Pete Buttigieg’s Father Was A Marxist Professor Who Lauded the Communist Manifesto

The father of Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg was a Marxist professor who spoke fondly of the Communist Manifesto and dedicated a significant portion of his academic career to the work of Italian Communist Party founder Antonio Gramsci, an associate of Vladimir Lenin.

Joseph Buttigieg, who died in January at the age of 71, immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s from Malta and in 1980 joined the University of Notre Dame faculty, where he taught modern European literature and literary theory. He supported an updated version of Marxism that jettisoned some of Marx and Engel’s more doctrinaire theories, though he was undoubtedly Marxist.

He was an adviser to Rethinking Marxism, an academic journal that published articles “that seek to discuss, elaborate, and/or extend Marxian theory,” and a member of the editorial collective of Boundary 2, a journal of postmodern theory, literature, and culture. He spoke at many Rethinking Marxism conferences and other gatherings of prominent Marxists.

In a 2000 paper for Rethinking Marxism critical of the approach of Human Rights Watch, Buttigieg, along with two other authors, refers to “the Marxist project to which we subscribe.”

Trump’s TSA Executive Order Appears to Have Had Immediate Impact at Busiest Airports

Trump Reveals New White House Ballroom Will Have a ‘Massive,’ Hidden Military Purpose

Providence mayor calls for removal of Iryna Zarutska mural, says intent is ‘divisive,’ ‘misguided’

Video shows latest Los Angeles street takeover as mob wreaks havoc, vandalizes occupied city bus

Emanuel pushes back on ‘straight White man’ question, says ideas matter most in 2028

Watchdog targets taxpayer-funded National Academies over DEI, climate and transgender spending

Police arrest dozens after LA No Kings graffiti urges ICE killings

Houthis’ entry into Iran war could have significant reverberations

Insider Reports Secret Service Has Tight Restrictions on Tiger Woods and Trump’s Grandkids

Supposed NATO Ally Spain Closes Airspace to US Flights, Calls Action in Iran ‘Profoundly Illegal’

Russian aid to Iran expanding Middle East conflict, Europe warns

Senators defend two-week recess as record-breaking government shutdown drags on

Joe Kent urges Americans to oppose US ground troops in Iran war

Scorned ex-lover accuses Sinema of ‘malicious’ marriage interference

Taiwanese opposition leader agrees to meet Xi Jinping ahead of Trump summit

In 1998, he wrote in an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education about an event in New York City celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Manifesto. He also participated in the event.

“If The Communist Manifesto was meant to liberate the proletariat, the Manifesto itself in recent years needed liberating from Marxism’s narrow post-Cold War orthodoxies and exclusive cadres. It has been freed,” he wrote.

“After a musical interlude, seven people read different portions of the Manifesto. Listening to it read, one could not help but be struck by the poignancy of its prose,” he wrote. The readers “had implicitly warned even us faithful to guard against conferring upon it the status of Scripture, a repository of doctrinal verities.”

“Equity, environmental consciousness, and racial justice are surely some of the ingredients of a healthy Marxism. Indeed, Marxism’s greatest appeal — undiminished by the collapse of Communist edifices — is the imbalances produced by other sociopolitical governing structures,” Buttigieg wrote.

Paul Kengor, a professor at Grove City College and an expert in communism and progressivism, said Buttigieg was among a group of leftist professors who focused on injecting Marxism into the wider culture.