Here I want to focus on what socialism might imply for communications policy, and, more specifically, for control of the channels of communications that enable the American public to connect with their families, friends, and civic groups, to engage in social and political affairs, and to inform and entertain themselves. In short, to live their everyday lives by communicating freely.
What do the socialists have to say about this?
By no means did Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in
The Communist Manifesto
, ignore the significance of control of communications channels to the establishment of the socialist revolution. One of the ten key measures that Marx and Engels said would be necessary in advanced countries to achieve the proletariat revolution is: "Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State."
Of course, with a vengeance that was ruthless, Vladimir Lenin put Marx's and Engels' injunction into practice as he consolidated control of communications in state-run propaganda organs, while simultaneously vanquishing independent media.
In other words, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, once the darling of American liberals such as former Representative Joe Kennedy and actor Sean Penn, didn't invent the socialist playbook regarding state control of the media and communications channels.
Now fast forward to America, circa 2009. In an
interview
with a publication called
The Bullet
, a publication of
"The Socialist Project,"
Robert McChesney said this, in the context of discussing what he called "the battle for network neutrality": "What we want to have in the U.S. and in every society is an Internet that is not private property, but a public utility. We want an Internet where you don't have to have a password and that you don't pay a penny to use. It is your right to use the Internet."
Robert McChesney, an American professor teaching at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, not only publishes in "The Socialist Project," he is an avowed socialist. Here is what
The
Socialist Project
says about itself: "The SP opposes capitalism out of necessity and supports the anti-capitalist struggles of others out of solidarity."
Oh, and by the way, Robert McChesney is a co-founder and director emeritus of the advocacy organization,
Free Press
.
I mention Robert McChesney's connection to Free Press because the organization is a leader – if not
the
leader – in the fight to turn Internet service providers into public utilities by once again shackling them with so-called "Title II regulation." In its January 2018
Restoring Internet Freedom Order
, the FCC's current Republican majority repealed the Title II public utility regulation of Internet providers that had been mandated by the Obama FCC.
Now, please carefully note: I am
not
suggesting that, like Professor McChesney, all advocates of Title II regulation of Internet providers are socialists, although I suspect an increasing number would proudly embrace the label. In any event, thankfully, we live in a free country in which you can call yourself whatever you wish, and more importantly, believe whatever you wish.
But here's what I
am
suggesting: With infatuation with socialism on the rise, it is wise to pay attention to what socialist ideology implies for communications policy. The House Communications and Technology Committee held a hearing last week on "Net Neutrality." And a Free Press representative was invited by the Committee majority to testify, and she advocated a return to public utility regulation of Internet providers. That being so, it's worth repeating Free Press's co-founder Robert McChesney's declaration: "What we want to have in the U.S. and in every society is an Internet that is not private property, but a public utility."
Oscar Wilde may have said: "The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it." I prefer Winston Churchill's felicitous rephrasing of George Santayana: "Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it."
