Communism

1. THE THEORY OF THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION

Marxism is the fundamental theoretical acquisition of the proletarian struggle. It is on the basis of marxism that all the lessons of the proletarian struggle can be integrated into a coherent whole.

Socialism Lost: The hopes of the Marxist movement of the past

 Extracts from a text by H. Canne-Mejer

 

Communism is on the agenda, Part VIII

Understanding the defeat of the Russian revolution, part 1

1918: the revolution criticises its errors

Communism is not a nice ideal; it is on the agenda of history, vi

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Communism is not a nice idea, it is on the historical agenda, V: 1919: the programme of the dictatorship of the proletariat

The period 1918-20, the "heroic" phase of the international revolutionary wave inaugurated by the October insurrection in Russia, was also the period in which

Communism is not a "nice idea", it is on the historical agenda, part iv

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Communism is not just a 'nice idea', part 14: The transformation of work according to revolutionaries of the late 19th Century

In the previous article in this series, we showed how the authentic socialists of the end of the 19th century had envisaged the way that a future communist soci

Communism is a material necessity, Part 13

The Transformation of Social Relations

Communism is not just a nice idea, but a material necessity, part 8

1871: The first proletarian dictatorship

Communism: a society without a state

Communism – a material necessity: The study of capital and the foundations of communism

 

Part Two: Overthrowing the Fetishism of Commodities

Communism is a material necessity (Part 6)

The Revolutions of 1848:

The Communist Perspective Becomes Clearer

Commuinism is not a nice idea, but a material necessity (part 5)

1848: Communism as a political program

Communism is not a nice idea, but a material necessity (Part 4)

Communism: the real beginning of human society

Communism is not a nice idea, but a material necessity

Communism is not a nice idea, But a material necessity (Part Two)

How the proletariat won Marx to communism

What is Marxism?

After being discarded as a a supposedly ‘outmoded ideology', marxism is making a comeback.

International situation: The necessity and possibility of the revolution

Socialism or barbarism: War under capitalism

A Hundred Years After The Death Of Marx, The future belongs to Marxism

Morning session: Discussion of 'Communism is not a utopia'

The presentation, delivered by a sympathiser of the ICC, laid out three basic premises for the discussion of this question...

Presentation to the morning session: Communism is not a utopia

Convincing workers that capitalism is in their best interest is not the central purpose of most ruling class ideology. With rare historical exceptions, workers find the prosaic reality of capitalism with its exploitation and dehumanisation too obvious in their daily lives to ever be truly convinced of this...

What is communism and how do we get there?

Communism is not a ‘nice idea’; it’s a material necessity. Not a nice idea? Actually, for most of the past century we have been told that it’s a very bad idea, because it means a totalitarian state, poverty wages, superpower politics, labour camps, etc.

Communism Vol. 3, Part 4 - The 1930s: debate on the period of transition

An in-depth article dealing with the question of the Period of Transition from capitalism to communism, as it was posed by the Italian Left in the aftermath of the defeat of the Russian revolution of 1917.

History of communism: Understanding the defeat, and preserving the vision of the future

In the first part of this summary of the second volume (International Review 125) we looked at how the communist programme was enriched by the huge advances made by the working class movement during the world-wide revolutionary upsurge provoked by the First World War. In this second part, we consider how revolutionaries struggled to understand the retreat and defeat of the revolutionary wave, while showing that this too was a source of invaluable lessons for the revolutions of the future. 

Communism Vol. 3, Part 3 - Communism is not a 'nice idea', it is on the agenda of history (summary of Vol. 2)

This article continues the series on the history of the theory of communism with a summary of the second volume in the series. We examine the lessons drawn from the practical experience of proletarian revolution and power in Russia and Germany at the beginning of the 20th century.

1. What is Communism?

It is impossible to answer this question in a precise way. Firstly, the ever-present pressure of bourgeois ideology makes it very difficult to describe society in the future objectively. The aim of bourgeois ideology is to make it appear that capitalism is eternal. The pressure of bourgeois ideology thus mutilates and deforms all attempts to define communism and the proletarian revolution.

Communism Vol. 3, Part 2 - Communism is not just a nice idea, but a material necessity (Summary of Vol. 1)

On the eve of the publication in book format of the first volume of our series "Communism is not just a nice idea", we summarise here the principle themes and ideas put forward in these articles.

Perspective of Communism, part 3: Why the proletariat is a communist class

...We still have to deal with another question against the possibility of communism: ‘OK, communism is necessary and materially possible. Yes, men and women could live in such a society. But today humanity is so alienated under capitalist society that it will never have the strength to undertake a transformation as gigantic as the communist revolution.’ We’ll try to answer this now.

Perspective of Communism, part 2: Is communism against human nature?

In this second part, we are going to look at those who tell us that a communist society as envisaged by Marx and others is in any case impossible to realise because the characteristic features of capitalism, such as egoism, lust for wealth and power, the war of each against all, are actually unchangeable expressions of ‘human nature’. 

Perspective of Communism, part 1: Why communism is necessary and possible

In the movement of the working class against the attacks of capitalism, the specific role of revolutionaries is not just to insist on the need for workers to take control of their struggles and spread them as widely as possible; it is also to show that the day-to-day struggles of our class are the preparation for an ultimate confrontation with this system, aimed at dismantling it and replacing it with a radically new society...

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