Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Nov. 7 announcing “Anti-Communism Week,” which will commemorate the approximately 100 million victims who lost their lives to communist political systems over the years.

“This week, our Nation observes Anti-Communism Week, a solemn remembrance of the devastation caused by one of history’s most destructive ideologies,” the proclamation, issued on the National Day for the Victims of Communism, reads.

The order highlights the “devastation” of communist rule in countries around the world since its inception in Russia in 1917 by Vladimir Lenin following the Bolshevik Revolution. The collectivist ideology stems from “The Communist Manifesto,” written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848.

Common principles of communist rule include the destruction of family structures, the abolition of traditional societal morals, and the outlawing of religions and spiritual liberty.

In the proclamation, Trump honors individuals “taken by regimes that sought to erase faith, suppress freedom, and destroy prosperity earned through hard work, violating the God-given rights and dignity of those they oppressed.”

“As we honor their memory, we renew our national promise to stand firm against communism, to uphold the cause of liberty and human worth, and to affirm once more that no system of government can ever replace the will and conscience of a free people,” Trump wrote in the proclamation.

He highlighted the progress made since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, ending the decades-long Cold War, while also cautioning against the subversive and persistent nature of tyranny.

“New voices now repeat old lies, cloaking them in the language of ‘social justice’ and ‘democratic socialism,’ yet their message remains the same: give up your freedom, place your trust in the power of the government, and trade the promise of prosperity for the empty comfort of control,” the proclamation reads.

Standard attempts to infiltrate Western societies include the use of disinformation campaigns, divisive rhetoric, the polarization of issues, and the manipulation of political movements to amplify pro-communist messaging, among other tactics.

Signs promoting communist ideologies were visible at the recent No Kings rallies in Washington, and The Epoch Times also observed dozens of pro-communist banners and placards in protests surrounding the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Some activists are calling for the elimination of private property and the dissolution of existing social structures. The messaging echoes the communist notion that political discord and chaos are necessary to create order.

Slogans depict the movement as one for the workers and common people, a theme used to generate support, though the historical record repeatedly demonstrates the trajectory of communism toward totalitarian control.

Approximately 1.5 billion people in five countries currently reside under communist regimes, with the majority in China and others in Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam.

Chinese Communist Party leaders have maintained strict control of the society since 1949, using imprisonment, forced organ harvesting, and murder, among other methods, to keep citizens in line.

Communist authorities uniformly seek to eradicate traditional values, aiming to elevate the regime to the highest authority on moral matters and to consolidate power at the top of the regime’s hierarchy.

The United States “rejects this evil doctrine,” and demonstrates a commitment to its founding principles, the president’s proclamation states.

“No ideology, whether foreign or domestic, can extinguish them,” the proclamation reads.

“We honor the victims of oppression by keeping their cause alive and by ensuring that communism and every system that denies the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness will find their place, once and for all, on the ash heap of history.”

Among many nonprofit groups addressing communism, the Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is advocating for a “world free from the false hope of communism.”

“Communism has always been, and will always be, incompatible with liberty, prosperity, and the dignity of life,” the organization said in a statement. “We remember that while it always promises equality and liberation, it has only ever robbed people of their most basic rights and freedoms.”