Capitalist Terror vs Communist Terror

Under capitalism all you ever hear about is the terror of communist movements and regimes. But the subject of capitalist terror is so heavily hidden that only the critical and the rebellious seek to know the truth. The capitalists are in no position of righteousness to complain about terror, especially since they are the dominant ones who commit the most of it in the name of profit and imperialism.

The capitalists have their own long list of terror they’ve committed for their interests, and we the working class are on the receiving end of their terror. In this article I will detail just some of the crimes against humanity capitalists have committed in the name of their interests.

Capitalist terror:

One of the worst atrocities committed in the name of capitalist profit motive was the atrocities in Guatemala. A company called United Fruit, now called Chiquita Banana, was one of a few fruit companies in Latin America and Northern South America who was harvesting Bananas, Sugar, Pineapples, etc. The fruit companies soon grew in to monopolies in the region, dominating the economic market of nations. United Fruit dominating Guatemala’s economy. The fruit companies, with their overbearing economic power, soon started to practice some activities that was for their own interest. These companies, after either overthrowing governments to put puppets in their place or bribe off government officials to fight for their interest worked greatly to advancing their political domination over nations. The country Honduras came under a lot of debt which one fruit company, Cuyamel Fruit Company, offered to help build infrastructure in pay of lard land grants the company would use to harvest more and more produce for profit; United Fruit and others followed these same tactics. Cuyamel was bought out by United Fruit, but the owner of Cuyamel was placed in charge of United Fruit. But the subject of what happened to Guatemala was truly a terrifying situation, United Fruit dominated majority of all land mass and turned the country in to a slave colony. United Fruit being cozied up to from 1898 to 1920 by a U.S. backed dictator, Manuel Cabrera, they was given tax exemptions, land grants, and monopolistic control over all rail roads for transportation. The workers was forced to work on United Fruit land for low wages that was unable to be survived on. Cabrera, working for the interest of United Fruit, would often kill workers for striking against the unfair treatment of the company. Cabrera was soon removed for corruption, and he was succeeded by even more U.S. backed, corrupt puppets. From 1898 to 1944, it was just corrupt leader after corrupt leader licking the boots of America and United Fruit. In 1931, Jorge Ubico came in to power, he was one of the most brutal dictators in Latin America and he advanced not only the interests of United Fruit, but also his own as well. He set up the nation in to a corporate agrarian feudal system where United Fruit dominated majority of the economy, and as a measure of security for capitalist interests, set up U.S. military bases in the country. It was not till 1944 that a new president, Juan Arévalo, was elected who called for reforms such as minimum wage, literacy programs and universal suffrage. Labor unions soon started to form. Then Arévalo handed power over to Jacobo Arbenz, who continued the reforms. When he took office, 2% of the population owned 70% of the land. United Fruit, enraged at these reforms, and failing to overthrow Arévalo 25 times, reached out to the U.S. and the CIA for assistance. The CIA created a slander campaign stating that Guatemala was being taken over by communism, and what followed next was the creation of right-wing militias who went around the country slaughtering civil rights organizers, union organizers, and other progressive groups. They then overthrew the government and put in a new president, Carlos Castillo Armas that allowed United Fruit to carry out the most brutal exploitation imaginable. Carlos also dissolved the reforms, put in the secret police that was under Ubico, made illiterate people (who made up most of the population) unable to vote, purged the government of any and all officials with left-wing sympathies, and received 90 million dollars support from the U.S. government. After Armas a long period of brutal dictators controlled the country from 1954 to 1993. And systematic human rights violations continued as the nation remained a corporate slave colony under the boot of both United Fruit and the U.S.

Sources:
Top 10 US-Backed Atrocities and Authoritarian Regimes by Libertarian Socialist Rants.

Another case of capitalist terror brings the subject of the Coca-Cola industry to the table. Coca-Cola has been accused of conspiring with paramilitary death squads to torture and kill union activists in Colombia, and polluting and depleting water supplies in India. Coca-Cola also turned some of their factories in to sweatshop conditions, abusing their workers with an 83 cent minimum wage to work 12 hours a day.

Sources:http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2009/1027.html
https://www.thenation.com/article/case-against-coke/

It isn’t just outside the U.S. but inside the U.S. as well. The list of terror and crimes against workers is long and despicable.

• July 21-22, 1877; 40 Pennsylvania railroad workers during a strike was killed by the state militia who sought to protect the roadhouse. 29 others injured.
• November 5, 1887; About 20 striking sugar workers was killed by the Louisiana battalion of national guardsmen.
• November 23, 1887; known as the Thibodaux Massacre, the Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of prominent citizens, shot at least 35 unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage and lynched two strike leaders. "No credible official count of the victims was ever made; bodies continued to turn up in shallow graves outside of town for weeks to come."
• April 7–July, 1905; Illinois Teamster workers on strike broke out in to riots on the 7^th, and carried on daily till mid-July. After it all, 21 people was killed and 416 injured.
• April 18, 1912–July 1913; Called the Paint Creek Mine War, in Kanawha County, West Virginia. Coal workers went on strike, the county sheriff’s posse attacked the Holly Grove miners’ camp with machine guns, killing striker Cesco Estep. Many more than 50 deaths among miners and their families were indirectly caused, as a result of starvation and malnutrition.
• August 25–Sept. 2, 1921; The Battle of Blair Mountain, the bloodiest battle between workers and capitalist lapdogs. The largest labor uprising in United States history and the largest organized armed uprising since the American Civil War. During an attempt by the miners to unionize, and following the murder of Sid Hatfield, 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3000 lawmen and Baldwin-Felts strikebreakers, who were backed by coal mine operators. In the summer of 1921 in Mingo County, hundreds of miners were arrested without habeas corpus and other basic legal rights. Talk spread of a march to free those confined miners, end martial law, and organize the county. The reviled anti-union sheriff of Logan County, Don Chafin set up defenses on Blair Mountain, with the nation's largest private armed force of 2000. By August 29, battle was fully joined. Chafin's men, though outnumbered, had the advantage of higher positions and better weaponry. Private hired planes dropped homemade bombs on the miners near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair. Army bombers were used for aerial surveillance. Sporadic gun battles continued for a week. Up to 30 deaths were reported by Chafin's side and 50–100 on the union miners' side, with hundreds more injured. On September 2, federal troops arrived by presidential order, and the miners started heading home the next day. About one million rounds were fired in the battle.

Sources:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes

Communist Terror:

“We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror.” –Karl Marx.

The complaints by the capitalists about the terror communists inflicted on capitalists and their lapdogs is not only propaganda to make themselves appear as angels, but the largest form of hypocrisy imaginable. Communists have always represented the interests of the workers. We are their vanguard, and we will fight for them in all routes possible. The capitalists will maintain keeping us from political power and destroying any chance of liberation. They will undermine democracy in the interest of protecting their power, so thus the only option is to turn to the most radical enforcement to secure democracy of the workers. And once our people are liberated we will show no mercy nor compassion to those who abused, raped, killed, and enslaved our working people for entire generations. The capitalists and monarchs of Russia, Cuba and North Korea learned quickly what happened when they continued to abuse and kill working class people. Justice was served with the death of the Tsar, Batista, and the Japanese/American/and British invaders in Korea. If the capitalist seek to undermine the people’s democratic decision, and continue in the wage enslavement of them, the only option is revolutionary overthrow of the tyrants. They have committed crimes that only the workers can make them face justice for, and that justice is socialism. The democratic will of the workers, of the majority of the society, must be enforced and defended by the ballot or the bullet. When the first one fails, or is suppressed, the second must fight to succeed, and make the first be enforced.

Conclusion:

The liberals, conservatives, and other bootlickers for the capitalist class can make excuses for the bourgeoisie all they please, but if the decision must be made on capitalist terror vs communist terror; I will side with the worker carrying a red flag and toting a gun ready to kill and die for his cause.