Communism In America

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Communal living has been a fixture of society since the days of hunter-gathering. It wasn’t until social classes began to emerge and forms of capitol were created that societies moved away from communism. The modern theory of communism comes from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’, The Communist Manifesto. Published in 1848, this dissemination of communist ideals, which called for the elimination of class struggle and an end to the exploitation of the working class, would become one of the most influential writings on politics, social class, and economic structure in history.
Marx brought to light the “march of history” a theory which states that a social class would be exploited to their breaking point, resulting in revolution. The overthrown
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This organization would have a voice far louder than its membership, becoming influential to the progressive movement and infamous among the conservative right. Although highly unsuccessful in its primary objective, what the CPUSA really achieved was showing Americans just how “safe” they really were. The reaction to Communist Americans by the United States government throughout the 20th century would be comforting for many, but for some, the treatment of suspected communist sympathizers would be interpreted completely differently. At the start of the 1920s the United States Government would begin down a path of uninformed assumptions, fear of the unknown, imprudent decision making, and disregard for the very freedoms and rights the United States was founded on. This pattern was brought back during the 1950s as a result of McCarthyism, but this time accompanied by a hysteric middle-class and the creation of laws encouraging they seek out and report communists in the US often times this occurred with little to no proof of actual affiliation with the party. Throughout the 1920s to 1950s communists living in the nation would challenge the United States’ definition of freedom. The CPUSA earned the support of groups such as the Students for Civil Liberties of the University of California and the American Civil Liberty Union, not for their political views, but their right to hold and express these views. A small but vociferous group made up of mostly first and second generation lower-class immigrants, the CPUSA, was seen as the largest internal threat to the middle-class American Dream, materialism. Leaders of the United States conceptualizing a violent revolution initiated by the CPUSA through the Soviet Union Political leaders, guiding a nation increasingly influenced by corporate power and consumerism, dreaded what fueled communist sympathizers, The Communist

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