This page is still heavily Under construction
What differentiates communism from other social structures?
Good question, actual communism can be distinguished from the various flavors of liberalism as follows.
Communism Versus Liberalism
| Features | Communism | Stalinism
Stalinism is usually advocated under the name Marxism-Leninism, a term popularized by Stalin and which has very little to do with the actual policies of Lenin
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Social Democracy | Fascism | Liberal Capitalism |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wage Labor |
Under communism, exchange value and therefore wages will be done away with
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Stalinism has historically preserved wage labor for the working class
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The Commodity Form
The fundamental unit of capitalist social relations, in which human labor and its products are alienated, objectified, and exchanged as values on the market.
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Getting rid of the commodity form is one of the fundamental traits of communism
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| Small Ruling Class |
Under communism, the proletariat (everyone) is the ruling class
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Under Stalinism, the old bourgeoisie was replaced by a new bourgeoisie in the form of the bureaucracy
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Social Democracy retains bourgeois ownership of the means of production and therefore their control of the system
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| False Worker Control |
Under communism, workers will have real direct control through councils
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Stalinism proclaims that the bureaucratic state capitalist works in their interests and thus that since their interests are prioritized, they effectively have control.
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Social Democracy claims worker control through bourgeoisie systems of controlled democracy similarly to liberal capitalism.
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Fascism claims the workers have control via the state which acts as the representation of the shared interests of the nation.
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| National Borders | |||||
| Imperialist Expansion |
Social Democracies rely on profits from imperialist expansion and exploitation to fund social programs for the national proletariat. Often, this expansion is done primarily through economic means rather than through expansion of national borders.
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| Minorities Used As Political Tools |
Social Democrats use minority rights as political tools, often throwing those same groups under the bus once elected. Examples include Palestine and LGBTQ+ rights.
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| Direct Worker Control Over Decisions | |||||
| Production and Exchange by Freely Associated Producers | |||||
| Socialist Aesthetics |
What is left communism?
Left communism is based
What is the commodity form?
The commodity form is cringe
Do you like the Soviet Union/China/Cuba/Etc
No
Should the government run the economy?
No
Should we vote for better candidates?
No