Presidential Declaration Fulfills Calls by Leading Human Rights Organization to Recognize 100 Million Victims on Centennial of Bolshevik Revolution.
November 7, Washington, D.C. – Recognizing the Trump administration’s historic statement released hours ago and declaring November 7 “National Day for the Victims of Communism,” Marion Smith, Executive Director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), issued the following statement:
“How fitting that the President has declared today, November 7, ‘Victims of Communism Day’ as he travels on the Korean Peninsula, just a few miles from the border of the world’s most vicious communist regime in the world. More fitting still, that he should do so on the day that marks 100 years since communism made its bloody debut on the world stage. Since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, communism has exacted a gruesome death toll of more than 100 million lives.”
“Sadly, communism is not a relic of the past. It lives on in places like China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam, where one-fifth of the world’s population are unjustly imprisoned, where torture is a daily occurrence, and where freedoms of speech, religion, and conscience are denied. Socialism and communism remain alluring for some Americans, and a troubling number of young Americans are more likely to choose living under ‘socialism’ or ‘communism’ than ‘capitalism,’ as we discovered in our most recent poll, the Annual Report on U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism. It is our hope that by raising awareness about the crimes of communism in all of its guises, we can ensure that the world’s deadliest ideology never takes root in the United States and remains exactly where it belongs: on the ash heap of history.”
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a Washington-based, non-profit educational and human rights organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes. VOC was authorized by a unanimous act of Congress on December 17, 1993 and signed by President Bill Clinton.
