No, Really, Communism Will Work This Time!

Apparently the voters in Calcutta, India haven't gotten the memo that, a) Communism has not, does not, and will not ever "work", and b) pictures of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Che are so 20th century:

The people of West Bengal have voted in the Communist Party for the seventh successive time. Humphrey Hawksley has been in the capital, Calcutta meeting the new communists.

Subodh Roy, I see when he stands up to greet me, is a small yet powerful figure.

. . .

"Stalin," I said. "Was he a good leader?"

"Yes. Yes. Stalin was strong," he says, his eyes straight on me.

"And Mao Tse-Tung of China?"

"Yes, Mao. He was good. He fought for communism, too, in the Chinese way."

"But I thought communism had failed?" I said.

"No. No," replies Mr Roy. "We will get it right this time."

We are in the headquarters of the Communist Party of West Bengal where the meeting room is adorned with portraits of Stalin, Marx, Engels and Lenin.

There is a bust of Mao and a painting of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh, with red banners of the hammer and sickle stretched across the walls.

Also, they seem to have missed the lessons drawn from one of Communism's greatest gifts to humanity and the Chinese people in particular--the Cultural Revolution.