[throwaway7312]

This memo?

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/

Hadn't heard of it. Just read it. Interesting stuff.

It's very clearly a call-to-arms for business leaders against Marxists/communists. Not the working class.

Most Communists, at least in the West, spring from the middle- and upper-middle class, not the working class.

And Communist countries, historically, tend to make their working classes worse off, not better.

Equating a defense against communism with an attack on the working class would seem a stretch.

[jinfiesto]

Yes. With regards to it being a call to arms for business leaders against Marxists/communists, that's accurate to a certain degree. If you look at what gets lumped in with marxists/communists though, it becomes pretty apparent that the memo was meant to be an assault on everything that could be "unfriendly" to business.

In the Powell memo, you can see some of the precursors to what's happening today. For instance, I think the demonization of academia in right-wing circles as well as the death of organized labor (unions) probably start with this memo (I'm not the only person who thinks this. Chomsky as elaborated on this at length.)

The Powell memo was also started the process of making lobbying both widespread and acceptable to society (even when it was legal, it used to be frowned upon.) I think most people would agree that lobbying is a cancer on our democracy.