on, that's just how taxes work. That's how they've always worked, that's how they are meant to work.

Should I be able to specify that I don't want my taxes going to fund wars that I don't support? If your answer is yes, then you are basically saying the entire tax system is worthless, because taxes and government services cannot function like a marketplace. Some people might agree with that assessment, but I suspect you do not.

She also argued that jobs being "off the books" should be more closely investigated and that a person should only be able to collect welfare for six months and they should while on it be given some kind of community service job.

I agree with community service as part of collecting government benefits.

She also agrees with the idea of eugenics in theory, however---that certain people--really only drug users--shouldn't be allowed to have children as their drug use could damage the child in utero, and out of the womb.

Eugenics is insane, very morally questionable, and expensive. We could use the same money and put it towards treating drug addiction (and I mean rehabilitation, not throwing people in a hellhole prison so that they become worse in the end). It would be cheaper and extremely effective, lower addiction and crime rates, and protect children.