Είσαι κομμουνιστής; Δε σου αρέσει το σημερινό σύστημα; Είσαι τρομοκράτης και συλλαμβάνεσαι

Αλιεύσαμε σήμερα στο facebook ένα άρθρο από το Forbes (!), το οποίο περιγράφει το νεότερο "κατόρθωμα" της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης, η οποία ετοιμάζεται να βγάλει εκτός νόμου τον κομμουνισμό.

Όπως βέβαια παρατηρεί το Forbes, υπάρχουν πολλοί άνθρωποι που δηλώνουν κομμουνιστές στην Ευρώπη, και σε πολλές χώρες υπάρχουν και κόμματα με αρκετά σημαντική υποστήριξη που δηλώνουν κομμουνιστικά. Τι θα γίνει άραγε με όλους αυτούς τους ανθρώπους;

Εμείς εδώ στην Ελλάδα ξέρουμε πολύ καλά τι θα συμβεί, με τα ξερονήσια να περιμένουν να "φιλοξενήσουν" όσους για κάποιον λόγο δεν πείθονται από το σημερινό σύστημα και παλεύουν για κάτι καλύτερο.

Η επίθεση εναντίον της εργατικής τάξης θα ενταθεί, και αναπόφευκτα θα υπάρξουν κινητοποιήσεις, έστω και ανοργάνωτες. Άρα, αν το δει κανείς από τη σκοπιά της άρχουσας τάξης, είναι "απαραίτητη" η άνοδος του φασισμού, ώστε να τσακίσει τους εργάτες, και η ταυτόχρονη ποινικοποίηση κάθε ανατρεπτικής ιδέας ή δράσης, ώστε να κόψουν από νωρίς τον αέρα όσων κινητοποιηθούν, φυλακίζοντας όσους θα μπορούσαν ίσως να τους οργανώσουν καλύτερα.

[παρεμπιπτόντως, δείτε και μια είδηση για καταδίκη σε 5 μήνες φυλάκιση δύο συνδικαλιστών του ΚΚΕ στα σωματεία Μετάλλου Πειραιά και Ηλεκτρολόγων Πλοίων. Την είδηση αυτή δεν την είδα να παίζει και πολύ, παρά μόνο στον "κακό Ριζοσπάστη" που "το μόνο που ξέρει να κάνει είναι να απολύει τον Μπογιόπουλο". Αυτό το αναφέρω γιατί υπάρχουν και στραβά, αλλά υπάρχουν και σωστά πράγματα στο ΚΚΕ, έτσι δεν είναι;]

The European Union Proposes To Ban Communism

I’m on record as stating that I don’t think that the European Union is a good idea but they do seem to have come up with something of a jolly wheeze here. They’re proposing that there should be a new law on civil liberties and that this should make it a criminal offence for anyone to propose or promote communism. Which is a slightly odd thing to put under the rubric of civil liberty but that does seem to be what they’re doing.

A EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK NATIONAL STATUTE
FOR THE PROMOTION OF TOLERANCE

That’s what they’re calling it and it can be downloaded here. This comes from the ruminations of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation.
Now this might at first look just like the usual lefty human rights wishlist but have a closer look:

Section 2. Purpose
The purpose of this Statute is to:
(a) Promote tolerance within society without weakening the common bonds tying together a single society.
(b) Foster tolerance between different societies.
(c) Eliminate hate crimes as defined in Section 1(c).
(d) Condemn all manifestations of intolerance based on bias, bigotry and prejudice.
(e) Take concrete action to combat intolerance, in particular with a view to eliminating racism, colour bias, ethnic discrimination, religious intolerance, totalitarian ideologies, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-feminism and homophobia.

That totalitarian ideology thing there. That’s communism (amongst other things) obviously. So the purpose of the statute is to make sure that communism is eliminated. We’re looking pretty good so far. Then we have another section:

Section 7. Penal Sanctions
(a) The following acts will be regarded as criminal offences punishable as aggravated crimes:
(i) Hate crimes as defined in Section 1(c).
(ii) Incitement to violence against a group as defined in Section 1(a).
(iii) Group libel as defined in Section 1(b).
(iv) Overt approval of a totalitarian ideology, xenophobia or anti-Semitism.
(v) Public approval or denial of the Holocaust.
(vi) Public approval or denial of any other act of genocide the existence of which has been determined by an international criminal court or tribunal.

Overt approval of a totalitarian ideology is to be a criminal offence. One to be punished as an aggravated crime in fact. So anyone actually saying, well, you know, I think Trotsky might have been onto something can now be jailed. Which will certainly make student politics more interesting. Here in the Czech Republic the Communist Party just got 17% of the vote in the elections: they’ll all be off to jail then. There’s also a few communist Members of the European Parliament and it will be interesting to see whether they will vote for this. And there’s more to this law as well:

It must be understood that the “group libel” may appear to be aimed at members of the group in a different time (another historical era) or place (beyond the borders of the State).

So anyone who has ever argued that Stalin had some good ideas can also be jailed. And I’ll admit that I’ll be bringing the party balloons along as they march Danny Cohn-Bendit off under this law.
Sadly this proposed law is not actually all fun and games with the commies. It’s actually one of the most illiberal pieces of legislation that any non-actual totalitarian has proposed so far. For what it is really proposing is that the freedom of speech of everyone on the continent of Europe be limited to what certain bien pensants think is becoming for people to have free speech about. Which really isn’t the point of it at all. For example, this little explanatory note:

There is no need to be tolerant to the intolerant. This is especially important as far as freedom of expression is concerned: that freedom must not be abused to defame other groups.

Err, yes, there is indeed a need to be tolerant of the intolerant. The entire point of this freedom and liberty lark is that we all get to do our own thing, say what we wish and with that right comes the duty to take the consequences. When we get to the freedom of speech that means no libel and no incitement to immediate violence and everything else we can and do say to our heart’s content.
This is where we could profitably borrow something from the constitutional arrangements of another country:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That would put an end to this sort of nonsense.