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Socialist Manifesto Timeline
(Google)

An Ecosocialist Manifesto
By Joel Kovel and Michael Lowy

Socialism for Dummies
Part 1: "Egalitarianism"

Socialism For Dummies
Part 2: "Government Ownership of Industry and Companies"

so·cial·ism
Function: noun
Date: 1837

1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

[source] (merriam-webster.com)

Socialism — An economic system in which the production and distribution of goods are controlled substantially by the government rather than by private enterprise, and in which cooperation rather than competition guides economic activity. There are many varieties of socialism. Some socialists tolerate capitalism, as long as the government maintains the dominant influence over the economy; others insist on an abolition of private enterprise. All communists are socialists, but not all socialists are communists.

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"America is like a healthy body and its resistance is three-fold: its patriotism, its morality and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within." -- Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee

Christian Socialist?

Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable. One is based on the atheistic philosophy found in the Communist Manifesto; the other is based on the deity of Jesus Christ.

Anyone who doubts that the Communist Manifesto is also a socialist manifesto need only read Frederick Engels' preface to the 1888 edition, which declares that the Communist Manifesto "is undoubtedly the most widespread, the most international production of all Socialist literature, the common platform acknowledged by millions of working men from Siberia to California."

But why wasn't it called a "Socialist Manifesto" instead? According to Engels, "Socialism was, in 1847, a middle-class movement, Communism a working-class movement .... And as our notion, from the very beginning, was that 'the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself,' there could be no doubt as to which of the two names we must take."

Socialism means economic control of the people by government. In a socialist country, the state is all-powerful. Such an all-powerful state views itself — and not God — as the ultimate authority. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Communist Manifesto calls for abolishing family, marriage, countries, and religion as well as private property. Under the socialist system the state determines what is right and wrong — without any competing loyalties to God, family, or country.

Karl Marx, the principal author of the Communist Manifesto, once called religion "the opium of the people." Marx viewed man as mere matter that can be shaped, and perfected, by his external environment. How different this is from the Christian view that man has an eternal soul and is responsible for his own actions!

It is impossible for a true Christian to be a socialist or for a true socialist to be a Christian. Nevertheless, socialists have cleverly twisted the scriptures in order to make their materialistic philosophy appear Christian. As Marx explained in the Communist Manifesto: "Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a Socialist tinge. Has not Christianity declaimed against private property, against marriage, against the State? Has it not preached, in the place of these, charity and poverty, celibacy and mortification of the flesh, monastic life and Mother Church."
-- by Gary Benoit

Socialist Ten Commandments
[1912 Postcard]

Socialist Sunday Schools

Socialist Sunday Schools in Great Britain arose in response to a widespread feeling as to the inadequacy of the orthodox Sunday Schools as a training ground for the children of Socialists and of the need for some organised and systematic method of presenting the Socialist point of view and of teaching the ideals and principles of Socialism to the children, youths and maidens in the country. The main purpose being to supply the Socialist movement with fearless, capable and conscientious thinkers.

Mrs Mary Gray, a member of the Social Democratic Federation, who ran a soup kitchen for the children of the Dock strike, inititated the Socialist Sunday School in 1892. Her aim, on realising they had little or no education, was to influence and educate them and make them aware of their socialist responsibilities and provide what was lacking in their day schools. She started the first Sunday with only one other besides her own two children but twenty years later there were approximately one hundred and twenty schools throughout the country, twenty of them being in London itself.

A national movement, the National Council of British Socialist Sunday Schools Union, formed in 1909, however, traces its origin to a school opened in Glasgow by Caroline Martyn and Archie McArthur. It was established as a protest against, and an alternative to, the perceived middle-class bias and assumptions of the regular churches. Its aims were to help the schools in their teaching of Socialism. The schools were grouped in District Unions and for the first ten years were affiliated to the Council. However in 1920 the Constitution was amended to allow direct school affiliation which meant there was wide representation at the Annual Conference. The manual is a very enlightening book into the teachings of the Sunday Schools and was prepared chiefly for the use of teachers. It contains specimen lessons and technique help to the teachers together with suggested reading for Socialist Education.

It was the view that public education should be secular and Socialist Sunday Schools were for purely educational bodies and therefore the hymns did not have theological tendencies or the Christian dogma which was preached in religious churches of the day. They worked in close harmony with the Labour Movement and were concerned with the spiritual and social objective of the human race with regard to daily life and conduct.

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Socialism Poster
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Socialist believe that government knows best, and that government leaders are above the governed as a moral authority – sort of like God.

"Reagan was all about America... Obama is ‘we are above that now.’ We're not just parochial, we're not just chauvinistic, we're not just provincial. We stand for something – I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God.

...He's the teacher. He is going to say, ‘now, children, stop fighting and quarreling with each other.’ And he has a kind of a moral authority
that he – he can – he can do that"
-- Evan Thomas , grandson of Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas

Socialist Tax Tool
Value Added Tax
Why Socialist Love the VAT

A classic argument in favor of a sales tax is that it is easy to administer, so the overhead is low and the collection is not intrusive.

That may be true for a conventional sales tax, one imposed at the final sale. It is not true for VAT, which is a tax on the added value at each step in the life of a product, so it intrudes on every economic activity. It's not just overhead for retailers, it's overhead for everyone. Also, sales tax is a tax on the sales price, so there is no question about the amount due. VAT, on the other hand, is a tax on the added value, which means we're right back to arguing about deductions -- in the form of arguments over what part of the value is added and what part is not.

The most important argument against VAT is that it is a stealth tax, which is the main reason why politicians in Europe like it. It allows them to impose a tax and raise it every few years without being caught by the voters. A sales tax (at least in the U.S.) shows up on your sales receipt as a separate line item, so every voter can easily see the amount of tax. VAT, on the other hand, is hidden in the price of the product. If the VAT goes up -- as it does all the time -- the consumer merely sees a price increase. So the politicians raise taxes and the taxpayers blame "greedy businessmen" for price increases. It's a nice scam, but one we should not allow into the country.
-- Paul Koning [source] (wsj.com)

While admiring the Trevi Fountain in Rome, I turned to see a police car with three Italian officers drive by. The sign on the side of the car read, Polizia di Finanza, the Finance Police. What the VAT accomplishes, in addition to sucking more money out of the pockets of the "little people," is to inject a legal right for the state to examine, audit, criminalize and punish every transaction that occurs...
-- Joe Boccuzzi [source] (wsj.com)