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A political and economic ideology in which the means of production are owned communally

Communism is a social, political, and economic ideology in which the means of production are owned communally, and it advocates for a classless society with little or no private ownership of property. The Communist theory was founded by German political philosophers and economists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the second half of the 19thcentury.

In 1848, the pair wrote and published The Communist Manifesto, a detailed outline of communist principles. The book was circulated widely and referred to as the Communist Bible. It was adopted as the communist handbook by several emergent communist countries in the 19th and 20th centuries.

A major aim of communism was to end capitalism. It was to be achieved through a classless society where class conflict will be resolved, and proletarians (the majority working class) will revolt against the bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production) and end worker exploitation. The abolishment of private property ownership ensures a pure communist society is established. Communism meant people gave to society according to their abilities and received according to their needs and the needs of the society placed above the needs of individuals.

Communism is considered a variant or an advanced form of socialism. The debate on the distinction is still ongoing as the two are often used interchangeably throughout history, even by Karl Marx himself. However, communist ideology is largely based on Karl Marxs revolutionary communism philosophy.

Communism comes from the Latin word communis, which means common or shared. Communism is thought to come into existence in ancient times as considered in Platos Socratic dialogue Republic, published around 375 BC. Plato considered an ideal state in which a governing class of guardians serves the interests of the whole community by living as a large family sharing the ownership of goods and people (labor). Other early examples of communism are in Christianity, the formation of the monastic order, and others.

However, the emergence of modern communism was instigated by the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The major highlight of the revolution was the rapid industrialization of world economies, which increased economic productivity. However, the success was largely achieved at the back of exploitation of the proletariat through extreme working conditions and poor wages.

The above phenomenon convinced Karl Max, et al. to rethink a suitable system where there are fewer class struggles and are doing away with the allure of private property ownership that leads to greediness and inequalities in the society. Marx envisaged a society where prosperity is shared by everyone through common ownership of the means of production.

Marxist communism (Marxism) was founded by Karl Marx by laying out the theoretical and scientific foundations of communism. Karl Marx was born in Germany to middle-class Jewish parents who previously abandoned their religion. Marx studied philosophy at the University of Berlin and later moved to the University of Jena, where he obtained a doctorate in 1841.

Marx became a political radical because of his Jewish background living in a European nation. He moved from Germany fearing persecution and settled in Paris, France, where he met Friedrich Engels, a countryman. There, they developed a partnership that culminated in the publication of various communist journals, including The Communist Manifesto.

Marxist communism makes use of materialist methodology to explain and evaluate the development of class society and the role of class struggles in universal political, economic and social change. Marxism became the common ideology for communist movements around the world. The duo believed that challenges faced by the proletariat, such as poverty, early deaths, and diseases, were prevalent in a capitalist society. They argued that the systemic and structural challenges of capitalism could only be solved by replacing capitalism with communism. Marxist communism encompassed three main aspects.

The materialist conception theory, according to Karl Marx, is a series of class struggles and revolutions, which ultimately leads to freedom for all citizens. Marxs view stated that human activity begins with material production for their subsistence before they can embark on other human activities.

According to Karl Marx, material production requires two essential elements, such as:

Marx indicated that the material production process also underwent revolutionary and technological change such that the extractive process, as well as the processing of raw materials, greatly advanced and became more complex.

There are now advanced and complex tools in the hands of one class, i.e., the bourgeoisie ruling class and the proletariat must seek work from the bourgeoisie to be part of the production process. It means the working class lost their independence in material production, necessitating the establishment of a new kind of economic system that is not unfair to one social class.

The critique of capitalism theory is based on the history of societal class dominance over time, where the ruling aristocracy of ancient times was overthrown by the bourgeoisie, thereby replacing feudalism with capitalism. Marxs aim was the overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat, thereby replacing capitalism with communism in the process.

Marx regarded capitalism as a necessary stage in societal development mostly because of the conspicuous benefits derived from the economic system over time. The benefits include scientific and technological advancement, which helped humans to conquer nature. In the process, people managed to amass huge wealth but it was mainly concentrated on the capitalist elite, the bourgeoisie.

The unfair distribution of wealth is what concerned Marx as the proletariat were the actual producers of goods and services through their labor. According to Marxs labor theory of value, which states that the value of a product is determined by the amount of labor required to produce it.

It meant that the bourgeoisie was profiting unfairly over the proletariat, who produced the goods and received pity wages while they (the bourgeoisie) pocketed large sums of profits. Hence, one class got richer and more powerful whilst the other fell more and more into poverty. Capitalism causes poverty, inequality, false consciousness, and alienation. Alienation means the working class is separated from:

Marxism is anchored on the belief that capitalism is an unstable and inferior economic system that is destined to falter and fall through its inherent weaknesses that will cause a series of economic crisis events. Such challenges include turbulent economic cycles that produce economic depressions and recessions, which in turn yield to high unemployment, high inflation, poor wages, and misery, an increase in poverty levels among other downstream ills. The proletariat will be a major class severely affected by these economic changes as the bourgeoisie are able to insulate themselves through their accumulated wealth.

Marx believed the proletariat will seize and take over the means of production when they realize that the system is working against them through a process termed revolutionary class consciousness. The seizure should also spread to include institutions of state power, such as the judiciary, police, army, prisons among others.

They will establish a socialist state that Marx described as the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The proletariat will then rule placing their interest ahead and taking measures to prevent counterrevolution by the bourgeoisie. Eventually, the need for the state will disappear and will be replaced by an egalitarian communist society.

However, Marx could not paint a clear picture of this eventual communist society. Some of the features of this ideal society have been adopted in modern capitalist economies notably public education. Other views are still considered extreme in an economic and political sense and will probably never see mainstream adoption in world economies.

Arguably, there has never been a practical model of communism that had worked successfully for the greater good of all people concerned. Marx was also a believer in democracy, in terms of how institutions of the communist society are determined and designed.

The 19th and 20th centuries witnessed several countries that tried to implement communism and socialism to a certain extent. No single country has been able to clearly implement communism in its purest form. Communism was extensively implemented by the Soviet Union before its dissolution in 1991.

At present, there are only five remaining countries with communist ideologies in different forms and degrees. They include China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos. Most of the countries are in transition from communist/socialist systems to more capitalist or mixed economic systems. A brief look at the countries follows:

Communism was entrenched in China through the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party by Mao Zedong in 1949. However, China started moving towards a mixed economy through the Deng Xiaoping Chinese economic reform in the 1970s. The reforms encompassed allowing private enterprise and the phasing out of collective farms.

In 2004, China changed its constitution to recognize private property. The transition helped the country become the worlds second-largest economy in 2010 and the worlds largest exporter in 2014.

Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1953 and established a communist state by 1965 with strong ties to the Soviet Union. However, when the Soviet Union dissolved, the country went into an economic crisis. The Partido Comunista de Cuba is described by the Cuban constitution as the leading force of society of the state. The party policies are strictly from Marxism-Leninism communist ideology. The country began to initiate a few market reforms after Raul Castro took over in 2008.

China and Russia helped North Korea declare independence to end the Korean War in 1953 led by Kim Il-Sung. North Koreas system involved central planning and communal farming. However, successive famines took place in the 1990s and 2000s. The country began allowing semi-private markets in 2002.

Vietnam became a communist nation in 1975 through communist leader Ho Chi Minh. However, the country began a slow transition to a market-based economy in 1986.

Laos became a communist state in 1975 following a revolution supported by Vietnam and the Soviet Union. However, in 1988, it started allowing some forms of private ownership and joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2013.

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Communism - Overview, History, Materialist Conception Theory

The Director of the House of Terror marked the Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes during an event held at the museum.

The two halves of Europe are still separated by the different experiences of dictatorships, Mria Schmidt, the Director of the House of Terror Museum said at an event marking the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.

The West still shrugs its shoulders as a kind of disinterested outsider when we talk about the crimes of communism, she noted.

The conservative historian recalled that when the eastern half of Europe won back its freedom in 1990, Western Europe expected the East to embrace their view of history, which barely mentioned communism. We hoped our stories would be shared stories, but we are still the only ones bowing our heads, she added.

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The Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes was a Hungarian-Polish-Lithuanian initiative.Continue reading

According to Schmidt, Hungarians have a deep understanding of the national socialist and communist dictatorships, and hate both with all their hearts. Those who want to build dictatorships today have more sophisticated methods than weapons, the historian said. But we Hungarians will not let others tell us what to do and how to do it, and we will not let them take away our freedom, she added.

The memorial day marks the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939, the non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Featured photo via MTI/Koszticsk Szilrd

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Conservative Historian Blames Western Indifference towards Communism - Hungary Today

Americans must unite to defeat the Marxist takeover of the country, she said.

Lily Tang Williams is a survivor of communist Chinas Cultural Revolution and is now a congressional candidate for New Hampshires 2ndDistrict. Williams calls America a promised land and said she chose to emigrate to the United States for freedom, but shes seeing a disturbing trend toward totalitarian Marxist ideology.

Williams warns that she sees the push for equity or social justice as a guise for socialist wealth redistribution.

Now I notice socialist policies, and today, everybody is talking about equity, equity. How can you have equitywhich is equal outcome, which I heard in China beforewithout the government using force to redistribute wealth? Williams said during an Aug. 18 interview for EpochTVs American Thought Leaders program.

In 1988, Williams immigrated to the United States determined to succeed because she did want to return to communist China. Since that time, she has lived the American dream with a happy marriage, three children, and a good business, she said. Williams never had plans to get into politics.

But because she sees the disturbing trend toward communism, she said she felt compelled to join the government to stop the destruction of Americans Constitutional rights.

Williams questions why every institutionfrom universities andpublic schools to the federal government, private corporations, and the U.S. militaryis teaching equity.

She also sees Black Lives Matter and Antifa using violent Marxisttactics in the name of social justice. She sees schools pushing identity politics and division instead of teaching core subjects and accurate American and world history.

And our kids dont know, she said. Maybe thats why they want socialist policy. They want free college and free health care and free child care and everything free, because theyre entitled to it.

She said shutting down schools and churches and toppling statues of American leaders all resembles communist ideology, and the same things happened during Chinas Cultural Revolution. In addition, the curriculum being used in schools to divide students by race and make one group an oppressor and the other oppressed is also Marxist, she said.

I really feel like Im reliving another Cultural Revolution, she said, also mentioning the critical race theory being taught in schools to divide people and demonize white people over something they cant control.

Williams has seen many other aspects of totalitarianism during the last two years of lockdowns and mandates.

I see this rise of authoritarianism. We have politicians who want to be our tyrants. They want to shut you down. They want to force your business [to] close in the name of [the] pandemic, and then mandatemandate the vaccine, mask. And if you dont comply, you can lose your job, she said.

Williams warns that communism is coming to America if the country continues down this road of dividing people and pitting them against each other.

I see the writing on the wall. I see this trend, she said. We are using identity politics to divide citizens and get our citizens to fight each other instead of [being] united with each other to solve our countrys problems.

Why are Western democratic countries taking Communist Partys tactics and the shutdown methods from their playbooks? said Williams.

Williams said that cancel culture is similar to being targeted during the Cultural Revolution.

They can find something you wrote, something you said many years ago, and then demonize you as oppressor, black class. You lose your job.

The equity trainings where white people are supposed to denounce their white privilege are similar to the struggle sessions in communist China, Williams pointed out.

We should not judge people by their skin color, and by race. But thats what they want to do all day, she said. What is the difference? Chinese were divided by classes, by political opinions, and by economic status. Here its by skin color and by race.

She objects to people being given preferential treatment because of their skin color, instead of merit. Williams cited the fact that Ivy League universities are filling quotas for black students at the expense of Asian students, who work hard and earn their place at these schools.

William also disapproves of the transgender ideology that children are being indoctrinated with in schools, and in many cases without parental knowledge or consent. The state is overriding the rights of the parents, as in the case of some states that are introducing legislation to bypass parental consent for gender changes at the age of 13.

She said she is reminded of Chinas Cultural Revolution, where everyone was constantly indoctrinated with communist ideology in all public forums. From media to schools, they all espoused Maos ideology of the oppressor and oppressed having to struggle against each other.

Her family was labeled the red class, or one of the oppressed groups, while land owners and intellectuals were labeled the black classes.

Under oppressor, there are five black classes. Under oppressed, there are five red classes. I was red. I did not have to go to struggle sessions, but other people were [labeled] black classes. They have to go to struggle sessions [and] be publicly shamed to denounce their families, their ancestors, Williams said.

Mao targeted Chinese traditional culture by destroying the four olds, which included: Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits.

And all religions were demonized. We could not call ourselves Buddhist or Christiannothing. Youve got to be the believer of Mao and communism.

After Maos death, the new communist leadership allowed the Chinese people to keep some of what they harvested for themselves, in a sense allowing a bit of landownership, so people began to produce more food compared to the Cultural Revolution period, said Williams.

Because of this economic improvement, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took credit for lifting over 600 million Chinese out of poverty, but Williams completely disagrees and credits free market principles, individual hard work, and desire for prosperity for the improved economic conditions.

I dont buy into their propaganda at all. I think that human beings [have a] natural desire for freedom, for prosperity. They know how to do it, if you just leave people alone.

Because of the complete state control over the information people got, from the media to schools, people in China really believed the black class should be destroyed, or at least subjugated.

I believed then, we need to eliminate black classes. They were the enemies of the people and the enemies of the state, Williams said.

She said another tactic Marxists use is to exploit peoples jealousy of the rich. Mao promised land to peasants but he never gave them land. They only worked on state-owned land to make the Communist Party rich, said Williams.

Maos death made her question the truth because the indoctrination made him out to be god-like, Williams said.

The reason I wanted to study law is that I thought, OK, I want to search for the truth now. Mao was a human being, thats why he died, I realized that. Instead of men ruling China, Williams thought maybe her country should be governed by the rule of law.

After beginning her law studies, she learned a harsh lesson about how the law was used by the CCP. Quickly, I became lost again, because they told me the law is a tool for the party to use to govern the masses.

During this time, Williams met an American exchange student studying in China who told her about Americas Declaration of Independence.

My light bulbs came [on], the first time I heard of the concept of individual rights, said Williams.

The American student also spoke about the creator giving these individual rights to people, which was appealing to Williams because she had only heard of the collective rights of different groups, like workers rights, given by the CCP.

Williams said she was moved and wanted to know more about freedom and America and decided to do whatever it took to go study in the United States.

Williams said she had to come up with a strategy to get to America.

She was now on a mission to leave China but feigned love for the CCP. Her university supervisor had to grant her permission to quit her teaching job to study in an American graduate program in Texas, so only after she had proved her loyalty to the CCP, her request to go to the United States was approved.

She had to sign a paper promising she would come back to China after her education, which is the only way she got permission to apply for a study visa, she said.

After much effort and several attempts, she got her visa to the United States, and everyone in China was excited for her. Williams said although people in China were taught to hate the United States, it is like all jealousythey hated what they didnt have.

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Masooma Haq began reporting for The Epoch Times from Pakistan in 2008. She currently covers a variety of topics including U.S. government, culture, and entertainment.

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Jan Jekielek is a senior editor with The Epoch Times and host of the show, "American Thought Leaders." Jans career has spanned academia, media, and international human rights work. In 2009 he joined The Epoch Times full time and has served in a variety of roles, including as website chief editor. He is the producer of the award-winning Holocaust documentary film "Finding Manny."

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Equity Is Not Possible Without Total Government Control: Survivor of Chinese Communist Revolution - The Epoch Times

Gerri Major, 18941984, was an African-American woman who lived in Harlem during a career that stretched from the 1920s through the 1970s. She was successful in a number of overlapping vocations including journalist, editor, newscaster, publicist, public health official, author, and community leader.

An article celebrating her 80th birthday said Gerri was definitely one of the new Negroes of the early 20th Century adding that by the end of the 1930s she had become one of the best known black women in America.

During World War I, she was a major in the American Red Cross. Thereafter she became a society columnist and editor for African American newspapers in her home city of New York as well as Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Baltimore.

In 1936 a newspaper reporter said her talent for writing vivid prose, her editing skill, and her ability to maintain a wide circle of influential friends brought her fame and gave her a unique position similar to that of an arbiter over the local social set.

At the time of her death, she held joint positions as associate editor of Jet and senior staff editor of Ebony magazine.

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During all of her adult life she was an active participant in civic organizations that worked to improve the health, education, and general well-being of New Yorks African American community, and for ten years from 1936 to 1946 was a publicity specialist for the Central Harlem Health District.

Early life and education

Major was born in Chicago on July 29, 1894. Her birth name was Geraldyn Hodges. When her mother died giving birth to her, her father arranged for her adoption by an aunt and uncle who lived nearby.

In a biographic sketch published in 1927, her first husband explained that her father was overcome by the sudden loss of his wife, never forgave the innocent cause of his bereavement.

Following elementary school, she attended Wendell Phillips High School and subsequently was awarded a work-study scholarship at the University of Chicago from which she graduated with a Bachelor in Philosophy degree in 1915.

While a university student, she was one of five founding members of an undergraduate chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

In the summer months after her graduation she studied at Hampton Institute and during the next school year she taught dramatic art and physical culture at Lincoln Institute, an African American college in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Not liking the situation there she returned to Chicago to enter a two-year program at Chicago Normal School so that she could qualify to teach elementary school in that city.

In the fall of 1917 Major served as a teacher-in-training, or cadet, in the Chicago public school system.

In December of that year, she interrupted her progress toward becoming a Chicago school teacher in order to marry H. Binga Dismond, whom she had met at the University of Chicago.

The ceremony took place at Camp Logan in Houston, Texas, where Dismond was training for service in the Army.

During American participation in World War I, while he served in France, she became a Red Cross nurse in Chicago, leaving that organization in 1918 with the rank of major.

In 1919 Major taught at the Stephen A. Douglas Elementary School, the same school she had attended as a child.

In his biographic sketch of 1927 her husband noted that it was a distinctive honor to be appointed school clerk since 95 percent of the teachers were non-Aframerican.

She left the teaching profession in 1923 when she and her husband moved to Manhattan. She later said she found herself with nothing to do in New York and was positively miserable until 1925 when she participated in a fund raising effort for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Early in March of that year she composed and distributed a public announcement for the annual NAACP Dance in Harlems Manhattan Casino.

The release, which appeared in the New York Age on March 7, led to the job offer that would prove to be the starting point for her career in journalism.

Later life

During the course of a long career, Major was a journalist, editor, newscaster, publicist, public health official, author, and community leader.

Journalist

The paragraph she distributed to publicize the NAACP dance caught the eye of Floyd J. Calvin, the New York editor for an influential African-American newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier, who subsequently named Major as the papers New York social editor.

The papers announcement of her appointment included a photograph showing her elegantly dressed and posed.

The announcement called Major a leader in Harlem society and a prime favorite in Gothams best circles.

Majors first piece for the paper, which appeared over the byline, Mrs. H. Binga Dismond, reported on plans for the Urban Leagues costume ball to be held in November 1925.

From 1925 to 1927 Major wrote a weekly column called New York Society in which she reported the doings of prominent members of the African American community.

In 1927 Major began a new column called Through the Lorgnette of Geraldyn Dismond which, instead of New York society news, contained essays and reviews on theater, books, and cultural topics.

Soon afterward she began writing a weekly column of New York social news called In New York Town for the Chicago Bee, and the following year (1928) she started yet another society column, this one called New York Social Whirl appearing in the Baltimore Afro-American.

She continued to write for the Chicago Bee and the Afro-Americans through the end of the 1930s.

In 1933 she worked as a writer and editor for the short-lived Harlem Daily Citizen, and between 1927 and 1931, in addition to her other news work, she was a writer and editor for the Inter-State Tattler for which she wrote columns called Social Snapshots of Geraldyn Dismond and Between Puffs by Lady Nicotine.

She subsequently served a four-year stint as a columnist for the New York Age following which, from 1939 to 1952 she was a columnist and editor for the New York Amsterdam News.

In 1953 she began a long career as writer and editor for two sister magazines: the monthly, Ebony, and the weekly, Jet.

Editor

Majors first editorial job was New York social editor of the Pittsburgh Courier.

While still contributing extensive new content, she performed more extensive editorial work from 1928 to 1932 for the Inter-State Tattler.

In 1930 a reporter said the Tattlers name was synonymous with Geraldyn Dismond.

In 1933 and 1934 Major edited the Daily Citizen during its brief life.

Subsequently, she was both social reporter and society editor of the New York Age, and during the 1940s was womens page editor for the New York Amsterdam News in Harlem.

In 1953 she began a twenty-five-year career at Ebony as writer and society editor. She later became associate editor, and, in 1967, senior staff editor, the position she held at her death in 1984.

In 1953 she also joined Jet as writer and society editor, later becoming associate editor, a position she retained until her death.

She worked in the New York offices that were jointly maintained by both magazines. The year that she began with Ebony and Jet she was sent to England to cover the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Radio announcer and promoter

Between 1928 and 1930 Major wrote and presented a review of current events during a New York radio program that aired each week on Sunday afternoon. This made her, as one source put it, the first Negro woman commercial radio announcer.

The program was the Negro Achievement Hour, a variety show featuring talks and music that was carried on two local stations, WABC and WEVD.

In addition to newscasting, Major was a program director for the show.

The program ceased after its 85th week in August 1929. In 1930 Major helped to establish a broadcasting studio in Harlem, became the organizations secretary, and announced many of its programs on air.

Publicist

In 1928 Major became one of the first, if not the very first, African American women to take on the role of publicist.

Located in Harlem on 135th Street the Geraldyn Dismond Bureau of Specialized Publicity developed an extensive mailing list and established its credentials by landing a contract to publicize an all-African-American stage production called Africana starring Ethel Waters.

Health educator

In 1933 Major became executive director of a health center on Lenox Avenue in Harlem that was operated by the United Health Association.

The following year she was chosen by the Newspaper Guild to work on a welfare publicity project in the Central Harlem Health District.

In 1936 she passed civil service examinations and oral interviews to become a publicity assistant in the New York Bureau of Health Education and Information, a job she continued to perform until 1946.

A news report on Majors appointment said her performance on written and oral civil service examinations and her prior experience resulted in her selection and noted that she was the first African American to be hired into the position. It said, Her extraordinarily clever style of writing plus the advantage of a wide circle of friends in the elite circles wherever she went, placed her at the top of the society writers in short order. As Society Editor of the Interstate Tattler, prior to its discontinuing several years ago, she held a unique position similar to that of an arbiter over the local social set and it was during that time that her fame, both as a writer and hostess, is said to have reached its peak.

Author

In 1929 Major wrote an article for Close Up containing analysis and criticism of motion pictures. Calling itself an international magazine devoted to film art, the journal was an avant garde publication that investigated the cultural aspects of cinema beyond the mediums obvious role in entertaining its audiences. Her article was The Negro Actor and the American Movies.

In 1976 Major co-authored a book, Black Society, giving the histories of prominent African American families from colonial times to the twentieth century.

Community leader

In October 1925, the biographic sketch that accompanied Majors appointed New York social editor for the Pittsburgh Courier referred to her not just as a leader in Harlem society but also as a willing worker for charity and social uplift agencies, [who] has contributed much to the betterment of the community by her many and varied community interests.

A month later, as a mark of her social standing, she was runner up in nationwide balloting for Queen of the Classic on the occasion of the annual football game between Lincoln and Howard Universities.

A year later, Major figured prominently within a group of representative New York society leaders in text accompanying a news photo headed New York Social Leaders Plan Brilliant Season. The photos caption listed some of her many positions in civic organizations.

In 1930 she was included among the Four Hundred in an article that drew a sharp contrast between the Harlem of the cabarets frequented by thrill-seeking white New Yorkers and the ebony society to which Major belonged, where fashionable men and women in tail coats and formal evening gowns attended exclusive functions for the brown upper crust to which a few white guests might be invited.

In 1939 she served as chair of the program committee for participation of African Americans in the American Common section of the 1939 New York Worlds Fair.

In 1951 Major was guest of honor and woman of the year at a charity ball held by a New York womens club.

In 1952 she was cited for humane deeds performed in behalf of her community by a New York impresario, Freddie Fulton.

Her obituary in Ebony listed some of the civic organizations to which Major belonged and mentioned thirty honors and citations that she had received.

Major traveled overseas during the 1940s and 1950s, including trips to Egypt, Brazil, and Argentina. Her wedding to John Majors, her third and final marriage, took place in Buenos Aires.

Political affiliations

In 1928 and 1930 she was reported to be a member of the Communist Party.

Asked about political affiliations in 1928 she said she would not join the National Colored Womens Democratic League and had no ties to the Democratic Party.

She said she had adopted the principles of Communism because she believed that both the Republican and Democratic Parties uphold the practices of Jim-Crowism, disenfranchisement, and race discrimination by which Negroes are degraded and oppressed.

By 1984, however, she had become an active member of the Democratic Party.

Parents and immediate family

Major was born on July 29, 1894 in her parents home on Wentworth Avenue at the western border of the Douglas section of Chicagos Bronzeville neighborhood.

Her father was Herbert Hodges and her mother was Mae Powell Hodges. Major reported that her mothers grandfather had migrated from North Carolina to Indiana seeking freedom.

Soon after her mother died while giving birth to her, she was adopted by her mothers sister, Maud Lawrence, and her husband David.

The Lawrence family had sufficient wealth to give Major an extravagant debutante ball. While yet unmarried, Major kept Hodges as her family name.

On December 15, 1917, Major married H. Binga Dismond in a military ceremony at Camp Logan in Houston.

They were divorced in 1933 but remained cordial.

In 1942 she married musician Gilbert Holland, a baritone whose voice was heard frequently on radio programs of the 1930s.

Her last marriage was to a prominent mortician from Atlantic City, New Jersey, John Richard Major. The ceremony took place in Buenos Aires during a trip they took to South America, probably in 1946.

This was her third marriage and his fourth. She was widowed by 1953 and did not remarry during the remaining three decades of her life.

Other names

Majors first name, Geraldyn, was sometimes (wrongly) given as Geraldyne or Geraldine.

Her nickname, Gerri, was sometimes given as Jerry or Gerry.

While married to H. Binga Dismond she was known as Geraldyn Dismond, Mrs. H. Binga Dismond, or (rarely) Geraldyn Hodges Dismond.

During her brief marriage to Gilbert Holland she was known as Geraldyn Holland, Geraldyn Hodges Holland, or Geraldyn Dismond Holland.

After marrying John Richard Major she was called Geraldyn Major, Geraldyn Hodges Major, and Geraldyn Dismond Major.

During the last three decades of her life her name was usually rendered as Gerri Major.

During her marriage to H. Binga Dismond she sometimes called herself and was sometimes called La Dismond.In writing the Social Whirl column for the Afro-American she called herself simply Gerry.

"Dr. Harry Delany is a renowned Harlem born and raised surgeon, the son of the great jurist and civil rights leader, Hubert Delany...." This monthly post is made in partnership with Harlem Cultural Archives.

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From The Harlem Renaissance To Amsterdam News To Communism, The Legendary Gerri Major, 18941984 - Harlem World Magazine

In a remarkably unhinged analysis, NPR host Terry Gross and New York Times Magazine writer Robert Draper claimed that Russia is a communist country as they went on about how detached from reality rightwing Republicans are.

Heres the crux of the exchange (many thanks to Bryce Greene), which almost comes off like a comedy sketch:

GROSS: So, like, a really ironic [chuckle] thing about this fight against communism that the far right is doing now is that a communist country Russia! has been retweeting social media from the far right. So theyre, in their own way, almost aligned with Putin. So its dont you think its strange that theyre the ones who are, you know, decrying communist infiltration of our country?

DRAPER: Yes. Yeah. No, its certainly paradoxical. Its also paradoxical that this, you know, very rock-ribbed conservative Republican Party in the state of Arizona is so prone to Russia disinformation. And I had that said to me over and over by a number of long-time Republican operatives who said, you know, I think that Arizona is in the top seven, eight or nine when it comes to the number of the percentage of its population that is senior thats senior citizen. They have a lot of retirees that live in Arizona. So people have a lot of time on their hands, and so a lot of them sit on the internet. Theyre on Facebook, and theyre reading a lot of things. And amongst conservatives who have come to reject the so-called mainstream media, theyre very, very prone to information that confirms their biases. And they dont exactly fact-check this information.

So much of it has, in fact, come from or at least been amplified by Russia-based social media, according to these Republicans that Ive spoken to. And, you know, its also very enemy of my enemy. I mean, I think that Trump has been accused had so many associations with Russia, he and his campaign operation, and thus was accused of somehow, you know, being intertwined in a very unseemly way with Russia. That the left has, in the eyes of conservatives, has launched that argument means that maybe theres something not so bad about Russia. It means that Russia is being smeared the way that Trump is being smeared. So its all quite convoluted. And to have the word communist used as the ultimate putdown, when essentially the one great promoter of that ideology, Vladimir Putin, is very much shaping their minds or at least, you know, putting out disinformation that can shape their minds yeah, its all a very, very paradoxical situation, to be sure.

After I and others tweeted about this, NPR posted this correction:

POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: In the audio version of this story, Terry Gross incorrectly states that Russia is a communist country, when she meant to say that Putin was the head of the KGB during the communist era.

Which almost makes it worse. If you substitute what NPR now claims Gross meant to say, it really doesnt make any sense. Gross and Draper were riffing off each other in what can most charitably be described as a ridiculous example of groupthink.

It displays the all-too-frequent smugness of liberals, going on about other peoples failing to fact check, in this case talking about seniors with a lot of time on their hands while getting the most elementary facts wrong. Its remarkable projection.

The correction ignores that Draper similarly remarked that Putin is the one great promoter of that [communist] ideology.

The correction is also wrong because Putin wasnt head of the KGB during the communist era he quit the KGB in 1991 as a lieutenant colonel. He would be appointed head of the successor group, the Federal Security Service, in 1998, years after the fall of communism in Russia, by U.S. tool Boris Yeltsin.

(One of Drapers most recent books is To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq, which came out last year. If Google books search is to be believed, the book is something of a coverup. It has nothing on Bidens presiding over the rigged hearings that helped ensure the invasion, which Biden has continuously lied about.)

Heres a link to the NPR page which has a full text and audio of the interview.

This first appeared on Sam Husseinis Substack page.

Go here to see the original:
NPR Host and NYT Guest Stress that Russia is Communist While Vilifying Uninformed Republicans - CounterPunch