A visitor on campus talks to the Carillon about his thoughts on communism
It’s a June afternoon in the Riddell Centre and from the get-go, it’s not easy to miss what Troy Tiefenbach is all about.
The 30-something former U of R business student is wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with “Communist” and is sitting at a table filled with posters, pamphlets and newspapers devoted to the topic.
When Carillon staffers approached him for a chat, he immediately agreed, and quickly established himself as a relaxed speaker who seems to be knowledgeable on the subject.
Now, communism is often associated with dictatorships and tragedies. Be it Josef Stalin’s U.S.S.R. or Mao Zedong’s China, tales of terror associated with communism are not short in number.
Tiefenbach, however, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, believes that there are some positives about it. Since joining the party in 2021, Tiefenbach has been trying to spread the word about the potential benefits that a communist party could bring to the province and to the country.
“During the pandemic, we had an opportunity to see kind of behind the curtain, and I realized that a lot of these things that were in place to help regular people weren’t functioning properly, and I became disillusioned with the way that the government was operating,” said Tiefenbach.
Communist ideologies’ roots date back to 1848, when Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto. It developed from a theory which advocated for all property to be public. In essence, it called for shared equal rights and comprehensive growth thus calling for a war against the class system.
“Communism fits within the broader umbrella of socialist ideology that responds to the very unequal and exploitative and violent system of capitalism and capitalist states by attempting to present a model that would undo a class-based society and instigate a level of egalitarianism within society in the interest of social justice,” said U of R professor and head of the politics and international studies department Dr. Simon Granovsky-Larsen.
Over the centuries since, many countries including the Soviet Union, China, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea, Belarus, Cuba, and Turkmenistan have had communist governments.
Many of these countries were run by brutal dictators including Stalin, Mao and Kim Jong Il. Tiefenbach dislikes how these people have painted a picture for the entire ideology.
I realized that a lot of these things that were in place to help regular people weren’t functioning properly, and I became disillusioned with the way that the government was operating.” – Troy Tiefenbach
Communism’s not-so-crazy ideals
“I think most of those things are misconceptions. Some fundamental ones are ideas about trying to cause unrest on the one side. It isn’t true right, you want to tell people the truth in fact, and we don’t believe in these kinds of radical left ideas of going in and blowing things up or anything like that,” said Tiefenbach.
Granovsky-Larsen said he’s only seen one actual example of a communist government from the past that worked – Cuba.
“It’s not very recognized from the outside, but it was a society that was very politicized, very organized, very, very democratic at the lower levels of decision-making, less democratic higher up,” said Granovsky-Larsen.
He agreed that communism over time has become misunderstood by members of both the left and the right but sees why someone like Tiefenbach could find communist values to be enticing.
Granovsky-Larsen believes that, “the values that socialism and communism represent are much more mainstream and common than we’re led to believe,” and explained that, “If somebody’s life experiences and values sort of naturally lead them in a direction where they’re looking for an explanation for the world and a political project that’s based on equality and social justice, it’s really understandable that looking around people would kind of lean in that direction.”
I think the values that socialism and communism represent are much more mainstream and common than we’re led to believe.” -Simon Granovsky-Larsen, head of politics and international studies, U of R
Communism unlikely to gain traction
Tiefenbach recognises that the party lacks support; he is looking to invite people in and explain to them what isn’t working and how they could change things. He also asserts that the party is not necessarily looking for people to participate politically, “but rather tell workers exactly why the system isn’t working and open their eyes to the actual material conditions that they live under so that they can make the decision themselves.”
The last time the party had a candidate receive votes in a provincial election was 1986, when Kimball Cariou ran in Regina Centre and received 73 votes.
“It’s unlikely that a party or a politician declares themselves as Communist, even if they’re representing the ideals that people hold. It’s unlikely that that’s a particular political direction that ends up gaining momentum,” said Granovsky-Larsen.
According to Granovsky-Larsen, the tarnished legacy of communism seems to be too much for Canadians to bear. This is the same reputation that Tiefenbach is setting out to rectify.
Even after its failures in countries, communist ideology is still followed by some in Regina, but in extremely small numbers. Tiefenbach stated that they have around five members in the city.
Nevertheless, Tiefenbach says he will keep engaging with the public. He says the party hopes to be back at the U of R once a month or so.
