Papers: Red Leaflets: A Frightful Hobgoblin

An early, and now sadly neglected, translation of the Communist Manifesto into English begins "A frightful hobgoblin is stalking Europe, the hobgoblin of communism..."

This wonderful phrase was always a favourite of the group which went on to become the Red Party: and before we chose that name we referred to ourselves as the Frightful Hobgoblins. When I was tasked to write a leaflet for Guildford's annual Ambient Picnic, a hippyish open-air festival on 23rd July 2004, the name provided inspiration.

Read the text below, or download the leaflet in PDF format by clicking here.

A Frightfull Hobgoblin

About 150 years ago, Karl Marx warned the world that a frightful hobgoblin was stalking Europe: the hobgoblin of communism. Well, it has just stalked up to you.

Marx meant to mock the idea that communism was something to fear, and we agree: don't be afraid. Hobgoblins are friendly: and everything you've been told about socialism and communism is almost certain to be false.

Socialism does not ignore human differences: it celebrates them, and thinks they will flower when we are truly free. Socialism is not hopeless idealism, but a practical plan to change the world. Socialism was not practised by Stalin and the other 'socialist' dictators. Socialism is not an arcane, difficult idea for the few: it is the politics of humanity, and it couldn't be simpler.

Socialism is simply the struggle for real democracy.

But isn't this a hobgoblinish trick? Don't we already have democracy? Consider this:

There are 6.4 billion people in the world.
2.8 billion of them live on less than $2 a day.
800 million are hungry.
40 million are infected with HIV.
17 million are refugees of the 30-60 wars currently being fought on our planet.

In rich Britain, of its 60 million people:
12.5 million live below the government's own poverty line.
3.5 million wish to be in work but are not.
2.4 million live in overcrowded homes.
100,000 families are in 'temporary accomodation'.
5,000 a year die from infections caught in NHS hospitals.
25% of students pass nothing above a GCSE 'D' grade.

If we were a real democracy, governed by the people, would we choose to suffer these problems? To ask the question is to know the answer. Society is run by the minority who own the corporations (and the corrupt governments they sponsor and who defend them in turn): the ruling class. To know who really rules society, just observe whose interests it really serves.

10% of our population hold more than half of the wealth: 1% hold more than a quarter.

The ruling class will not give up power willingly. They have opposed every democratic reform. Votes for those without property, votes for women, the right to form unions, free healthcare and education, and many other reforms had to be won by the struggle of ordinary working people.

The liberals try to appeal to the ruling class's better nature: but the problems of the world are not caused by having evil rulers, simply by the fact that society is arranged to put profit before people. The greens hope to stop the corporations raping our world by passing strict laws, but the system of law is controlled by the servants of those very corporations. Many greens and liberals mean well, but without winning real democracy, they cannot succeed.

Socialism aims to put power in the hands of ordinary people. This will end war, as we have no interest in fighting each other. It will end environmental damage, as we have no interest in polluting our home, and no-one will make profit from it. It will end poverty, as we would put the interests of humanity before the trading interests of nations.

The case for socialism is strong, but it is not being put. The left groups are in chaos. They have turned socialism into an arcane secret, and each believes it alone has the key. While they fight this out, they speak to no-one but each other, and in a language no-one else can understand.

Worse still, though socialism is the politics of humanity and democracy, they abandon humanity and democracy inside their own organisations. They try to supress dissenting voices, forgetting that debate is essential in finding the right way. In the name of 'discipline', they quickly dull their members feeling for the decent human instincts and enthusiasm which took them into politics in the first place.

If you believe we need a genuine, classless democracy, and a human, democratic, socialist party to fight for it, you too may be a hobgoblin.

We need hobgoblins to unite, so we might become truly human once again.

You can contact the Red Party by...
web: www.redparty.org.uk
email: office@redparty.org.uk
telephone: 07900 110 578