In the hands of the ruling class, propaganda has always been based on distortion and lies. The capitalist class has from its beginning waged an enormous and long-standing war against ideas other than those it propagates in its own interest. These have been designed to confuse and control so the class in power can dominate and exploit the rest of us.

Used in the interest of humanity for the transformation of society, propaganda spreads and teaches truth. As with any other tool, the difference is in who is using it and for what purpose and in whose interest.

In reality, propaganda is a neutral tool. The root and origin of the word go back to the idea of tying something down in the sense of defining it, and to graft something onto something else so it can grow and flourish. The root word is also related to the word ‘’peace.”

In the political realm, especially in the communist tradition, it means to promote and spread the vision of the possibility and necessity of the transformation of society. It articulates what this means and what is needed to achieve it.

This vision is a shared one, and based on real conditions. These conditions, termed ‘objective’ because they are real, are ones that affect us all. To understand why these conditions arise we use science, the science of society. Communist propaganda is not only the tool that reveals these objective conditions, and explains why they arise, but it shows the way forward. It lays the foundation for the kind of understanding needed for our class to understand itself as a class, to know its class interests, and to move politically. Its vision is of the kind of world and society we are fighting for – the only one compatible with the new way things are produced – communism, distribution “according to need.”

Right now our class is being thrown into the fight for the necessities of life – for housing, for education, health care, for food, for the wherewithal to live a life of material, spiritual and cultural fulfillment. People have no choice but to fight for these things for themselves and their families. These are the objective revolutionaries.

All of society is being pulled into struggle. Very few understand that the only resolution to their struggles is the transformation of society to one in which the abundance created by the new means of production is distributed according to need. This vision is of the liberation of humanity, and the end to the murdering and plundering of everything that exists for the benefit of the powerful and greedy few. These ideas are introduced through propaganda by conscious revolutionaries engaged in the scattered struggles. Revolutionaries use every available means to link up their struggles and to communicate and strategize with each other. They teach class consciousness, the understanding that we are a class with separate and opposite interests from our class enemy, the exploiting capitalist class. They teach about the need for politics, and a vision of the resolution to our problems.

Capitalist propaganda, based not on science but on lies, is designed to confuse, control and divide. A current and dangerous example is the attack against the immigrant worker. This is used to divide the working class along color and nationality lines, setting one exploited worker against the other. It blames the poorest among us for the failures of the economic system. It is very important that our propaganda counters this on the basis of not just morality (the ideal of equality), but on shared objective interests as a global working class.

Capitalist propaganda uses every resource in its enormous war chest to convince our class that we have common interests with our exploiters, and that the capitalist system is the best we can hope for. Not based on a shared and objective reality, it wants us to believe that all ideas are of equal value, and that none are better than others. This disallows any basis for shared understanding or action, and keeps people divided in their struggles. Its biggest lie is that we live in a classless society, and that all our interests are the same.

Communist propaganda starts from the situation as it is, the things people are struggling around, and draws conclusions about the remedy, and how it can be achieved. For instance, the immorality of a political order that allows people to die in the street is answered by its remedy – an economic system that operates “according to need.” Communist propaganda understands that this is also a deeply moral issue, and counters the capitalist propaganda of ‘‘blame the victim.” Morality is about how we take care of each other, not about what goes on behind closed doors in love relationships. These ideas are being fought out on all sides. Both religious and secular communities are asking whether their spiritual and ethical teachings and beliefs are compatible with hunger and homelessness, war, exploitation, and greed.

Communist propaganda serves a purpose – to change people’s minds and to throw them into political activity. It teaches the ultimate resolution of their scattered battles, and the only way these battles can be won. Propaganda introduces the new ideas that are needed to push this process forward. It introduces the vision of what a cooperative society is, and explains why it is the only workable outcome for the majority of humanity, as well as for the planet and its other life forms.

There is an old saying, “there is no power on earth greater than that of an idea whose time has come.” Conscious revolutionaries spread this idea and vision of our class as a class, with common interests, fighting for a common outcome – the transformation of society to one in which the abundance the new technologies create is distributed according to need. They propagate the understanding, based on the evolution of the real world, that this is the only sane and workable future. They explain why the fight against fascism, and the fight for the necessities of life, and for a sustainable, civilized order is in fact a fight for a communist future.

This is the element that must be introduced into the social revolution at this stage of its development. This is the vision and role of the League as an organization of propagandists.

 

September.2007.Vol17.Ed5
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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