Communism

In [|Marxist theory], **pure communism** is a specific stage of historical development that inevitably emerges from the development of the [|productive forces] that leads to a superabundance of material wealth, allowing for [|distribution based on need] and social relations based on [|freely associated individuals]. [|[1]] [|[2]] The exact definition of communism varies, and it is often mistakenly, in general political discourse, used interchangeably with [|socialism] ; however, Marxist theory contends that socialism is just a transitional stage on the road to communism. [|Leninism] adds to Marxism the notion of a [|vanguard party] to lead the proletarian revolution and to secure all political power after the revolution for the working class, for the development of universal [|class consciousness] and [|worker participation], in a transitional stage between [|capitalism] and socialism. [|Council communists] and non-Marxist [|libertarian communists] and [|anarcho-communists] oppose the ideas of a vanguard party and a transition stage, and advocate for the construction of full communism to begin immediately upon the abolition of capitalism. There is a very wide range of theories amongst those particular communists in regards to how to build the types of institutions that would replace the various economic engines (such as food distribution, education, and hospitals) as they exist under capitalist systems—or even whether to do so at all. Some of these communists have specific plans for the types of administrative bodies that would replace the current ones, while always qualifying that these bodies would be [|decentralised] and [|worker-owned], just as they currently are within the activist movements themselves. Others have no concrete set of post-revolutionary blueprints at all, claiming instead that they simply trust that the world's workers and poor will figure out proper modes of distribution and wide-scale production, and also coordination, entirely on their own, without the need for any structured "replacements" for capitalist [|state-based] control.[// [|citation needed] //] In the modern lexicon of what many sociologists and political commentators refer to as the "political mainstream", communism is often used to refer to the policies of communist states, i.e., the ones totally controlled by [|communist parties], regardless of the practical content of the actual [|economic system] they may preside over. Examples of this include the policies of the [|Socialist Republic of Vietnam] where the economic system incorporates " [|doi moi] ", the [|People's Republic of China] (PRC) where the economic system incorporates " [|socialist market economy] ", and the economic system of the Soviet Union which was described as " [|state capitalist] " by non-Leninist socialists and later by communists who increasingly opposed the post-Stalin era Soviet model as it progressed over the course of the 20th century (e.g., [|Maoists], [|Trotskyists] and [|libertarian communists] )—and even at one point by [|Vladimir Lenin] himself. [|[3]] [ [|hide] ] *  [|1 Etymology and terminology]
 * Communism** (from [|Latin] //communis// - common, universal) is a [|revolutionary socialist] movement to create a [|classless], moneyless, and [|stateless] [|social order] [|structured] upon [|common ownership] of the [|means of production] , as well as a [|social] , [|political] and [|economic] ideology that aims at the establishment of this social order. This movement, in its [|Marxist-Leninist] interpretations, significantly influenced the history of the 20th century, which saw intense rivalry between the "socialist world" ( [|socialist states] ruled by [|Communist parties] ) and the "western world" (countries with [|market economies] ), culminating in the [|Cold War] between the [|Eastern bloc] and the " [|Free World] ".[// [|citation needed] //]
 * == Contents ==
 * [|2 Theory]
 * [|3 History]
 * [|3.1 Early communism]
 * [|3.2 Growth of modern communism]
 * [|3.3 Cold War years]
 * [|3.4 Red Scare]
 * [|3.5 After the dissolution of the Soviet Union]
 * [|4 Marxist schools]
 * [|4.1 Marxism]
 * [|4.2 Marxism-Leninism]
 * [|4.2.1 Stalinism]
 * [|4.2.2 Trotskyism]
 * [|4.2.3 Maoism]
 * [|4.2.3.1 Prachanda Path]
 * [|4.2.4 Others]
 * [|4.2.4.1 Hoxhaism]
 * [|4.2.4.2 Titoism]
 * [|4.3 Eurocommunism]
 * [|4.4 Libertarian and non-Leninist forms of Marxism]
 * [|4.4.1 Council communism]
 * [|4.4.2 Left communism]
 * [|4.4.3 Situationist International]
 * [|4.4.4 Autonomism]
 * [|5 Non-Marxist schools]
 * [|5.1 Anarcho-communism]
 * [|5.2 Christian communism]
 * [|6 Criticisms]
 * [|7 References]
 * [|8 Further reading]
 * [|9 External links] ||

Etymology and terminology
//Communism// comes from the Latin word //communis//, which means "shared" or "belong to all". [|[4]] [|[5]] In the schema of [|historical materialism], communism is the idea of a free society with no division or alienation, where mankind is free from oppression and scarcity. A communist society would have no governments, countries, or class divisions. In [|Marxist theory], the [|dictatorship of the proletariat] is the intermediate system between [|capitalism] and communism, when the government is in the process of changing the means of ownership from [|privatism] to collective ownership. [|[6]] In [|political science], the term "communism" is sometimes used to refer to [|communist states] , a [|form of government] in which the [|state] operates under a [|one-party system] and declares allegiance to [|Marxism-Leninism] or a derivative thereof.[// [|citation needed] //] In modern usage, the word "communism" is still often used to refer to the policies of self-declared socialist governments comprising [|one-party states] which were single legal political party systems operating under [|centrally planned economies] and a state ownership of the [|means of production], with the state, in turn, claiming that it represented the interests of the [|working classes]. A significant sector of the modern communist movement alleges that these states never made an attempt to transition to a communist society, while others even argue that they never achieved a legitimate socialism. Most of these governments based their ideology on [|Marxism-Leninism], but they did not call the system they had set up "communism", nor did they even necessarily claim at all times that the ideology was the sole driving force behind their policies: [|Mao Zedong] , for example, pursued [|New Democracy] , and [|Vladimir Lenin] in the early 1920s enacted [|war communism] ; later, the Vietnamese enacted [|doi moi] , and the Chinese switched to [|socialism with Chinese characteristics]. The governments labeled by other governments as "communist" generally claimed that they had set up a //transitional socialist// system. This system is sometimes referred to as [|state socialism] or by other similar names. The [|hammer and sickle] and the [|red star] are universal [|symbols of communism]. " [|Pure communism] " is a term sometimes used to refer to the stage in history after socialism, although just as many communists use simply the term "communism" to refer to that stage. The classless, stateless society that is meant to characterise this communism is one where decisions on what to produce and what policies to pursue are made in the best interests of the whole of society—a sort of 'of, by, and for the working class', rather than a rich class controlling the wealth and everyone else working for them on a wage basis. In this communism the interests of every member of society is given equal weight to the next, in the practical decision-making process in both the political and economic spheres of life. [|Karl Marx], as well as some other communist philosophers, deliberately never provided a detailed description as to how communism would function as a social system, nor the precise ways in which the working class could or should rise up, nor any other material specifics of exactly how to get to communism from capitalism. In the // [|Communist Manifesto] //, Marx does lay out a 10-point plan advising the redistribution of land and production to begin the transition to communism, but he ensured that even this was very general and all-encompassing. It has always been presumed that Marx intended these theories to read this way specifically so that later theorists in specific situations could adapt communism to their own localities and conditions.

Theory
According to communist theory, the only way to abolish capitalist inequalities is to have the proletariat (working class), who collectively constitute the main producer of wealth in society, and who are perpetually exploited and marginalised by the [|bourgeoisie] (wealthy class), to overthrow the capitalist system in a wide-ranging [|social revolution]. [|[7]] The revolution, in the theory of most individuals and groups espousing [|communist revolution], usually involves an armed rebellion. The revolution espoused can be explained by theorists in many different ways, and usually depends on the environment in which the particular communism theory originates. For example, the [|Chinese Revolution] involved military combat between the [|Chinese Red] and the [|Chinese Nationalist Armies], while the [|Vietnamese Revolution] was characterised by [|guerrilla warfare] between the heavily-backed [|Vietnam People's Army] and various Western armies, culminating in the [|Vietnam War] which ended in 1975. Meanwhile, the [|Cuban Revolution] was essentially a [|coup] that did not involve intensive wide-scale military conflict between [|Fulgencio Batista] 's soldiers and those of [|Fidel Castro] and [|Che Guevara]. In fact, Castro initially did not believe that a [|vanguard party] was necessary in Cuba's case, a view boosted by Batista's unpopularity at the time of the actual armed conflict between the two sides. Regardless of the specific form a communist revolution takes, its aim is for the working class to replace the exploiter class as the ruling class to establish a society without class divisions, called socialism, as a prelude to attempting to achieve the final stage of communism. [|[8]]

History
Countries of the world now (red) or previously (orange) officially structured as [|socialist states] under communist (Marxist-Leninist) governments, often called [|"communist states"] in the [|West]. Main article: [|History of communism] According to Karl Marx: > "Communism differs from all previous movements in that it overturns the basis of all earlier relations of production and intercourse, and for the first time consciously treats all natural premises as the creatures of hitherto existing men, strips them of their natural character and subjugates them to the power of the united individuals." — [|Karl Marx], // [|The German Ideology] //, 1845 [|[9]]

Early communism
Further information: [|Primitive communism], [|Religious communism] , and [|Utopian socialism] The origins of communism are debatable, and there are various historical groups, as well as theorists, whose beliefs have been subsequently described as communist. [|German philosopher] 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. The idea of a classless society first emerged in [|Ancient Greece]. [|[10]] [|Plato] in his // [|The Republic] // described it as a state where people shared all their property, wives, and children: "The private and individual is altogether banished from life and things which are by nature private, such as eyes and ears and hands, have become common, and in some way see and hear and act in common, and all men express praise and feel joy and sorrow on the same occasions." [|[10]] 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]. Examples include the [|Spartacus] [|slave revolt] in Rome. [|[11]] The 5th century [|Mazdak] movement in what is now [|Iran] has been described as "communistic" for challenging the enormous privileges of the noble classes and the clergy, criticizing the institution of [|private property] and for striving for an egalitarian society. [|[12]] At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, generally under the inspiration of [|Scripture]. [|[13]] In the [|medieval] [|Christian church], for example, some [|monastic] communities and [|religious orders] shared their land and other property (see // [|Religious] // and // [|Christian communism] //). These groups often believed that concern with [|private property] was a distraction from religious service to God and neighbour.[// [|citation needed] //] 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.[// [|citation needed] //] In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, where a [|Puritan] [|religious group] known as the " [|Diggers] " advocated the abolition of private ownership of land. [|[14]] [|Eduard Bernstein], in his 1895 //Cromwell and Communism// [|[15]] 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. [|[16]] 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.[// [|citation needed] //] Later, following the upheaval of the [|French Revolution], communism emerged as a political doctrine. [|[17]] [|François Noël Babeuf], in particular, espoused the goals of common ownership of land and total economic and political equality among citizens.[// [|citation needed] //] 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. [|[18]] 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). [|[18]] 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]. In its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement of 19th century Europe. As the [|Industrial Revolution] advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the [|proletariat] —a new class of urban factory workers who laboured under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels. In 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet // [|The Communist Manifesto] //. [|[18]] 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.[// [|citation needed] //]

Growth of modern communism
[|Vladimir Lenin] after his return to [|Petrograd]. In the late 19th century, Russian Marxism developed a distinct character. The first major figure of Russian Marxism was [|Georgi Plekhanov]. Underlying the work of Plekhanov was the assumption that Russia, less urbanized and industrialized than Western Europe, had many years to go before society would be ready for proletarian revolution to occur, and a transitional period of a bourgeois democratic regime would be required to replace [|Tsarism] with a socialist and later communist society. (EB)[// [|citation needed] //] In Russia, the [|1917 October Revolution] was the first time any party with an avowedly Marxist orientation, in this case the [|Bolshevik Party], seized state power. The assumption of state power by the Bolsheviks generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development. Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeoisie capitalism. [|[19]] Other socialists also believed that a [|Russian revolution] could be the precursor of workers' revolutions in the West. The moderate [|Mensheviks] opposed Lenin's Bolshevik plan for [|socialist revolution] before capitalism was more fully developed. The Bolsheviks' successful rise to power was based upon the slogans such as "Peace, bread, and land" which tapped the massive public desire for an end to Russian involvement in the [|First World War], the peasants' demand for [|land reform] , and popular support for the [|Soviets]. [|[20]] The usage of the terms "communism" and "socialism" shifted after 1917, when the Bolsheviks changed their name to //Communist Party// and installed a [|single party] regime devoted to the implementation of socialist policies under [|Leninism] .[// [|citation needed] //] The [|Second International] had dissolved in 1916 over national divisions, as the separate national parties that composed it did not maintain a unified front against the [|war], instead generally supporting their respective nation's role. Lenin thus created the [|Third International] (Comintern) in 1919 and sent the [|Twenty-one Conditions], which included [|democratic centralism] , to all European [|socialist parties] willing to adhere. In France, for example, the majority of the [|French Section of the Workers' International] (SFIO) party split in 1921 to form the [|French Section of the Communist International] (SFIC).[// [|citation needed] //] Henceforth, the term "Communism" was applied to the objective of the parties founded under the umbrella of the Comintern. Their program called for the uniting of workers of the world for revolution, which would be followed by the establishment of a [|dictatorship of the proletariat] as well as the development of a [|socialist economy]. Ultimately, if their program held, there would develop a harmonious classless society, with the [|withering away of the state] .[// [|citation needed] //] Socialist countries within the Marxist-Leninist definition in 1980. Color-coding indicates political alignment, with either the Soviet Union (red) or the People's Republic of China (yellow), or non-alignment (black). During the [|Russian Civil War] (1918–1922), the Bolsheviks [|nationalized] all productive property and imposed a policy of [|war communism], which put factories and railroads under strict government control, collected and rationed food, and introduced some bourgeois management of industry. After three years of war and the 1921 [|Kronstadt rebellion], Lenin declared the [|New Economic Policy] (NEP) in 1921, which was to give a "limited place for a limited time to capitalism." The NEP lasted until 1928, when [|Joseph Stalin] achieved party leadership, and the introduction of the first Five Year Plan spelled the end of it. Following the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks, in 1922, [|formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics] (USSR), or Soviet Union, from the former [|Russian Empire]. Following Lenin's democratic centralism, the communist parties were organized on a hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base; they were made up only of elite [|cadres] approved by higher members of the party as being reliable and completely subject to [|party discipline]. [|[21]] Following [|World War II], Communists consolidated power in [|Central] and [|Eastern Europe] , and in 1949, the [|Communist Party of China] (CPC), led by [|Mao Zedong] , established the [|People's Republic of China] , which would follow its own ideological path of Communist development following the [|Sino-Soviet split]. [|Cuba], [|North Korea] , [|Vietnam] , [|Laos] , [|Cambodia] , [|Angola] , and [|Mozambique] were among the other countries in the [|Third World] that adopted or imposed a Communist government at some point. By the early 1980s almost one-third of the world's population lived in [|Communist states], including the former Soviet Union and PRC.[// [|citation needed] //] Communist states such as the Soviet Union and PRC succeeded in becoming industrial and technological powers, challenging the capitalists' powers in the [|arms race] and [|space race].
 * = [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png width="50" height="39"]] || This section **needs additional [|citations] for [|verification] **. Please help [|improve this article] by adding citations to [|reliable sources] . Unsourced material may be [|challenged] and [|removed] . //(October 2011)// ||

Cold War years
USSR postage stamp depicting the [|communist state] launching the first artificial satellite [|Sputnik 1]. By virtue of the Soviet Union's victory in the [|Second World War] in 1945, the [|Red Army] occupied nations not only in [|Central] and [|Eastern Europe], but also in [|East Asia] ; consequently, communism as a movement spread to many new countries. This expansion of communism both in Europe and Asia gave rise to a few different branches of its own, such as [|Maoism]. [|[22]] Communism had been vastly strengthened by the winning of many new nations into the [|sphere of Soviet influence] and strength in Central and Eastern Europe. Governments modelled on Soviet Communism took power with Soviet assistance in [|Bulgaria], [|Czechoslovakia] , [|East Germany] , [|Poland] , [|Hungary] and [|Romania]. A Communist government was also created under [|Marshal Tito] in [|Yugoslavia], but Tito's independent policies led to the expulsion of [|Yugoslavia] from the [|Cominform] , which had replaced the [|Comintern]. [|Titoism], a new branch in the world Communist movement, was labelled " [|deviationist] ". [|Albania] also became an independent Communist nation after World War II. [|[23]] By 1950, the [|Chinese Communists] held all of [|Mainland China], thus controlling the most populous nation in the world. Other areas where rising Communist strength provoked dissension and in some cases led to actual fighting through conventional and [|guerrilla warfare] include the [|Korean War], [|Laos] , many nations of the [|Middle East] and [|Africa] , and notably succeeded in the case of the [|Vietnam War] against the [|military power] of the United States and its allies. With varying degrees of success, Communists attempted to unite with [|nationalist] and [|socialist] forces against what they saw as [|Western] [|imperialism] in these poor countries.

Red Scare
A 1947 [|propaganda] book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a communist revolution. Main article: [|Red Scare] With the exception of the contribution in [|World War II] by the Soviet Union, China, and the [|Italian resistance movement], communism was seen as a rival, and a threat to western democracies and capitalism for most of the 20th century. [|[24]] This rivalry peaked during the [|Cold War], as the world's two remaining superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, polarized most of the world into two camps of nations. This was characterized in the West as //The Free World// vs. //Behind the Iron Curtain//.[// [|citation needed] //] It supported the spread of their respective economic and political systems (capitalism and communism) and strengthened their military powers. As a result, the camps developed new weapon systems, stockpiled [|nuclear weapons], and competed in space exploration. Near the beginning of the Cold War, on February 9, 1950, Senator [|Joseph McCarthy] from [|Wisconsin] accused 205 Americans working in the [|State Department] of being "card-carrying communists". [|[25]] The fear of communism in the U.S. spurred [|McCarthyism], aggressive investigations and the [|red-baiting] , [|blacklisting] , jailing and deportation of persons suspected of following communist or other left-wing ideologies. Many famous actors and writers were placed on a blacklist from 1950 to 1954, which meant they would not be hired and would be subject to public disdain. [|[24]]

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Further information: [|List of far-left parties with parliamentary representation‎] In 1985, [|Mikhail Gorbachev] became leader of the Soviet Union and relaxed central control, in accordance with reform policies of [|glasnost] (openness) and [|perestroika] (restructuring). The Soviet Union did not intervene as [|Poland], [|East Germany] , [|Czechoslovakia] , [|Bulgaria] , [|Romania] , and [|Hungary] all abandoned Communist rule by 1990. In 1991, the [|Soviet Union dissolved]. By the beginning of the 21st century, states controlled by communist parties under a single-party system include the [|People's Republic of China], [|Cuba] , [|Laos] , [|Vietnam] , and informally [|North Korea]. Communist parties, or their descendant parties, remain politically important in many countries. President [|Dimitris Christofias] of [|Cyprus] is a member of the [|Progressive Party of Working People], but the country is not run under single-party rule. The [|South African Communist Party] is a partner in the [|African National Congress] -led government. [|In India], communists lead the governments of three [|states] , with a combined population of more than 115 million. In [|Nepal], communists hold a majority in the [|parliament]. [|[26]] The [|Communist Party of Brazil] is a part of the parliamentary coalition led by the ruling democratic socialist Workers' Party and is represented in the [|executive cabinet] of [|Dilma Rousseff]. The People's Republic of China has reassessed many aspects of the Maoist legacy; it, along with Laos, Vietnam, and, to a lesser degree Cuba, has reduced state control of the economy in order to stimulate growth. [|Chinese economic reforms] started in 1978 under the leadership of [|Deng Xiaoping] ; since then, China has managed to bring down the poverty rate from 53% in the Mao era to just 6% in 2001. [|[27]] The People's Republic of China runs [|Special Economic Zones] dedicated to market-oriented enterprise, free from [|central government] control. Several other communist states have also attempted to implement market-based reforms, including Vietnam. A [|tableau] in a communist rally in [|Kerala], [|India] , of a young farmer and worker. A Communist demonstration in [|Red Square], Moscow, July 2009. Theories within Marxism as to why communism in Central and Eastern Europe was not achieved after socialist revolutions pointed to such elements as the pressure of external capitalist states, the relative backwardness of the societies in which the revolutions occurred, and the emergence of a bureaucratic stratum or class that arrested or diverted the transition press in its own interests. (Scott and Marshall, 2005) Marxist critics of the Soviet Union, most notably Trotsky, referred to the [|Soviet system], along with other Communist states, as " [|degenerated] " or " [|deformed workers' states] ", arguing that the Soviet system fell far short of Marx's communist ideal and he claimed the [|working class] was politically dispossessed. The ruling stratum of the Soviet Union was held to be a bureaucratic [|caste], but not a new [|ruling class] , despite their political control. Anarchists who adhere to [|Participatory economics] claim that the Soviet Union became dominated by powerful intellectual elites who in a capitalist system crown the proletariat's labour on behalf of the bourgeoisie. Non-Marxists, in contrast, have often applied the term to any society ruled by a communist party and to any party aspiring to create a society similar to such existing [|nation-states]. In the [|social sciences], societies ruled by communist parties are distinct for their single party control and their socialist economic bases. While some social and [|political scientists] applied the concept of " [|totalitarianism] " to these societies, others identified possibilities for independent political activity within them, [|[28]] [|[29]] and stressed their continued evolution up to the point of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its allies in [|Central Europe] during the late 1980s and early 1990s.[// [|citation needed] //]

Marxist schools
Main article: [|List of communist ideologies] Variations to the communist movement have developed, each based upon the ideas of different political theorists, usually as additions or interpretations of various forms of [|Marxism], the collective philosophies of the [|German philosophers] [|Karl Marx]. [|[30]] [|Marxism-Leninism] is the synthesis of [|Vladimir Lenin] 's contributions to Marxism, such as how a revolutionary party should be organised; [|[31]] [|Trotskyism] is [|Leon Trotsky] 's conception of Marxism, influenced by Lenin, and meanwhile, [|Maoism] is [|Mao Zedong] 's interpretation of Marxism to suit the conditions of China at that time, and is fairly heavy on the need for [|agrarian] worker support as the engine for the revolution, rather than workers in the urban areas, which were still very small at that point. 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 best-known of these and had been a driving force in [|international relations] during the last quarter of the 19th century and most of the 20th century up to around 1989 and what historians refer to as " [|the collapse of communism] ." [|[32]] However, other forms of communism worldwide continue to exist in the ideologies of various individual [|labor movement] [|trade unions] worldwide, particularly in [|Europe] and the [|Third World], and also in [|communist parties] that continue to espouse the ultimate need for [|communist revolution]. Most communists today tend to agree that the remaining [|communist states], such as China, Vietnam and especially [|North Korea] (which has replaced Marxism-Leninism with [|Juche] as its official ideology), have nothing to do with communism, whether as practised currently within leftist resistance movements and parties, or in terms of the ideologies and programmes held by those movements. [|[33]] [|[34]] [|[35]] [|[36]] A diverse range of theories persist amongst prominent globally known people such as [|Slavoj Zizek], [|Michael Parenti] , [|Alain Badiou] and other [|radical left] thinkers who proclaim themselves communists; they and others like them are examples of present-day well-known figures in the modern communist movement.
 * = [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png width="50" height="39"]] || This section **needs additional [|citations] for [|verification] **. Please help [|improve this article] by adding citations to [|reliable sources] . Unsourced material may be [|challenged] and [|removed] . //(October 2011)// ||

Marxism
// [|The Communist Manifesto] // Main article: [|Marxism] Like other socialists, [|Karl Marx] and [|Friedrich Engels] sought an end to capitalism and the systems which they perceived to be responsible for the exploitation of workers. 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 and communism. 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]. [|[37]] Marx here follows [|Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel] in conceiving freedom not merely as an absence of restraints but as action with content. [|[38]] 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 fulfilment of human needs including satisfying work, and fair share of the product. [|[39]] [|[40]] 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]. [|[38]] 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 property and ownership] is abolished over time and the means of production and subsistence belong to the community. (Private property and ownership, in this context, means ownerships of the [|means of production], not private possessions). [|[41]] 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.[// [|citation needed] //] 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: > "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." — [|[42]] Marx's lasting vision was to add this vision to a theory of how society was moving in a law-governed way towards communism, and, with some tension, a political theory that explained why revolutionary activity was required to bring it about. [|[38]] In the late 19th century, the terms "socialism" and "communism" were often used interchangeably. 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. 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. [|[43]] These later aspects, particularly as developed by Vladimir Lenin, provided the underpinning for the mobilizing features of 20th century communist parties.

Marxism-Leninism
[|Politics portal] || || Main articles: [|Marxism-Leninism] and [|Leninism] Leninism is the political movement developed by [|Vladimir Lenin], which has become the foundation for the organizational structure of most major communist parties. Leninists advocate the creation of a vanguard party led by dedicated revolutionaries in order to lead the working class revolution to victory. Leninists believe that socialism will not arise spontaneously through the natural decay of capitalism and that workers are unable to organize and develop socialist consciousness without the guidance of the Vanguard party. After taking power, Vanguard parties seek to create a socialist state continually led by the Vanguard party in order to direct social development and defend against counterrevolutionary insurrection. The mode of industrial organization championed by Leninism and Marxism-Leninism is the capitalist model of scientific management pioneered by [|Fredrick Taylor]. Marxism-Leninism is a version of Leninism merged with [|classical Marxism] adopted by the Soviet Union and most communist parties across the world today. It shaped the Soviet Union and influenced communist parties worldwide. It was heralded as a possibility of building communism via a massive program of [|industrialization] and [|collectivisation]. Despite the fall of the Soviet Union and the 'Eastern Bloc' (meaning communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe), many communist parties of the world today still lay claim to uphold the Marxist-Leninist banner. Marxism-Leninism expands on Marxist thoughts by bringing the theories to what Lenin and other Communists considered, the age of capitalist imperialism, and a renewed focus on party building, the development of a [|socialist state], and democratic centralism as an organisational principle. Lenin's pamphlet // [|What is to be Done?] // (1902), proposed that the (urban) [|proletariat] can successfully achieve revolutionary consciousness only under the leadership of a [|vanguard party] of [|professional revolutionaries] —who can achieve aims only with internal [|democratic centralism] in the party; tactical and ideological policy decisions are agreed via democracy, and every member must support and promote the agreed party policy. To wit, [|capitalism] can be overthrown only with revolution—because attempts to //reform// capitalism from within ( [|Fabianism] ) and from without ( [|social democracy] ) will fail because of its inherent contradictions. The purpose of a Leninist revolutionary vanguard party is the forceful [|deposition] of the incumbent government; assume power (as agent of the proletariat) and establish the [|dictatorship of the proletariat]. Moreover, as the government, the vanguard party must educate the proletariat—to dispel the societal [|false consciousness] of religion and nationalism that are culturally instilled by the [|bourgeoisie] in facilitating exploitation, and to instil the [|material] scientific outlook of the world and the sense of [|proletarian internationalism]. The dictatorship of the proletariat is governed with a de-centralized [|direct democracy] practised via [|soviets] (councils) where the workers exercise political power (cf. [|soviet democracy] ); the fifth chapter of //State & Revolution//, describes it: > ".... the dictatorship of the proletariat—i.e. the organisation of the vanguard of the oppressed as the ruling class for the purpose of crushing the oppressors. . . . An immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the rich: . . . and suppression by force, i.e. exclusion from democracy, for the exploiters and oppressors of the people—this is the change which democracy undergoes during the //transition// from capitalism to communism." — [|[44]] The post- [|revolutionary] [|Bolshevik] government was hostile to nationalism, especially to [|Russian nationalism], the "Great Russian chauvinism", which was seen as an obstacle to establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. [|[45]] However, under the regime of [|Joseph Stalin], after the [|Allied] victory in the [|Great Patriotic War] , Russian nationalism became upheld as a force in shaping both the domestic and foreign policies of the Soviet Union. [|[46]] The primary elements unique to Marxism-Leninism are: the revolutionary vanguard party, [|revolution as a means to overthrow capitalism], and democratic centralism.
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Stalinism
Main article: [|Stalinism] [|Joseph Stalin] Stalinism was the [|political system] of the Soviet Union and the countries within the [|Soviet sphere of influence] during the leadership of [|Joseph Stalin]. The term usually defines the style of a government rather than an ideology. The ideology was officially Marxism-Leninism theory, reflecting that Stalin himself was not a theoretician, in contrast to Marx and Lenin, and prided himself on maintaining the legacy of Lenin as a founding father for the Soviet Union and the future Socialist world. Stalinism is an interpretation of their ideas, and a certain political regime claiming to apply those ideas in ways fitting the changing needs of Soviet society, as with the transition from "socialism at a snail's pace" in the mid-twenties to the rapid industrialization of the [|Five-Year Plans]. The main contributions of Stalin to communist theory were: The legitimacy of Stalin's claim to the roll of leadership in the Soviet Union (and thus the international communist movement as a whole) is a matter of some debate. Advocates of Stalinism cite both Lenin's praising of the early works of Stalin and the economic successes of the Five-Year Plans. Opponents, however, point out that certain aspects of Stalinism (socialism in one country, " [|revolutionary patriotism] ", etc.) are not found in Leninism, and argue that some aspects are even contradictory to Marxism-Leninism. Also, in [|Lenin's Testament], a document written by Vladimir Lenin in the last weeks of 1922 and the first week of 1923 outlining his proposed changes to the structure of the Soviet governing bodies, Lenin suggested "that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from [the Secretary-General] post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc." Both sides of this debate identify as being ideologically orthodox to Leninism and criticise the other as being " [|revisionist] ."
 * The groundwork for the Soviet policy concerning nationalities, laid in Stalin's 1913 work //Marxism and the National Question//, [|[47]] praised by Lenin.
 * [|Socialism in One Country], stating that communists should attain socialism in their own country as a prelude to internationalising.
 * The theory of [|aggravation of the class struggle along with the development of socialism], a theoretical base supporting the repression of political opponents as necessary.

Trotskyism
Main article: [|Trotskyism] [|Leon Trotsky] reading // [|The Militant] //. Trotskyism is the branch of Marxism that was developed by [|Leon Trotsky]. It supports the theory of [|permanent revolution] and [|world revolution] instead of the [|two stage theory] and [|socialism in one country]. It supported [|proletarian internationalism] and another Communist revolution in the Soviet Union, which, under the leadership of Stalin, Trotsky claimed had become a [|degenerated worker's state], rather than the [|dictatorship of the proletariat] , in which class relations had re-emerged in a new form. Trotsky and his supporters organized into the // [|Left Opposition] // and their platform became known as Trotskyism. Stalin eventually succeeded in gaining control of the Soviet regime and Trotskyist attempts to remove Stalin from power resulted in Trotsky's exile from the Soviet Union in 1929. During Trotsky's exile, world communism fractured into two distinct branches: [|Marxism-Leninism] and Trotskyism. [|[8]] Trotsky later founded the [|Fourth International], a Trotskyist rival to the [|Comintern] , in 1938. Trotskyist ideas have continually found a modest echo among [|political movements] in some countries in [|Latin America] and [|Asia], especially in [|Argentina] , [|Brazil] , [|Bolivia] and [|Sri Lanka]. Many Trotskyist organizations are also active in more stable, developed countries in [|North America] and [|Western Europe]. Trotsky's politics differed sharply from those of Stalin and Mao, most importantly in declaring the need for an international proletarian revolution (rather than socialism in one country) and unwavering support for a true dictatorship of the proletariat based on democratic principles. However, as a whole, Trotsky's theories and attitudes were never accepted in worldwide mainstream Communist circles after Trotsky's expulsion, either within or outside of the [|Soviet bloc]. This remained the case even after the [|Secret Speech] and subsequent events which critics claim exposed the fallibility of Stalin.

Maoism
Main article: [|Maoism] Portrait of [|Mao Zedong] at the Tiananmen Gate Maoism is the Marxist-Leninist trend of Communism associated with [|Mao Zedong] and was mostly practiced within China. [|Nikolai Khrushchev] 's reforms heightened ideological differences between China and the Soviet Union, which became increasingly apparent in the 1960s. Parties and groups that supported the [|Communist Party of China] (CPC) in their criticism against the new Soviet leadership proclaimed themselves as 'anti-revisionist' and denounced the [|Communist Party of the Soviet Union] and the parties aligned with it as [|revisionist] "capitalist-roaders." The Sino-Soviet Split resulted in divisions amongst communist parties around the world. Notably, the [|Party of Labour of Albania] sided with the [|People's Republic of China]. Effectively, the CPC under Mao's leadership became the rallying forces of a parallel international Communist tendency. Definitions of Maoism vary. Within the Chinese context, Maoism can refer to Mao's belief in the mobilization of the masses, particularly in large-scale political movements; it can also refer to the [|egalitarianism] that was seen during Mao's era as opposed to the free-market ideology of [|Deng Xiaoping] ; some scholars additionally define [|personality cults] and political sloganeering as "Maoist" practices. Contemporary Maoists in China criticize the social inequalities created by a capitalist and 'revisionist' Communist party. [|Prachanda], giving a speech at [|Pokhara] , Nepal

Prachanda Path
See also: [|Nepalese Civil War] Prachanda Path refers to the ideological line of the [|Unified Communist Party of Nepal]. This thought is an extension of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism, totally based on home-ground politics of [|Nepal]. The doctrine came into existence after it was realized that the ideology of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism could not be practiced completely as it was done in the past. And an ideology suitable, based on the ground reality of Nepalese politics was adopted by the party.

Hoxhaism
Main article: [|Hoxhaism] Another variant of [|anti-revisionist] Marxism-Leninism appeared after the [|ideological row] between the Communist Party of China and the [|Party of Labour of Albania] in 1978. The Albanians rallied a new separate international tendency, which would demarcate itself by a strict defence of the legacy of Joseph Stalin and fierce criticism of virtually all other Communist groupings as [|revisionism]. Critical of the [|United States], the Soviet Union, and China, [|Enver Hoxha] declared the latter two to be [|social-imperialist] and condemned the [|Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia] by withdrawing from the [|Warsaw Pact] in response. Hoxha declared Albania to be the world's only Marxist-Leninist state after 1978. The Albanians were able to win over a large share of the Maoists, mainly in [|Latin America] such as the [|Popular Liberation Army], but also had a significant [|international following] in general. This tendency has occasionally been labelled as 'Hoxhaism' after him. After the fall of the Communist government in Albania, the pro-Albanian parties are grouped around an [|international conference] and the publication 'Unity and Struggle'.

Titoism
Main article: [|Titoism] Elements of Titoism are characterized by policies and practices based on the principle that in each country, the means of attaining ultimate communist goals must be dictated by the conditions of that particular country, rather than by a pattern set in another country. During Tito's era, this specifically meant that the communist goal should be pursued independently of (and often in opposition to) the policies of the Soviet Union. The term was originally meant as a [|pejorative], and was labelled by Moscow as a heresy during the period of tensions between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia known as the // [|Informbiro] // period from 1948 to 1955. Unlike the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, which fell under Stalin's influence post–World War II, [|Yugoslavia], due to the strong leadership of Marshal [|Josip Broz Tito] and the fact that the [|Yugoslav Partisans] liberated Yugoslavia with only limited help from the [|Red Army] , remained independent from Moscow. It became the only country in the [|Balkans] to resist pressure from Moscow to join the [|Warsaw Pact] and remained "socialist, but independent" until the collapse of Soviet socialism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Throughout his time in office, Tito prided himself on Yugoslavia's independence from Russia, with Yugoslavia never accepting full membership of the [|Comecon] and Tito's open rejection of many aspects of Stalinism as the most obvious manifestations of this.

Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a 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 influence or control of the Soviet Union. Parties such as the [|Italian Communist Party] (PCI), the [|French Communist Party] (PCF), and the [|Communist Party of Spain] (PCE), were politically active and electorally significant in their respective countries).[// [|citation needed] //] The main theoretical foundation of Eurocommunism was [|Antonio Gramsci] 's writing about Marxist theory which questioned the sectarianism of the Left and encouraged communist parties to develop social alliances to win [|//hegemonic//] support for social reforms. Eurocommunist parties expressed their fidelity to democratic institutions more clearly than before and attempted to widen their appeal by embracing [|public sector] [|middle-class] workers, [|new social movements] such as [|feminism] and [|gay liberation] and more publicly questioning the Soviet Union. Early inspirations can also be found in the [|Austromarxism] and its seeking of a "third" democratic "way" to socialism.

Libertarian and non-Leninist forms of Marxism
Main article: [|Libertarian Marxism] Libertarian Marxism refers to a broad scope of economic and political philosophies that emphasize the [|anti-authoritarian] aspects of [|Marxism]. Early currents of libertarian Marxism, known as [|left communism], [|[48]] emerged in opposition to [|Marxism–Leninism] [|[49]] and its derivatives, such as [|Stalinism] , [|Maoism] , and [|Trotskyism]. [|[50]] Libertarian Marxism is also critical of [|reformist] positions, such as those held by [|social democrats]. [|[51]] Libertarian Marxist currents often draw from Marx and Engels' later works, specifically the // [|Grundrisse] // and // [|The Civil War in France] //; [|[52]] emphasizing the Marxist belief in the ability of the [|working class] to forge its own destiny without the need for a revolutionary party or [|state] to mediate or aid its liberation. [|[53]] Along with [|anarchism], Libertarian Marxism is one of the main currents of [|libertarian socialism]. [|[54]] Libertarian Marxism includes such currents as [|Luxemburgism], [|council communism] , [|left communism] , // [|Socialisme ou Barbarie] //, the [|Johnson-Forest tendency] , [|world socialism] , [|Lettrism] / [|Situationism] and [|operaismo] / [|autonomism] , and [|New Left]. [|[55]] Libertarian Marxism has often had a strong influence on both [|post-left] and [|social anarchists]. Notable theorists of libertarian Marxism have included [|Anton Pannekoek], [|Raya Dunayevskaya] , [|CLR James] , [|Antonio Negri] , [|Cornelius Castoriadis] , [|Maurice Brinton] , [|Guy Debord] , [|Daniel Guérin] , [|Ernesto Screpanti] and [|Raoul Vaneigem].

Council communism
Main article: [|Council communism] Council communism is a [|far-left] movement originating in [|Germany] and the [|Netherlands] in the 1920s. Its primary organization was the [|Communist Workers Party of Germany] (KAPD). Council communism continues today as a theoretical and activist position within both left-wing Marxism and [|libertarian socialism]. The central argument of council communism, in contrast to those of [|social democracy] and Leninist Communism, is that democratic [|workers' councils] arising in the factories and municipalities are the natural form of working class organisation and governmental power. This view is opposed to both the [|reformist] and the Leninist [|ideologies], with their stress on, respectively, parliaments and [|institutional] government (i.e., by applying social reforms), on the one hand, and [|vanguard parties] and participative [|democratic centralism] on the other). The core principle of council communism is that the government and the [|economy] should be managed by [|workers' councils] composed of delegates elected at workplaces and [|recallable] at any moment. As such, council communists oppose [|state-run] [|authoritarian] " [|State socialism] "/" [|State capitalism] ". They also oppose the idea of a "revolutionary party", since council communists believe that a revolution led by a party will necessarily produce a party dictatorship. Council communists support a worker's democracy, which they want to produce through a federation of workers' councils. [|Rosa Luxemburg], prominent left communist critic of Leninism

Left communism
Main article: [|Left communism] Left communism is the range of communist viewpoints held by the communist left, which criticizes the political ideas of the [|Bolsheviks] at certain periods, from a position that is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views of Leninism held by the [|Communist International] after its first and during its second congress. Left Communists see themselves to the left of Leninists (whom they tend to see as 'left of capital', not socialists), [|anarchist communists] (some of whom they consider internationalist socialists) as well as some other revolutionary socialist tendencies (for example [|De Leonists], who they tend to see as being internationalist socialists only in limited instances). Although she died before left communism became a distinct tendency, [|Rosa Luxemburg] has heavily influenced most left communists, both politically and theoretically. Proponents of left communism have included [|Amadeo Bordiga], [|Herman Gorter] , [|Anton Pannekoek] , [|Otto Rühle] , [|Karl Korsch] , [|Sylvia Pankhurst] and [|Paul Mattick]. Prominent [|left communist groups existing today] include the [|International Communist Party], the [|International Communist Current] and the [|Internationalist Communist Tendency].

Situationist International
Main article: [|Situationist International] The Situationist International was a restricted group of international revolutionaries founded in 1957, and which had its peak in its influence on the unprecedented [|general] [|wildcat strikes] of [|May 1968 in France]. With their ideas rooted in Marxism and the 20th century European artistic [|avant-gardes], they advocated experiences of life being alternative to those admitted by the [|capitalist order] , for the fulfillment of human primitive desires and the pursuing of a superior passional quality. For this purpose they suggested and experimented with the //construction of situations//, namely the setting up of environments favorable for the fulfillment of such desires. Using methods drawn from the arts, they developed a series of experimental fields of study for the construction of such situations, like [|unitary urbanism] and [|psychogeography]. They fought against the main obstacle on the fulfillment of such superior passional living, identified by them in [|advanced capitalism]. Their theoretical work peaked on the highly influential book // [|The Society of the Spectacle] // by [|Guy Debord]. Debord argued in 1967 that spectacular features like [|mass media] and advertising have a central role in an advanced capitalist society, which is to show a fake reality in order to mask the real capitalist degradation of human life. To overthrow such a system, the Situationist International supported the May 1968 revolts, and asked the workers to [|occupy the factories] and to run them with [|direct democracy], through [|workers' councils] composed by instantly revocable delegates. After publishing in the last issue of the magazine an analysis of the May 1968 revolts, and the strategies that will need to be adopted in future revolutions, [|[56]] the SI was dissolved in 1972. [|[57]]

Autonomism
Main article: [|Autonomism] [|Antonio Negri], main theorist of Italian autonomism Autonomism refers to a set of [|left-wing] political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. As an identifiable theoretical system it first emerged in [|Italy in the 1960s] from [|workerist] (// [|operaismo] //) communism. Later, post-|Marxist and [|anarchist] tendencies became significant after influence from the [|Situationists], the failure of Italian [|far-left] movements in the 1970s, and the emergence of a number of important theorists including [|Antonio Negri] , who had contributed to the 1969 founding of // [|Potere Operaio] //, Mario Tronti, [|Paolo Virno] , etc. Through translations made available by Danilo Montaldi and others, the Italian autonomists drew upon previous activist research in the United States by the [|Johnson-Forest Tendency] and in France by the group [|Socialisme ou Barbarie]. It influenced the German and Dutch Autonomen, the worldwide [|Social Centre movement], and today is influential in Italy, France, and to a lesser extent the English-speaking countries. Those who describe themselves as autonomists now vary from Marxists to [|post-structuralists] and anarchists. The Autonomist Marxist and //Autonomen// movements provided inspiration to some on the revolutionary left in English speaking countries, particularly among anarchists, many of whom have adopted autonomist tactics. Some English-speaking anarchists even describe themselves as //Autonomists//. The Italian //operaismo// movement also influenced Marxist academics such as [|Harry Cleaver], [|John Holloway] , Steve Wright, and [|Nick Dyer-Witheford].

Non-Marxist schools
The dominant forms of communism are based on Marxism, but non-Marxist versions of communism (such as [|Christian communism] and [|anarchist communism] ) also exist.

Anarcho-communism
Main article: [|Anarchist communism] [|Peter Kropotkin], main theorist of [|anarcho-communism] Anarchist communism (also known as libertarian communism) is a theory of [|anarchism] which advocates the abolition of the [|state], [|private property] , and [|capitalism] in favour of [|common ownership] of the [|means of production] , [|[58]] [|[59]] [|direct democracy] and a horizontal network of [|voluntary associations] and [|workers' councils] with production and consumption based on the guiding principle: " [|from each according to his ability, to each according to his need] ". [|[60]] [|[61]] Anarcho-communism differs from marxism rejecting its view about the need for a State Socialism phase before building communism. The main anarcho-communist theorist [|Peter Kropotkin] argued "that a revolutionary society should “transform itself immediately into a communist society,”, that is, should go immediately into what Marx had regarded as the “more advanced,” completed, phase of communism." [|[62]] In this way it tries to avoid the reappearence of "class divisions and the need for a state to oversee everything". [|[62]] Some forms of anarchist communism such as [|insurrectionary anarchism] are [|egoist] and strongly influenced by radical [|individualism], [|[63]] [|[64]] [|[65]] believing that anarchist communism does not require a communitarian nature at all. Most anarcho-communists view anarcho-communism as a way of reconciling the opposition between the individual and society [|[66]] [|[67]] [|[68]] To date in human history, the best known examples of an //anarchist communist// society, established around the ideas as they exist today, that received worldwide attention and knowledge in the historical canon, are the anarchist territories during the [|Spanish Revolution] and the [|Free Territory] during the [|Russian Revolution]. Through the efforts and influence of the [|Spanish Anarchists] during the [|Spanish Revolution] within the [|Spanish Civil War], starting in 1936 anarchist communism existed in most of Aragon, parts of the Levante and Andalusia, as well as in the stronghold of [|Anarchist Catalonia] before being brutally crushed by the combined forces of [|the authoritarian regime that won the war] , Hitler, Mussolini, Spanish Communist Party repression (backed by the USSR) as well as economic and armaments blockades from the capitalist countries and the Spanish Republic itself. During the Russian Revolution, anarchists such as [|Nestor Makhno] worked to create and defend—through the [|Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine] —anarchist communism in the [|Free Territory] of the Ukraine from 1919 before being conquered by the Bolsheviks in 1921.