Debunking myths about communism

22 May

We set out to understand what communism is, correct misinformation and common myths surrounding it in a simple way. If you still seek to challenge communism you can challenge it for what it really is, not through preconceived notions that have been shaped by capitalism and red scare propaganda.

Definitions

Let’s begin with the definitions. Too often when I ask someone to define communism I am faced with this response: “Communism is when the government controls everything”.

Interestingly, the definition is the complete opposite. Communism at its core, developed by the German political thinker Karl Marx in the 19th Century, is a stateless, classless, moneyless society. Stateless in simple terms refers to having no government. Another point of confusion is that in a communist society, you cannot own anything.

In a communist society, private property would be abolished- such as buildings used to extract rent from tenants or factories, anything generating a surplus. This is not to be confused with personal property like your phone, house and the fruits of your labour. The means of production would be owned by the community and used for their benefit.

Whereas in capitalism, capitalists are able to exploit the working class by owning the means of production. One person could own a whole company and everyone in that company would work for them. The working class, aka the “proletariat” generate more wealth than they were paid thus capitalists can profit off of the surplus.

Socialism is considered the transition state between the two, progressing towards communism where workers own the company they work for.

Communist countries are all bad

There has never been a communist country.

However, many countries have claimed they are communist. In the same way, even North Korea claims they are a democracy, claiming you are communist does not prove anything. An example of this sort of political mislabelling is that Hitler’s national socialist party, was socialist. This myth was propagated as a propaganda technique. Socialism was a popular idea in Germany at the time, so they capitalised on the moment and called themselves socialists.

Hitler himself was no stranger to propaganda and lip service to propel his anti-semetic plan. Socialist thought is based upon Marxism. Hitler himself said “our adopted term ‘socialist’ has nothing to do with Marxian socialism“. After the Nazi party assumed power, socialists and communist were among the first to be purged with many killings involving them chanting ” death to Marxism”. The Nazi party was subsidised by the bourgeoisie, the ruling class. Privatisation occurred, the selling of public firms to the private sector.

Hitler himself absolutely insisted on protecting private property. Remember how I said in a communist society, private property would be abolished.

This leads me to maybe the greatest myth; that the Soviet Union was communist.

The Soviet Union never got rid of private property, in fact they expanded it. More information on this can be learnt by watching the video China: Capitalist, Socialist or What? by Prof. Wolff.

One of the very first acts, during 1917, in the aftermath of the revolution, was to divide land, giving the agricultural land to the vast majority of rural people, collectivising grain production. The Soviet Union initially had the intention of achieving a communist society. But they never fulfilled the basic principles to be considered communist and created policies that drove them further and further from it.

Communism never works

Venezuela is the typical story people use when showing why communism never works. Again, it was never a communist country- as a matter of fact most of the economy was privatised. It relied so heavily on oil that when oil prices plummeted, the economy failed. The lack of diversity in its economy was a significant cause of the economy’s failure. Nothing to do with communism at all.

Another reason for why people do not believe communism works is because they see it as the reason for the current impoverished state of some Latin American countries. Using those countries as an example is also not an accurate depiction of why communism does not work. Communism itself is not the problem, countries like America are the problem.

Let me expand.

The trend in history shows that when a Latin America country tries to implement socialism and, as it is beginning to work, America hears of this and organises a coup. They proceed to kill the leftist leader and instate a far-right dictator that, in most case, hates the minority population. The leader then causes widespread famine and bloodshed. If people were to realise that socialism works better than capitalism, capitalist countries would lose power. Hence why America almost always does this.

Crowds of people welcoming Chilean president, Salvador Allende on his visit to Ecuador, 1971

An example of this is what happened in 1970, when Chile elected Socialist president Salvador Allende. He was democratically elected by the Chilean people. Allende introduced price controls on foods so that they were affordable to buy. He strengthened workers unions and introduced land reforms. Allende even planned to nationalise the copper industry. This was terrible news for the West especially the USA who saw Chile as no more than land to extract resources from. In 1973 the USA organised a coup lead by the CIA, this resulted in many lives being lost including Allende’s. The USA backed military dictator, Augusto Pinochet seized power. This is almost the exact pattern I referred to earlier. Pinochet rounded up tens of thousands of socialists and communism in stadiums, torturing and murdering them. He even left their dead bodies in the street as a warning. Furthermore, Pinochet got rid of many Marxist policies and prescribed the country to Friedmantine economic policies. These policies created a large increase in unemployment as well as a malnutrition crisis within Chile.

The nature of man

As @thecommunard explains in his videos, human nature is not static.

Currently, we live under an economic system that profits off of greed. We are forced into a competition within a free market system. If one does not adapt to these economic conditions, one will eventually be knocked out of the competition. People forget that we have not always operated under a capitalist system and that human nature and behaviour has not always been what it is today.

Many believe that in a communist society there are bound to be “wrong-doers”, people who are greedy and seek to overtake the whole system. By definition it is impossible for a minority to overtake in communism. Regardless, multiple studies have shown that humans are naturally cooperative.

The future

Automation is replacing jobs faster than it can create new ones. Wealth is becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. British economist, John Maynard Keynes in the 1930’s predicted that, within 100 years, we would have a 15 hour work week in his essay “Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren”. And yet this could not be further from the reality of today. There have been vast increases in worker productivity and yet the retirement age seems to increase with little change in average working hours. This inevitable contradiction emphasises the need for more labour movements and left leaning policies.

Reading this may have not turned you into a socialist or Marxist. However, through understanding the misinformation about other political ideologies, we can form our own political foundations; we can engage in unbiased research to create the better future that we all want.

Stephenie, Sub-Editor