Editing Allen Ginsberg (section)

===Relationship to communism===
Ginsberg talked openly about his connections with communism and his admiration for past communist heroes and the labor movement at a time when the [[Second Red Scare|Red Scare]] and [[McCarthyism]] were still raging. He admired [[Fidel Castro]] and many other Marxist figures from the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q2HroA5QrAwC&pg=PA143 |title=Family Business: Selected Letters Between a Father and Son |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-58234-216-0 |editor-last=Schumacher, Michael}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=April 26, 1965 |title=Allen Ginsberg  (8/11/96) |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-13/ginsberg1.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101109094231/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-13/ginsberg1.html |archive-date=November 9, 2010 |access-date=October 31, 2010 |publisher=Gwu.edu}}</ref> Ginsberg was a member of the [[Fair Play for Cuba Committee]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rojas |first1=Rafael |title=Fighting Over Fidel The New York Intellectuals and the Cuban Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=Duke University Press |page=199}}</ref> In "[[America (poem)|America]]" (1956), Ginsberg writes: "America, I used to be a communist when I was a kid I'm not sorry". Biographer [[Jonah Raskin]] has claimed that, despite his often stark opposition to communist orthodoxy, Ginsberg held "his own [[idiosyncratic]] version of communism."<ref>{{harvnb|Raskin|2004|p=170}}</ref> On the other hand, when [[Donald Manes]], a New York City politician, publicly accused Ginsberg of being a member of the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]], Ginsberg objected: "I am not, as a matter of fact, a member of the Communist party, nor am I dedicated to the overthrow of the U.S. government or any government by violence&nbsp;... I must say that I see little difference between the armed and violent governments both Communist and Capitalist that I have observed".<ref>Ginsberg, Allen (2008), ''The Letters of Allen Ginsberg''. Philadelphia, Da Capo Press, p. 359. For context, see also {{harvnb|Morgan|2007|pp=474–75}}.</ref>

Ginsberg travelled to several communist countries to promote free speech. He claimed that communist countries, such as China, welcomed him because they thought he was an enemy of capitalism, but often turned against him when they saw him as a troublemaker. For example, in 1965 Ginsberg was deported from [[Cuba]] for publicly protesting the persecution of homosexuals.<ref name="english.illinois.edu">[http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/life.htm Allen Ginsberg's Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329171519/http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/life.htm |date=March 29, 2019 }}. illinois.edu</ref> The Cubans sent him to [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]], where one week after being named the ''Král majálesu'' ("King of May",<ref>Ginsberg, Allan (2001), ''Selected Poems 1947–1995'', "Kral Majales", Harper Collins Publishers, p. 147.</ref> a students' festivity, celebrating spring and student life), Ginsberg was arrested for alleged drug use and public drunkenness, and the security agency [[StB]] confiscated several of his writings, which they considered to be lewd and morally dangerous. Ginsberg was then deported from Czechoslovakia on May 7, 1965,<ref name="english.illinois.edu" /><ref>Yanosik, Joseph (March 1996), [http://www.furious.com/perfect/pulnoc.html The Plastic People of the Universe]. furious.com.</ref> by order of the StB.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vodrážka, Karel |last2=Andrew Lass |year=1998 |title=Final Report on the Activities of the American Poet Allen Ginsberg and His Deportation from Czechoslovakia |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/53963034/Final-Report-on-Allen-Ginsberg-s-Deportation |journal=The Massachusetts Review |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=187–96}}</ref> [[Václav Havel]] points to Ginsberg as an important inspiration.<ref name="Spontaneous">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bM74g8M-SeQC&pg=RA1-PT200 |title=Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews 1958–1996 |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-06-093082-0 |editor-last=David Carter}}</ref>