"Silence is argument carried out by other means."

Floyd G. Brown will begin his winter recruitment tour with his polemic "Che vs. Reagan: Who was the real revolutionary" to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Feb. 7.

Brown's stop is sponsored by the Conservative Union @ UWM and the Young America's Foundation (YAF).

Brown is the "Reagan Ranch Presidential Scholar," and perhaps best known as being one of the major architects, along with Lee Atwater, behind the infamous and racist Willie Horton ad that some credit to George H.W. Bush winning the presidency in 1988.

YAF, the largest right-wing campus organization nationwide, is funded by numerous conservative philanthropies including Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation according to Mediatransparency.org, a Web site documenting conservative funding. YAF's activities are increasing at some UW campuses including UWM through organizations such as the Conservative Union @ UWM.

YAF operates the National Journalism Center, an organization that works to groom high school and college students for careers in the mainstream media, the government and the corporate sector.

Brown is the author of "Say the Right Thing: Talk Radio's Favorite Conservative Quotes, Notes and Gloats," and is president of Excellentia Inc., a new media company.

According to Political Research Associates, in 1988 Brown formed Citizens United and served as its founding president until 2000 and is now chair. Citizens United is the largest conservative citizens action organization in the United States with interlocking ties to the highest echelons of power in Congress, corporate America and the White House.

Brown, also on the advisory board of the National Conservative Campaign Fund, unabashedly mixes racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-communism and anti-unionism in his conservative analysis following in the footsteps of his hero Reagan.

But what kind of a "hero" was Reagan? Was he a "real revolutionary" or a counterrevolutionary from the perspective of the world's poor and working people “ many of whom are the very students who make up a significant portion of UWM's student population? A short list:

â?¢ Ronald Reagan's political career began when, as a leader of the Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood, he sold out fellow union members and others before the McCarthyite House Committee on Un-American Activities. â?¢
â?¢ As governor of California Reagan waged nothing short of a domestic war on the black population and other people of color, in particular the Black Panthers and Angela Davis. â?¢
â?¢ He was an opponent of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people and women, specifically reproductive rights and choices including abortion. â?¢
â?¢ He was a prime ideological supporter and disseminator of racist ideology such as "the welfare queen" and used this to roll back or eviscerate entitlement programs. â?¢
â?¢ He blocked funding for AIDS education, prevention, treatment or care, here and in other nations. â?¢
â?¢ He was a union buster known best for breaking the PATCO air controllers' strike in 1981 which continues to have devastating effects on worker's standard of living both organized and unorganized. â?¢
Although there are important distinctions within various factions of the conservative movement, both Democrat and Republican, most like Brown agree on Reagan's “ and his corporate bosses “ top goals and priorities. This class' very existence is dedicated to running a so-called "free-market" capitalist economy in which there are no or minimal entitlements or guaranteed decreed rights for poor and working people, particularly women and people of color.

Instead, in the conservative's worldview, the latter should have minimal civil rights, if any, and they should depend on self-help, charity or a relief system all lorded over by corporate America in concert with "philanthropies" such as the Bradley Foundation.

There's many reasons why millions of poor and working people the world over revere Commandante Ernesto “Che” Guevara and revile Reagan and present day members of his class.

The enemies of poor and working people including Floyd G. Brown acutely understand the potency of a world leader such as Guevara, a socialist who gave his very life at age 39 to free all humanity from poverty, destitution and misery.

Most importantly, Guevara's seminal contributions and tireless efforts to unite the working class or people of color in formerly colonized, underdeveloped nations and within the U.S. is what draws particular ire from Brown and other capitalists and imperialists.

Guevara relentlessly exposed white supremacy from slavery onward as a cornerstone of capitalism and imperialism to divide primarily the white working class from people of color.

Thus corporate America's need for its spokespersons like Brown that, when unable to eviscerate history, relentlessly attempt to reverse it by lying about or attempting to co-opt the legacy of real revolutionaries like Guevara. Or, perhaps more grave, when those like Brown attempt to turn the enemies of poor and working people like Reagan into heroes of the people through devices such as rhetorical "lectures."

Now as millions internationally are successfully fighting U.S. imperialism and its horrific effects from Africa to Cuba to India to Iraq to Venezuela, many in these nations are earnestly studying Mr. Guevara's contributions, following his example and incorporating his life's slogan: "Better to die standing, than live on your knees."

All those yearning to truly free all humanity should follow this lead contributing to this goal as best they can.

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