Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Rebranding communism

French postman delivers far left message:
The decision to remove the word communist from the new name was thought crucial to the success of a 21st century far-left party - and one which has proved effective in wooing younger people easily alienated by references to the dialectic of the past.

"You know, Marx and all that, that's our history," said Lucas, a 17-year-old member with a ponytail and tie-dye shirt. "But I prefer to call myself an anticapitalist rather than a communist. It's all stuff from another time."
An interesting perspective. It remains to be seen whether calling a party "anticapitalist" rather than "communist" will be seen as innovative or dishonest, especially if the party promotes economic and political policies that come straight out of the communist play-book. It's also telling that the Guardian labels Besancenot's manifesto as "Trotskyist" and captions his photo as "French communist postman..."

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