Right wingers riled by 'Are You a Communist' campaign!

A spectre is haunting right-wing social media. From Denmark to the USA, from Canada to Great Britain, a reactionary online rabble is reeling at the success and ubiquity of the International Marxist Tendency’s ‘Are You A Communist’ campaign. In reply, we say: thank you for the free advertising – and you’re right to fear us! The communists are getting organised, and we aim to bring down your entire system.

Laura Loomer, failed Republican congressional nominee; and pundit for racist conspiracy-theory-peddling platforms The Rebel Media and InfoWars, gave her 500,000 Twitter followers a close look at an ‘Are You A Communist’ poster in Atlanta, “about a block away from the Fulton County courthouse”.

“These are radical leftist individuals who want a communist takeover of our country,” she says in the video. “That’s why they’re trying to arrest Trump and lock him up, because they know that Donald Trump is our last hope to save America.”

We have nothing to do with Donald Trump’s legal troubles, nor can we comment on who put up the offending poster. We rather doubt it was bourgeois, anti-communist, Democratic-controlled Fulton County Board of Commissioners. What can be said is neither Trump, Biden, nor any other bourgeois politician will be able to save American capitalism from collapse, which will put a real “communist takeover” squarely on the agenda.

In Arizona, Morgonn McMichael (conservative ‘social media influencer’ for Turning Point USA),  tweeted a picture of a well-stocked stall, under a ‘Join the Communists’ banner, with the caption: “First day of school at Arizona State. This is what I found. Communism”.

We congratulate the comrades at Arizona State: between their elan, and Ms. McMichael’s advertising, radical freshmen looking for organised communists at the university will know exactly where to go. Not content with the publicity she’d given our comrades, Ms. McMichael also shared a snap of a flyer listing the comrades’ entire schedule of events for the semester! 

“There is a website to join,” she notes in a follow-up tweet. “Any infiltrators feel like joining and wearing a wire? I know of a few dudes that would be willing.” We urge caution. The last time Turning Point USA sent an “infiltrator” to one of our events, it simply provided our comrades a platform to demolish every boilerplate pro-capitalist argument they offered up, and eloquently present our revolutionary alternative. 

It is perhaps for that reason Ms. McMichael has yet to post an interview she recorded with a comrade on our stall. “I’m assuming there’s no video of this interaction because my girl got smoked,” says one commenter. “Even in the still it looks like she’s contemplating her life choices.”

Also from Turning Point, we have chapter president Carlos Turcios, who writes: “University of Texas at Arlington students have been getting many stickers and posters of ‘Are you a Communist’ over the past few weeks in several places across campus. The Left is after the youth and will do everything to make them into nihilistic Marxist activists.”

Speak for yourself, Mr Turcios! Far from nihilistic, Marxists are seemingly the only optimists around, because only we offer young people the prospect of a future free of grinding exploitation and misery.

North of the border, communists have been offending libertarian ‘free speech’ advocates – by openly stating what they believe. ‘Liberty Talk’ host Odessa Olewicz shared an image of a partially defaced poster on twitter, writing: “Antifa is hiring. This is in my neighborhood in Vancouver. I ripped off the QR code. I would have needed a chisel to get the rest off. Just another day in clown Canada.”

We can only commend whomever was responsible for putting up this poster for their thorough job, and Ms. Olewicz for having the courtesy to leave the ‘join us’ URL fully intact.

We have also been graced with several tweets from Kristian Niemietz, Head of Political Economy at the Institute for Economic Affairs, libertarian think tank in London. “Are you a communist?” he says, sharing an image of a sticker. “Then stop being one. It's silly.” A rather bold statement from an acolyte of Ayn Rand, an author and ‘philosopher’ for whom the discrediting of her ideas is matched only by the turgidity of her prose.

Not only right-wing journalists and ‘influencers’ but also capitalists are paying attention. Martin Buch Thorborg – businessman, hotelier and author of the modestly titled book, My Path as Leader – shared Danish versions of the ‘Are You a Communist’ posters on twitter, writing:

“My son goes to commercial high school in Lyngby and their whole school was plastered with them this morning. As my son said: ‘We got them down quickly, we almost all vote LA’ [Liberal Alliance: a right-wing libertarian political party].”

We thank Mr. Thorborg for taking time away from his many enterprises to plug the campaign. Despite his son’s apparent efforts, given the school was ‘plastered’ in the first place, it seems not all students share his views. No doubt, the posters will soon be replenished.

Amidst the predictable outrage from these characters’ reactionary followers, hundreds of people are posting positive messages about communism in general, and our campaign in particular. Here are a just few examples:

“So if you haven't been paying attention, more young people are supporting communism. Go to any group or forum full of young people and you will see it. They feel like both parties & capitalism are letting them down.”

“Seeing this makes me wanna get a year's membership from them just to spite you.”

“This looks great, thanks for sharing.”

“Communism all the way! Capitalism is a plague to humanity.”

“Great. You should go to one of their meetings. You might learn what communism actually is.”

Not only the rabid fringe but also the mainstream capitalist press is beginning to pay attention to our campaign. Basel jetzt in Switzerland recently posted an article, displaying a German-language ‘Are You A Communist’ poster under the headline: ‘Marx wants you! Mysterious organisation is looking for Basel communists.’

‘Marx wants you! Mysterious organisation is looking for Basel communists.’ / Image: Basel jetzt

“Perhaps you too recently met Karl Marx in Basel?” it reads. “The bearded philosopher points at you with one finger and asks if you are a communist. These posters are currently hanging all over the city. They come from ‘Funke’, the Swiss section of the organisation, ‘International Marxist Tendency (IMT)’.”

In fact, there is nothing especially mysterious about our Swiss organisation, nor any of our sections around the world. All are open about our revolutionary ideas and objectives. As the article itself notes:

“A society that works according to needs and not according to profit – this is what the communist IMT wants. The organisation has sections in over 60 countries. In Switzerland, in addition to Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, Fribourg, Zurich and Kreuzlingen, it is also active in Basel.

“The aim of the posters is made clear on the website of the Swiss section. The organisation wishes for a communist society. It wants to overthrow capitalism in a revolutionary way, fundamentally transform society. But because capitalism cannot be fought on its own, the communists organise themselves – and seem to be looking for more members.”

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves! The entire point of our campaign is to raise the red flag of communism, wherever we are active, and bring new layers of workers and youth into the ranks of organised communists. 

As attested in anxious terms by research from the right-wing Fraser Institute, tens of millions of young people regard communism as the “ideal economic system”. It is easy to see why. Between the increasingly unbearable cost of living, war and instability on a world stage, the looming climate crisis, and more besides, greater numbers of people are looking towards a revolutionary alternative to capitalism.

As Basel jetzt rightly notes, it is incumbent on every communist to spread their views, find like-minded people and organise in bigger numbers, so that we can become a force to be reckoned with in the almighty class battles to come.