Today is Earth Day – but it is also the 151st birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. He is better known as Lenin and he had a cool cat. It may be a coincidence but the first Earth Day was held on Lenin’s 100th birthday. I think it’s significant that these two days happen at the same time, since Lenin was fighting for a better planet when he took on capitalism and its byproduct of imperialism. For the future of life on this planet, we must embrace a socialist future where profit is not the driving motive. The for profit capitalist society has ignored climate change and devastated our environment – all for the profit of the ruling class. Before Europeans arrived in the Americas, the indigenous peoples were caretakers of the land. Their stewardship created a thriving environment with ample resources for all – with estimates of 50-100 million or more population. European colonists deliberately slaughtered this population in their search for gold and other trade goods that they could turn a profit on. This was a clear case of genocide that is glossed over in the history books. I recommend Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States which I just started reading recently for a more accurate look at history.
Back to Lenin – here’s a poem by Langston Hughes entitled Lenin:
Lenin walks around the world.
Frontiers cannot bar him.
Neither barracks nor barricades impede.
Nor does barbed wire scar him.Lenin walks around the world.
Black, brown, and white receive him.
Language is no barrier.
The strangest tongues believe him.Lenin walks around the world.
The sun sets like a scar.
Between the darkness and the dawn
There rises a red star.
Famous socialist Albert Einstein was also an admirer of Lenin, saying of him:
“I honor Lenin as a man who completely sacrificed himself and devoted all his energy to the realization of social justice. I do not consider his methods practical, but one thing is certain: men of his type are the guardians and restorers of the conscience of humanity.”
Lenin defined imperialism succinctly as follows, “If it were necessary to give the briefest possible definition of imperialism we should have to say that imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism.” History has shown him to be correct – as we now live under the dictatorship of transnational capitalist monopolies like BlackRock, which I wrote about here. If we are to truly honor Earth Day, we should follow the anti-capitalist teachings of Lenin and work toward a communist future.
Happy birthday Lenin and happy Earth Day to everyone!
Originally published by Birrion Sondahl on April 22, 2021