Source: Fraser, C. (1998). "Lenin & Liberals, Seattle Style." In Revolution, She Wrote (pp. 308-310). Seattle, WA: Red Letter Press.
First Published:: Freedom Socialist, January 1997
Transcription/Markup: Philip Davis and Glenn Kirkindall
Copyleft: Internet Archive (marxists.org)
2014. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
Lenin has come to Seattle, and only his unique brand of slashing, sardonic wit could do justice to his reception here in America’s Most Livable City.
Vladimir Ilyich—just call him V.I., folks—traveled to the Pacific Northwest thanks to a local art connoisseur, Lewis Carpenter, who found a superbly crafted statue of the great Soviet leader in an Eastern European junkyard, toppled on its side and bombarded by the elements and the ultrarightists.
In a wondrous impulse, Carpenter had V.I. crated and shipped to the Emerald City, where he ended up in the mildly eccentric, mildly rebellious Fremont district, a playground for hip yuppies, immutable hippies and various freewheelers.
And what did the arrival of this towering figure cause? A sensation? What else. A cascade of letters to the editor vituperated and huffed while TV anchors professed amusement.
Poor Lenin lay in the streets homeless for months until a committee finally formed to raise money for a pedestal on a bustling permanent site, next to a Mexican restaurant and in front of a hemp shop. The artwork now resides there proudly, a thing of grandeur and a thrill for some of us radical types.
Now wouldn’t you think that the presence of this magnificent statue would spur a spirited debate about Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, socialism, the USSR’s collapse, and like that?
Forget it. Most liberals insist on viewing this bronze bombshell as pure art, devoid of political meaning.
The local media, predictably, aided and abetted the burial of discussion. One lone, serious editor of a neighborhood weekly honestly recognized his ignorance of Russian history, did some research, and wrote a generally insightful version of Lenin’s life. Most newspapers, however, published ten lengthy letters protesting the sculpture to every tiny one written in defense and then abruptly cut short the “dialogue.”
I, in contrast, see Lenin’s installation as a novel opportunity for the Left to make First Contact (Trek-speak, for the uninitiated) with Fremont residents and sojourners. Whenever my comrades visit the statue to pay respects and peddle literature, people are amazed to find live, homegrown Leninists right here in Latte Land. Still, most prefer not to argue politics—sophisticated Seattle liberals consider disagreements gauche and sparring about Marxism irrelevant and tacky.
It’s much more comfy for unconventional Fremont to embrace conventional politics and etiquette than to relax and acknowledge the integral link between art and social circumstances. One cannot and should not view the Seattle Lenin without musing over communism, capitalism, imperialism, nationalism, private profit and social services; it is intellectually unhealthy to resist realizing how profoundly the Soviet implosion and its horrifying aftermath affect us all. But liberals fear the actual world and see only what they want to.
So not only Gingrichites deem “liberal” to be bad; I do too.
All true revolutionaries and reformers deplore liberals. Anyone hell-bent to achieve a civilized society has got to feel utter contempt and disgust and bewilderment at chronic middle-of-the-roaders, especially those with a self-professed leftish tinge.
These fence-sitters are the non-military mercenaries for rich guys, bureaucrats and big shots. Liberals are a civilian army, paid and volunteer, with a mission to stamp out militancy, redbait rebels, butter up officials, reduce powerful programs to pablum, and get out the vote for stinkers—after which they brag sanctimoniously that they’re still holding their noses!
They spatter the ranks with spurious reasons for taking the exactly wrong course, for lowering expectations, for replacing principle, truth and logic with expediency and cynicism and greed in the service of the status quo.
And why do liberals act so ghastly? All in the hope of gaining a possible wee voice in the halls of power or a bid on a cushy government job. Or simply to maintain “popularity” by going along with what, fingers in the wind, they believe to the majority/centrist/moderate/safe position.
In the process, the liberals/shliberals have infested the country with leaders who follow, with labor organizers bedded down with bosses, with movements of the oppressed yoked to the treacherous Democrats, and with sedate candlelight vigils instead of angry marches.
Liberals desperately need to be liberated from their selfimposed chains. Still, we have a few to thank for transporting Lenin’s image to the USA. The symbol of universal revolt has arrived here from foreign parts to assist us red-white-and-blue reds to keep bringing home the ideas behind the icon—as native here as in Russia, Cuba, South Africa, anywhere.
If we do that, then art will once again be understood as springing from the dynamic social soil that nurtures it. And Lenin’s likeness will once again inspire awe not only for its artistic form, but for its revolutionary content.