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ACORN embraces Marxist principles
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AP Photo - ACORN Las Vegas Office Raid
News reports of ACORN connections in everything from voter fraud, census involvement, and feigned protests against AIG executives (initiating bus tours of executives' homes), sparked renewed curiosity in just what this organization was all about. On the surface their message appears to have the support of our current president as well as the trust of many who are comfortable with the organizations' stated goals and grassroots operation. Most of us are not aware just what those goals are and it is time we begin to explore them.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is not secretive when it comes to publishing their organization's agenda. In looking over their website it is easy to feel a special embrace for many efforts they are involved in, they sound very good to the ear. Digging deeper there are intimate similarities between what ACORN terms The People's Platform and foundational principles woven into the teachings of Karl Marx. Understanding any organizations' or individuals' principles and goals is far more important than sliding into specific issues or personalities. Here is the beginning sentiment from their Preamble to The People's Platform;
We stand for a People's Platform, as old as our country, and as young as our dreams. We come before our nation, not to petition with hat in hand, but to rise as one people and demand.
We have waited and watched. We have hoped and helped. We have sweated and suffered. We have often believed. We have frequently followed.
But we have nothing to show for the work of our hand, the tax of our labor. Our patience has been abused; our experience misused. Our silence has been seen as support. Our struggle has been ignored.
Enough is enough. We will wait no longer for the crumbs at America's door. We will not be meek, but mighty. We will not starve on past promises, but feast on future dreams.
We are an uncommon people. We are the majority, forged from all minorities. We are the masses of many, not the forces of few. We will continue our fight until the American way is just one way, until we have shared the wealth, until we have won our freedom.
The preamble goes on to state the demand corporations and government fully understand their role is limited. Corporations are to produce jobs, provide products, pay taxes. No more, no less. Government is to be a public servant "to our good, fast follower to our sure steps. No more, no less." The ultimate goal for our government is stated as, "...the common concerns shall be the collective cause." This sets the tone for each area in ACORN's platform which gives clarity to their aim and who they identify as part of the collective. It also provides a comparison between their principles and those core to many visions of different Marxist groups in history.
Under ACORN's vision all working people are to be guaranteed an adequate income with many "fundamental rights" for workers. Among these fundamental rights are employer or government paid child care, no overtime requirement, a job accessible from home, and more. The entire platform focuses on the rights of low and moderate income people. Forced civil rights laws and hiring practices are targeted beyond a definition of mere income to focus on minorities and women.
When it comes to representation the mantra is more democracy in elections, government, and big business. The entire focus is the majority ruling over the minority with the collective people, those low to moderate income groups and minority classes, superior in power over the corporations (with over $10 million in assets) and governments. Forced requirements and entitlements are stressed throughout the platform. Leveling of pay between workers, government representatives, company owners, and all social classes are clearly sought within their platform. Taxation is only to be on the wealthy with the burden of government coming from those deemed able to pay at the exclusion of any within the controlling collective.
Marxism is the basic premise the bourgeoisie (those who own the means of production) must give way to ultimate rule of the proletariat (those who sell their labor for wages). Social class is determined by the interaction within the means of production, in other words between labor and business. Since the majority of a population is working class this majority, by rights, must be treated equally in all matters and should, by pure right of majority, dictate to the bourgeoisie. Ultimately Marxist philosophy has an end goal of a purely communistic way of life, living in commune with everyone benefiting. Dictatorship is achieved through the collective voice of the proletariat, majority ruling minority for the collective good of all. (This is a very simplistic outline. See H.E. Edwards' The Anatomy of Revisionism as well as Das Kapital written by Marx and Engels for initial research.)
The similarities found in ACORN's platform and many visions of implemented Marxist ideas are striking. Intimately interwoven with our current government, ACORN has gained a level of respect and acceptability with these views. Membership is well over 350,000 while they have many allied organizations which includes the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Workers United just this past week affiliated with SEIU. Edgar Romney, President of Workers United, stated, "The agreement creates the Workers United Conference of SEIU. Through this affiliation, we make a big, strong union even bigger and stronger." ACORN and its allied organizations are excellent at grassroots planning, organization, and activism...excellent tools for pressing their agenda. peacefully and legally.
In a speech before ACORN, in November 2007, then Senator Obama stated, "I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work." This appreciation has earned ACORN an opportunity to become a partner in the upcoming census as well as garner much support within circles of influential people across the country including labor unions once again welcomed to the White House, officially, by Vice Pres. Biden. ACORN's website saw the 1994 Republican Party resurgence as a threat to their initiatives. With today's RNC so far removed from the core principles of the Grand Old Party perhaps there is no real threat from them today.
For those who support a pure democracy with total control over corporations and government by the majority (the collective) ACORN is offering an opportunity to unite supporters. Since the organization does not use the language commonly associated with Marxism many are embracing their initiatives without an educated connection to the ultimate goal their principles hold. Their activism is reaching more tumultuous tones as their numbers grow. "We will wait no longer for the crumbs at America's door. We will not be meek, but mighty. We will not starve on past promises, but feast on future dreams."
For those who prefer to restore principles the United States was founded on listen to the words of Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper No. 10. "Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions." Majority rule by the collective class over minorities, corporations and government fails.
What can you do? In attempting to discuss this with supporters of ACORN their arguments will sound something like the following. "It is absolutely crazy and untrue we want anything similar to Marx's vision. We stand in favor of the promises of our American heritage. Look at the good we've done in <issue a, b, c>." You must develop sound educational awareness of our true American heritage, a republican heritage (not the party, the form of government). To argue issues is useless and exhaustive with no benefit to you or those you talk with. Beware the attempts to label people crazy or wacko for embracing Constitutional Republicanism or the "old failed ways that are outdated." Focus on principles and goals. Study our history as well as the competing sciences of government.
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