On March 7, Paul Kengor, editor of The American Spectator, delivered a talk on “The Marxist Roots of International Women’s Day” at the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women in Herndon, Virginia. C-SPAN brought its cameras and recorded the moment for posterity. The broadcast aired several times last week under the title “The Devil and Karl Marx,” the name of a 2020 book by Kengor. (RELATED: International (Marxist) Women’s Day)
The talk contained some stunning information on Marxist and socialist women from the likes of Russian Alexandra Kollontai and German Clara Zetkin to American feminists Margaret Sanger, Betty Friedan, Kate Millett, and Angela Davis. Kengor takes the audience on a sordid journey from Marx to Marcuse, and even spoke of Marx’s miserable mistress, “Lenchen.”
A grim reality of the Marxist movement was its aggressive advocacy of abortion and divorce and family breakup, fulfilling the Communist Manifesto’s stated goal of “abolition of the family.” That destructive mission convinced some female comrades, such as American Bella Dodd, to ultimately flee the Communist Party. Even then, as Kengor details, today’s New York Times instructs us that “communism was good for women.” And why not? After all, communism provided abortion, abortion, abortion.
What more does a gal need?
Kengor concluded the talk with uplifting insights on the great Clare Boothe Luce, a close friend of The American Spectator and our venerable founder, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. The widely accomplished Luce was a courageous anti-communist and a devout Catholic who inspiringly found her way to the faith through Bishop Fulton Sheen. Kengor’s presentation provided quite the story on the noble Luce and — conversely — her ignoble enemies.
Tune in, enjoy, and let us know what you think in the reader comments below.
Paul Kengor is Editor of The American Spectator.
Dr. Kengor is also a professor of political science at Grove City College, a senior academic fellow at the Center for Vision & Values, and the author of over a dozen books, including A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Communism, and Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.
