Communism

"The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property."

- Karl Marx

Communism refers to a theoretical stateless system of social organization and a political movement based on common ownership of the means of production. As a political movement, Communists have often sought to establish a global classless society by gaining control of the state and confiscating all productive private property.

The communist movement originated in the industrializing countries of Europe during the 19th century. The modern communism is generally associated with The Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which describes the communist ideal, and proposes strategies to advance this ideal. An early ideological split in the communist movement was between the statist communists such as Marx who considered the state to be a valid tool in advancing communism, and the anarcho-communists, such as Mikhal Bakunin, who considered the state to necessarily be an oppressive institution and demanded that the communist movement always act outside and in opposition to the state.

The dominance of the Marxist "statist" strategy was assured during the 20th century as Marx inspired revolutionaries gained control of the government in several countries, notably the former Russian empire, which became the USSR. During this period, Marxist theory developed into "Leninist" and "Maoist" theory while the actual system of government in these countries was often described as "Stalinist". Anarcho-communists persisted as a fringe movement, with brief success during the Russian and Spanish civil wars.

The process of establishing a communist society is often said to be initiated by the revolutionary overthrow of the wealthy, passes through a transitional period marked by the preparatory stage of socialism. Pure communism has never been implemented, it remains theoretical: communism is, in Marxist theory, the end-state, or the result of state-socialism. The word is now mainly understood to refer to the political, economic, and social theory of Marxist thinkers, or life under conditions of Communist party rule.

In the late 19th century, Marxist theories motivated socialist parties across Europe, although their policies later developed along the lines of "reforming" capitalism, rather than overthrowing it. The exception was the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party. One branch of this party, commonly known as the Bolsheviks and headed by Vladimir Lenin, succeeded in taking control of the country after the toppling of the Provisional Government in the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1918, this party changed its name to the Communist Party; thus establishing the contemporary distinction between communism and socialism.

After the success of the October Revolution in Russia, many socialist parties in other countries became communist parties, owing allegiance of varying degrees to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After World War II, Communist regimes took power in Eastern Europe. In 1949 the Communists in China, led by Mao Zedong, came to power and established the People's Republic of China. Among the other countries in the Third World that adopted a Communist form of government at some point were Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Angola, and Mozambique. By the early 1980s, almost one-third of the world's population lived under Communist states.

Due to the inherently oppressive nature and the fact that it is fundamentally against human nature, communism never became a popular ideology in the United States, either before or after the establishment of the Communist Party USA in 1919. Since the early 1970s, the term "Eurocommunism" was used to refer to the policies of Communist Parties in Western Europe, which sought to break with the tradition of uncritical and unconditional support of the Soviet Union. Such parties were politically active and electorally significant in France and Italy. With the collapse of the Communist governments in Eastern Europe from the late 1980s as the result of the policies of U.S. president Ronald Reagan and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Communism's influence has decreased dramatically in Europe, but around a quarter of the world's population still lives under Communist Party rule.