View Full Version : Eric Cantor loses GOP primary in stunning upset


redbreegull
06-10-2014, 08:27 PM
NY Times – Cantor Defeated (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/eric-cantor-loses-gop-primary.html?_r=0)

margin

redbreegull
06-10-2014, 08:28 PM
NY Times – Cantor Defeated (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/eric-cantor-loses-gop-primary.html?_r=0)

In a stunning upset, Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, has lost the Republican primary to Dave Brat, a Richmond-area college professor who ran to Mr. Cantor’s right.

Mr. Cantor was expected to cruise to victory, although he had been pushed to portray himself as a hard-liner, especially on immigration.

baaaaaaaaaahahahahaha

Order 66
06-10-2014, 08:45 PM
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i198/Randall_Sandell/PrhvOc7_zps5e877012.gif

sppunk
06-10-2014, 08:57 PM
First time a House Majority Leader has lost since 1899.

And say goodbye to immigration reform.

Order 66
06-10-2014, 09:06 PM
yeah he was the House's last hope for "immigration" "reform"

duovamp
06-10-2014, 09:13 PM
Barack Obama broke the Republican Party.

The Omega Concern
06-10-2014, 10:51 PM
Tea Party not dead.


Fed's not enforcing immigration law might be a reason. "Immigration" reform to the Democrat and Rino commies means what's going on at the southern border right now, only more fucked up.

redbreegull
06-10-2014, 11:03 PM
Tea Party not dead.


Fed's not enforcing immigration law might be a reason. "Immigration" reform to the Democrat and Rino commies means what's going on at the southern border right now, only more fucked up.

that must be why deportations are higher under this president than ever before and also why fewer people than ever want to come here from latin america.


and for the 1000th time if you can't correctly use "communist" in a sentence SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STOP SAYING IT YOU IGNORANT FOOL

Future Boy
06-11-2014, 12:31 AM
can we get him to just stop showing up now

MyOneAndOnly
06-11-2014, 05:07 PM
I for one welcome the uprising because I know that teabaggers will be wiped out by the UN and the Democrat party, and we'll finally be able to outlaw guns, legalize gays and get free healthcare and not have to work.

redbreegull
06-11-2014, 05:10 PM
Politifact – Cantor spent more at steakhouses than his opponent spent on his entire campaign (http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/jun/11/chuck-todd/rare-feat-cantor-spent-more-steakhouses-opponent-d/)

Trotskilicious
06-11-2014, 11:31 PM
how come leftists can't do this shit to democraps like harry ried

redbreegull
06-12-2014, 12:55 AM
too many complacent moderates. it's easy to look at the tea party and be like why can't the libs achieve the same sort of successes in the other direction, but truly the tea party is the result of the kind of insane zealotry that is almost impossible to reproduce without the impetus of animal-like desperation and fear.

Future Boy
06-12-2014, 01:57 AM
wouldnt be practical

MyOneAndOnly
06-12-2014, 08:34 AM
the GOP is slowly destroying itself. They're alienating all the demographic groups in the country that are growing. Why would you want the Dems to do that? If it weren't for Gerrymandering they'd be a minority in the House and they wouldn't have control of state legislatures like Michigan

Trotskilicious
06-13-2014, 02:46 PM
wouldnt be practical

<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_--YjWiyF8eE/TDJpE_0qL0I/AAAAAAAAG4k/hmMIz6TnJn8/s1600/story.jpg">

Trotskilicious
06-13-2014, 02:48 PM
the GOP is slowly destroying itself. They're alienating all the demographic groups in the country that are growing. Why would you want the Dems to do that?

because a lot of democrats really fucking suck and have no backbone or interest in making any change or even making waves. we need MANY more a la Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren co-chairpersons of the Moonbat party. ESPECIALLY because the GOP is reeling and their demographic base is shrinking

Eulogy
06-13-2014, 05:22 PM
honest question: in how many states could Sanders or Warren win a state-wide election?

Eulogy
06-13-2014, 05:22 PM
First time a House Majority Leader has lost since 1899.

And say goodbye to immigration reform.

Cantor was never going to do anything about it anyway. This wasn't about immigration reform, which people in his district largely support. It was about him being Eric Cantor. and probably a little bit about him being Jewish.

Trotskilicious
06-13-2014, 06:21 PM
honest question: in how many states could Sanders or Warren win a state-wide election?

honestly, someone with a few great points and viral marketing can do it in a whole lot of blue states...just look at brat

Trotskilicious
06-13-2014, 06:22 PM
i mean the tea party shows it IS possible. so many of the voter base for democrats ******* cynical leftists that just want to watch the world burn for lack of any reason to believe otherwise

Trotskilicious
06-13-2014, 06:23 PM
well until obama steamrolls net nutrality through our collective assholes

Eulogy
06-13-2014, 11:50 PM
honestly, someone with a few great points and viral marketing can do it in a whole lot of blue states...just look at brat

not a valid analogy. he's a far right guy from fucking republican virginia. who ran in a heavily republican district and did not run statewide or nationwide. please answer my question.

Eulogy
06-13-2014, 11:52 PM
i mean the tea party shows it IS possible. so many of the voter base for democrats ******* cynical leftists that just want to watch the world burn for lack of any reason to believe otherwise

yes senators todd akin and richard murdok and christine odonnell and whatever the fuck that guy from alaska's name was

not even sure you read my question.

Trotskilicious
06-14-2014, 01:40 AM
TED CRUZ AND RAND PAUL

Trotskilicious
06-14-2014, 01:41 AM
also i'd like to point out that bernie sanders and warren both won state wide races and are senators

to be honest you seem to be cynical just because

i didn't say anything about Moonbats running in a republican district, i thought the implication was clear

MyOneAndOnly
06-14-2014, 09:10 AM
Warren wouldn't get out of a primary in most Den leaning states.

IMO you don't need a democratic legislature filled with Warrens. You need a interest groups that put adequate pressure on the pols.

Trotskilicious
06-14-2014, 08:14 PM
glad to see you supporting the super pacs

Trotskilicious
06-14-2014, 08:14 PM
what a great idea, says scotty

Future Boy
06-14-2014, 09:24 PM
.


either you or i posted that before

Eulogy
06-16-2014, 08:06 AM
also i'd like to point out that bernie sanders and warren both won state wide races and are senators

to be honest you seem to be cynical just because

i didn't say anything about Moonbats running in a republican district, i thought the implication was clear

From fucking Massachusetts and Vermont. Holy shit you are being willfully obtuse about this. I'd love people like them to be elected everywhere but that's just fucking not how it works good god.

Eulogy
06-16-2014, 08:08 AM
I will repeat: in what other states could sanders or warren win a statewide race?

Either answer the question or shut the fuck up.

Eulogy
06-16-2014, 08:10 AM
TED CRUZ AND RAND PAUL

From Texas and Kentucky

Either you don't have a point here or you lack a basic understanding of politics.

MyOneAndOnly
06-16-2014, 08:26 AM
what a great idea, says scotty

I didn't write the constitution. It is what it is. This is a Republic with division of powers such that most politicing is done via interest groups. Bitch all you want about it but that's the game. Even if we enacted strict campaign reforms, like 100% public financing and banning corporate money from politics, you'd still have an environment ruled by interest groups.

Trotskilicious
06-16-2014, 09:21 AM
From Texas and Kentucky

Either you don't have a point here or you lack a basic understanding of politics.

what about democrat states?

i don't get it, you're right. sounds mostly like middle of the road unity pony shit that holds the party back

Eulogy
06-16-2014, 12:20 PM
What about democratic states? Vermont and Massachusetts are the states farthest to the left in the country and so they elected the two best senators in the country. Bernie Sanders could not win a statewide election in California or Illinois or Michigan. Maybe Oregon or Washington, but that's doubtful too.

Eulogy
06-16-2014, 12:20 PM
This is something I would love to be wrong about by the way.

Trotskilicious
06-16-2014, 01:17 PM
how are you so very certain before even trying????????????

Trotskilicious
06-16-2014, 01:17 PM
I didn't write the constitution. It is what it is. This is a Republic with division of powers such that most politicing is done via interest groups. Bitch all you want about it but that's the game. Even if we enacted strict campaign reforms, like 100% public financing and banning corporate money from politics, you'd still have an environment ruled by interest groups.

what the fuck does this have to do with the constitution

Eulogy
06-16-2014, 01:33 PM
Demographics and prior outcomes? A senate majority is important. Especially if Hillary manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2016.

You know most people are dumb, right? And young people don't vote. Etc.

Eulogy
06-16-2014, 01:34 PM
I would support someone like jan Schakowsky going for Kirk's seat when it's up though, sure.

Trotskilicious
06-16-2014, 01:36 PM
i'd vote for manu ginobili

Trotskilicious
06-16-2014, 01:43 PM
he's gonna go for threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Future Boy
06-16-2014, 02:19 PM
how are you so very certain before even trying????????????

wouldn't be practical

Trotskilicious
06-16-2014, 02:34 PM
you might get a republican win a senate seat in minnesota or illinois? really? serious? you for real? FOR REAL FOR REAL?

redbreegull
06-16-2014, 04:00 PM
Maryland is pretty liberal on the US political spectrum. We have a real progressive running in the Dem. primary for governor right now, Heather Mizeur, and she is probably going to get buried by the establishment center status-quo candidate. Not exactly the same thing as electing people to Congress, but I don't think that the Tea Party's success is indicative that the same thing could happen on the left. There are a LOT more crazies on the right. Since the far-right basically runs on a platform of ignorance being just as good as knowing shit, all they have to do is appeal emotionally to the lowest common denominator. Like I said earlier, a lot of it has to do with stirring up visceral fears and prejudices in crazy people.

Order 66
06-16-2014, 04:11 PM
teabaggers are reactionaries. for something similar to happen on the far left would mean they would be the dying demographic

Trotskilicious
06-16-2014, 04:41 PM
i guess, i also think there's too many progressives out there that settle for these people out of fear of the alternative and willingness to sacrifice ideals for practicality

meanwhile out in Wingnutistan, there is no goddamn compromise and not a single second will anyone sacrifice the ideal for practicality because goddamn it get your gubmint hands off my gubmint land/medicare/medicaid/etc

Order 66
06-16-2014, 05:39 PM
i don't think anybody's "settling" for anything per se, there's just far fewer progressive enclaves in the country than duck dynasty watching, sheep fucking enclaves (and this includes some democrat districts). silver lining though is the population in general is going left pretty quick (or at least "quick" in relation to how fast it took 15-30 years ago toward gay marriage, pot, ect)

redbreegull
06-16-2014, 07:17 PM
i don't think anybody's "settling" for anything per se, there's just far fewer progressive enclaves in the country than duck dynasty watching, sheep fucking enlaves. silver lining though is the population in general is going left pretty quick (or at least "quick" in relation to how fast it took 15-30 years ago toward gay marriage, pot, ect)

socially, yes, I would say the age of Obama has actually seen a lot of social progress as generation Y become adults and start voting and shit. By the numbers, people in their 20s are still a fairly insignificant voting demographic, but I think culturally people of this age have really had a big impact on yanking the country to the left.


economically though I see very little progress. In fact I think it's probably more true that we have gone the other way when you look at campaign finance law, the bailout, failure to go after people who did very illegal things leading up to the 2008 crash, etc.

Order 66
06-16-2014, 07:28 PM
true. though i think that a lot of stuff has more to do with systemic failure rather than any right/left paradigm.

the right did definitely win the messaging battle on "fiscal conservatism" but its a very easy sell during a recession.

Order 66
06-16-2014, 07:31 PM
and while generation Y and more minorities has a lot to do with the cultural shift i think a lot of baby boomers are sort of not giving a shit anymore about that stuff. but that opinion is totally baseless speculation i know

redbreegull
06-16-2014, 07:39 PM
and while generation Y and more minorities has a lot to do with the cultural shift i think a lot of baby boomers are sort of not giving a shit anymore about that stuff. but that opinion is totally baseless speculation i know

I was talking to some friends recently about how we have seen our own parents and the parents of people we know become more permissive to ideas like homosexuality and weed and stuff, but the question is where does that change in attitude come from? I don't think it can really be chalked up to not giving a shit anymore, I think the perception is just that the tide has turned and you either get on the train or you become perceived as backwards and on the wrong side of the issue morally. Social pressure is a very, very powerful motivator.

but again, total speculation

Mayfuck
06-16-2014, 11:56 PM
i dont get what point eulogy is trying to make about sanders or warren

Mayfuck
06-16-2014, 11:58 PM
provincially small, localized and homogeneously white affluent states vote for white liberals?

well sorry california isn't like that because we have rural mexicans and asian immigrants and farmers and blacks and other things getting in the way of eulogy's hillarytopia.

Eulogy
06-17-2014, 06:43 AM
Uhhh what

My only point is that they can't win in most states. Which you just said is true. So. What's your beef, Julio?

Trotskilicious
06-17-2014, 09:13 AM
i dunno what's YOUR beef, U-LO-G

MyOneAndOnly
06-17-2014, 09:23 AM
provincially small, localized and homogeneously white affluent states vote for white liberals?

well sorry california isn't like that because we have rural mexicans and asian immigrants and farmers and blacks and other things getting in the way of eulogy's hillarytopia.

:think:

actually, the opposite.

If you look at voting trends by congressional district for the entire US.. in all states not just California... the predominently white districts are overwhelmingly conservative and republican. While the areas that are more racially diverse are overwhelmingly more liberal and vote democratic. That's the case in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, etc. etc. etc.

Trotskilicious
06-17-2014, 09:24 AM
BLOW IT OUT YER ASS

The Omega Concern
06-17-2014, 07:09 PM
can we get him to just stop showing up now

you are a fucking pussy.

The Omega Concern
06-17-2014, 07:30 PM
:censored:

The Omega Concern
06-17-2014, 07:31 PM
that must be why deportations are higher under this president than ever before and also why fewer people than ever want to come here from latin america.


and for the 1000th time if you can't correctly use "communist" in a sentence SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STOP SAYING IT YOU IGNORANT FOOL




Hey, commie douchebag who does nothing but regurgitate DNC propaganda, even the LA Times gets it:


High deportation figures are misleading


But the portrait of a steadily increasing number of deportations rests on statistics that conceal almost as much as they disclose. A closer examination shows that immigrants living illegally in most of the continental U.S. are less likely to be deported today than before Obama came to office, according to immigration data.


http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obama-deportations-20140402-story.html#page=1




The Obozo Administration merely changed the method of how deportations were counted.




"If you are a run-of-the-mill immigrant here illegally, your odds of getting deported are close to zero — it's just highly unlikely to happen," John Sandweg, until recently the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in an interview.


After that quote i'm not surprised he's the former director of ICE...whoops, not on the same page as OHolder here.


So RBG, your claim about Obama being tough on immigration is just another liberal platitude. You've exposed yourself as an ideologue time and again, so exposing that is really quite easy.

What's sad is you represent the liberal mindset Mexico is taking advantage of by claiming racist high ground on anybody who wants to enforce immigration laws. They've unleashed their undesirables into the liberal do-gooders arms who hate this country. brilliant plan by them, most Mexicans in Mexico understand it's mainly the lazy and criminal coming over the border. Nice work there by the Liberals and Neo-Cons afraid of their own shadow on this issue.

The Omega Concern
06-17-2014, 07:43 PM
There are a LOT more crazies on the right. Since the far-right basically runs on a platform of ignorance being just as good as knowing shit, all they have to do is appeal emotionally to the lowest common denominator.



Pot...kettle...


this is good stuff here. You claiming intellectual higher ground on "crazy" tea party folks after citing out skewed immigration numbers without understand the disinfo campaign those numbers represent. lol.

You show yourself to be ignorant to political gamesmanship. An observant watcher of US politics would understand from the get-go many statistics used as talking points is suspect and worthy of investigation.

But not to ideologues such as yourself indoctrinated to hate opposing views at any cost. weak ass shit really. grow the fuck up and wake up to the false left/right paradigm already.

The Omega Concern
06-17-2014, 08:05 PM
i mean the tea party shows it IS possible. so many of the voter base for democrats ******* cynical leftists that just want to watch the world burn for lack of any reason to believe otherwise



Well said...


with approximately 35,000 Illegal Immigrants coming in each month now, most from Central America making their way to Texas, do you have a number of people your state can handle on average per month?


Remember, any number you give represents a ceiling and as such makes you a racist to the dithering Obamatards still left.

Order 66
06-17-2014, 08:31 PM
well said

Trotskilicious
06-17-2014, 09:01 PM
i think illegal mexicans can run this state better than the people that are ostensibly running it now

Trotskilicious
06-17-2014, 09:02 PM
for one thing our public works projects would be incredible

Future Boy
06-17-2014, 09:20 PM
you are a fucking pussy.

i was talking about cantor

redbreegull
06-17-2014, 09:57 PM
mindless drivel and cherry picked information

I think you should be banned unless you can correctly define communism. you're literally the lowest type of shithead political mouthoff in that you use words without knowing what they mean, or just to use them as epithets in order to rile up emotions. You're a disingenuous pile of crap double speaker. And me an ideologue? No. The bulk of the Democratic Party is to the right of me, but most of Obama's liberal critics seem to be to the left of me. So I'm not sure what ideology you think I'm a part of. I guess it's communism, but your idea of communism is about as far off as me saying the Republicans are a fascist party. So either you're an ignorant fuckstick who can't figure out what constitutes communism, or you're an evil fuckstick who knowingly spreads misinformation and doesn't care.

Trotskilicious
06-17-2014, 09:59 PM
don't worry omega concern, i'll let your truth sing from sea to shining sea

redbreegull
06-18-2014, 05:41 PM
TOC don't run away, get your ass back here and explain to us what communism is

Order 66
06-18-2014, 06:28 PM
reminds me of when i was a teen and called my dad a communist whenever he was beig a dick and had no idea what it meant

redbreegull
06-18-2014, 08:45 PM
the challenge is before you TOC, correctly define communism. come on, how badly can it possibly go? you already embarrass yourself daily here

Trotskilicious
06-19-2014, 01:47 AM
<img src="http://media.salon.com/2014/02/ku-xlarge.gif">

The exploding boy
06-19-2014, 12:30 PM
the challenge is before you TOC, correctly define communism. come on, how badly can it possibly go? you already embarrass yourself daily here

please allow me....

Communism (from Latin communis – common, universal) is a socioeconomic system structured upon common ownership of the means of production and characterized by the absence of classes, money, and the state; as well as a social, political and economic ideology and movement that aims to establish this social order. The movement to develop communism, in its Marxist–Leninist interpretations, significantly influenced the history of the 20th century, which saw intense rivalry between the communist states in the Eastern bloc and the most developed capitalist states of the Western world.

Communism was first developed into a scientific theory by German philosopher and social scientist Karl Marx, and the collective understanding of this scientific approach is today commonly referred to as Marxism. In the Marxist understanding, communism is the endpoint of human social evolution which will inevitably come into fruition through economic and social advances in socialism. Socialism, being the new order established after the demise of capitalism, is herein characterized by the working class having state power and undertaking the process of abolishing capitalist property and economic relations and establishing social (i.e. public, collective) ownership and management of society's political, economic, and cultural institutions. In accordance with the socialized processes of production, appropriation also becomes socialized as goods and services become consumed on a social basis with free access for the individual. Communism becomes fully realized when the distinction between classes is no longer possible and therefore the state, which has been used as an instrument of class dictatorship, no longer exists. In the communist economy, production and consumption are fully socialized, and the processes for which are advanced into maximized automation, efficiency, and recycling. This results in the end of individual money calculation, hence relationships between individuals being based on free association and free access to all goods and services according to need.

Leninism refers to the organizational principle of the vanguard party as a revolutionary strategy both to achieve revolution and to secure political power after the revolution in the interests of the working class. Marxism-Leninism is a combination of Marx's theory of socialism with Lenin's theoretical contributions, namely the understanding of imperialism and the development of monopoly capitalism as predicted by Marx, as well as organizational principles applied within the context of the 20th century communist movement. This body of thought formed the basis for all existing communist movements in the 20th century and, as such, in the Western world, the term "communism" came to refer to social movements and political regimes associated with the Marxist-Leninist Communist International (or "Comintern"). However, the distinction should be made that the systems that these movements presided over were in fact not fully developed into communism, and the degree to which they had achieved socialism in itself is debated.

Council communists, Orthodox Marxists and non-Marxist libertarian communists and anarcho-communists oppose the ideas of a vanguard party. Anarcho-communists advocate for the establishment of full communism immediately following the abolition of capitalism. There is a very wide range of theories amongst those particular communists in regards to how to build the types of institutions that would replace the various economic engines (such as food distribution, education, and hospitals) as they exist under capitalist systems—or even whether to do so at all.

In the modern lexicon of what many Western sociologists and political commentators refer to as the "political mainstream", communism is often used as a broad term to refer to the policies of communist states, i.e., the ones governed by communist parties, in general, regardless of the diversity of economic models over which they may preside. Examples of this ******* the policies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam where the economic system incorporates "doi moi" and the People's Republic of China (PRC) where the economic system is described as a "socialist market economy".

Etymology and terminology
Communism comes from the Latin word communis, which means "shared" or "belong to all".

In the schema of historical materialism and dialectical materialism (the application of Hegelian dialectic to historical materialism), communism is the idea of a free society with no division or alienation, where the people are free from oppression and scarcity. A communist society would have no governments, countries, or class divisions. In Marxist theory, the dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate system between capitalism and communism, when the government is in the process of changing the means of ownership from privatism to collective ownership.

In modern usage, the word "communism" is still often used to refer to the policies of past and present self-declared socialist governments typically comprising one-party states wherein the country's vanguard party is governing the state exclusively, operating centrally planned economies and a state ownership of the means of production, with the state, in turn, being legally obliged to represent the interests of the working class. A significant sector of the modern communist movement alleges that these states never made an attempt to transition to a communist society, while others even argue that they never achieved a legitimate socialism, often arguing that they established instead state capitalism. Most of these governments claimed to base their ideology on Marxism-Leninism (though some of these states have been accused of revisionism), but they did not call the system they had set up "communism", nor did they even necessarily claim at all times that the ideology was the sole driving force behind their policies: Mao Zedong, for example, pursued New Democracy, and Vladimir Lenin in the Russian Civil War enacted war communism; later, the Vietnamese enacted doi moi, and the Chinese switched to socialism with Chinese characteristics. The governments labeled by other governments as "communist" generally claimed that they had set up a transitional socialist system. This system is sometimes referred to as state socialism or by other similar names.

"Higher-phase communism" is a term sometimes used to refer to the stage in history after socialism (or lower-phase communism), although just as many communists use simply the term "communism" to refer to that stage. The classless, stateless society that characterizes this communism is one in which decisions on what to produce and what policies to pursue are made by a free association of equal individuals. In such a higher-phase communism the interests of every member of society is given equal weight in the practical decision-making process in both the political and economic spheres of life.

History

Early communism

The origins of communism are debatable, and there are various historical groups, as well as theorists, whose beliefs have been subsequently described as communist. German philosopher Karl Marx saw primitive communism as the original, hunter-gatherer state of humankind from which it arose. For Marx, only after humanity was capable of producing surplus, did private property develop. The idea of a classless society first emerged in Ancient Greece. Plato in his The Republic described it as a state where people shared all their property, wives, and children: "The private and individual is altogether banished from life and things which are by nature private, such as eyes and ears and hands, have become common, and in some way see and hear and act in common, and all men express praise and feel joy and sorrow on the same occasions."

In the history of Western thought, certain elements of the idea of a society based on common ownership of property can be traced back to ancient times. Examples ******* the Spartacus slave revolt in Rome. The 5th-century Mazdak movement in Persia (Iran) has been described as "communistic" for challenging the enormous privileges of the noble classes and the clergy, criticizing the institution of private property and for striving for an egalitarian society.

At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, generally under the inspiration of Scripture. In the medieval Christian church, for example, some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and other property (see Religious and Christian communism).

Communist thought has also been traced back to the work of 16th-century English writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia (1516), More portrayed a society based on common ownership of property, whose rulers administered it through the application of reason. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, where a Puritan religious group known as the "Diggers" advocated the abolition of private ownership of land. Eduard Bernstein, in his 1895 Cromwell and Communism argued that several groupings in the English Civil War, especially the Diggers espoused clear communistic, agrarian ideals, and that Oliver Cromwell's attitude to these groups was at best ambivalent and often hostile Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. Later, following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine.

Various social reformers in the early 19th century founded communities based on common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the religious emphasis with a rational and philanthropic basis. Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana (1825), and Charles Fourier, whose followers organized other settlements in the United States such as Brook Farm (1841–47). Later in the 19th century, Karl Marx described these social reformers as "utopian socialists" to contrast them with his program of "scientific socialism" (a term coined by Friedrich Engels). Other writers described by Marx as "utopian socialists" included Saint-Simon.

In its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement of 19th-century Europe. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the proletariat—a new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels. In 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto.

Modern communism

The 1917 October Revolution in Russia was the first time any avowedly Communist Party, in this case the Bolshevik Party, seized state power. The assumption of state power by the Bolsheviks generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development. Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule. Other socialists also believed that a Russian revolution could be the precursor of workers' revolutions in the West.

The moderate Mensheviks opposed Lenin's Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Bolsheviks' successful rise to power was based upon the slogans such as "Peace, bread, and land" which tapped the massive public desire for an end to Russian involvement in the First World War, the peasants' demand for land reform, and popular support for the Soviets.

The Second International had dissolved in 1916 over national divisions, as the separate national parties that composed it did not maintain a unified front against the war, instead generally supporting their respective nation's role. Lenin thus created the Third International (Comintern) in 1919 and sent the Twenty-one Conditions, which included democratic centralism, to all European socialist parties willing to adhere. In France, for example, the majority of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) party split in 1921 to form the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC). Henceforth, the term "Communism" was applied to the objective of the parties founded under the umbrella of the Comintern. Their program called for the uniting of workers of the world for revolution, which would be followed by the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat as well as the development of a socialist economy.

During the Russian Civil War (1918–1922), the Bolsheviks nationalized all productive property and imposed a policy of war communism, which put factories and railroads under strict government control, collected and rationed food, and introduced some bourgeois management of industry. After three years of war and the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion, Lenin declared the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, which was to give a "limited place for a limited time to capitalism." The NEP lasted until 1928, when Joseph Stalin achieved party leadership, and the introduction of the first Five Year Plan spelled the end of it. Following the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks, in 1922, formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or Soviet Union, from the former Russian Empire.

Following Lenin's democratic centralism, the communist parties were organized on a hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base; they were made up only of elite cadres approved by higher members of the party as being reliable and completely subject to party discipline. The Great Purge of 1937–1938 was Stalin's attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the Communist Party. In the Moscow Trials many old Bolsheviks who had played prominent roles during the Russian Revolution of 1917, or in Lenin's Soviet government afterwards, including Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov, and Bukharin, were accused, pleaded guilty, and executed.

Following World War II, Communists consolidated power in Central and Eastern Europe, and in 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC), led by Mao Zedong, established the People's Republic of China, which would follow its own ideological path of Communist development following the Sino-Soviet split. Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Angola, and Mozambique were among the other countries in the Third World that adopted or imposed a Communist government at some point. By the early 1980s almost one-third of the world's population lived in Communist states, including the former Soviet Union and PRC.

Communist states such as the Soviet Union and PRC succeeded in becoming industrial and technological powers, challenging the capitalists' powers in the arms race and space race.


Cold War

Its leading role in the Second World War saw the emergence of the Soviet Union as a superpower, with strong influence over Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. At the same time the existing European empires were shattered and Communist parties played a leading role in many independence movements.

Governments modeled on Soviet Communism took power with Soviet assistance in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Romania. A Communist government was also created under Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia, but Tito's independent policies led to the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform, which had replaced the Comintern. Titoism, a new branch in the world Communist movement, was labeled "deviationist". Albania also became an independent Communist nation after World War II.

By 1950, the Chinese Communists held all of Mainland China, thus controlling the most populous nation in the world. Other areas where rising Communist strength provoked dissension and in some cases led to actual fighting through conventional and guerrilla warfare ******* the Korean War, Laos, many nations of the Middle East and Africa, and notably succeeded in the case of the Vietnam War against the military power of the United States and its allies. With varying degrees of success, Communists attempted to unite with nationalist and socialist forces against what they saw as Western imperialism in these poor countries.

Communism was seen as a rival, and a threat to western democracies and capitalism for most of the 20th century. This rivalry peaked during the Cold War, as the world's two remaining superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, polarized most of the world into two camps of nations. This was characterized in the West as The Free World vs. Behind the Iron Curtain. It supported the spread of their respective economic and political systems (capitalism and communism) and strengthened their military powers. As a result, the camps developed new weapon systems, stockpiled nuclear weapons, and competed in space exploration.

Near the beginning of the Cold War, on February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin accused 205 Americans working in the State Department of being "card-carrying communists". The fear of communism in the U.S. spurred McCarthyism, aggressive investigations and the red-baiting, blacklisting, jailing and deportation of persons suspected of following communist or other left-wing ideologies. Many famous actors and writers were placed on a blacklist from 1950 to 1954, which meant they would not be hired and would be subject to public disdain

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union and relaxed central control, in accordance with reform policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). The Soviet Union did not intervene as Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary all abandoned Communist rule by 1990. In 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved.

By the beginning of the 21st century, states controlled by communist parties under a single-party system ******* the People's Republic of China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and North Korea. Communist parties, or their descendant parties, remain politically important in a number of other countries. President Dimitris Christofias of Cyprus is a member of the Progressive Party of Working People, but the country is not run under single-party rule. The South African Communist Party is a partner in the African National Congress-led government. In India, communists lead the governments of three states, with a combined population of more than 115 million. In Nepal, communists hold a majority in the parliament. The Communist Party of Brazil is a part of the parliamentary coalition led by the ruling democratic socialist Workers' Party and is represented in the executive cabinet of Dilma Rousseff.

The People's Republic of China has reassessed many aspects of the Maoist legacy; it, along with Laos, Vietnam, and, to a lesser degree Cuba, has reduced state control of the economy in order to stimulate growth. Chinese economic reforms started in 1978 under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping; since then, China has managed to bring down the poverty rate from 53% in the Mao era to just 6% in 2001. The People's Republic of China runs Special Economic Zones dedicated to market-oriented enterprise, free from central government control. Several other communist states have also attempted to implement market-based reforms, including Vietnam.

Theories within Marxism as to why communism in Central and Eastern Europe was
not achieved after socialist revolutions pointed to such elements as the pressure of external capitalist states, the relative backwardness of the societies in which the revolutions occurred, and the emergence of a bureaucratic stratum or class that arrested or diverted the transition process in its own interests. Marxist critics of the Soviet Union, most notably Trotsky, referred to the Soviet system, along with other Communist states, as "degenerated" or "deformed workers' states", arguing that the Soviet system fell far short of Marx's communist ideal and he claimed the working class was politically dispossessed. The ruling stratum of the Soviet Union was held to be a bureaucratic caste, but not a new ruling class, despite their political control.
Like other socialists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels sought an end to capitalism and the systems which they perceived to be responsible for the exploitation of workers. Whereas earlier socialists often favored longer-term social reform, Marx and Engels believed that popular revolution was all but inevitable, and the only path to socialism and communism.


Marxist communism

Marxism

Like other socialists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels sought an end to capitalism and the systems which they perceived to be responsible for the exploitation of workers. Whereas earlier socialists often favored longer-term social reform, Marx and Engels believed that popular revolution was all but inevitable, and the only path to socialism and communism.

According to the Marxist argument for communism, the main characteristic of human life in class society is alienation; and communism is desirable because it entails the full realization of human freedom. Marx here follows Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in conceiving freedom not merely as an absence of restraints but as action with content.According to Marx, communism's outlook on freedom was based on an agent, obstacle, and goal. The agent is the common/working people; the obstacles are class divisions, economic inequalities, unequal life-chances, and false consciousness; and the goal is the fulfilment of human needs including satisfying work, and fair share of the product.

They believed that communism allowed people to do what they want, but also put humans in such conditions and such relations with one another that they would not wish to exploit, or have any need to. Whereas for Hegel the unfolding of this ethical life in history is mainly driven by the realm of ideas, for Marx, communism emerged from material forces, particularly the development of the means of production.

Marxism holds that a process of class conflict and revolutionary struggle will result in victory for the proletariat and the establishment of a communist society in which private property and ownership is abolished over time and the means of production and subsistence belong to the community. (Private property and ownership, in this context, means ownerships of the means of production, not private possessions). Marx himself wrote little about life under communism, giving only the most general indication as to what constituted a communist society. In the popular slogan that was adopted by the communist movement, communism was a world in which each gave according to their abilities, and received according to their needs. The German Ideology (1845) was one of Marx's few writings to elaborate on the communist future:

In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.

Marx's lasting vision was to add this vision to a theory of how society was moving in a law-governed way towards communism, and, with some tension, a political theory that explained why revolutionary activity was required to bring it about.

In the late 19th century, the terms "socialism" and "communism" were often used interchangeably. However, Marx and Engels argued that communism would not emerge from capitalism in a fully developed state, but would pass through a "first phase" in which most productive property was owned in common, but with some class differences remaining. The "first phase" would eventually evolve into a "higher phase" in which class differences were eliminated, and a state was no longer needed. Lenin frequently used the term "socialism" to refer to Marx and Engels' supposed "first phase" of communism and used the term "communism" interchangeably with Marx and Engels' "higher phase" of communism.

These later aspects, particularly as developed by Vladimir Lenin, provided the underpinning for the mobilizing features of 20th century communist parties.


Leninism and Marxism-Leninism

Leninism is the political movement developed by Vladimir Lenin, which has become the foundation for the organizational structure of most major communist parties. Leninists advocate the creation of a vanguard party led by dedicated revolutionaries in order to lead the working class revolution to victory. Leninists believe that socialism will not arise spontaneously through the natural decay of capitalism and that workers are unable to organize and develop socialist consciousness without the guidance of the Vanguard party. After taking power, Vanguard parties seek to create a socialist state continually led by the Vanguard party in order to direct social development and defend against counterrevolutionary insurrection. The mode of industrial organization championed by Leninism and Marxism-Leninism is the capitalist model of scientific management pioneered by Fredrick Taylor.

Marxism-Leninism is a version of Leninism merged with classical Marxism adopted by the Soviet Union and most communist parties across the world today. It shaped the Soviet Union and influenced communist parties worldwide. It was heralded as a possibility of building communism via a massive program of industrialization and collectivization. Despite the fall of the Soviet Union and the 'Eastern Bloc' (meaning communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe), many communist parties of the world today still lay claim to uphold the Marxist-Leninist banner. Marxism-Leninism expands on Marxist thoughts by bringing the theories to what Lenin and other Communists considered, the age of capitalist imperialism, and a renewed focus on party building, the development of a socialist state, and democratic centralism as an organizational principle.

Lenin's pamphlet What is to be Done? (1902), proposed that the (urban) proletariat can successfully achieve revolutionary consciousness only under the leadership of a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries—who can achieve aims only with internal democratic centralism in the party; tactical and ideological policy decisions are agreed via democracy, and every member must support and promote the agreed party policy.

To wit, capitalism can be overthrown only with revolution—because attempts to reform capitalism from within (Fabianism) and from without (social democracy) will fail because of its inherent contradictions. The purpose of a Leninist revolutionary vanguard party is the forceful deposition of the incumbent government; assume power (as agent of the proletariat) and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. Moreover, as the government, the vanguard party must educate the proletariat—to dispel the societal false consciousness of religion and nationalism that are culturally instilled by the bourgeoisie in facilitating exploitation, and to instil the material scientific outlook of the world and the sense of proletarian internationalism. The dictatorship of the proletariat is governed with a de-centralized direct democracy practised via soviets (councils) where the workers exercise political power (cf. soviet democracy); the fifth chapter of State & Revolution, describes it:

... the dictatorship of the proletariat—i.e. the organization of the vanguard of the oppressed as the ruling class for the purpose of crushing the oppressors. . . . An immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the rich: . . . and suppression by force, i.e. exclusion from democracy, for the exploiters and oppressors of the people—this is the change which democracy undergoes during the transition from capitalism to communism.

The post-revolutionary Bolshevik government was hostile to nationalism, especially to Russian nationalism, the "Great Russian chauvinism", which was seen as an obstacle to establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. However, under the regime of Joseph Stalin, during the Great Patriotic War, Russian nationalism brought back into favor.

The hallmarks of Marxism-Leninism are: the revolutionary vanguard party, revolution as a means to overthrow capitalism, and democratic centralism.


Leninism

"We want to achieve a new and better order of society: in this new and better society there must be neither rich nor poor; all will have to work. Not a handful of rich people, but all the working people must enjoy the fruits of their common labour. Machines and other improvements must serve to ease the work of all and not to enable a few to grow rich at the expense of millions and tens of millions of people. This new and better society is called socialist society. The teachings about this society are called 'socialism'." -Vladimir Lenin, "To the Rural Poor" (1903); Collected Works

Leninism is the revolutionary theories developed by Vladimir Lenin, including the organizational principles of democratic centralism, Vanguardism and the political theory of imperialism. Leninist theory postulates that, with the strongly determined will of the Bourgeoisie to establish Imperialism, socialism will not arise spontaneously through the natural decay of capitalism, and that workers by themselves, who may be more or less sedated by reactionary propaganda, are unable to effectively organize and develop socialist consciousness, therefore requiring the leadership of a revolutionary vanguard organized on the basis of democratic centralism. As a result, Leninism promotes a Vanguard party in order to lead the working-class and peasants in a revolution. Because this revolution takes place in underdeveloped, largely pre-capitalist countries such as Russia, Leninism establishes a single-party, authoritarian state, justifying single-party control over the state and economy as a means to safeguard the revolution against counter-revolutionary insurrection and foreign invasion.

Although the creation of a vanguard party was outlined by Marx and Engels in Chapter II: "Proletarians and Communists" of The Communist Manifesto, Lenin modified this position by changing the role of the vanguards to professional revolutionaries, who were to hold power post-revolution and direct the national economy and society in developing world socialism.

After disposing of the Bourgeois dictatorship through socialist revolution, Leninists seek to create a socialist state in which the working class would be in power, which they see as being essential for laying the foundations for a transitional withering of the state towards communism (Stateless society). In this state, the vanguard party would act as a central nucleus in the organization of socialist society, presiding over a single-party political system. Leninism rejects political pluralism, seeing it as divisive and destructive. Instead, Leninism advocates the concept of democratic centralism as a process to ensure the voicing of concern and disagreement and to refine policy. Generally, the purpose of democratic centralism is "diversity in ideas, unity in action."

Leninist revolutionary theory alongside Marxist economic theory forms the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. After Lenin's death in 1924, Leninism branched into multiple (sometimes opposing) interpretations, including Trotskyism, Stalinism, and Maoism.


Stalinism

Stalinism was the political system of the Soviet Union and the countries within the Soviet sphere of influence during the leadership of Joseph Stalin. The term usually defines the style of a government rather than an ideology. The ideology was officially Marxism-Leninism theory, reflecting that Stalin himself was not a theoretician, in contrast to Marx and Lenin, and prided himself on maintaining the legacy of Lenin as a founding father for the Soviet Union and the future Socialist world. Stalinism is an interpretation of their ideas, and a certain political regime claiming to apply those ideas in ways fitting the changing needs of Soviet society, as with the transition from "socialism at a snail's pace" in the mid-twenties to the rapid industrialization of the Five-Year Plans.

-The main contributions of Stalin to communist theory were:
-The groundwork for the Soviet policy concerning nationalities, laid in Stalin's 1913 work Marxism and the National Question, praised by Lenin.
-Socialism in One Country, stating that communists should attain socialism in their own country as a prelude to internationalising.
-The theory of aggravation of the class struggle along with the development of socialism, a theoretical base supporting the repression of political opponents as necessary.

The legitimacy of Stalin's claim to the role of leadership in the Soviet Union (and thus the international communist movement as a whole) is a matter of some debate. Advocates of Stalinism cite both Lenin's praising of the early works of Stalin and the economic successes of the Five-Year Plans. Opponents, however, point out that certain aspects of Stalinism (socialism in one country, "revolutionary patriotism", etc.) are not found in Leninism, and argue that some aspects are even contradictory to Marxism-Leninism. Also, in Lenin's Testament, a document written by Vladimir Lenin in the last weeks of 1922 and the first week of 1923 outlining his proposed changes to the structure of the Soviet governing bodies, Lenin suggested "that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from [the Secretary-General] post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc." Both sides of this debate identify as being ideologically orthodox to Leninism and criticize the other as being "revisionist."

After Stalin's death, Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev condemned Stalin and distanced the Soviet Union from his legacy, especially the personality cult. Mao Zedong in China did not accept this condemnation, and Mao's followers often describe themselves as Stalinist as a result, rather than Maoist.


Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the branch of Marxism that was developed by Leon Trotsky. It supports the theory of permanent revolution and world revolution instead of the two stage theory and socialism in one country. It supported proletarian internationalism and another Communist revolution in the Soviet Union, which, under the leadership of Stalin, Trotsky claimed had become a degenerated worker's state, rather than the dictatorship of the proletariat, in which class relations had re-emerged in a new form.

Trotsky and his supporters organized into the Left Opposition and their platform became known as Trotskyism. Stalin eventually succeeded in gaining control of the Soviet regime and Trotskyist attempts to remove Stalin from power resulted in Trotsky's exile from the Soviet Union in 1929. Trotsky later founded the Fourth International, a Trotskyist rival to the Comintern, in 1938.

Trotskyist ideas have continually found a modest echo among political movements in some countries in Latin America and Asia, especially in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Sri Lanka. Many Trotskyist organizations are also active in more stable, developed countries in North America and Western Europe. Trotsky's politics differed sharply from those of Stalin and Mao, most importantly in declaring the need for an international proletarian revolution (rather than socialism in one country) and unwavering support for a true dictatorship of the proletariat based on democratic principles.

However, as a whole, Trotsky's theories and attitudes were never accepted in worldwide mainstream Communist circles after Trotsky's expulsion, either within or outside the Soviet bloc. This remained the case even after the Secret Speech and subsequent events which critics claim exposed the fallibility of Stalin.


Maoism

Maoism is the Marxist-Leninist trend of communism associated with Chairman Mao Zedong of the Communist Party of China and was mostly practiced within China. Nikita Khrushchev's reforms heightened ideological differences between China and the Soviet Union, which became increasingly apparent in the 1960s. Parties and groups that supported the Communist Party of China (CPC) in their criticism against the new Soviet leadership proclaimed themselves as 'anti-revisionist' and denounced the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the parties aligned with it as revisionist "capitalist-roaders." The Sino-Soviet Split resulted in divisions amongst communist parties around the world. Notably, the Party of Labour of Albania sided with the People's Republic of China. Effectively, the CPC under Mao's leadership became the rallying force behind a parallel international Communist tendency.

Definitions of Maoism vary. Within the Chinese context, Maoism can refer to Mao's belief in the mobilization of the masses, particularly in large-scale political movements; it can also refer to the egalitarianism that was seen during Mao's era as opposed to the free-market ideology of Deng Xiaoping; some scholars additionally define personality cults and political sloganeering as "Maoist" practices. Contemporary Maoists in China criticize the social inequalities created by a capitalist and 'revisionist' Communist party.


Prachanda Path

Prachanda Path refers to the ideological line of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal. This thought is an extension of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism, totally based on the home-ground politics of Nepal. The doctrine came into existence after it was realized that the ideology of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism could not be practiced completely as it was done in the past. And a more suitable ideology, based on the ground reality of Nepalese politics was adopted by the party.


Hoxhaism

Another variant of anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism appeared after the ideological row between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania in 1978. The Albanians rallied a new separate international tendency, which would demarcate itself by a strict defence of the legacy of Joseph Stalin and fierce criticism of virtually all other Communist groupings as revisionism. Critical of the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, Enver Hoxha declared the latter two to be social-imperialist and condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia by withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact in response. Hoxha declared Albania to be the world's only Marxist-Leninist state after 1978. The Albanians were able to win over a large share of the Maoists, mainly in Latin America such as the Popular Liberation Army, but also had a significant international following in general. This tendency has occasionally been labelled as 'Hoxhaism' after him.

After the fall of the Communist government in Albania, the pro-Albanian parties are grouped around an international conference and the publication 'Unity and Struggle'.


Titoism

Elements of Titoism are characterized by policies and practices based on the principle that in each country, the means of attaining ultimate communist goals must be dictated by the conditions of that particular country, rather than by a pattern set in another country. During Tito's era, this specifically meant that the communist goal should be pursued independently of (and often in opposition to) the policies of the Soviet Union. The term was originally meant as a pejorative, and was labelled by Moscow as a heresy during the period of tensions between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia known as the Informbiro period from 1948 to 1955.

Unlike the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, which fell under Stalin's influence post–World War II, Yugoslavia, due to the strong leadership of Marshal Josip Broz Tito and the fact that the Yugoslav Partisans liberated Yugoslavia with only limited help from the Red Army, remained independent from Moscow. It became the only country in the Balkans to resist pressure from Moscow to join the Warsaw Pact and remained "socialist, but independent" until the collapse of Soviet socialism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Throughout his time in office, Tito prided himself on Yugoslavia's independence from Russia, with Yugoslavia never accepting full membership in the Comecon and Tito's open rejection of many aspects of Stalinism as the most obvious manifestations of this.


Juche

Juche is a development of Marxism-Leninism which has been the official ideology of North Korea under its leader Kim Il Sung and his successors. It emphasises economic and military self-reliance. As the Communist bloc split, collapsed, or embraced market reforms, Juche was increasingly emphasised by the North Korean regime over the wider theories of Communism.

Like Mao Zedong in China, Kim refused to accept Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev's condemnation of Stalin, but he did not copy Mao's Cultural Revolution. He developed a personality cult that was similar to Stalin's and Mao's, but uniquely was passed onto his son and grandson.


Eurocommunism

Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Soviet Union. Parties such as the Italian Communist Party (PCI), the French Communist Party (PCF), and the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), were politically active and electorally significant in their respective countries.

The main theoretical foundation of Eurocommunism was Antonio Gramsci's writing about Marxist theory which questioned the sectarianism of the Left and encouraged communist parties to develop social alliances to win hegemonic support for social reforms. Eurocommunist parties expressed their fidelity to democratic institutions more clearly than before and attempted to widen their appeal by embracing public sector middle-class workers, new social movements such as feminism and gay liberation and more publicly questioning the Soviet Union. Early inspirations can also be found in the Austromarxism and its seeking of a "third" democratic "way" to socialism.


Libertarian Marxism

Libertarian Marxism refers to a broad scope of economic and political philosophies that emphasize the anti-authoritarian aspects of Marxism. Early currents of libertarian Marxism, known as left communism,[44] emerged in opposition to Marxism–Leninism and its derivatives, such as Stalinism, Maoism, and Trotskyism. Libertarian Marxism is also critical of reformist positions, such as those held by social democrats. Libertarian Marxist currents often draw from Marx and Engels' later works, specifically the Grundrisse and The Civil War in France; emphasizing the Marxist belief in the ability of the working class to forge its own destiny without the need for a revolutionary party or state to mediate or aid its liberation. Along with anarchism, Libertarian Marxism is one of the main currents of libertarian socialism.

Libertarian Marxism includes such currents as Luxemburgism, council communism, left communism, Socialisme ou Barbarie, the Johnson-Forest tendency, world socialism, Lettrism/Situationism and operaismo/autonomism, and New Left. Libertarian Marxism has often had a strong influence on both post-left and social anarchists. Notable theorists of libertarian Marxism have included Anton Pannekoek, Raya Dunayevskaya, CLR James, Antonio Negri, Cornelius Castoriadis, Maurice Brinton, Guy Debord, Daniel Guérin, Ernesto Screpanti and Raoul Vaneigem.


Council communism

Council communism is a far-left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. Its primary organization was the Communist Workers Party of Germany (KAPD). Council communism continues today as a theoretical and activist position within both left-wing Marxism and libertarian socialism.

The central argument of council communism, in contrast to those of social democracy and Leninist communism, is that democratic workers' councils arising in the factories and municipalities are the natural form of working class organization and governmental power. This view is opposed to both the reformist and the Leninist ideologies, with their stress on, respectively, parliaments and institutional government (i.e., by applying social reforms, on the one hand, and vanguard parties and participative democratic centralism on the other).

The core principle of council communism is that the government and the economy should be managed by workers' councils composed of delegates elected at workplaces and recallable at any moment. As such, council communists oppose state-run authoritarian "State socialism"/"State capitalism". They also oppose the idea of a "revolutionary party", since council communists believe that a revolution led by a party will necessarily produce a party dictatorship. Council communists support a worker's democracy, which they want to produce through a federation of workers' councils.


Left communism

Left communism is the range of communist viewpoints held by the communist left, which criticizes the political ideas of the Bolsheviks at certain periods, from a position that is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views of Leninism held by the Communist International after its first and during its second congress.

Left Communists see themselves to the left of Leninists (whom they tend to see as 'left of capital', not socialists), anarchist communists (some of whom they consider internationalist socialists) as well as some other revolutionary socialist tendencies (for example De Leonists, who they tend to see as being internationalist socialists only in limited instances).

Although she died before left communism became a distinct tendency, Rosa Luxemburg has heavily influenced most left communists, both politically and theoretically. Proponents of left communism have included Amadeo Bordiga, Herman Gorter, Anton Pannekoek, Otto Rühle, Karl Korsch, Sylvia Pankhurst and Paul Mattick.

Prominent left communist groups existing today ******* the International Communist Party, the International Communist Current and the Internationalist Communist Tendency.


Situationism

The Situationist International was a restricted group of international revolutionaries founded in 1957, and which had its peak in its influence on the unprecedented general wildcat strikes of May 1968 in France.

With their ideas rooted in Marxism and the 20th-century European artistic avant-gardes, they advocated experiences of life being alternative to those admitted by the capitalist order, for the fulfillment of human primitive desires and the pursuing of a superior passional quality. For this purpose they suggested and experimented with the construction of situations, namely the setting up of environments favorable for the fulfillment of such desires. Using methods drawn from the arts, they developed a series of experimental fields of study for the construction of such situations, like unitary urbanism and psychogeography.

They fought against the main obstacle on the fulfillment of such superior passional living, identified by them in advanced capitalism. Their theoretical work peaked on the highly influential book The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord. Debord argued in 1967 that spectacular features like mass media and advertising have a central role in an advanced capitalist society, which is to show a fake reality in order to mask the real capitalist degradation of human life. To overthrow such a system, the Situationist International supported the May 1968 revolts, and asked the workers to occupy the factories and to run them with direct democracy, through workers' councils composed by instantly revocable delegates.

After publishing in the last issue of the magazine an analysis of the May 1968 revolts, and the strategies that will need to be adopted in future revolutions, the SI was dissolved in 1972.


Autonomism

Autonomism refers to a set of left-wing political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. As an identifiable theoretical system it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerist (operaismo) communism. Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendencies became significant after influence from the Situationists, the failure of Italian far-left movements in the 1970s, and the emergence of a number of important theorists including Antonio Negri, who had contributed to the 1969 founding of Potere Operaio, Mario Tronti, Paolo Virno, etc.

Through translations made available by Danilo Montaldi and others, the Italian autonomists drew upon previous activist research in the United States by the Johnson-Forest Tendency and in France by the group Socialisme ou Barbarie.

It influenced the German and Dutch Autonomen, the worldwide Social Centre movement, and today is influential in Italy, France, and to a lesser extent the English-speaking countries. Those who describe themselves as autonomists now vary from Marxists to post-structuralists and anarchists. The Autonomist Marxist and Autonomen movements provided inspiration to some on the revolutionary left in English speaking countries, particularly among anarchists, many of whom have adopted autonomist tactics. Some English-speaking anarchists even describe themselves as Autonomists. The Italian operaismo movement also influenced Marxist academics such as Harry Cleaver, John Holloway, Steve Wright, and Nick Dyer-Witheford.


Non-Marxist communism

The dominant forms of communism are based on Marxism, but non-Marxist versions of communism (such as Christian communism and anarchist communism) also exist.


Anarchist communism

Anarchist communism (also known as libertarian communism) is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, private property, and capitalism in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of voluntary associations and workers' councils with production and consumption based on the guiding principle: "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need".

Anarcho-communism differs from Marxism rejecting its view about the need for a State Socialism phase before building communism. The main anarcho-communist theorist Peter Kropotkin argued "that a revolutionary society should "transform itself immediately into a communist society,", that is, should go immediately into what Marx had regarded as the "more advanced," completed, phase of communism." In this way it tries to avoid the reappearence of "class divisions and the need for a state to oversee everything".

Some forms of anarchist communism such as insurrectionary anarchism are egoist and strongly influenced by radical individualism, believing that anarchist communism does not require a communitarian nature at all. Most anarcho-communists view anarcho-communism as a way of reconciling the opposition between the individual and society.

To date in human history, the best known examples of an anarchist communist society, established around the ideas as they exist today, that received worldwide attention and knowledge in the historical canon, are the anarchist territories during the Spanish Revolution and the Free Territory during the Russian Revolution. Through the efforts and influence of the Spanish Anarchists during the Spanish Revolution within the Spanish Civil War, starting in 1936 anarchist communism existed in most of Aragon, parts of the Levante and Andalusia, as well as in the stronghold of Anarchist Catalonia before being brutally crushed by the combined forces of the authoritarian regime that won the war, Hitler, Mussolini, Spanish Communist Party repression (backed by the USSR) as well as economic and armaments blockades from the capitalist countries and the Spanish Republic itself. During the Russian Revolution, anarchists such as Nestor Makhno worked to create and defend—through the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine—anarchist communism in the Free Territory of the Ukraine from 1919 before being conquered by the Bolsheviks in 1921.

Anarcho-communist criticism of leninist communist regimes

The anarcho-communist Emma Goldman in an article from 1935 titled "There Is No Communism in Russia" said of the USSR: "Such a condition of affairs may be called state capitalism, but it would be fantastic to consider it in any sense Communistic...Soviet Russia, it must now be obvious, is an absolute despotism politically and the crassest form of state capitalism economically". The authors of An Anarchist FAQ, while speaking about leninism say that "Rather than present an effective and efficient means of achieving revolution, the Leninist model is elitist, hierarchical and highly inefficient in achieving a socialist society. At best, these parties play a harmful role in the class struggle by alienating activists and militants with their organisational principles and manipulative tactics within popular structures and groups. At worse, these parties can seize power and create a new form of class society (a state capitalist one) in which the working class is oppressed by new bosses (namely, the party hierarchy and its appointees)."

Christian communism

Christian communism is a form of religious communism centred on Christianity. It is a theological and political theory based upon the view that the teachings of Jesus Christ urge Christians to support communism as the ideal social system. Christian communists trace the origins of their practice to teachings in the New Testament, such as the Acts of the Apostles at chapter 2 and verses 42, 44 and 45:

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship ...And all that believed were together, and had all things in common;And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

—King James Version

Christian communism can be seen as a radical form of Christian socialism. Also, because many Christian communists have formed independent stateless communes in the past, there is a link between Christian communism and Christian anarchism. Christian communists may not agree with various parts of Marxism, but they share some of the political goals of Marxists, for example replacing capitalism with socialism, which should in turn be followed by communism at a later point in the future. However, Christian communists sometimes disagree with Marxists (and particularly with Leninists) on the way a socialist or communist society should be organized.

The exploding boy
06-19-2014, 12:33 PM
Oh I just noticed it's missing an entry


American Communism

Anytime the government helps any of its citizen with anything at all.

redbreegull
06-19-2014, 03:11 PM
you're detracting from my point

Trotskilicious
06-20-2014, 09:23 AM
Oh I just noticed it's missing an entry


American Communism

Anytime the government helps any of its citizen with anything at all.

no no

it's more like

"any time a democrat does something that doesn't benefit rich people directly"

redbreegull
06-20-2014, 12:48 PM
yeah that's pretty much it. at the time, this guy was called a communist by conservatives too


http://libertylawsite.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Teddy-Roosevelt.jpg

redbreegull
06-20-2014, 12:49 PM
omg how can you tell corporations they are not allowed to rape people whatever way they want to squeeze money from them, whatever happened to freedom? where's my america?

The Omega Concern
06-20-2014, 05:56 PM
i think illegal mexicans can run this state better than the people that are ostensibly running it now



no. and you know this.


this is what's creeping across the border, many classified as "children" in the MSM. Many if not most of the illegals over the past 2 decades were illiterate in their language of origin let alone English.



https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTOLXM-mcihDNvi05Xjq0RB6sCZXItpH3xxfb5ijkekMxNUcK8fTg

The Omega Concern
06-20-2014, 06:04 PM
the challenge is before you TOC, correctly define communism. come on, how badly can it possibly go? you already embarrass yourself daily here



There's communism and communist. I don't recall talking about the former in this thread, but I do know the latter have a penchant for wishing dissent be banned, like you and scotty have wished upon me recently.


and I just exposed you as an ideologue, so I can see why your pissed and defensive.

The Omega Concern
06-20-2014, 06:06 PM
Oh I just noticed it's missing an entry


American Communism

Anytime the government helps any of its citizen with anything at all.




oh child...if it were only that simple.


http://www.youngagain.org/images/communist.png

The Omega Concern
06-20-2014, 06:15 PM
i was talking about cantor

I apologize for jumping on you. I don't care if you disagree with me, but I thought you really jumped the shark there.

Trotskilicious
06-20-2014, 06:58 PM
omg how can you tell corporations they are not allowed to rape people whatever way they want to squeeze money from them, whatever happened to freedom? where's my america?

ANARCHY!!! FUCKING ANARCHY!!!

Trotskilicious
06-20-2014, 06:58 PM
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTOLXM-mcihDNvi05Xjq0RB6sCZXItpH3xxfb5ijkekMxNUcK8fTg

your idea of illegal mexicans is nothing but syndicate vatos?

oh you

Future Boy
06-21-2014, 03:53 AM
dude on the right needs more tats

redbreegull
06-22-2014, 08:57 PM
There's communism and communist. I don't recall talking about the former in this thread, but I do know the latter have a penchant for wishing dissent be banned, like you and scotty have wished upon me recently.


and I just exposed you as an ideologue, so I can see why your pissed and defensive.

is this an admission that you just can't define it?

redbreegull
06-22-2014, 08:58 PM
I mean literally I am straight up asking you to DEFINE COMMUNISM and you are pussy footing around it like some kind of fucking fool. There's no oh well there is communism and then there are communists, you're just making fucking shit up. Either you know what it is or you don't. Which is it?

The exploding boy
06-23-2014, 02:20 PM
I'd mainly like to know what constitutes an ideal government for TOC. Probably none since government=the enemy.

redbreegull
06-23-2014, 02:30 PM
you're just giving him fodder to spout off something else nonsensical while sidestepping the fact that he doesn't know what any of the words he loves the throw around actually mean. no one cares what his ideal government is, his ideas about many things are disconnected from the real world. it's funny cause his perception of things is just as far out there (if not more so) than that of a real card carrying marxist who believes the revolution is around the corner


by the way still waiting on that definition TOC, day six #definecommunism

MyOneAndOnly
06-24-2014, 04:17 PM
does anybody other than you read his posts anymore?