{"id":382950,"date":"2010-03-02T22:15:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T03:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.disinfo.com\/?p=23775"},"modified":"2010-03-02T22:15:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T03:15:29","slug":"socialists-get-newfound-attention-as-%e2%80%98red-baiting%e2%80%99-draws-interest-from-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/382950","title":{"rendered":"Socialists Get Newfound Attention as \u2018Red-Baiting\u2019 Draws Interest From Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Common Dreams<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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The socialist agenda that some conservatives see lurking around every corner, hidden in everything from health insurance reform to stimulus spending to President Obama<\/a>\u2019s policies, exasperates Louisvillian Fred Hicks.<\/p>\n

As the leader of a local socialist group, Hicks says the use of the \u201cS-word\u201d as a political smear is a gross mischaracterization that ignores the reality that socialism remains a lonely movement, with his 40-person group struggling to get more than a dozen people to attend a meeting.<\/p>\n

And yet while the term\u2019s recent popularity irks Hicks, the retired professor says it\u2019s also beginning to have an unexpected result: It\u2019s bringing newfound interest and attention to his cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly there are more people who want to know what it actually is,\u201d said Hicks, head of the Committee of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, whose members seek more government<\/a> regulation of business, health care<\/a> and wages.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, the Democratic Socialists of America partly credits the term\u2019s usage with a 64 percent rise in memberships between 2008 and 2009. The party now has nearly 7,000 U.S. members, and the 1,000-member Socialist Party USA has seen new chapters pop up in Kansas and Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

[Read more at Common Dreams<\/a>]<\/p>\n

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