Communism survivor blasts VA Democrats for nixing a bill requiring curriculum warning of Marxism's dangers

Communism survivor Xi Van Fleet blasted Virginia Democrats for derailing a bill that would have required schools to teach about the dangers of communism in an interview with TheBlaze Tuesday morning.

"It's absolutely imperative that we teach about communism ... not just in school, but also [we must educate] the American public in general," Van Fleet told TheBlaze.

"I escaped communism ... I am fighting for my own freedom and I am also fighting to wake up the Americans," Van Fleet also said.

Virginia Democrats voted against a bill that would have required curriculum educating students about the dangers of communism after the state's teachers' union said it could encourage "anti-Asian sentiment," Fox News reported last week.

The bill failed along party lines. Unless the state Senate's Education and Health subcommittee takes further action, the bill is likely dead, the outlet also reported.

The bill, HB 1816, requires the governor, currently Glenn Youngkin (R) to issue an annual proclamation setting November 7 as "Victims of Communism Day" and requiring the day to be observed in schools. It also requires the state's Board of Education to include instruction focused on the dangers of communism.

No stranger to calling out Marxism when she spots it, Van Fleet recently took on "1619 Project" author Nikole Hannah-Jones, as TheBlaze reported Monday.

Van Fleet came to America from Mao's China in 1986 at age 26. She described life under Mao's rule as "the complete absence of freedom ... they take total control of one's mind and every aspect of one's life," she said. She went on to explain that every item necessary for daily living, like food, was rationed. If you did not obey, you starved.

"When communism showed up at our front door, very few people recognized it," Van Fleet told TheBlaze. The Cultural Revolution survivor was referring to the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots of 2020. In her estimation, lack of education about communism was to blame for the public failing to understand that Marxist ideology was driving the violent unrest.

She compared the violent rioters to the Red Guards.

"People like me, who experienced communism, we saw all the signs of a full-blown Marxist revolution," she added. "We knew that, but Americans didn't ... they did not have the historic knowledge to help them see it."

VanFleet described educating Americans about the dangers of communism as a "daunting task" because it has been "absent for so long."

Her advice is to begin with mandatory training of teachers. She also emphasized that imparting that knowledge to children by incorporating it into the curriculum is crucial and that Americans in general need to learn these concepts, as well.

"The school kids have been indoctrinated and the young college kids are being indoctrinated," VanFleet told TheBlaze. "Communism is here."

"All our institutions have fallen," Van Fleet said. "They have been taken by Marxists from the school boards to the White House."

"Those Marxists, they are patient," Van Fleet also said, calling the gradual takeover the "long march through the institutions."

"They have been using our educational institutions to train future Marxists."

"We turn this around by education," Van Fleet told TheBlaze. "To have insights about communism, you must have historical knowledge," she said.

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