Communism

History of communism Communism refers to a conjectured future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production, and can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Schools of communism Marxism · Leninism Trotskyism · Maoism Left communism Council communism Anarchist communism Christian communism To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism (the forerunner of Communism) and is a branch in its own right (it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (Chinese: 毛泽东思想, pinyin: Máo Zédōng SÄ«xiÇŽng), is a variant of Marxism-Leninism derived from the teachings of Mao Zedong (1893–1976). ... Left Communism is a term describing a whole range of communist viewpoints which oppose the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position which is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views held by the Communist International after its first two Congresses. ... Council communism was a radical Left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. ... Anarchist communism, also known as Communist anarchism, Anarcho-communism, or Libertarian communism, is a political ideology related to Libertarian socialism. ... Christian communism is a form of religious communism centered around Christianity. ... Communist parties Communist International World Communist Movement International Communist Current Communist Workers International Fourth International In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical philosophy based on Marxism. ... The first edition of Communist International, journal of the Comintern published in Moscow and Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in May 1919. ... The World Communist Movement is an informal community of certain Communist parties around the world. ... The International Communist Current is a centralised international left communist organisation with sections throughout the world. ... The Communist Workers International (German: Kommunistische Arbeiter-Internationale, KAI), also known as the Fourth International, was a council communist international. ... For the left communist Fourth International, see Communist Workers International. ... Communist states The Soviet Union People's Republic of China Cuba · Vietnam Laos · North Korea A Communist state is a term for a nation-state governed by a single political party which declares its allegiance to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. ... Related subjects Socialism Titoism Marxism-Leninism Eurocommunism Religious communism New Left Planned economy Historical materialism Anti-communism Socialism is an ideology of a social and economic system where the means of production are collectively owned and administered by all of society. ... Titoism is a term describing political ideology named after Yugoslav leader, Josip Broz Tito, primarily used to describe the schism between the Soviet Union and Socialist Yugoslavia after the Second World War (see Cominform) when the Communist Party of Yugoslavia refused to take further dictates from Moscow. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Eurocommunism was an attempt in the 1970s by various European communist parties to widen their appeal by embracing public sector middle-class workers, new social movements such as feminism and gay liberation, rejecting support of the Soviet Union, and expressing more clearly their fidelity to democratic institutions. ... Religious communism is a term used by some Communists that claim that before communism became associated with atheism, the word communism was mainly used by religious groups. ... The New Left is a term used in political discourse to refer to radical left-wing movements from the 1960s onwards. ... A planned economy is an economic system in which decisions about the production, allocation and consumption of goods and services is planned ahead of time, in either a centralized or decentralized fashion. ... Historical materialism (or what Marx himself called the materialist conception of history - materialistische Geschichtsauffassung) is a social theory and an approach to the study of history and sociology, normally considered the intellectual basis of Marxism. ... Anti-communism is the opposition to communist ideology, organization, or government, on either an ideological or pragmatic basis. ...

The term "Theory of Productive Forces" should not be confused with the Marxist analysis of productive forces that is a cornerstone of Marxist theory.

The Theory of Productive Forces, sometimes referred to pejoratively by opponents as productive force determinism, is a widely-used concept in communism and Marxism placing primary emphasis on achieving abundance in a nominally socialist economy before real communism, or even real socialism, can have a hope of being achieved. Productive forces, productive powers or forces of production [in German, Produktivkräfte] is a central concept in Marxism and historical materialism. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Communism refers to a conjectured future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production, and can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Abundance is the state in which there is more than enough. ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ...

This "productive force determinism" has operated in all examples of state-supervised socialism to date, particularly the views of Joseph Stalin and Gerald Cohen. According to this view, technical change can beget social change; in other words, changes in the means (and level) of production causes changes in the relations of production. With this view, actual socialism or communism, based as it is on the "redistribution of wealth" to the most oppressed sectors of society, cannot occur until that society's wealth is built up enough to satisfy whole populations. A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. ... (help· info) (Russian, in full: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин (Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin), born Джугашвили (Dzhugashvili), Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი (Ioseb Jughashvili); (December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878 – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of... Gerald Allen Jerry Cohen, (born 1941) is the Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, All Souls College, Oxford. ... A technical change is a term used in economics to describe a change in the amount of output produced from the same inputs. ... This article is in need of attention. ...

The Theory of Productive Forces is behind Stalin's Five Year Plans and Mao Tse-Tung's Great Leap Forward, as well as most other examples of attempts to build and refine communism throughout the world in the 20th Century. Using this theory as a basis for their practical programmes, communist theoreticians and leaders, while paying lip service to the "primacy" of ideological change in individuals that is a cornerstone of Marxism, actually put production first, and ideological change second. Five-Year Plans or Piatiletkas (пятилетка) were a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in the Soviet Union. ... Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893—September 9, 1976) was the chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1935 until his death. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Communism refers to a conjectured future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production, and can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...

The philosophical perspective behind the modernizing zeal of, in particular, the Russian and Chinese communists seeking to industrialise their countries is perhaps captured best by this thought in The German Ideology by Marx and Engels.

"...it is only possible to achieve real liberation in the real world... by employing real means... slavery cannot be abolished without the steam-engine and the mule and spinning-jenny, serfdom cannot be abolished without improved agriculture, and... in general, people cannot be liberated as long as they are unable to obtain food and drink, housing and clothing in adequate quality and quantity. “Liberation” is an historical and not a mental act, and it is brought about by historical conditions, the development of industry, commerce, agriculture, the conditions of intercourse [Verkehr]... 1

Marx's View on Productive Forces

It is doubtful whether productive-force determinism was an analysis held by Marx himself. Marx saw social change in history as emerging essentially from the dyssynchrony between productive forces and relations of production, and who emphasized living human subjects as the central productive force (subjects who also actively produced and reproduced their social relations). In his polemic The Poverty of Philosophy, Marx wrote: Marx is a common German surname. ... Although Harvard University has featured a Department of Social Relations (in which Talcott Parsons played a prominent role), and although the term social relations is frequently used in social sciences, there is no commonly agreed meaning for this concept (see also the entry social). ...

"M. Proudhon the economist understands very well that men make cloth, linen, or silk materials in definite relations of production. But what he has not understood is that these definite social relations are just as much produced by men as linen, flax, etc. Social relations are closely bound up with productive forces. In acquiring new productive forces men change their mode of production; and in changing their mode of production, in changing the way of earning their living, they change all their social relations. The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill society with the industrial capitalist. The same men who establish their social relations in conformity with the material productivity, produce also principles, ideas, and categories, in conformity with their social relations. Thus the ideas, these categories, are as little eternal as the relations they express. They are historical and transitory products." 2.

Marx does not, as Stalin claimed, state here that "First the productive forces of society change and develop, and then, depending on these changes and in conformity with them, men's relations of production, their economic relations, change." Instead, Marx argues that "these definite social relations are just as much produced by men as linen, flax, etc." He does not say that productive forces linearly determine social relations; rather he says social relations are "closely bound up" with productive forces. It is through changing their "mode of production" or their way of "earning a living" that social relations are changed. This suggests a more complex causal relationship between productive forces and social relations exists than Stalin suggested. Possibly his interpretation owed more to the project of modernising the USSR with a strong emphasis on heavy industry as the basis for growth. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and his children, Gustave Courbet, 1865. ... Although Harvard University has featured a Department of Social Relations (in which Talcott Parsons played a prominent role), and although the term social relations is frequently used in social sciences, there is no commonly agreed meaning for this concept (see also the entry social). ... In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations... Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ... Although Harvard University has featured a Department of Social Relations (in which Talcott Parsons played a prominent role), and although the term social relations is frequently used in social sciences, there is no commonly agreed meaning for this concept (see also the entry social). ...

As Chris Harman notes though about the Marx-passage just cited, in truth Marx's sweeping generalisation does not hold water: hi im chris my last name is harman and i enjoy talking to other gay men and taking it up my arse any one interested in duble penetration phone this number 07881648241 i live in bournemouth and often atend gay clubs if u see me feel free to grab my...

"[Marx's] summation is crude. It is also historically inaccurate. What accompanied the rise of European feudalism after the 10th century was not the spread of the handmill, but its replacement over the centuries, the watermill--and the watermill then went on to play an important role in the genesis of industrial capitalism." 3