Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya will keynote a speech at an organization that preaches the “end of capitalism,” open borders, the Green New Deal, reparations, and the abolition of immigration enforcement agencies.
Bedoya will be delivering the keynote speech for a local Institute for Self-Reliance (ILSR) event on September 22. The ILSR is a member of the New Economy Coalition (NEC), a membership-based network that exists to “accelerate the transition of our economic system from capitalism to a solidarity economy.”
On the network’s podcast, it discusses universal basic income (UBI) and how people across the West are increasingly becoming disenchanted with capitalism and moving towards socialism:
It has been said that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. That might have been true a decade ago, but today, the end of capitalism is becoming more and more plausible — at times it feels inevitable. In fact, at least half of Americans think that capitalism is a fundamentally unfair system, and over a third have a positive view of socialism. These numbers are rather strange for a society where just uttering the word “socialist” in public a generation ago could cost you your job or get you onto some government list. And when you look at younger generations, it gets even more interesting. A Harvard University survey showed that the majority of millennials do not support capitalism. And in the United Kingdom, similar surveys have found that people are more likely to have an unfavorable view of capitalism than of socialism.
More and more people are falling out of love with capitalism. And is it really all that surprising? Capitalism has failed to achieve most of its promises and many are now beginning to dream about what a different, better world might look like.
The podcast episode also discusses how UBI might have a role in the transition to a more socialist world.
The NEC promoted a “Socialism 2022” event in Chicago to “share lessons from history about socialist and abolitionist ideas and organizing…”
The coalition also rejects “rainbow capitalism” and discusses how the “second best time” for reparations is “right now.”
The NEC also appeared to tweet in support of a “worker-owned Green New Deal:”
The organization also tweeted a link to an “Abolish ICE Study Guide:”
The ILSR also called natural gas a “gateway drug” and argued for the country to transition to more “green” sources of energy such as solar and wind.
ILSR attacked Amazon for giving “direct, material tech support to 1,360 police depts across the country and ICE’s detention machine,” while also using Juneteenth and “DefundPolice” hashtags.
Although the Institute for Local Self-Reliance does not disclose its donors, the New Venture Fund has reportedly donated $70,000.
The New Venture Fund is part of the leftist Arabella Advisors network, a network that has showered leftist nonprofits and activist organizations with hundreds of millions of dollars.
Bedoya is not the only FTC commissioner to speak before socialist-leaning organizations.
FTC chairwoman Lina Khan in July spoke at the Law and Political Economy (LPE) project of Yale Law School.
As Breitbart News’s Allum Bokhari reported:
The LPE also held an academic symposium on “socialist constitutionalism,” featuring contributions from a number of academics defending socialist models of government and economy.
As if to signal their open sympathies for the ideology, the LPE displayed the DSA rose logo at the head of all its symposium articles.
The LPE also has a number of academic syllabi, including “Soviet Law: its origins and development,” “designing real utopias,” and “Marxism and feminism.”
Khan has a long history at the LPE, having authored articles for the project since 2017. Now, as chairwoman of one of the most powerful regulatory bodies in D.C., she is returning, despite the convention that FTC commissioners refrain from partisanship and ideological extremism.
Breitbart News has reported on Bedoya’s controversial views:
From December 2016 to December 2020, Bedoya served on the board of directors for the far-left Free Press organization, which has the backing of pro-censorship leftist billionaire Pierre Omidyar.
Free Press denounced Blackburn as a “swamp dweller” in 2017, adding that the Tennessee conservative mouthed the “most uninformed talking points.”
Free Press even accused Breitbart News of spreading “misinformation” and painting “people of color, immigrants, and religious minorities” as the “energy of the United States.”
In one tweet in February 2021, Bedoya wrote, “It is time to call ICE what it is: an out-of-control domestic surveillance agency that peers into all of our lives.’”
In a confirmation hearing, Bedoya claimed that he knew little about critical race theory (CRT), despite sitting on the board of an organization that actively promotes CRT.
Bedoya told Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) the FTC should “police big tech,” saying it needs “every tool at its disposal”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has blasted Bedoya as a “left-wing activist” and a “provocateur.”
Cruz noted that Bedoya retweeted MSNBC host Joy Reid after she called former President Donald Trump a “white supremacist.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said ahead of Bedoya’s confirmation vote that confirming Bedoya would give Democrats a majority at the FTC, which would allow for the FTC Democrats to investigate alleged price gouging by “Big Oil.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.