Ideological Deviation Quotes
Seeger’s admission was typical of tens of thousands of Americans who had become disillusioned with the fairness, equity, and effectiveness of capitalism during the depression. They were easy prey for Communist propaganda which pointed out all the problems in American society from legal racial discrimination to lack of a social safety net while at the same time lying about the Russian achievements and hiding the horrible abuses of human rights—especially the political murders of millions of people. Then the truth about Russia emerged, Seeger and so many others abandoned the Communist Party as at the same time America was improving its society and beginning to try and deal with the great problem that had plagued America from its inception—racism and slavery.
This is a very noteworthy quotation. The reason is that in America, the extreme right wing accuses liberals of being communists or supporters of communism. However, here one of the two major Communists in the world, condemns liberalism and states that liberals are the enemy of communism.
Richard Moore, a black attorney, was representing August Yokinen, an immigrant Finn who belonged to the Communist Party, before a “Workers Court” in Harlem, New York. Yokinen was charged with treating three Black men with a lack of courtesy and accused of being a racist, capitalist, and a white chauvinist. Moore requested that Yokinen be given clemency seeing how expulsion from the party would be too extreme. The “worker jury,” however, unanimously decided to expel him.
