Monument Decree

 

Monument to Karl Marx on Solidarity Drive, Chicago, unveiled on 1 May 1918, on a pedestal formerly occupied by Federalist Senator Arther Logan.

The Decree on the Dismantling of Monuments Erected in Honor of the Federalist Regime and Their Servants and on the Formation of People's Monuments to the Continental Socialist Revolution, also known as the Monument Decree or Decree 343 for short, was a Continental Decree issued by the Council of People's Commissars on 5 March 1918. The primary purpose of the decree was to sanction the dismantling of pre-revolutionary monuments and symbols, in favor of revolutionary replacements, contributing to the emerging Continental Cultural Revolution. Historical figures associated with the Federalist regime, Continental capitalism, American colonialism, and the Confederate States were denounced, allowing for the promotion of new revolutionary heroes and martyrs. Additionally, the decree began a historical reexamination of American and Continental figures, informing later historiography and culture of the United Commonwealth. The decree is responsible for the launching of several projects to meet the demand for revolutionary figures and symbols, the most prominent of which being the Landonography movement, spearheaded by decree co-author People's Commissar for Education Kieran Hayes. The addendum to the decree, which includes a list of suggested guidelines for Continental heroes, formed the basis for early Continental thinking on historical figures and has partially carried over to the present day, although this list remains controversial and has been used in Continental conspiracy theories.

The decree has since become an influential part of the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials and its surrounding national debate. Upon its release, the Monument Decree sparked debate both within and outside the revolutionary government over the role the government should play in suppressing Confederate symbols and traditional aspects of American culture. Although the decree explicitly called for the suppression of most Confederate figures, dissenters latched onto the stipulation that monuments be removed "in accordance with the popular attitudes", arguing for local and working-class support for select Confederate-era figures, and thus denouncing the decree's implementation in the South as a "northern imposition" within the broader trend of "Yankeeification". The decree caused a split within the Lost Causer movement, with prominent Southern oppositionists such as Jeremy W. Anderson seeking to use the language of the Monument Decree, Continental self-determination, and Landonist ideas to rehabilitate the Confederacy. On the micro-level, this school of thought achieved some success in arguing that select local Confederates were not associated with slavery, were of an oppressed or coerced class, or hold important, local significance. The Monument Decree also caused backlash from general preservationists and historians, who argued that in practice it had enabled general iconoclasm and vandalism of artwork with historical significance.

Text

The full text of the decree reads as follows:

In recognition of the Continental Socialist Revolution which has transformed the United Commonwealth, and the necessary task of uprooting any remaining bourgeois influence, uplifting proletarian culture, and assisting in the rejuvenation and beautification of society, the Council of People's Commissars has decreed that:

1. Monuments erected in honor of the Federalist Regime, the former United States of America, and their officials; commemorating those persons and events demeaning to human decency or liberation; or idols to bourgeois and counterrevolutionary persons; that which are of no historical or artistic interest, are to be removed from public display, including in all squares and streets, and either relocated to storage or, where deemed appropriate, repurposed in pursuit of a useful public good.
2. A Central Commission under the purview of the People's Commissariat for Education, and including the Superintendent of the Department for the Arts, in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago, shall oversee the removal and repurposing of monuments.
3. This aforementioned Commission shall create and oversee national artistic contests, involving mass participation, to arrange on the basis of proletarian culture suitable replacements celebrating the great days of the Continental Socialist Revolution.
4. The determination of proletarian culture and the removal of monuments therein, shall be in accordance with the popular attitudes of the working-class and revolutionary masses.
5. The Council of People's Commissars expresses its wish that the most egregious affronts to public decency be removed by the 1st of May, and that prototypes of the monuments of the revolution be exhibited for judgement by the masses, in commemoration of International Workers' Day.
6. The Commission is ordained to oversee the decoration of Chicago for the celebration of the 1st of May, and to replace all signs, emblems, street names, coats of arms, etc., in favor of new names and symbols gathered from the working masses by this date.
7. The Commission is to coordinate this task along with regional and subregional councils of the workers, soldiers, and farmers, so that they may lead and partake in the decree on the local level.
8. The necessary funds for this forthcoming project will be generated from the liquidation of former monuments, the imposition of a penalty on private owners of monuments such that their removal is covered at their own expense, and by executive funding, in accordance with a detailed estimate to be prepared by the Commission.

Addendum

In addition to the original decree itself, the Council of People's Commissars included a short list of appropriate and disapproved candidates, as well as guidelines for determining future monuments. This list was prepared beforehand by People's Commissar for Education Kieran Hayes and approved for distribution to regional assemblies along with the text of the decree itself.

We recognize the so-called "American Revolution" of the 18th-century for its historically progressive role, but also its modern connotation as a symbol of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and of American chauvinism. Therefore, as the United Commonwealth moves into the period of the Proletarian Dictatorship, the former revolution becomes unlaudable. The liberal leaders who directed this event, and benefited from the inequitable instigation of capitalism and slavery, are in the main to be rescinded from public memory. However, we also recognize that the American Revolution tapped into a legitimate expression of the masses, no doubt in reflection of their oppression by feudal, imperial relations. These revolutionary masses, called into action in defense of liberty, and holding local significance in their communities, reflect the consensus of the masses more so than the interest of the bourgeois leaders.

We recognize, that as a result of the colonial heritage of the American continent, numerous remnants of feudal traditionalism prevailed even after the American Revolution. We reject these feudal remnants as having long over-stayed their welcome and call for their removal. Names and monuments recognizing British and European nobility, colonialism, and dominance of colonized peoples, shall be rescinded.

We recognize that in the era of capitalism in the pre-Commonwealth, the American leaders were in the main elected by an inequitable and nominally "democratic" system, which protected and enshrined the property of capitalists and the adhorent institution of slavery. But we also acknowledge that many pre-revolutionary leaders rose to the occassion by resisting where possible the oppression of the masses, and were generally supported by them. We also recognize that in this period, the bourgeois intelligentsia produced works which spoke to the general attitudes and plights of the masses, and such works should not be suppressed without examination.

We recognize that during the American Civil War of 1861–65, a patriotic and emancipatory current arose in the masses toward the mission of ending the worst crimes of the bourgeois-reactionary American system, and in contravention of the interests of an oppressor class in the Southern States, and thus the Union played a revolutionary role. We therefore inherit the tradition of the Union insofar as it speaks to this revolutionary current. The "Confederate States" was an inherently counterrevolutionary and reactionary upsurge, whose government reflected the interest of the minority in domination of the majority, and reflected only opposition to the liberation of the American continent. We strongly condemn any and all symbols of the Confederacy.

In general we strive to recognize those of proletarian, semi-proletarian, or such adjacent backgrounds, and representatives of the people who stood for the rights and liberation of all. These heroes should have served in the pursuit of world revolution, or the progressive efforts of their time. Revolutionary heroes should be found by seeking out the attitudes of the masses, identifying those who hold special significance to the working-class, and empowering the most illustrious proletarians for guidance and inspiration.

The addendum included the following lists and comments on prominent American figures:

Approved

• The preeminent Marxist and Socialist thinkers which inspire the current revolution:
  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and their collegues
  • Isaiah Landon and the Second California Republic
  • The Continentalist forefathers: Gregory Dahl, Daniel De Leon, etc
  • Joseph Weydemeyer, left-wing Forty-Eighters, popularizers of revolution
• Revolutionary leaders of the current proletarian movement, or its predecessors:
  • Eugene V. Debs and other martyrs of Federalist oppression
  • Joseph and Michael Hofer, and those who gave their life in opposition to Federalist imperialism and warmongering
  • Alvin York, Edwin Bradshaw, and other proletarian heroes of the ongoing Revolutionary War
  • Members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein and historic people's militias
  • Heroes and martyrs of the Haymarket Massacre, the Eastern Field Culling, and all other Federalist crimes and massacres
  • The Hatfields and McCoys, Appalachian revolutionaries
• Local heroes and legends, activists, and exceptional workers where appropriate
• Members of the international community and global socialism, especially those who hold significance to the American continent or its populations
• Transcendentalists who embody the "American liberatory spirit"; be weary of utopian socialist deviation
• Edward Bellamy - although conforming an idealist outlook, his novel Looking Backward inspired an entire generation of revolutionaries, and should be recognized for its importance in cultivating the Continentalist movement.
• Upton Sinclair, and works like The Jungle which expose the horrors of capitalism.
• American artists and scholars who challenged oppression or spoke to a working-class, American spirit:
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin provides an important and historically significant critique of slavery, even if its solutions are flawed.
  • Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, etc
• The American individualists should be approached with caution:
  • Josiah Warren for his experimentation in American communist organization and popularization of anti-capitalist themes
  • Stephen Pearl Andrews for his role in American socialism and popularization of Marx to an American audience
  • Lysander Spooner for his revolutionary opposition and abolitionism
• Abolitionists, promoters of Black liberation, civil rights
  • Frederick Douglass and James N. Buffum
  • William Lloyd Garrison
  • Members of the Negro Republican Party
• Revolutionary fighters against slavery
  • John Brown, Harriet Tubman, etc
• Members of mass uprisings against tyranny, in support of workers' rights, or emancipation
  • Nat Turner, etc
• Revolutionary feminists and advancers of women's liberation
  • Voltairine de Cleyre, Lucy Parsons, etc
• Select colonial and pre-revolutionary political leaders may be used where appropriate:
  • Roger Williams, in his promotion of secularism and cooperation
  • William Penn, for his message of brotherly internationalism and peace
  • Benjamin Franklin, as a philosopher and abolitionist
  • Thomas Paine, as a bourgeois theorist of American anti-tyranny
  • Radical Republicans of the bourgeois American republic
• Leaders of the War Against Slavery may in general be recognized:
  • William Tecumseh Sherman

Disapproved

• The persons of the colonization of the Americas, who the Federalist regime and White Supremacists have sanctified:
  • Christopher Columbus, and "Columbia"
• Aristocrats and holders of titles of nobility
  • The English kings and their lackeys
  • Members and associates of the neo-feudal "American monarchies" of Florida, Superior, Sierra, etc, their supposed nobles and dynasts
• Most colonial overlords, governors, and property-owners
  • The colonial corporations and their shareholders
  • The masters appointed by the colonial corporations
  • Exceptions may be made for the colonial masses, as symbols of perseverance and ingenuity, in opposition to the colonial masters
• Slavers and profiteers of the slave trade
• Militant promotors of colonization, expansionist wars, native massacres, etc
• The petty warhawk-imperialists of the American and Federalist governments
• Members of the Confederate government, the supporters of the Confederacy or secession during the American Civil War, the profiteers of the Civil War, or those who perpetuated slavery
  • Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens
• Confederate generals, officers, prominent spokespeople of slavery (both North and South)
• Members or associates of the Ku Klux Klan and similarly designated terrorist and reactionary organizations
• American and Continental capitalists and industrial magnates
  • John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, etc
  • Henry Ford and the modern robber barons
• The Federalist presidents, governors, congresspersons, and other government officers, their military leaders, their associates responsible for any and all suppression of labor or crimes of the Federalist regime, as well as anyone serving in connection to the Federalist counterrevolution against the present Continental people.

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Notes on the American Presidents

• George Washington - Approach with caution. May be referenced as a general symbol and progressive (for the time) leader of the proto-Continental people, but his role must be contextualized within the bounds of the pre-revolutionary state, his promotion of the bourgeoisie and slavery, etc. Due to being entwined with modern American chauvanists, Washington should be deemphasized and abandoned as a primary American figure.
• John Adams - Can be suppressed without comment.
• Thomas Jefferson - Should be deemphasized alongside Washington. His role in bourgeois enlightenment thinking, secularism, and revolutionism may be acknowledged. Philosophy of agrarian communalism can be published with caveat.
• James Madison - Can be suppressed, aside from his role in flawed Bill of Rights and construction of the country.
• James Monroe - Can be suppressed without comment.
• John Quincy Adams - May be praised for his role in opposition to slavery.
• Andrew Jackson - Should be suppressed for his autocratism, attacks on natives, promotion of slavery and imperialism.
• Martin Van Buren - Can be suppressed without comment.
• William Henry Harrison - Can be suppressed without comment.
• John Tyler - Can be suppressed without comment.
• James K. Polk - Can be suppressed without comment.
• Zachary Taylor - Can be suppressed without comment.
• Millard Fillmore - Can be suppressed without comment.
• Franklin Pierce - Can be suppressed without comment.
• James Buchanan - Can be suppressed without comment.
• Abraham Lincoln - We hold Lincoln to be an appropriate representative of the working-class, and a laudable pre-revolutionary figure, especially for his opposition to slavery, his fight to defeat the reactionary Confederacy, and his efforts to expand civil rights. Lincoln should be appropriately contextualized within a Landonist lens when presented.
• Lafayette S. Foster - Largely irremarkable.
• Ulysses S. Grant - His role in the War Against Slavery and in support of Lincoln is laudable, although he should be downplayed in connection to his putsch which led to the Federalist regime.

See also

• Landonography
• Hero of the United Commonwealth
• Education in the United Commonwealth