Commies for peace in Minneapolis, take 2

Last Friday the Minneapolis Star Tribune published Katherine Kersten’s excellent column “Students should take another look at antiwar rally.” In my original post on Friday, however, I forgot to include the link to Kathy’s column. Below I’m repeating what I wrote on Friday about it.

The radical Communist sponsorship of many purported “peace” rallies, marches and campaigns is a phenomenon that we have frequently reported (here and here, for example). We have also decried the mainstream media’s failure to report the sponsorship of these marches. The Star Tribune’s Katherine Kersten takes a look at Wednesday’s “antiwar” rally at the Unviversity of Minnesota, a rally that attracted local area high school students to skip school and march under its umbrella. Who brought us this march down memory lane? Kersten reports:

The event was organized by Socialist Alternative, which prominently displayed its big red banner.

Just what is Socialist Alternative? According to the organization’s website, it is the American branch of the Committee for a Workers’ International, which seeks to “win support for the ideas of genuine Marxism among working class people.” A CWI website says its goal is to advance “the struggle to overthrow the rule of big business and global capitalism.” Its “recommended reading” includes Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” and Vladimir Lenin’s “State and Revolution,” along with tracts celebrating the achievements of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

Did the kids from Bloomington Kennedy and Minneapolis South high schools know what sort of organization was using them? Didn’t adults have a responsibility to investigate and inform them? Perhaps folks like Minneapolis City Council Members Natalie Johnson Lee and Dean Zimmermann, who joined rally organizers and students at a news Wconference on Tuesday, should have done so.

Kersten concludes with a modest proposal:

I have a suggestion. Before letting these kids rejoin their classes without penalty, assign them to read about the fate of people who join protests in the socialist paradises created by Marx, Lenin, Che and their followers.

Congratulations to Kathy and the Star Tribune for shining the light of day on this pathetic display. If you agree credit should be given where credit is due for this striking reportage, please let the Star Tribune hear from you via its letters to the editor page here.

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