Letters from Tomis

My Socialist Hall of Fame

During this chaotic era of vile rhetoric and manipulative tactics from our so-called bourgeois leaders, I am invigorated by the opportunity to reflect on Socialists, Revolutionaries, Philosophers, Guerrilla Leaders, Partisans, and Critical Theory titans, champions, and martyrs who paved the way for us—my own audacious “Socialism’s Hall of Fame.” These are my heroes and fore-bearers. Not all are perfect, or even fully admirable, but all contributed in some way to our future–either as icons to emulate, or as warnings to avoid in the future.

Introduction

Michael Parenti (b. 1933) is an American political scientist, historian, cultural critic, and one of the most incisive Marxist voices in the U.S. intellectual landscape of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. With a career spanning over five decades, Parenti has produced a prolific body of work that critiques imperialism, capitalism, corporate media, U.S. foreign policy, and class rule, all grounded in a Marxist theoretical framework. Although long marginalized by mainstream academia due to his unapologetically radical politics, Parenti’s writings have profoundly influenced leftist movements, anti-imperialist organizations, and progressive educators across the globe. His scholarship combines historical narrative with sharp polemical analysis, making complex power structures accessible to a mass readership.

Early Life and Education

Michael John Parenti was born in 1933 in an Italian-American working-class neighborhood in East Harlem, New York City. He was raised by a single mother in a multilingual immigrant milieu, which significantly shaped his class consciousness and political development. Parenti often recalls his formative experiences growing up in poverty as instrumental to his lifelong commitment to anti-capitalist politics.

He earned a B.A. from City College of New York (CCNY) in 1954 and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 1962. His dissertation focused on political behavior and elite consensus within U.S. institutions—topics that would later evolve into more radical critiques of bourgeois democracy and capitalist hegemony.

Academic Career and Political Marginalization

After completing his doctorate, Parenti taught political science at a number of institutions, including the University of Vermont, Sarah Lawrence College, and Brooklyn College. In the 1970s, he held a tenured position at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, but he was controversially denied reappointment, a move he and others attributed to his Marxist political stance and growing public profile as a leftist critic of U.S. imperialism.

From that point onward, Parenti operated primarily as an independent scholar and public intellectual, outside traditional academic institutions. He became a popular speaker on campuses and in political organizations and unions, while continuing to publish books and essays that challenged elite power structures. In doing so, he joined a cohort of dissident intellectuals—including Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, and Howard Zinn—who reshaped American left thought in the post-Vietnam era.

Theoretical Contributions and Major Themes

Critique of Capitalism and the State

Parenti’s 1974 work Democracy for the Few remains one of his most enduring texts. Here, he elaborates a Marxist analysis of the U.S. political system, dissecting its plutocratic foundations and exposing the illusion of bourgeois democracy. He demonstrates how both major parties serve corporate interests, and how institutional “checks and balances” ultimately reinforce class domination. Democracy for the Few has been used as a textbook in countless political science and sociology courses, especially in alternative education settings.

In The Anti-Communist Impulse (1989), Parenti critiques Cold War ideology and the role of anti-communism as a cultural and political instrument used to delegitimize socialism and justify militarism. His analysis aligns with Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, emphasizing how ruling ideologies work through consent as much as coercion.

Imperialism and Empire

Parenti’s central political theme is the critique of U.S. imperialism. In Against Empire (1995), he offers a systematic Marxist-Leninist indictment of U.S. foreign policy, illustrating how imperialism is not an aberration but a systemic necessity for global capitalism. He connects military interventions, coups, and economic policies like structural adjustment to the material interests of transnational capital.

His later works, such as The Terrorism Trap (2002) and The Assassination of Julius Caesar (2003), expand this analysis into historical and cultural territory. The former examines how imperialist violence is repackaged as humanitarian intervention, while the latter critiques classical historiography for its elite bias, offering a “people’s history” of ancient Rome that parallels Marxist approaches to modern capitalist societies.

Class, Culture, and Ideology

Parenti is one of the few Marxist theorists to deeply integrate cultural studies into class analysis. In Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media (1986), he exposes how corporate media frames issues to maintain ruling-class ideology, shaping public opinion to align with elite interests. He contends that the media does not merely misinform but systematically produces ideological consent.

In Make-Believe Media (1992) and Superpatriotism (2004), Parenti critiques cultural production—from Hollywood to popular history—that reinforces nationalism, militarism, and corporate dominance. These works presage later academic developments in media studies, particularly the rise of critical media literacy and anti-racist, anti-imperialist critique in public discourse.

Critique of Anti-Communism and the “Left”

Unlike more centrist critics of U.S. policy, Parenti consistently defends socialist experiments (including Cuba, Nicaragua, and even aspects of the USSR), though not uncritically. He argues that Western critics of communism often ignore the devastating external pressures imposed by imperialism, sanctions, and sabotage. He critiques the “left” that embraces anti-communist premises, accusing them of undermining class solidarity and internationalism.

His speech “Reflections on the Overthrow of Communism” (1991) offers a powerful counter-narrative to post-Cold War triumphalism, attributing the fall of the USSR not simply to internal flaws, but to sustained economic and psychological warfare by the capitalist West.

Popular Educator and Public Intellectual

Parenti’s rhetorical style—clear, satirical, and passionate—has made him a favorite among activists and working-class audiences. His speeches, often widely circulated online and in alternative media, blend humor with historical analysis. Lectures like “Function of Fascism”, “Terrorism and Globalization”, and “To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia” have educated generations of activists on the mechanics of empire and capital.

His work, while rooted in academic rigor, is deliberately accessible. Parenti views education as a tool for class struggle and aims to popularize radical critique. He follows in the tradition of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, who emphasized the importance of agitational literature alongside scientific socialism.

Legacy and Influence

Though rarely acknowledged in mainstream academia, Parenti has built a significant legacy on the U.S. left. His works are widely used in activist circles, community education projects, and anti-imperialist organizations. His synthesis of class analysis, historical narrative, and cultural criticism offers a powerful antidote to both neoliberal cynicism and liberal idealism.

Parenti’s influence is visible in the growing resurgence of socialist politics in the U.S., especially among younger generations engaged in anti-war, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist struggles. His critique of corporate media has proven prophetic in an age of disinformation and surveillance capitalism. His work continues to be reprinted, studied, and discussed in contemporary socialist reading groups and political education programs.

Conclusion

Michael Parenti stands as one of the most committed and lucid Marxist theorists of the postwar United States. His intellectual courage, popular eloquence, and unwavering solidarity with the oppressed mark him as a vital voice in the ongoing struggle for socialism. Though often excluded from academic canons, Parenti’s influence extends far beyond the ivory tower, animating movements that seek to understand and overthrow the system of capitalist exploitation. His life and work embody the revolutionary spirit of critical thought in service of human liberation.

Selected Bibliography

Books by Michael Parenti

• Democracy for the Few. Cengage Learning, multiple editions since 1974.

• Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media. St. Martin’s Press, 1986.

• The Sword and the Dollar: Imperialism, Revolution, and the Arms Race. St. Martin’s Press, 1989.

• The Anti-Communist Impulse. Random House, 1989.

• Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment. St. Martin’s Press, 1992.

• Against Empire. City Lights Books, 1995.

• Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism. City Lights Books, 1997.

• History as Mystery. City Lights Books, 1999.

• To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia. Verso, 2000.

• The Terrorism Trap: September 11 and Beyond. City Lights Books, 2002.

• The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People’s History of Ancient Rome. The New Press, 2003.

• Superpatriotism. City Lights Books, 2004.

• Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader. City Lights Books, 2007.

• God and His Demons. Prometheus Books, 2010.

• Profit Pathology and Other Indecencies. Paradigm Publishers, 2015.

Articles and Pamphlets

• “Reflections on the Overthrow of Communism.” (1991)

• “The Function of Fascism.” Lecture.

• “Imperialism 101.” Online publication.