Communist Party USA and struggles" of American history, the party promotes a conception of "Bill of Rights Socialism" that will "guarantee all the freedoms we have won over centuries of struggle and also extend the Bill of Rights to include freedom from unemployment" as well as freedom "from poverty, from illiteracy, and from discrimination and oppression". Reiterating the idea of property rights in socialist society as it is outlined in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's "Communist Manifesto" (1848), the Communist Party emphasizes: Many myths have been propagated about socialism. Contrary to right-wing claims, socialism would not take away the personal private property of
The Power of the Powerless It became a manifesto for dissent in Czechoslovakia, Poland and other communist regimes. Under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, there was an omnipresent pressure exerted by the political apparatus on culture. Various methods were utilized to pressure citizens into compliance. Havel's philosophical mentor, Jan Patočka, who was also the co-spokesman of the human rights petition, Charter 77, died of a stroke in March 1977, after an eleven-hour interrogation by the Czechoslovak secret police regarding his involvement in the Charter. After the launch of Charter 77, which coincided with the release of "The Power of the Powerless", Havel was put under