A picture of Lenin in a party hat cropped from the first of these images accompanied last week’s post Happy Birthday Lenin, which announced UNITYblog’s up-coming discussion on Leninism in the 21st Century. A lively debate has already begun.
One contributor, Don Franks objected to the image of Lenin, seeing it as symbolic of UNITYblog’s supposed rejection of Leninism.
He writes:
“What is the point of that? Political images are not chosen randomly. To me it looks like you are putting some previously fun childish thing [Leninism] aside before getting on with the grown up business of the day.”
As I have said in the comments on this post, I chose the image because, “Making fun of an authority figure can open up space for critical discussion, which is my intention. I feel that this picture may help cut through the unhelpful duality of Lenin as a idol beyond question or a dictatorial hate-figure. I want to promote debate on Lenin’s legacy, from a wide range of Leftist perspectives.”
So for those who have not seen them before, here are the two “Communist Party” images. My only objection to them is that they include Stalin and Mao.
Meanwhile I have sent an open invitation to join the discussion on Leninism in the 21st Century to just about every Lefty on my email list and all members of the UNITYblog Facebook group. I'll be posting it here in a day or two.
David
UNITYblog editor
2 comments:
David if you're going to quote me in the course of making statements about "idolising" historical figures you should include my whole paragraph.
Which said:
"I don't idolise Lenin. I disagree with some of the things he said and did. I do, however, considerably respect his extraordinary international legacy as a towering revolutionary figure. Just as I would not depict Rosa Luxemberg in a tutu, neither would I photoshop Lenin to wear a child's party hat. What is the point of that? Political images are not chosen randomly. To me it looks like you are putting some previously fun childish thing aside before getting on with the grown up business of the day."
To summarise the above comment, "Lenin: SERIOUS F**KING BUSINESS".
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