“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Acts 2:44-45, New Oxford Annotated Bible

“Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. . . There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.” Acts 4: 32, 34-35

“’From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,’ is a foundational communist maxim. It describes a stateless, classless society where people contribute to the community based on what they do best, and receive resources based on what they genuinely need to live a dignified life.”  AI Overview

Do Trump and the Republicans know about these quotations from the book of Acts in the Bible about this core belief and practice of the early Christian church just years after the death of Jesus? Some church-going ones probably do, although I’d bet that it is rare indeed that these verses have been quoted in church on Sunday in the modern era.

The “according to their needs” phrase is more well-known, an idea that has been around for a long time, popularized in 1875 by Karl Marx in his Critique of the Gotha Program.

The Trump/Republican attempt to brand the democratic resistance as “communist” opens up possibilities for us around the country to talk with others, including MAGA others, about all of this. So many people in the USA have been propagandized to believe that “communism” is what Russia turned into after Stalin became the top leader of the USSR in the late 1920’s.

The USSR in the 20’s was struggling with the devastation of World War I, the efforts for three years by the capitalist countries and supporters of the former Czar to overthrow the new revolutionary government, and an overwhelmingly peasant society with not much industry and a small industrial working class. It would have been a miracle of the highest order if they had been able to build anything close to the early Christian and early Marxist visions referenced above.

Stalin’s ascension to power and the brutal and destructive ways that he used it, as well as the USSR’s political dominance over communist parties around the world for the next 30 years, made it much easier for rich capitalists and powerful corporate leaders in Europe and the USA to paint not just the USSR but the very idea of communism as an evil thing.

The progressive/independent/socialist/pro-democracy/justice movement of tens of millions in the USA is nothing at all like the Trumpfascists and their apologists in the media are painting it. The overwhelming majority of those part of it are truly defenders of democracy, democracy of, by and for the people, not the billionaire oligarchs. We believe that, yes, the obscene riches they have gained off of the labor of others should be taxed and redistributed, so that poverty, hunger and homelessness are eradicated and we give leadership together with others in the world who believe in the same things for their countries. We want a world whose ecological systems are not dying, literally dying, because of the dominance of the polluting oil, coal and gas companies over the US government and too many other compromised government leaders.

As we keep building this movement in the US, through electoral action (especially right now) grassroots organizing around issues in workplaces and communities, and nonviolent demonstrations and direct action to press forward with our peace, justice, democracy and climate action agenda, we can be certain the oligarchs and their hatchet men will say and do many outrageous things, many hurtful things. But I can’t see them defeating what is now rising in the USA. Many of us have learned from our past mistakes, our internal fights among one another, the white racism and male sexism and elitist classism that have kept us back. We are advancing.

So let them sling around their “communist” epithets and all the other ridiculous words to try to throw us off. We have proved over the past year and a half that the power of an organized and unified people’s movement is so much stronger and hopeful than anything they can concoct.

Four months. Four months to talk with people all over about the issues, to be prepared to combat Trumpfascist election disruption efforts, to win expected and unexpected victories so that, as brother Bernie Sanders has put forward, come January of 2027, with the Republicans defeated in both the House and Senate, our peoples’ freedom movement just keeps going forward.Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com