Being a communist, these days, is not such a bad option. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition, is so much ‘on side’ that the communists will be supporting his Labour Party rather than running their own candidates. I refer, of course, to the Communist Party of Britain as opposed to the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) or the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist).
A further sign of things to come was the publication in the US last month of new book for children – Communism for Kids. It should be coming to a school near to you, any time soon, if it has not already arrived. It has been available in UK since April 18th in either paper or Kindle version. This year is, after all, the centenary of the 1917 Communist Revolution in Russia. All things ‘red’ are becoming so ‘cool’!
For a young generation of pupils being brought up on a diet of revamped, politically correct fairy tales, this paperback is a logical next step. Amazon Books boasts that it “presents political theory in the simple terms of a children’s story, accompanied by illustrations of lovable little revolutionaries experiencing their political awakening.”
And it does not stop there in its promotion of the publication: It all unfolds like a story, with jealous princesses, fancy swords, displaced peasants, mean bosses, and tired workers – not to mention a Ouija board, a talking chair, and a big pot called “the State.” Before they know it, readers are learning about the economic history of feudalism, class struggles in capitalism, different ideas of communism, and more.
Well, can you beat that? Bye bye Vladimir Lenin, Uncle Jo Stalin, Chairman Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel, Pol Pot and Nicky Ceausescu! You are all so ‘old hat’, so ‘yesterday’, so 20th century. Kids need to move on from old dead ‘commie’ males like you? In any case who the heck were you?
This is the 21st century and what youngsters need to know are the important things told to them by Communism for Kids, such as:
‘When the princesses saw how rich the merchants had become with their gigantic jewels and fancy swords, they grew jealous.”
“Money bears a certain fetish of masculine autonomy.”
“Necessarily new modes of human relations, that is, new modes of knowledge, new modes of desire and sexual life have to be invented.”
“Today, once again, the success of revolutions depends on their ability to vitalise and radicalise one another along with their potential to globalise themselves.”
The good news for communists everywhere is that this new children’s book wipes the genocide slate clean for the Reds. It focuses on the element of idealism that disguises the reality.
Good news, too, that the National Curriculum for History is a ‘free-for-all” in terms of specific topics to be taught! With the exception of Islam, Central America and West Africa, there is next to nothing in the compulsory content category. The examples are all “non-statutory”. Teachers are free to choose “Communism for Kids” as a textbook.
One hundred years on and we have a new communist revolution awaiting ignition in our classrooms.
