> Meanwhile, we all know lots of great folks who were Communists at some
> point. Hell, Gorbachev is a truly great guy, fantastic, superb, maltreated.
>
It appears that Russians don't share your appreciation for Gorbachev at all.
> Nonetheless, if you can't see how disastrous using old Commie slogans would
> be for the new anti-capitalist movement, I would suggest getting out in
> public more often, including in Europe.
>
I don't think that "Workers of the World, Unite" is a slogan that only old Communists have or should embrace. Unless we settle for a vision of US workers competing with Chinese, German, Korean, Mexican, and other workers of the world for jobs, in the process fearing, hating, and attacking those who steal "American jobs" from "us," we have an objective reason to believe that, without workers of the world uniting, a better world is not possible.
It doesn't make sense to me to avoid slogans like "Workers of the World, Unite" just because old Communist Parties everywhere once used it and remaining (largely social democratic) CPs still use it. If that's the principle to go by, we can't even use words like solidarity, given the history of Polish Solidarity, and must avoid words like peace, freedom, human rights, democracy, and indeed all attractive words, which have been in constant use in the US government propaganda.
Yoshie