The Left: A Danger to the Poor – Folha de S. Paulo, December 20, 1970
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Blessed by God and strongly supported by people, TFP’s campaign for the Christmas of the poor is progressing very well. We hear many encouraging words of admiration from all sides, inspired by our members and volunteers’ spirit of sacrifice. These young men, mostly university and high school students, shopkeepers, and workers, take turns daily at Viaduto do Chá, dedicating their vacations and free time to collecting donations so the needy can have a happier Christmas this year. Despite the heat and rain, they carry out this difficult task willingly to serve a threefold ideal: Tradition, Family, and Property. In fact, the Christmas campaign naturally follows this motto, as charity is at the heart of our Christian traditions. It is fitting for the family to be a center of kindness that bridges wealthy and poor families. Moreover, private property becomes particularly admirable when those who have voluntarily help those who lack.
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However, this is not what I will share with my readers today. In a time of crisis and upheaval, it seems unlikely they could imagine our red standards flying over Anhangabaú Valley on these bright, sunny days and seeing our young heralds wearing berets, capes, and emblems, calling from the top of the thoroughfare’s pillars on the hardworking people of São Paulo to show charity to the poor. And when they had the joy of saying yes to our young men’s request by giving the poor a small Christmas donation.
Nevertheless, the “procella tenebrarum” (St. Jude, 13) continued to rage across the world, and it is not lawful to ignore it, especially since it was also felt on the Viaduct, where it revealed, in a way, the most terrible side of its nature.
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As everyone knows, the campaign was aimed at helping the poor, and given the high moral standing of the TFP and the Association of the Ladies of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, there is no doubt, nor could there be, that the donations to the poor will be delivered.
However, elements from the left, which constantly trumpet their concern for the poor, did not hesitate to viciously and ferociously attack this campaign for the benefit of the poor.
How? Some of these enemies of charity belonged to the wealthy left. Indeed, some “toads” sadly dared to walk past our young men and whisper: “Go to work, you bum.” Elements of the radical left (who are very hostile to all rich people but always in sync with the “toads”) engaged in acts fitting their hostility, such as throwing dirty papers into donation containers, anonymously hurling heavy objects onto our volunteers from atop skyscrapers, and more.
Analyzing and properly qualifying these various manifestations of a well-known state of mind according to Christian ethics would be demeaning to both myself and the reader.
However, this raises the question: Is it truly out of love for the poor that these people oppose the Christmas collection for the poor?
Indeed, we see communism tormenting the poor everywhere. In my latest article, I discussed the failure of Cuba’s sugar harvest and the island’s resulting poverty. A few days ago, the world was shaken by news of the uprising of the poor in the Polish cities of Gdansk, Gdynia, and Sopot, outraged by the high cost of living. Gdansk is the former Danzig, a seaport that became one of the most prosperous in Europe in the Middle Ages and maintained that status until it fell under communist rule.
Faced with the poverty in Cuba and these Polish cities, these champions of the poor have no words of compassion, and this attitude is no exception. Here are a few more examples.
In early September, the Soviet trade union newspaper Trud published a scathing attack against “volunteer workers” (miserable outcasts forced by the Soviets to work for free on state farms, similar to Fidel Castro’s “volunteer” sugarcane cutters), because, during their forced labor, they “stole” food to eat or bring to their families. Faced with this reality, I feel sympathy for them and believe the reader does too. Yet, instead of sympathizing, Trud spares no harsh insults. Of course, at this very moment, many of them are suffering relentless torture in Siberian prisons.
To all of us—I repeat—these unfortunate people evoke pity. As for the “toads” and their disheveled comrades on the far left, they prefer not to discuss the matter and work to ensure that the poor around the world face the same regime!
Is this how you show love to the poor?
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On the same day, newspapers reported important news. The European Common Market capitalist nations are reaching such high levels of agricultural productivity that they are exceeding the Soviet countries by a large margin. As a result, trading industrialized goods from capitalist countries for agricultural products from communist countries is becoming unnecessary and unappealing for the former.
This fact is so remarkable that representatives from Russia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria in the UN Trade and Development Council requested its secretary-general to prepare a report on the EEC’s so-called discriminatory practices against communist countries. This move was intended to delay the expansion of the European Common Market to the agricultural sector, which currently includes only industrial products.
This episode highlights the stark difference between the agricultural wealth of countries with private property systems and the poverty of communist nations.
Nevertheless, leftists, who claim to be allies of the poor, advocate for a system of widespread poverty in Brazil and around the world.
In light of this, who are these strange friends of the poor?
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Let us remember Voltaire’s famous saying: “God, deliver me from my friends; I know how to deal with my enemies.” May God save the poor from their strange friends on the left!
