The College of Charleston School of Business Center for Public Choice and Market Process is partnering with the College’s Russian Club for a joint discussion on communism led by the executive director of The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VCMF), Marion Smith.
Executive director of VCMF, Marion Smith
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation focuses its efforts on eradicating and combatting communism through educating the public about the history of its ideology.
Smith, a South Carolina native and chairman of The National Civic Art Society, is also president of the Common Sense Society (CSS). With a multinational presence in the United States and several European countries, the non-partisan organization strives to promote reasoned dialogue, rather than polarizing, politically charged debates.
You can find several of Smith’s articles in USA Today, The Hill, The Washington Post, The National Review, The Weekly Standard and many other publications.
Smith attributes more than political polarization to the skewed ideology of communism. One in five people are still living under communist regimes, and over the past 100 years, the social system has claimed more than one hundred million victims – one fifth of the world’s population.
During the lecture, Smith will focus on the threat communism poses to the very premise of democracy in the Western world and beyond. He believes the ideology is an attack on humanity, proven time after time to be counterproductive in all spheres of social, economic and cultural life.
To join in on the discussion, head over to Tate Center, Room 202, on October 19 at 5:30 p.m., in the School of Business.
