When our congress took this action they implemented plank five of the Communist Manifesto. Plank five is the most important step in the process of destroying the individual sovereignty of the people and strengthening the power of the state and private bankers who control the state. They could not have accomplished plank five without the progress they had already made with plank six, control of the means of communication.

By 1913 the banking families had already purchased significant interests in the most influential newspapers on the east coast. This media influence helped them get Woodrow Wilson elected. Wilson had already agreed to back their plan for a central bank. They also used their influence with the media to get the Federal Reserve bill passed in congress. See “The Creature from Jekyll Island, A Second Look at the Federal Reserve” by Edward Griffin.

Plank two, a progressive income tax, was also passed in 1913 and signed into law by Wilson. Let’s take a look at all ten planks, which are basically a game plan for the destruction of individual sovereignty and the growth of institutional power. We call this indigenous power versus surrogate power. I borrowed heavily here from the research of Don Hull.

Here are the ten planks of the Communist Manifesto and a brief synopsis of the degree of implementation in America today:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes: Heavily implemented. The implementation of onerous property taxes and property tax assessment methods is one of the most visible signs of our loss of property rights, but there are many additional ways that this most precious sovereign right has been destroyed.

Although private property is not “outlawed,” per se, it is heavily regulated by, and can be seized for, nonviolent behavior such as: violations of zoning laws, environmental and endangered species laws, licensing laws, tax laws, gun laws, and drug laws.

The Uniform Building code guidelines, followed by most city governments, actually state that every alteration on one’s own home “requires a permit unless specifically exempted.” This is the old 19th century Prussian philosophy that “anything not expressly permitted is forbidden.” The three largest categories of property we own—a business, house, car, or even your bank account—can be seized for mere paperwork “crimes.”

Rental property inspection laws have been passed in local communities nation-wide, giving city government even more power and authority to regulate private property.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax: Fully implemented since 1913. Forty-three states have since added their own income tax. The total weight of income taxes today approaches 40%—even more than extracted from serfs in the Middle Ages. The typical American household now pays more in taxes than for food, clothing, and shelter COMBINED. In the history of the world there has never been a more debilitating or destructive tax than the income tax. It penalizes hard work, motivation, investment, and capital formation. It creates a huge industry of tax preparation and avoidance mechanisms that is totally non-productive. It also encourages cheating, black markets, and disrespect for the law.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance: Fully implemented. The “right” has been abolished, but the “amount” remains variable. If the “amount” is small enough, the heirs can keep it all. However, at certain levels death taxes kick in, which lets the state take as much as 55%, even though the estate may consist entirely of after-tax monies. Thousands of heirs each year are forced to sell their inheritance to satisfy the tax collector.

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels: Heavily implemented. Wealthy Americans who “emigrate” to foreign tax havens or who acquire foreign passports are subject to special plunder. “Rebels” include people who resist compliance with intrusive government paperwork such as licenses and permits, drug laws, gun registration, currency reporting laws, income taxes, and more. The USA is the earth’s only government that taxes its citizens’ income earned outside its borders.

5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly: Fully implemented by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Today, banks are agents of the state/Fed monopoly who co-operate freely with orders or commands from government agencies to freeze or seize your bank account—from the IRS to the child support grabbers at Social Services. Interest rates are dictated and controlled by the Federal Reserve Board. As Thomas Jefferson warned in 1802:

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state: Heavily implemented. The consolidation of media companies has occurred at an increasingly rapid pace over the last twenty years. This consolidation has not been challenged by government because the people who are doing the consolidating own the government. A review of directors and senior management of these companies will indicate a very high percentage of people who are directly or indirectly related to the power elite centered around the owners of the FED. See Common Sense; Revisited chapters on “What Went Wrong” and “Global Government, the Ultimate Surrogate.”

Of course, a private entrepreneur without “connections” cannot create, buy, or sell a TV/radio station without first getting permission from the FCC. The FCC and ICC have given control of telephone, telegraph, TV, and radio to the government, while maintaining the fiction of “private” ownership.

“Transport”—airlines, trucking, buses, taxis, deliveries—are “permit-ed,” supervised, monitored, and taxed by the DOT, NHTSA, ATC, FAA, EPA, DOE, DMV, FEMA, DEA, OSHA, and Labor Departments, among others. Government is continually trying to increase its power in this area by regulating and/or taxing the Internet.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan: Heavily implemented. American governments at all levels—federal, state and municipal—are heavily involved in the ownership, production, management, and delivery of goods and services to consumers, all of which compete with private industries. Some are protected monopolies, with competitors outlawed altogether (lotteries, water and power companies, and everyone’s favorite example of incompetence and inefficiency…the Post Office).

Government is involved in Power Generation (TVA, nuclear and electric plants), Retailing (military PXs and Commissaries), Construction (roads and bridges), Entertainment (national parks, convention centers, athletic stadiums, USO), Broadcasting (NPR radio, PBS-TV, USIA, cable), Transportation (Amtrak, airports, air traffic control, buses), Medical Care (hospitals, ambulance services, clinics, Medicare, Medicaid, HFCA), Security Services (CIA, FBI, police and fire departments), Food Service (school lunches), Agriculture and Forestry (grazing lands, water, timber), Education (K-12 schools, colleges, universities, libraries), Communications (post office, publishing), Charity (welfare, social services), Housing (public housing projects), Insurance (FEMA, Social Security, SSI, USDA), Book-making, and Gambling (lotteries and casinos).

Worst of all, Government is involved in Organized Crime. The IRS, FTB, and Board of Equalization take money from wage earners by force. If citizens resist, the IRS, et al, are authorized to use even MORE force to collect EVEN MORE money.

The bringing into cultivation of waste lands and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan: Partially implemented. Since only 2% of our population raises enough food for all of us and still has 30% left over for export, it appears that America’s agricultural policies are a resounding success. Yet American farms are heavily monitored and supervised by government Central Planners.

Farmers are told how many acres of each crop to plant. Soil conservation methods are dictated and, most peculiar of all, farmers get paid NOT to grow some crops, or are subsidized to grow others. The USDA is paying farmers NOT to grow ANYTHING on over 50 million acres of cropland—greater than the land area of the state of Wisconsin.

It is interesting to note that planks 7, 8, and 9 all mention agriculture. It was of supreme importance to Marx and Engels that agriculture be totally controlled by the government. They could not have anticipated, in 1848, the outstanding opportunity that genetically engineered foods would present for gaining total control of the food supply. By controlling the companies that are patenting the GMO seeds, and the herbicides that kill everything in the soil but the GMO seeds, a few companies can eventually control the entire food supply. Our chapter on GMO foods in “Restoring the Heart of America” provides a good summary of how the bio-tech companies and government agencies are working together to bring this plan to reality.

8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. Although the U.S. welfare state pays people for NOT working, the concept that the STATE OWNS OUR LABOR is fully implemented with minimum wage laws, living wage ordinances, licensing and permit laws, discrimination and sexual harassment, health and safety and child labor laws, income taxes, forced contributions to Social Security, Medicare, and more.

Even seat belt laws, helmet laws, airbag laws, mandatory car insurance, anti-smoking/drinking laws, truancy laws, and drug laws tell us that the state considers that it owns our bodies and therefore has the right to tell us how to behave.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country: Heavily implemented through “public/private partnerships” between government and industry. Government subsidizes agricultural and industrial products that it thinks are good for us. “Marketing orders” of fruit and dairy products, subsidies for sugar and even tobacco farmers, and manufacture of electric cars are examples.

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.: Fully implemented.

Since 1918, every K-12 kid in America has been expected to attend a “free” government school. Refusal to accept this marvelous gift from the social engineers can result in fines and jail time, for both the kids and parents. The chapter on Education and Indigenous power in Common Sense; Revisited summarizes the impact of federal involvement in our educational system. Child factory labor has been mostly abolished with restrictions on teenage hiring. Ambitious teens now find it difficult to get jobs unless their parents own the business. Famous mega-achievers of the past, such as Thomas Edison, Eddie Rickenbacker, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie, who began their working lives as young teens, would find success more difficult to achieve today.

The “combination of education with industrial production” concept is fulfilled by the School-to-Work program, which puts children on a career track in the early grades. Fortunately, many alert parents perceive its true objectives—indoctrination into the socio-economic class chosen by the social engineers—and have rejected it.

Please stay tuned for our concluding comments on the Communist Manifesto in the next American Crisis newsletter.