Press Release

ALEC Adopts Model Policy on Victims of Communism Memorial Day

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Anna Tarnawski
atarnawski@alec.org
973-879-2273 

ALEC Adopts Model Policy on Victims of Communism Memorial Day

Arlington, VA (October 4, 2018) — In commemoration of last year’s Bolshevik Revolution centennial, ALEC adopted model policy at the most recent meeting of the Task Force on Federalism and International Relations. The model policy designates November 7 of 2018 and each succeeding year as “Victims of Communism Memorial Day,” to honor the 100 million victims who died under communist regimes.

The model policy states that “communism has proven incompatible with the ideals of liberty, prosperity and dignity of human life,” and that “communist regimes have as a matter of government policy robbed their own citizens of the rights of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association through coercion, brutality and fear.”

The state of Virginia has already adopted a resolution designating November 7 as Victims of Communism Memorial Day, and legislators from the states of Kansas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas have committed to sponsoring similar resolutions in their states. President Trump proclaimed the first National Day for the Victims of Communism in November of 2017.

Communism is the most destructive ideology in human history, as Marxist regimes are responsible for massacring 100 million innocents, and enslaving hundreds of millions more. As the bipartisan U.S. Congressional Caucus for the Victims of Communism stated publicly in 2018 “Marx’s defenders often say he cannot be held accountable for what communist regimes did long after his life and death; but Marxist dictators who massacred their own people were applying communist ideology to political practice.”

Communism is not just a relic of the Cold War: 1 in 5 people still live under a communist government today. In China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam, untold millions suffer under governments that subject them to torture, starvation, and incarceration. To honor those victims, past and present, every state across the country should observe a National Day for the Victims of Communism.

The ALEC model policy for a Victims of Communism Memorial Day can be found here.

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The American Legislative Exchange Council is the largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators in the United States. The Council is governed by state legislators who comprise the Board of Directors and is advised by the Private Enterprise Advisory Council, a group of private, foundation and think tank members. For more information about the American Legislative Exchange Council, please visit: www.alec.org.


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