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Distinguish from Communalism and from communist anarchism.

Communism  v • d • e  Basic concepts Marxist philosophy Class struggle Proletarian internationalism Communist party Ideologies Marxism Leninism Maoism Juche Trotskyism Left communism Council communism Anarchist communism Religious communism Eurocommunism Communist internationals Communist League First International Second International Comintern Fourth International Prominent communists Karl Marx Friedrich Engels Vladimir Lenin Rosa Luxemburg Joseph Stalin Leon Trotsky Mao Zedong Related subjects Anarchism Anti-capitalism Anti-communism Communist state Communist symbolism Criticisms of communism Democratic centralism Dictatorship of the proletariat History of communism Left-wing politics Luxemburgism New Class New Left Post-Communism Primitive communism Socialism Stalinism Socialist economics Titoism Soviet Union Communism Portal

Communism is a socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of a classless, stateless society based on common ownership of the means of production. ^[1] It is usually considered a branch of the broader socialist movement that draws on the various political and intellectual movements that trace their origins back to the work of theorists of the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution^[2]. Communism attempts to offer an alternative to the problems believed to be inherent with representative democracy, capitalist economies and the legacy of imperialism and colonialism. The dominant forms of communism, such as Leninism, Trotskyism and Luxemburgism, are based on Marxism. Karl Marx is sometimes known as the "father of Communism", but non-Marxist versions of communism (such as Christian communism and anarchist communism) also exist. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... In modern usage, the term communist party is generally used to identify any political party which has adopted communist ideology. ... This article is about one-party states ruled by Communist Parties. ... In many parts of the world, communalism is a modern term that describes a broad range of social movements and social theories which are in some way centered upon the community. ... Anarchist Communism, also known as Anarcho-Communism, Communo-Anarchism or Libertarian Communism, is a political ideology related to Libertarian socialism. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are terms which cover work in philosophy which is strongly influenced by Karl Marxs materialist approach to theory or which is written by Marxists. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... The South African Police Crush Another Demonstration by the Shack dwellers Movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, 28 September, 2007 Class struggle is the active expression of class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... International Socialism redirects here. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... In modern usage, the term communist party is generally used to identify any political party which has adopted communist ideology. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism refers to various related political and economic theories elaborated by Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin, and by other theorists who claim to be carrying on Lenins work. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... The Juche Idea (also Juche Sasang or Chuche; pronounced // in Korean, approximately joo-cheh) is the official state ideology of North Korea and the political system based on it. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... 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. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Council communism is a Radical Left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Libertarian Communism redirects here. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Religious communism is a form of communism centered on religious principles. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Eurocommunism was a new trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the partyline of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... See Communist League (disambiguation) for other groups of the same name. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... The International Workingmens Association, sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing political groups and trade union organizations which were based on the working class. ... The phrase Second International has two meanings: For the international association of socialist parties of the late 19th century, see Second International (politics) and a successor organization, the Socialist International For one of the Merriam-Webster dictionaries of American English, see Websters New International Dictionary, Second Edition This is... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... The Comintern (Russian: Коммунистический Интернационал, Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional – Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (919x1134, 8 KB) Logo Vierte Internationale (Fourth International) Vectorized and exported version in PNG format of Image:Logo of the Fourth International. ... For other uses, see Fourth International (disambiguation). ... Image File history File links Karl_Marx_001. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Engels redirects here. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 455 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (880 × 1160 pixel, file size: 500 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Lenin redirects here. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Rosa_Luxemburg. ... Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 – January 15, 1919, in Polish Róża Luksemburg) was a Jewish Polish-born Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Stalin1. ... Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Georgian: , Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili; Russian: , Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) (December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878[1] – March 5, 1953), better known by his adopted name, Joseph Stalin (alternatively transliterated Josef Stalin), was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Unions Central Committee from... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (658x617, 59 KB) Summary I obtained this image from here. ... Leon Trotsky (Russian:  , Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (), was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... Mao redirects here. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Anarchist redirects here. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... This article lists ideologies opposed to capitalism and describes them briefly. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Ideologies Communist internationals Prominent communists Related subjects Anti-communism refers to opposition to communism. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... This article is about a form of government in which the state operates under the control of a Communist Party. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Ideologies Communist internationals Prominent communists Related subjects Communist symbolism usually incorporates symbols representing the industrial workers and/or the peasants of a country. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... This article is on criticisms of communism, a branch of socialism. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... This article intentionally focuses only on the history of communism as a self-contained, self-aware political movement. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Left wing redirects here. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Luxemburgism (also written Luxembourgism) is a specific revolutionary theory within communism, based on the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... The new class is a term to describe the privileged ruling class of bureaucrats and Communist party functionaries which typically arises in a Stalinist communist state. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... The New Left is a term used in different countries to describe left-wing movements that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Post-Communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transition in former communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, usually transforming into a free market capitalist and globalized economy. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Primitive communism, according to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is the original society of humanity. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Socialism is a broad array of ideologies and political movements with the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... For architecture, see Stalinist architecture. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... Socialist economics is a broad, and sometimes controversial, term. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... 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. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle_transparent. ... CCCP redirects here. ... Socioeconomics is the study of the social and economic impacts of any product or service offering, market intervention or other activity on an economy as a whole and on the companies, organization and individuals who are its main economic actors. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... For other uses, see State (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Society (disambiguation). ... Common ownership is a principle according to which the assets of an enterprise or other organisation are held indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members. ... Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), are the combination of the means of labor and the subject of labor used by workers to make products. ... Socialism is a broad array of ideologies and political movements with the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ... A Watt steam engine, the steam engine that propelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the world. ... The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on... An anti-capitalist poster printed by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911. ... Democracy is a form of government under which the power to alter the laws and structures of government lies, ultimately, with the citizenry. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. ... It has been suggested that Benign colonialism be merged into this article or section. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism refers to various related political and economic theories elaborated by Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin, and by other theorists who claim to be carrying on Lenins work. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Luxemburgism (also written Luxembourgism) is a specific revolutionary theory within communism, based on the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Christian communism is a form of religious communism centered around Christianity. ... Libertarian Communism redirects here. ...

Background

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A tableaux in a communist rally in Kerala, India showing two farmers forming the hammer and sickle, the most famous communist symbol.

Self-identified communists hold a variety of views, including Marxism-Leninism, Trotskyism, council communism, Luxemburgism, anarchist communism, Christian communism, and various currents of left communism. However, the offshoots of the Marxist-Leninist interpretations of Marxism are the most well-known of these and have been a driving force in international relations during most of the 20th century. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... , Kerala ( ; Malayalam: കേരളം; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India. ... For other uses, see Hammer and sickle (disambiguation). ... 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). ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Council communism is a Radical Left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. ... Luxemburgism (also written Luxembourgism) is a specific revolutionary theory within communism, based on the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. ... Libertarian Communism redirects here. ... Christian communism is a form of religious communism centered around Christianity. ... 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. ... 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). ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Foreign affairs redirects here. ...

Communist movements during the last century worked towards the overthrow of capitalism through a workers’ revolution.^[3] Communist regimes sought to replace the problems of colonialism and capitalist systems and raise the lowest economic classes. But rather than replacing advanced industrial states, they tended to take power in nations where free markets, industrial capitalism and representative democracy were not well developed. Coercive and authoritarian governments which were justified as short-term improvisations tended to be a characteristic of communist states. Though centrally planned economies are said to be less efficient than free markets, communist states such as Soviet Union and China did succeed in becoming industrial and technological powers, challenging the capitalists powers in arms and space races and military conflicts. Communism was also established across Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and some nations in the Americas and Africa. It has been suggested that Benign colonialism be merged into this article or section. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy... Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      This article applies to political and organizational ideologies. ... This article is about one-party states ruled by Communist Parties. ...

The communist society Marx envisioned emerging from this intermediate phase has never been implemented, and it remains theoretical; Marx, in fact, commented very little on what communist society would actually look like. However, the term "Communism", especially when it is capitalized, is often used to refer to the political and economic regimes under Communist parties that claimed to embody the dictatorship of the proletariat. Capitalization (or capitalisation) is writing a word with its first letter as a majuscule (upper case letter) and the remaining letters in minuscules (lower case letters), in those writing systems which have a case distinction. ... This article is about a form of government in which the state operates under the control of a Communist Party. ... In modern usage, the term communist party is generally used to identify any political party which has adopted communist ideology. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ...

After the success of the October Revolution in Russia, many socialist parties in other countries became Communist parties, signaling varying degrees of allegiance to the new Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After World War II, Communists consolidated power in Eastern Europe, and in 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China, which would later follow its own ideological path of Communist development. Among the other countries in the Third World that adopted or imposed a pro-Communist government at some point were Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Angola, and Mozambique. Although never formally unified as a single political entity, by the early 1980s almost one-third of the world's population lived in Communist states, including the former Russian and Chinese empires.^[4] For other uses, see October Revolution (disambiguation). ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Statistical regions of Europe as delineated by the United Nations (UN definition of Eastern Europe marked red):  Northern Europe  Western Europe  Eastern Europe  Southern Europe Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current borders: Russia (dark orange), other countries formerly part of the USSR... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), also known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China, a position guaranteed by the countrys constitution. ... Mao redirects here. ... For the Jamaican reggae band, see Third World (band). ... This article is about a form of government in which the state operates under the control of a Communist Party. ... The subject of this article was previously also known as Russia. ... China is the worlds oldest continuous major civilization, with written records dating back about 3,500 years and with 5,000 years being commonly used by Chinese as the age of their civilization. ...

Communists themselves repudiate the usage of the term "communist state", as a communist society by definition is a state-less society. The terms used by the communist movement to describe these states are either socialist states, democratic republics or 'people's democracies'. The term Democratic Republic has formed part of several states official names. ...

Early communism

Main article: History of communism

Further information: Primitive communism and Religious communism

A map of countries who declared themselves to be socialist states under the Marxist-Leninist or Maoist definition (in other words, "Communist states") at some point in their history. The map uses present-day borders. Note that not all of these countries were Marxist-Leninist or Maoist at the same time.

Karl Marx saw primitive communism as the original, hunter-gatherer state of humankind from which it arose. For Marx, only after humanity was capable of producing surplus, did private property develop. This article intentionally focuses only on the history of communism as a self-contained, self-aware political movement. ... Primitive communism, according to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is the original society of humanity. ... Religious communism is a form of communism centered on religious principles. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1425x625, 56 KB) Description:A map of Marxist-Leninist single-party Communist socialist states and non-Marxist-Leninist, single-party Communist socialist states that exist or have existed in the past. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1425x625, 56 KB) Description:A map of Marxist-Leninist single-party Communist socialist states and non-Marxist-Leninist, single-party Communist socialist states that exist or have existed in the past. ... Primitive communism, according to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is the original society of humanity. ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Surplus means the quantity left over, after conducting an activity; the quantity which has not been used up, and can refer to: budget surplus, the opposite of a budget deficit economic surplus Surplus product or surplus value in Marxian economics physical surplus in the economic theory of Piero Sraffa Operating...

In the history of Western thought, certain elements of the idea of a society based on common ownership of property can be traced back to ancient times .^[5] Examples include the Spartacus slave revolt in Rome.^[6] This article is about the historical figure. ...

At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, generally under the inspiration of Scripture.^[7] In the medieval Christian church, for example, some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and other property. (See religious communism and Christian communism) These groups often believed that concern with private property was a distraction from religious service to God and neighbor.^[8] Many religions and spiritual movements hold certain written texts (or series of spoken legends not traditionally written down) to be sacred. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... Monasticism (from Greek: monachos—a solitary person) is the religious practice of renouncing all worldly pursuits in order to fully devote ones life to spiritual work. ... Religious communism is a form of communism centered on religious principles. ... Christian communism is a form of religious communism centered around Christianity. ... This page deals with property as ownership rights. ...

Communist thought has also been traced back to the work of 16th century English writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia (1516), More portrayed a society based on common ownership of property, whose rulers administered it through the application of reason.^[9] In the 17th century, communist thought arguably surfaced again in England. In 17th century England, a Puritan religious group known as the Diggers advocated the abolition of private ownership of land.^[10] Eduard Bernstein, in his 1895 Cromwell and Communism^[11] argued that several groupings in the English Civil War, especially the Diggers espoused clear communistic, agrarian ideals, and that Oliver Cromwell's attitude to these groups was at best ambivalent and often hostile.^[12] For the Elizabethan play, see Sir Thomas More (play). ... De Optimo Reipublicae Statu deque Nova Insula Utopia (translated On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia) or more simply Utopia is a 1516 book by Sir (Saint) Thomas More. ... Common ownership is a principle according to which the assets of an enterprise or other organisation are held indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members. ... For the record label, see Puritan Records. ... For other meanings see Diggers (disambiguation) and Levellers (disambiguation) The Diggers were a group begun by Gerrard Winstanley in 1649 which called for a total destruction of the existing social order and replacement with a communistic and agrarian lifestyle based around the precepts of Christian Nationalism, wishing to rid England... Eduard Bernstein Eduard Bernstein (January 6, 1850 - December 18, 1932) was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, member of the SPD, and founder of evolutionary socialism or reformism. ... For other uses, see English Civil War (disambiguation). ... For other meanings see Diggers (disambiguation) and Levellers (disambiguation) The Diggers were a group begun by Gerrard Winstanley in 1649 which called for a total destruction of the existing social order and replacement with a communistic and agrarian lifestyle based around the precepts of Christian Nationalism, wishing to rid England... Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. ...

Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France.^[13] Later, following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine.^[14] François Noël Babeuf, in particular, espoused the goals of common ownership of land and total economic and political equality among citizens.^[15] The Age of Enlightenment (French: ; Italian: ; German: ; Swahili: ; Swedish: Upplysningen) was an eighteenth-century movement in Western philosophy. ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 - July 2, 1778) was a Swiss-French philosopher, writer, political theorist, and self-taught composer of The Age of Enlightenment Biography of Rousseau The tomb of Rousseau in the crypt of the Panthéon, Paris Rousseau was born in Geneva, Switzerland... The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on... François-Noël Gracchus Babeuf François-Noël Babeuf (November 23, 1760 - May 27, 1797), known as Gracchus Babeuf (in tribute to the Roman reformers, the Gracchi, and used alongside his self-designation as Tribune), was a French political agitator and journalist of the Revolutionary period. ...

Various social reformers in the early 19th century founded communities based on common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the religious emphasis with a rational and philanthropic basis.^[16] Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana (1825), and Charles Fourier, whose followers organized other settlements in the United States such as Brook Farm (1841–47).^[17] Later in the 19th century, Karl Marx described these social reformers as "utopian socialists" to contrast them with his program of "scientific socialism" (a term coined by Friedrich Engels). Other writers described by Marx as "utopian socialists" included Saint-Simon. For other uses, see Robert Owen (disambiguation). ... New Harmony is a town located in Posey County, Indiana. ... This article is about the French utopian socialist philosopher. ... Brook Farm, a transcendentalist Utopian experiment, was put into practice by transcendentalist former Unitarian minister George Ripley at a farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, at that time nine miles from Boston. ... Utopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern Socialist thought. ... Scientific Socialism is the term used by Friedrich Engels to describe the socio-political-economic theory pioneered by Karl Marx. ... Engels redirects here. ... Henri de Saint-Simon Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, often referred to as Henri de Saint-Simon (October 17, 1760 – May 19, 1825), the founder of French socialism, was born in Paris. ...

In its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement of 19th century Europe. (Encarta) As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the proletariat — a new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions.^[18] Foremost among these critics were the German philosopher Karl Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels.^[19] In 1848 Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto.^[20] Engels, who lived in Manchester, observed the organization of the Chartist movement (see History of British socialism), while Marx departed from his university comrades to meet the proletariat in France and Germany. A Watt steam engine, the steam engine that propelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the world. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the City of Manchester in England. ... A movement for social and political reform in the United Kingdom during the mid_19th century, Chartism gains its name from the Peoples Charter of 1838, which set out the main aims of the movement. ... // Origins The Reformation occurred later in Britain than in most of mainland Europe. ...

Emergence of modern communism

Karl Marx

Image File history File links Karl_Marx. ... Image File history File links Karl_Marx. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ...

Marxism

Main article: Marxism

Like other socialists, Marx and Engels sought an end to capitalism and the systems which they perceived to be responsible for the exploitation of workers. But whereas earlier socialists often favored longer-term social reform, Marx and Engels believed that popular revolution was all but inevitable, and the only path to socialism. Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

According to the Marxist argument for communism, the main characteristic of human life in class society is alienation; and communism is desirable because it entails the full realization of human freedom.^[21] Marx here follows Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in conceiving freedom not merely as an absence of restraints but as action with content. (McLean and McMillan, 2003)According to Marx, Communism's outlook on freedom was based on an agent, obstacle, and goal. The agent is the common/working people; the obstacles are class divisions, economic inequalities, unequal life-chances, and false consciousness; and the goal is the fulfillment of human needs including satisfying work, and fair share of the product (Ball and Dagger 118). ^[22] They believed that communism allowed people to do what they want, but also put humans in such conditions and such relations with one another that they would not wish to exploit, or have any need to. Whereas for Hegel the unfolding of this ethical life in history is mainly driven by the realm of ideas, for Marx, communism emerged from material forces, particularly the development of the means of production. (McLean and McMillan, 2003) Marxs theory of alienation (Entfremdung in German), as expressed in the writings of young Karl Marx, refers to the separation of things that naturally belong together, or to antagonism between things that are properly in harmony. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (IPA: ) (August 27, 1770 – November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher and, with Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, one of the representatives of German idealism. ... Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), are the combination of the means of labor and the subject of labor used by workers to make products. ...

Marxism holds that a process of class conflict and revolutionary struggle will result in victory for the proletariat and the establishment of a communist society in which private ownership is abolished over time and the means of production and subsistence belong to the community. Marx himself wrote little about life under communism, giving only the most general indication as to what constituted a communist society. It is clear that it entails abundance in which there is little limit to the projects that humans may undertake. In the popular slogan that was adopted by the communist movement, communism was a world in which each gave according to their abilities, and received according to their needs.' The German Ideology (1845) was one of Marx's few writings to elaborate on the communist future:

Class conflict is both the friction that accompanies social relationships between members or groups of different social classes and the underlying tensions or antagonisms which exist in society. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ... Communist society is the final stage of human history as envisioned by Karl Marx. ... The German Ideology (1845) was a book written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels around April or early May 1845. ...

"In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic."^[23]

Marx's lasting vision was to add this vision to a theory of how society was moving in a law-governed way toward communism, and, with some tension, a political theory that explained why revolutionary activity was required to bring it about. (McLean and McMillan, 2003)

In the late 19th century the terms "socialism" and "communism" were often used interchangeably. (Encarta) However, Marx and Engels argued that communism would not emerge from capitalism in a fully developed state, but would pass through a "first phase" in which most productive property was owned in common, but with some class differences remaining. The "first phase" would eventually evolve into a "higher phase" in which class differences were eliminated, and a state was no longer needed.^[24] Lenin frequently used the term "socialism" to refer to Marx and Engels' supposed "first phase" of communism and used the term "communism" interchangeably with Marx and Engels' "higher phase" of communism.^[25]

These later aspects, particularly as developed by Lenin, provided the underpinning for the mobilizing features of 20th century Communist parties. Later writers such as Louis Althusser and Nicos Poulantzas modified Marx's vision by allotting a central place to the state in the development of such societies, by arguing for a prolonged transition period of socialism prior to the attainment of full communism. Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation: altuˡseʁ) (October 16, 1918 – October 22, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... Nicos Poulantzas (1936-1979) was a Greco-French Marxist political sociologist. ...

Other currents

Some of Marx's contemporaries espoused similar ideas, but differed in their views of how to reach to a classless society. Following the split between those associated with Marx and Mikhail Bakunin at the First International, the anarchists formed the International Workers Association.^[26] Anarchists argued that capitalism and the state were inseparable and that one could not be abolished without the other. Anarchist-communists such as Peter Kropotkin theorized an immediate transition to one society with no classes. Anarcho-syndicalism became one of the dominant forms of anarchist organization, arguing that labor unions, as opposed to Communist parties, are the organizations that can change society. Consequently, many anarchists have been in opposition to Marxist communism to this day. Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (Russian: Михаил Александрович Бакунин, Michel Bakunin on the grave in Bern), (May 18 (30 N.S.), 1814 – June 19 (July 1 N.S.), 1876) was a well-known Russian revolutionary, and often considered one of the “fathers of modern anarchism. Born in the Russian Empire to a family of Russian... The International Workingmens Association, sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing political groups and trade union organizations which were based on the working class. ... The International Workers Association (IWA) (Spanish: AIT - Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores, and in German: IAA-Internationale ArbeiterInnen Assoziation) is an international anarcho-syndicalist federation of various labour unions from different countries. ...