 Communism and Marxism
Communism is a political ideology that seeks to establish a future without social class or formalized state structure, and with social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production. It can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. Communism also refers to a variety of political movements which claim the establishment of such a social organization as their ultimate goal.
Early forms of human social organization have been described as "primitive communism". However, communism as a political goal generally is a conjectured form of future social organization which has never been implemented. There is a considerable variety of views among self-identified communists, including Maoism, Trotskyism, council communism, Luxemburgism, and various currents of left communism, which are in addition to more widespread varieties. However, various offshoots of the Soviet and Maoist forms of Marxism–Leninism comprise a particular branch of communism that had been the primary driving force for communism in world politics during most of the 20th century.
The Fourth International (FI) (founded in 1938) is the communist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky ( Trotskyists), with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism. Historically, the Fourth International was established in France in 1938: Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union, considered the Comintern or Third International to have become "lost to" Stalinism and incapable of leading the international working class to political power.
Trotsky's followers had been organised since 1930 as the International Left Opposition, which later became the International Communist League. By declaring themselves the Fourth International, World Party of Socialist Revolution, the Trotskyists, were publically asserting their continuity not only with the Comintern but also with the earlier Socialist International and the International Workingmens Association, the first international, which had been led by Karl Marx.
The International's rationale was to construct new mass revolutionary parties able to lead successful workers' revolutions. It saw these arising from a revolutionary wave which would develop alongside and as a result of the coming world war. The founding conference adopted the Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution as the International's political platform.
Zhu De ( Wade-Giles: Chu Teh; pronounced [ʈʂú tɤ̌]; 1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, politician, revolutionary, and one of the pioneers of the Chinese Communist Party. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in 1955 Zhu became one of the Ten Marshals of the People's Liberation Army, of which he is regarded as a principal founder.
Zhu was born on December 18, 1886 to a poor tenant farmer's family in Hung, a town in Yilong County, a hilly and isolated part of northern Sichuan province. His family relocated to Sichuan during the migration from Hunan province and Guangdong province. Despite their poverty, Zhu was sent to a classic private school in 1892. At age nine, Zhu was adopted by his prosperous uncle, whose political influence allowed him to gain access to Yunnan Military Academy later on. Before the repeal of imperial examinations in 1906, he attained the rank of Xiucai, which allowed him to qualify as a civil servant. Enrolling in Sichuan high school around 1907, upon graduating in 1908 he returned to Yilong high primary school as a gym instructor. An advocate of modern science and political teaching, rather than the strict classical education afforded by schools, he was dismissed from his post and entered the Yunnan Military Academy in Kunming. There, he joined the Beiyang Army and the Tongmenghui secret political society (the forerunner of Guomindang).
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Here in Russia, women of the middle bourgeoisie – that army of independent wage-earners thrown on to the labour market during the 1860s – have long since settled in practice many of the confused aspects of the marriage question. They have courageously replaced the “consolidated” family of the traditional church marriage with more elastic types of relationship that meet the needs of that social layer. But the subjective solution of this question by individual women does not change the situation and does not relieve the overall gloomy picture of family life. If any force is destroying the modern form of the family, it is not the titanic efforts of separate and stronger individuals but the inanimate and mighty forces of production, which are uncompromisingly budding life, on new foundation’s. ...
The heroic struggle of individual young women of the bourgeois world, who fling down the gauntlet and demand of society the right to “dare to love” without orders and without chains, ought to serve as an example for all women languishing in family chains – this is what is preached by the more emancipated feminists abroad and our progressive equal righters at home. The marriage question, in other words, is solved in their view without reference to the external situation; it is solved independently of changes in the economic structure of society. The isolated, heroic efforts of individuals is enough. Let a woman simply “dare”, and the problem of marriage is solved.
But less heroic women shake their heads in distrust. “It is all very well for the heroines of novels blessed by the prudent author with great independence, unselfish friends and extraordinary qualities of charm, to throw down the gauntlet. But what about those who have no capital, insufficient wages, no friends and little charm?” And the question of maternity preys on the mind of the woman who strives for freedom. Is “free love” possible? Can it be realised as a common phenomenon, as the generally accepted norm rather than the individual exception, given the economic structure of our society? Is it possible to ignore the element of private property in contemporary marriage? Is it possible, in an individualistic world, to ignore the formal marriage contract without damaging the interests of women? For the marital contract is the only guarantee that all the difficulties of maternity will not fall on the woman alone. Will not that which once happened to the male worker now happen to the woman? The removal of guild regulations, without the establishment of new rules governing the conduct of the masters, gave capital absolute power over the workers. The tempting slogan “freedom of contract for labour and capital” became a means for the naked exploitation of labour by capital. “Free love”, introduced consistently into contemporary class society, instead of freeing woman from the hardships of family life, would surely shoulder her with a new burden – the task of caring, alone and unaided, for her children.
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— Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952)
The Social Basis of the Woman Question (1909)
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Articles:
- Dutch:
- Communistenbond van Bosnië-Herzegovina, De Tribune, De Vonk, Democratische Federatie van Hongaarse Vrouwen, Dimitrov Communistische Jeugdunie, Gerardus Johannes Marinus van het Reve, Hongaars Onafhankelijkheidsfront, Lijst van CPN-fractievoorzitters Tweede Kamer, Marxistischer Studentenbund Spartakus, Montenegrijnse Communistenbond, Nationale Raad van Hongaarse Vrouwen, De Waarheid, Elli Schmidt, Miljan Radović, Patriottisch Volksfront, PRON, Marko Orlandić, Ina Brouwer, Leendert van den Muijzenberg, Daan Monjé
- German:
- Arbeiterbund für den Wiederaufbau der KPD, Allgemeine Arbeiter-Union – Einheitsorganisation, GegenStandpunkt, Kommunistische Jugend Österreichs - Junge Linke, Kommunistischer StudentInnenverband, Kommunistische Partei der Türkei/Marxisten Leninisten, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, Kommunistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands (1970er), Kommunistischer Oberschülerverband, Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands, Marxistische Gruppe, Münchner Räterepublik, Rote Gruppe, Rote Marine, Roter Frontkämpferbund, Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterjugend, Spartakusbund, Vereinigte Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
- Spanish:
- Joventut Comunista del País Valencià, Colectivos de Jóvenes Comunistas, Frente Revolucionario Antifascista y Patriota, Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España, Las Trece Rosas, Julián Grimau, Gladys Marín, Luis Emilio Recabarren, Partido Comunista de España Unificado, Partido Socialista Popular (Cuba), Unión Navarra de Izquierdas, Organización Revolucionaria de Trabajadores
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