Communism

At the theoretical level, the Communism is a design of Classless society, an social organization without State, founded on the common possession of the means of production and which can be classified as a branch of the Socialisme. It leaves the proverb “of each one according to its means to each one according to its needs”. At the political level, Communism indicates a variety of movements which affirm to seek to establish such a company in the long term. Among the Communists, one finds a considerable variety of interpretations, mainly carried by the Marxist, but so anarchistic, and Christian currents. The first division took place between Anarchisme and Marxisme within the First International. Nevertheless, the communist currents which were characterized by their influence on the world politics order since the beginning of the 20th century are of Marxist influence, directly ( Manifeste of the Communist party ) or indirectly (Léninisme). The Class struggle plays a central role in the Marxist theory (and also in other communist tendencies). The establishment of Communism corresponds in this theory at the end of any class struggle, the division of the human beings in social classes having disappeared.

The expression “primitive Communisme” is sometimes used to describe the social organization of the first human communities. In the Republic , Plato evokes already an organization of company of the communist type.

Karl Marx, defending the need for the autonomy of the labor movement and the Internationalisme, supported that the company could not of a blow being transformed since the capitalist mode of production towards the communist mode of production. It required one transitional period that Marx sometimes described like the revolutionist Dictatorship of the proletariat. In the Proclamation of the Communist party , it defines Communism as “an association where the free development of each one is the condition of the free development of all”. The communist company imagined by Marx, emerging from a capitalism largely developed, forever established, and remains theoretical.

At the historical level, the word “Communism” is often used to indicate the political regimes and economic controlled by parties claiming Communism. These modes claimed to be forms of “dictatorship of the proletariat”.

The concept of Communism is thus the object of a semantic debate, according to two axes which interfere: sometimes

  • “internal” fight, between asserted Communists (who can be opposed politically and theoretically), various currents allot the term other than the others;
  • “external” fight, between pro-Communists and anticommunists: the first explain why the environmental, human or social disasters, the crimes of mass made or caused by the modes of the Soviet Bloc was not related to the communist ideology, considering that these States were not communist and that Communism remains a society project which forever be carried out. They put these ecological crimes and disasters on the fact of the Totalitarisme, the Productivisme or even for a part of them on the Stalinisme and its derivatives.

The concept of Communism is consequently extremely discussed and often indicates different realities according to the people who use it.

Etymology

The Communism term comes from the Latin term “ commūnis ”, which is common to a group, to which associates the suffix “- ism” indicating doctrines. The commune would be also one of the terms defining the framework of the group (of what would be common for him) in which is defined Communism (in particular to see the Bêcheux).

Uses of the term

Various uses exist around the term “Communism”. It is rather often compared to the Marxist movement , which is only its principal component, even with the political Collectivisme and/or economic.

The political regimes which were in place in the Soviet Union and in the “Communist bloc” are commonly indicated today under the name of “Communist regimes”. The “communist” qualification of these modes is disputed mainly by Communists or sympathizers. Marxists and anarchists, minority, analyzed as of their appearance these countries like capitalist modes “of State”. The trotskystes estimate that it is about a monstrous degeneration of a “working State” resulting from the Russian Révolution. The majority of the Communists (Stalinist) recognized a long time these modes like rising from their ideas. The adversaries of Communism consider that authoritative nature or totalitarian of these modes rises logically from the communist ideology.

The leaders of these countries declared them “Socialiste S”. This term was most commonly used in these countries, it represented a political regime and a planned economy. “Socialism” was defined by Leninist theorists like the stage preliminary and necessary towards Communism, the ideal company without classes nor property. This mode was called also at the beginning the Dictatorship of the proletariat, term given up about 1936 for “triumphing socialism” and then, towards the Années 1970, “developed socialism”.

In its old direction, Communism prescribed the pooling of all the goods. It is by “Collectivisme” that one indicated the doctrines of pooling of the only means of production.

A few years after the repression of the common of Paris in 1871, and until 1917, the Marxists were designated as “collectivists” and the majority of the anarchists like “Communists”, owing to the fact that the first current wanted to use a State directed by the workers and collectivization like tool of transition, contrary to the second who wanted to use free and autonomous means directly to reach the sought-after goal.

A communist company is defined in the theoretical plan like a classless society, without wage-earning and State. The USSR, its composite and satellite nations never carried out the communist ideal, even according to the Stalinist theories: they were said “on the way towards” Communism.

Thus, it is necessary to take again the history of the word and to separate the various currents as well as the various concepts used.

The economic and social theory

In the field of the social organization and economic, the word Communism conjectures the organization of a company:

  • where, according to the principle “Of each one according to its capacities, with each one according to its needs”, the economic reports/ratios are not regulated by a principle of interested exchange of goods, but collectively not organized in order to satisfy the needs. The flow of goods does not need to be reciprocal, it is thus based on the exemption from payment. There is neither trade, neither money, nor any other commercial report/ratio (each one having all its requirements met by the communist Mode of production, it has there no more “exchange” strictly speaking). The private property, if not is abolished, at least very limited, so that the concept of “gift” also loses its relevance.

  • where the means of production (factories, lands arable, cattle-breeding farm, means of transport, distribution, etc) are shared, with like drank to meet the needs for each one, and managed by the hard-working population itself. Thus, the wastings which had with the competition and the control of a minority on the production would disappear.

  • without division in Social classes and State (without force of coercion to the service of a class). Communism admits that all are not also productive for all, and that it must await a production “of each one according to its capacities”, but it considers that each one can generally with its liking to deliver to occupations of its choice, that one can to abolish division social of work without to put in danger production and thus availability of goods (vision which one finds in the theory, more recent, of the post-industrial Société evoked by Hermann Kahn), and to remove any coercive force, as the police force or the army, and more generally to function without State. He admits that certain tasks and functions are more unpleasant or pleasant that others, and hopes on the direct democracy to suppress the conflicts, in particular those relating to the production.

Theoretical difficulties are posed for the introduction of Communism:

  • the definition of the “needs” towards which it is necessary to direct the apparatus of production. Everyone does not have the same priorities. The realization of the principle “of each one according to its needs”, implies that each individual defines his own needs, and that it is not a system or an apparatus which defines it in its place; a solution would be to organize the census of the needs for the individuals at the communal level or the working councils, for consequently producing the necessary one in order to meet these listed needs.

  • the risk to see a group constituting itself in privileged class. The individuals who would manage to control the political system charged to manage the apparatus of production would form the bureaucracy spontaneously. Pretexting to constitute a “avant-garde of the proletariat” but continuing clean ends (interest of classes) and not the general interest, it would use the mode with its profit. The Communists estimate that so such dangers can exist, especially little of time after the introduction of the working state, they will be contained by the control of the whole of the population on the various persons in charge, on all the levels, and their revocability.

Average policies

The passage of a noncommunist company at a communist company constitutes one delicate moment: means divergent according to the existing tendencies within the communist movement, nevertheless the revolutionary period (with all the consequences of a revolution) is a common base, even if the means to carry it out are not it.

In theory, Communism is the ultimate result of the evolution of the human society of the common primitive to the slave system, of the slave system to feudalism, feudalism to capitalism, capitalism to socialism by the revolution, and of the socialism (which finished freeing from all the traces of capitalism neither the private property of movable or real property family) to the Communism (where there is neither private property no more, nor classes). By definition, this one could at the end of the process only kiss whole humanity.

Experiments, in particular in Spain in 1936 during one revolutionary time, in communities (there will exist in the neighborhoods of 3000 communities in all Spain) Aragonese or Catalan (and in other areas), carried out partially communist achievements (while leaving, and in various ways according to the situation of each community, with the small holders, when that did not obstruct of anything the means of carrying out the subsistence of the communities, freedom to keep their goods or to join or not the communities). In addition, in the countries with mode “Marxist-Leninist” of Soviet inspiration says, the revolutionary stage gave rise to “popular republics” or “people's democracies”, the later evolution, after liquidation of the exploiteuses classes gave rise to “socialist republics”, and if the process had continued, there would have finally been, in theory, only one “communist republic” world. The official headings of these States were supposed to reflect the progress report of their companies towards the communist objective. Official names of courtesy reflected they also the situation of each interlocutor compared to this objective: whoever was supposed to continue it was a “comrade”; whoever agreed to it passively was a “citizen”; whoever did not continue it was a “Mister” or a “Madam” (foreign interlocutors resulting from the countries not-Communists) and whoever opposed it was a “enemy of class” or “the people”.

It is on the way of organizing this progressive passage to a communist company that the currents separate in several approaches:

  • the Leninism (including the Trotskisme), on the basis of the idea of Karl Marx that the State is a machine with the service of the dominant class, conceives the passage of the capitalist company at the company communist like the destruction of the apparatus of mobilizing State of the middle-class in a revolution of broad layers of the population and taken along by the working class, and of the construction of a working State, to the service of the majority of the population. This State must adapt the great ways of production and organize the economic activity for the satisfaction of the needs for the population. This historical period, called Dictatorship of the proletariat, must be, according to the word of Lénine, “a million times more democratic than any middle-class democracy”. This transitional period must lead to the constitution of a classless society, in which the State will be brought to disappear, “to die out” (Engels), in order to lead to Communism.

  • the Réformisme developed within the labor movement with the growth and successes of the first great working parties, at the end of the 19th century. The reformists suggested the possibility of a passage to a communist company without resorting to a violent confrontation, by the acquisition of institutional positions and the nationalizations of vital sides of the economy (transport, energy…). (It should be noted that this reformism has nothing to do with the current meaning of the word, which qualifies currents today aiming at “improving” capitalism, and not to remove it.)

  • anti-official approach (anarchists and minority of the Marxists), using the self-management and revolutionary of appropriation of the means of production immediately refusing division in social class of managers/managed means, and carrying out Communism by the means used, without awaiting a transition.

  • Of other currents, like the Maoist S, considers the seizure of power like resulting from a prolonged popular war.

According to Marx, died in 1883, the Common of Paris (1871), despite everything the imperfections which it comprised, was the historical experiment nearest to Communism, by the installation of a true beginning of democracy (see the Civil war in France ).

Anarchists will invite associations of workers to federate in an autonomous way. Errico Malatesta develops in the revolutionary Gradualisme, the need for the autonomy of the labor movement, in order to avoid any lit avant-garde, or of future “working” governments. The Between assistance (to carry out the means with the social emancipation) and the direct revolutionary fight (to release itself from the exploitor and its supports) in order to lead to favorable conditions with the realization of Communism. Communism is considered by the anarchists, according to the situation, like a realizable economy at once the revolution undertaken; authors as Pierre Kropotkine will expose communist possibilities of economies, of which the Prise with the heap, organized in a communal way.

Related ideas

One must also quote invented values or ideas or recoveries on his account by Communism:

  • the design materialist of the history,

  • the mutual aid and its contemporary alternative, the solidarity,
  • the revolutionary Gradualisme tending revolutionarily to carry out favorable conditions with the realization of Communism (as well as anarchism),
  • the Taken with the heap, like direct means of organization of Communism.

Communism in the history

See also: History of Communism

The word Communism indicates an idea but also political movements, various and contradictory, which militate for the advent of a company without Social class, without Salariat, without Private property of means of production, without State and Capitalisme. The proclaimed objective is the freedom and the equality of the Man.

One finds among the political movements which assert Communism as well anarchistic as of the Marxist S or movements of workers' struggle.

Modes being declared “socialist” or “towards Communism”: the Soviet Union, its satellite countries, the China, GDR, Cuba, the Kampuchea, the Albania, the Vietnam, the Afghanistan, the Angola, the North Korea. The doctrines of these modes are resulting from the Léninisme, generally in its Stalinist alternative . These States were delivered to the gagging of the opposition, being able to go until physical elimination, and to a practically absolute control of the press and freedom of expression in general.

Various forms of Communism

The political movement anticapitalist is born in the years 1840. Carried by a working class démographiquement increasing and poor, it develops later within the HAS, of which it is one of the principal currents. The shortly after the defeat of the Common of Paris in 1871, it is the scission between Marxiste S and Anarchiste S around the question of the method to eliminate the personal property characteristic of the Capitalisme: the Marxists consider necessary one transitional period with collectivization of the properties, under the control of State “Socialiste” having to decay gradually; whereas the anarchists preach a direct abolition of the property, while organizing the economic federation of the means of production and consumption. The communist movement is thus composed in the beginning of two principal political branches: communist and Marxist anarchists.

On the various historical movements and/or policies having applied Communism or being referred with Communism (as an economic and social theory), and proposer various means (Republic, State control, federalism, precepts of the Bible, conseillism, communalism, trade unionism, revolutions, spontaneism, etc), more or less complementary, to carry out this Communism:

Companies presenting of the historically communist characteristics

  • primitive Communism is a primitive company which would have existed during the prehistoric time (however, this idea is questioned by anthropologists).
  • Certain companies having an hostile environment which imposes in fact a company of mutual aid (Inuits, Indian tribes of Americas).
  • In Russia tsarist, the ground belonged generally collectively to the commune (the village) and it was redistributed periodically with the families according to their size (see Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, Empire of the Tsars and the Russians , and quoted references). It is exactly the system having had course for the Soviet period for the redistribution of apartments (belonging collectively to the nation and assigned to the families according to their sizes).
  • the first Christian communities would have functioned on a communist mode (this last point being disputed by other Christians). Christians interpret biblical passages like a communist indication of ideal (the division of the goods). At the Middle Ages, Christian communities bound by a religious ideal will put their joint goods. The Kibboutz im are also close to Communism (collectivism related to the commercial network of the remainder of Israel but with pooling of the means of production often based besides on identical on the structure of the Soviet Sovkhozes).
  • Of the communities (in Catalonia, Aragon, etc) at the time of the Spanish revolution will realize, according to anarchists and Marxists in particular conseillists, for some of them a libertarian beginning of Communism.

The family, forms social showing communist characteristics

The family is, according to certain Christian Communists, a grouping having communist aspects (although a majority of the Communists refuse the family like communist reality, of the fact inter alia heritage).

See too

Concepts related to Communism

Philosophy

Sociology

Literature

Other internal bonds

Political movements, Political party, political Ideas, Communist Organizations, Communist regime.

External bonds

  • *
  • Files Internet of the anarchists on Communism
  • Communism, elements of reflection Text of the group the Social insecurity
  • file Internet of the Marxists

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