Word: proletariat
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...murders, 30 kidnapings, ten jail breaks and a variety of subversive activities. But the organization continues to grow, and so does its appetite for mayhem. When Curcio, then a sociology student, formed the group in 1969, its activities were largely limited to rhetoric about the need for "an armed proletariat vanguard" to do battle against "the imperialist state of the multinationals." In the early 1970s, the group moved from vandalism and arson into a new field: kidnapings of plant managers and junior executives, who were usually freed after admitting crimes at "people's trials...
...doubtful that the defendants, who have been in jail for more than two years, had anything to do with planning Moro's kidnaping. But they made the most of it, shouting to the courtroom, "Moro is in the hands of the proletariat, and he will be tried. Long live the Red Brigades!" The defendants refused to cooperate with their court-appointed counsel, but Judge Guido Barbaro rejected a request that the prisoners be allowed to represent themselves. Having resolved the legal ruckus, the court ordered the trial to resume again this week...
...Curcio married a fellow radical, Margherita Cagol, code-named "Comrade Mara." The two moved to Milan, where they swiftly became zealots of armed struggle. The Red Brigades were set up in November 1970 as "an armed proletariat vanguard to be the revolutionary power of the exploited classes." The Communists, in the organization's view, had sold out; the aim of the brigatisti, much like that of 19th century anarchists, was to purify society by overthrowing all existing institutions. But the Red Brigades seem to have no coherent vision of what would replace them...
...Soviet Union and its East bloc satellites, as well as in China, Mongolia, North Korea, Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Albania and Yugoslavia. The most repressive variant of socialism, Marxism-Leninism is a kind of secular religion, preaching the necessity of class warfare, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the concentration of near total power in a tightly structured party that is supposedly the vanguard of the revolutionary masses. Communism is dogmatic in its determination to abolish private property and nationalize the means of production as the first steps toward achieving its ultimate goal, the classless society...
When accused of violating human rights, Marxist-Leninists have usually retorted that once true Communism is established, the dictatorship of the proletariat will disappear, leaving the individual genuinely free for the first time. Meanwhile, though, these facts raise hard questions about the true intentions of the so-called Eurocommunist parties of Italy, France and Spain: after decades of being apologists for totalitarianism, they now profess their commitments to democratic principles. Purged from their platforms is the once obligatory rhetoric calling for violent revolution and a dictatorship of the proletariat. Italian Communist Party Boss Enrico Berlinguer has said that under...