Communism
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Communism — the highest stage of the communist socio-economic formation, based on public ownership of the means of production, the immediate aim of which is the unrestricted, complete development of every person.
The idea of the harmonious development of the individual and of human relations appeared in the 15th century. At that time it was a Utopia, a dream that did not involve a material transformation of society (see Utopian Socialism; Egalitarian Communism). In contrast to Utopian Socialists, Marx regarded communist society as the inevitable outcome of the actual progress of history and of the class struggle. From its very inception, the Marxist teaching on communism was formulated as a scientific theory based on analysis of existing social relations and their evolution (see Scientific Communism).
The scientific theory of communism emerged from history being treated in a materialist way, i. e. as a law-governed process that is caused, in the final analysis, by the development of material production. The investigation of this process led the founders of Marxism to the conclusion that communism is the outcome of "those material conditions, which alone can form the real basis of a higher form of society, a society in which the full and free development of every individual forms the ruling principle" (Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, p. 555). Proceeding from the accurate scientific analysis of the development of capitalism Marx provided in Capital, he showed that the establishment of communist social relations is initiated by a revolutionary transformation of capitalism and elimination of the contradiction between the social nature of production and private ownership of the means of production. Public ownership of the means of production and an immense upsurge of the productive forces serve as the grounds for the abolition of the social division of labour caused by the existence of private property, for the liquidation of the opposition between mental and physical labour and the change in labour itself, which gradually becomes the primary vital need of the comprehensively, harmoniously developed person.
Communism differs from socialism in the tremendous development of the productive forces, capable of creating an abundance of consumer goods, which makes it possible to apply the principle "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" (see The Basic Principle of Communism). But communism not only creates an abundance of consumer goods to satisfy everybody’s needs; it is also a society that moulds people, developing all their diverse human, creative powers. Man is not just a consumer striving to grab and utilise as many goods as possible; genuinely human needs are being developed in him, first and foremost the need for a creative, transformative activity. At present, the real material and technical foundation for effecting the change in the character of labour is automation of production. Labour bears no attraction for people in a class antagonistic society; it merely spoils their lives. Under communism, the aim of which is to make a creator out of every person, human activities are spontaneous 37 and voluntary. Each member of communist society, liberated from tedious, monotonous labour in the sphere of material production proper, will enjoy an opportunity to develop all his abilities harmoniously (see Harmonious Development of the Individual). The change in the character of labour means that people cease to be partial producers of a commodity and enter into new relationships with one another, when each man is interested in the unlimited development of his fellow. In communist society, people will exchange their activities rather than objects. Marx characterised communism as production of the form of intercourse itself.
Changing the process of production and the character of people’s activities works a change in all social relations, above all in those connected with property. While, under socialism, there are two forms of public ownership of the means of production—state property (belonging to all people) and collective-farm and co-operative property, under communism there is a single communist property.
In a class antagonistic society, the interests of the individual are opposed to those of society. In communist society, quite different relations develop. Everybody has an opportunity to develop without restriction, since this is in the interests of society as a whole, for every person is not a member of a specific social and class group, but a representative of the entire society; the unlimited development of every person now becomes, therefore, an essential condition for the unlimited development of all. Social transformations in society are no longer political in nature; the state is replaced by communist social self-government, and certain forms of social consciousness and activities such as politics, law and religion, disappear.
Under communism, genuine human history will unfold, while the historical age preceding the communist socio-economic formation, which was characterised by the domination of private property, is, according to Marx, the pre-history of human society, for progress is achieved during that age through the exploitation and inhuman plight of the majority.
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A Communist is one who adheres the theories of Karl Marx and other communist's, such as Lenin, often supplemented by the ideas of other thinkers. Other kinds of communists are Maoists, Stalinists, Leninists, Chevezists, Fidelists, Kim-il Sung-ists, and others. Nepal has recently become a communist country and wants to remain that way. The United States are very unhappy about this, and has been raising decent, but it has changed nothing. There are also many Communist Parties in many countries like the Communist Party USA, the Workers' Party of Korea the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Japanese Communist Party, and the Communist Party of Canada.
A major force in world politics since the early twentieth century, modern communism is generally associated with the theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as expressed in works such as The Communist Manifesto (1848), The Dialectics of Nature (1883), Anti-Duhring (1877), and Das Kapital, (1863) as well as seminal works of Vladimir Lenin such as What is to be done? (1901) and Imperialism—The Highest Stage of Capitalism. (1916) According to Marxist theory of Political Economy, Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism, the capitalist profit-based system of private ownership is rooted in exploitation and is rife with internal contradictions. According to Marx, capitalism produces alienation in the working class because of private ownership of the means of production by the ruling class and an economic system where profit is wholly based on exploitation of the labor class. The internal contradictions within capitalism, especially the ownership of the labor class work product by the capitalists led to laborers feeling alienated from the products of their labor, their labor itself, their own essential human identity (species-essence) and their fellow workers. Marx maintained that this alienation would be exacerbated over time and that the capitalist system would experience economic breakdown and social disorder due to laborers being replaced by machinery. Because of the Marxist axiom that only labor can produce profit this would lead to a decrease in profits and an increase in poverty leading to worker dissatisfaction and eventually a revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat, that is, a revolutionary, enlightened labor class. Following this social revolution, capitalism would be replaced by a socialist society in which the means of production would be controlled by the workers. Socialism would represent a transitional stage under the dictatorship of the proletariat. This would be followed by a withering away of the state and the emergence of communism.
As a political movement, communism seeks to overthrow capitalism through a workers' revolution and establish a classless society. Marxist theory did not, in fact, find its fulfillment and expression in any actual communist revolution. It was precisely in the developing countries, not the industrialized capitalist nations where the so-called "communist" revolutions occurred. The theory of Marxism was adapted by revolutionaries, such as Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong into new theories that often placed intellectuals rather than laborers in the leadership roles of what Lenin described as the Revolutionary Vanguard. Hence, instead of focusing on capitalist industrialized states, virtually all communist revolutions transpired in feudal agrarian-based societies. These revolutions were typically led by bourgeois class intellectuals and supported by peasants.
References
- http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=As71MHq1NtzcWruqFqbdSNUjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20070627203412AAMdF2L
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism
