Communism

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Communism in its original meaning is a social theory and political movement for the direct and communal control of society towards the common benefits of all members, the society being the communist society, see below. See also Religious communism. The dominant tendency within the communist movement is inspired by Karl Marx's theory. Within Marxist communism the largest trends are inspired by the writings and actions of Vladimir Lenin.

During the 20th century, communism, or communism theory is often used to describe philosophies and practices of Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism and Maoism. Whilst the common denominator is Marxism, some of them are nonetheless in conflict. The most influential branches of the communism tree are: the teachings of Marx/Engels/Lenin/Stalin, Marxism->Trotskyism and Marxism->Leninism->Maoism.

Some other, lesser known flavors are Council Communism, De Leonism and Left Communism.

Communism, or communist society is the name of the social formation, which, according to Marxism is a classless society in which all property is owned by the community as a whole and where all people enjoy equal social and economic status.

Marxists believe that just as society has transformed from feudalism to capitalism, it will transform into socialism and eventually communism. However the method by which this transformation occurs distinguishes communists from other socialists, in that communists believe that this will be accomplished by revolutionary means.

According to Lenin's approach the first step of the long term process of developing a communist society is a revolutionary seizure of political power; in Marxist terms, the domination of the bourgeoisie is to be replaced by the domination of the working class. In Marxist literature this political stage is called the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin argued that the revolution would occur first in less developed nations, such as Russia, and would require a vanguard of the proletariat composed of a relatively small tightly organized communist party.

Other communist movements, primarily Libertarian Socialism, differ with Leninism over the issue of the nature or importance of the party, and support for the idea of a government separate to working people's councils.

Communist parties are in power in People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, and Cuba. Contrary to popular belief among followers of Marxism, they are not "capitalist" or "state capitalist", but truly communist nations; all property is owned by the state, whereas capitalism entails private ownership of property.

Early Communism

Many western intellectuals have advocated ideas conceivably similar to Communism. In his 4th century BC work The Republic, the Greek philosopher Plato proposed the communal ownership of property by an intellectual ruling class, to put the welfare of the state above personal desire and moderate the greed of the producing classes.

In 1534 John of Leyden turned the city of Munster into a commune called "New Jerusalem" in expectation of the Second Coming and introduced polygamy (going partway towards Plato's ideal) before the city was taken by a Catholic army, leading to a massacre. Thomas More's 16th century work Utopia depicted a society organized along communist lines.

The idea floated around during the Enlightenment, exerting varying amounts of influence on the philosophes. The greatest amount was on Rousseau, whose thought extensively influenced the French Revolution.

Many 19th Century idealists, disgusted by the ongoing oppression and decadence created by the Industrial Revolution, broke away from society to form short-lived communal utopias. An example was Robert Owen's New Harmony community in Indiana.

The Ideas of Marx and Engels

The ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, epitomized by their Communist Manifesto, transformed communism into a revolutionary movement. According to the Manifesto, the most important events in history can be explained in terms of class struggles. In each society, a small ruling class owned or controlled the wealth and the means of production; the rest, who constituted the vast majority of people, owned and controlled very little, but produced most all the wealth, using their labour and the resources naturally available to them.

During the current stage, capitalism, the dominant bourgeoisie (capitalists who owned and controlled the means of production) exploited and oppressed the proletariat (industrial workers). Karl Marx in his work Das Kapital (see Labor theory of value for more) explains in detail how capitalists buy labor power, skills and time from workers, obtaining then the right to sell the productive result (goods and services) of labor as commodities for a profit. This separation of the producers from the means of production via ownership, Marx argued, creates class stratification and an unjust distribution of wealth. Marx thought it was only a matter of time before the working classes of the world, realizing their common interests as producers, would unite to overthrow the capitalists and redistribute the wealth both to and for themselves. He felt the establishment of communism would be the inevitable outcome of this historical process.

Atheism has been the official stance of most communist countries.

Leninism versus Social Democracy

According to Marx, the laws of class struggle would force capitalism to evolve socialism and then eventually to communism. However, in the early twentieth century, it seemed that capitalist society was as strong as ever, and the revolution which some of Marx's adherents believed he had predicted was nowhere to be seen. How to interpret this fact lead to a split among Marx's followers.

Some of his supporters eventually concluded that a socialist society (a society of social ownership of the means of production under democratic control) could evolve out of a capitalist society and could be brought about through electoral means. This ideology was known as social democracy and became the basis of a number of political parties include the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the British Labour Party.

However, according to Lenin, the workers by themselves could never become class conscious enough to organize a communist society and therefore a revolutionary seizure of the political power by a vanguard party on behalf of the proletariat was needed to overthrow the capitalist system and lead the workers towards socialism and finally to the higher stage of communism.

The major tactical difference between these two currents was over the necessity of seizing the State. Communists consider it as a necessary step while social democrats do not. These two currents of Marxism distinguished their ways after the second worker's international. During the rest of the 20th century, according to the communist critics, social democrats did nothing else than management of the capitalist economy without any real step to a classless society. On the other hand, according to social democrats, the dictatorship of the proletariat was nothing else than dictatorship under the control of a communist party and remains in a state of totalitarian dictatorship, or has transitioned into some form of democracy or capitalism. On some level, both mutual criticisms have been proven correct. Neither the social democrats nor the Marxist-Leninists ever created a society where social ownership of the means of production under the democratic control of the workers ever came about.

Language and the word communist

There is much confusion (which many think is deliberately created) over words such as communism and socialism. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics described itself as socialist (as the name implies). There are also political parties which call themselves communist. These parties have a goal of eventually reaching a communist society. So the word communist pertains to three things: individuals who are members of communist parties and/or who desire a communist society in the future, political parties which have a goal of reaching communism, and a theoretical future society where there is no government, only communism.

Historians and political analysts still argue about whether aspects of many 20th century "socialist countries", such as single-party rule or the human rights violations by Soviet apparatuses such as the KGB, Stasi (East Germany), or NKVD, were direct, unavoidable results of flaws in Marxist-Leninist theory or were caused by unrelated historical incidents; the point is unresolved and is reinterpreted with each new political conflict. However regimes of this nature have been totalitarian, featuring absence or repression of free press, church, and independent labor unions, and have often committed human rights abuses, opponents of Communism see it as a dangerous ideology, similar in effect to fascism.

Marx and Engels used the terms socialism and communism interchangeably. Marxist-Leninists dispute this usage, reserving the term communism only for the final evolutionary stage of society (see socialism). In Marxist-Leninist ideology Marxism, communism refers to an ideal stateless, propertyless, and classless society with no oppression or exploitation and general abundance and freedom. This society would run in accord with the principle: To each according to their needs, from each according to their ability. A common exemplification of the concept is "if a successful architect is single, he only needs one loaf of bread a day, and if a member of the proletariat has seven children with his wife, they need nine loaves of bread a day; neither have to pay for the bread at the baker's, and they both ask for exactly as much bread as they need -- the same applies for any other property, such as the apartment or the car". Such a circumstance has never occurred, and the Marxist ideal of communism is often viewed as an unrealistic goal.

Many nations in the 20th century were run by such Communist Parties, who identified themselves as true communists implementing socialism, and declared to govern themselves according to Marxist principles. See Soviet Empire for the list of them.

For a general discussion of the practical consequences of communist rule, see communist government. For an exposition of the formal and semi-formal mechanisms of government and constitutional workings in communist countries, see communist state.

Usage of the term

According to the 1996 third edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage, communism is always written with a small "c". Big "C" Communism (and its related forms) refers to a political party of that name, a member of that party, or a government led by such a party.

Tragedy of Communism

The Communist state and its advocates are not subject to the near universal opprobrium which attaches to Nazism and those who particpated in it. However, it is claimed by some (and this is debated widely) that the Communist movement considered as a whole claimed 85 to 100 million victims compared to the 25 million victims of the Nazi state. The French publisher of The Black Book of Communism characterized the Communist states of the 20th century as a "tragedy of planetary dimensions" (It is necessary to note the recently admitted descrepancies and matematical errors that can be found in the The Black Book of Communism, and that they have been admitted by the publisher). There are several obvious differences between Nazism and 20th Century Communism however, and, while is is popular to compare things we dislike to Nazism, there are few scholars who support this view.

External links

Online resources for original Marxist literature

Communist Parties