The only difference between the Marxist nations and South Africa is that the rulers of the Marxist nations oppressed their citizens regardless of race, creed or color.

This "economic system" crap I expect from people like Bowser. You cannot construct a massively-centralized economy without enslaving the people who live there. Hayek knew this sixty years ago.

When the Left finally drills into its collective brain the idea that Marxist nations aren't centralized economies that just by unhappy bad luck "happened" to be monstrous totalitarian regimes, but that totalitarianism is the inevitable consequence of such an economic system, maybe we can move towards rubbing this poisonous idea out once and for all.

You would think many examples of the destruction from Marxism, examples from all cultures, all races, and all geographical locations, and all with exactly the same results, would clue SOMEBODY in.

Marxism is no less rotten at the core than apartheid is, because both are based on the same roots of collectivism.

The real reason the American Left in the past attacked apartheid, while ignoring Marxist regimes, has little to do with philosophical consistency, and a lot to do with politics.

Remember the American Library Association flap here a while back? When I criticized the organization for dealing with Cuban library officials? I got endless grief for making any connection between them and the government of Cuba, or thinking that there was even anything wrong with it. The ALA, especially its socialist subgroup the "Social Responsibilities Round Table," still has their lips firmly fastened to Castro's ass. I'm sure they'll have plenty to spare for the leaders of Venezuela and Bolivia.

That same organization would not have been caught dead dealing with ANYONE from the old South Africa. From <a href=
"http://www.iit.edu/departments/csep/perspective/pers15_1fall95_2.html">this article:

A large and vocal element within the American Library Association (ALA) favored an absolute boycott and some public libraries (and their parent entities) refused to do business with any publisher, bookseller, or other vendor that continued to trade with South Africa. A resolution introduced at an ALA conference in 1987 to oppose the book boycott on the grounds that it violated First Amendment rights was labeled "racist" and decisively defeated. Individual libraries, in the United States and elsewhere, refused to supply photocopies or other materials to libraries in South Africa. In some cases, requests were returned with anti-apartheid slogans scribbled across them.

The hypocrisy out there stinks, Robert. The proper view is to condemn collectivism of all kinds, apartheid and communism, not just those that are politically correct.