By Kevin DeAnna
School children, businesses, clergy, politicians and even the United States military soon will honor the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union.
Of course, they will call it Earth Day.
Brian Sussman points out in his explosive new book, “Eco-Tyranny: How the Left’s Green Agenda will Dismantle America,” that the first nationwide Earth Day was held April 22, 1970, the 100th anniversary of the birth of the communist Bolshevik leader.
The “nationwide teach in” was spearheaded by Democratic Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and college professor Paul Ehrlich.
Ehrlich had just written the “Population Bomb” in 1968, which famously – and falsely – predicted, “In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.”
Building on the idea, Ehrlich went on to advocate “brutal and heartless decisions” to solve the “problem” of overpopulation.
Comparing humanity to a cancer, he stated, “A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people. … We must shift our efforts from treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions.”
Ehrlich went on to add, “We must have population control at home, hopefully through changes in our value system, but by compulsion if voluntary methods fail.”
Inspired by the book, Nelson met with Ehrlich and came up with the idea of the “nationwide teach in” with the purpose of tapping the “environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause.”
Nelson selected campus anti-war and left-wing activist Denis Hayes to coordinate efforts for the first “Earth Day.” Hayes later would brag to the New York Times how he fled overseas because “he had to get away from America” and refused to print bumper stickers for the event because “they go on automobiles.”
Organized by radical student activists, built on the model of left-wing “teach-ins” at American universities, and created with the objective of furthering progressive activism, Sussman notes that the movement for Earth Day took to heart Lenin’s adage, “Give us the child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.”
However, Sussman exposes in “Eco-Tyranny” that the Bolshevik influence goes beyond tactics. After implementing his tyrannical rule over Russia in the October Revolution, Lenin issued a Decree on Land within his first year as Communist Party chairman. The decree declared that all forests, waters and minerals were property of the state.
Lenin also issued the decree “On Hunting Seasons and the Right to Possess Hunting Weapons,” which banned hunting moose and wild goats and ended open seasons for a variety of other animals.
Another resolution adopted by the Soviet government titled “On the Protection of Nature, Gardens, and Parks” established zapovedniki, or human-free nature preserves.
Despite the poverty of the people under Soviet rule, Lenin decided that it better served the national interest to place the rich natural resources of the area beyond human reach.
Sussman summarizes, “During Lenin’s reign, Russia initiated the most audacious nature conservancy program in the twentieth century. Starting with a vision created by Marx 50 years prior, Lenin had successfully implemented version one of the green agenda. His accomplishments would eventually … [be] celebrated the world over each April.”
Today, Earth Day is the most widely celebrated secular holiday in the world, with almost every major American institution paying it some sort of recognition in spite of its extreme origins. Despite the mainstreaming of Lenin’s anniversary celebration, left-wing activists honor the true history of the holiday by attacking property rights and human economic activity.
For example, as part of “Earth Week direct action,” Occupy DC protesters have been storming private businesses and trade associations such as the American Natural Gas Association.
However, this is only an echo of the plans the Obama administration has to restrict land ownership, American energy production and economic activity.
As Sussman reveals in Eco-Tyranny, the Obama administration has been pushing aggressively to seize hundreds of thousands of acres, as documented by secret memos from within the administration.
Sussman also shows how wealthy progressive activists and Democratic politicians are pushing to create American versions of the zapovedniki by creating human-free “wildlife corridors,” while Americans are forced to settle into highly regulated, heavily populated “megaregions.”
Sussman states in “Eco-Tyranny” that “socialism’s green flag [has achieved] great success with [its] devious agenda … even in America.” On April 22, the entire country will join in socialism’s celebration.
Ira Einhorn, who claims to have been on stage to host the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, currently is serving prison time for the beating death of his ex-girlfriend, Holly Maddux.
He fled to Europe after her body was discovered in a trunk in a closet in his apartment. He spent years there and was convicted in absentia before being extradited to the U.S. in 2001 after an extended court battle.
In a statement from Earth Day organizers, they denied Einhorn’s claims to have founded the event, saying, “He is a fraud.”