What is the difference between...

[theman123]

Anarchism, Socialism and Communism? Seems like an easy question for you, but I'm fairy new to the left. But i never knew the difference. What are the differences?

[h0m0revolutionary]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

There are many simple answers to this, all of them contentious and there exist many different schools ot thought and theory within each. I'd reccomend giving wiki a brief skim over, this question is far too broad and vauge :P

[commyrebel]

Communism and socialism are the same just socialism is the economic views and communism are the political views. Communism is the belief should that everyone makes the same and that there is no private corporations all so called corporation is owed by the people for the people and has a government installed to maintain the country. Now anarchism differ from person to person some have communist views others don't but it is a country that is not maintained by a state but the people themselves them being the law and everything else.

[BobKKKindle$]

Anarchism is a political ideology that seeks to abolish the state (which Anarchists view as an inherently hierarchical and oppressive structure) as part of a revolution directed against capitalism. The adherents of Anarchism tend to adopt non-hierarchical modes of organization and decision-making, and also place emphasis on building certain aspects of a post-revolutionary society before capitalism and the state have actually been overthrown, as exemplified by the squatting movement, and, for anarcho-syndicalists, revolutionary unions, which are intended not only to mobilize workers against capitalism but also to serve as the basic institutional framework of a society in which production is planned and goods distributed according to need. Socialism is not so much an ideology (depending on the context in which the term is used) but, for Marxists, refers to a historical stage that lies between capitalism, and prior to the attainment of a communist society, in which wage-labour and private property have been abolished, but goods are still distributed according to how much work people do (such that differences in needs and abilities are not accounted for) as a means of creating material incentives when the ideology of capitalism is still dominant, and the state still exists due to the threat of counter-revolution, from both internal and external sources. Communism can be either an ideology (in which case it tends to be understood as support for governments that have historically described themselves as being "socialist" and led by Communist Parties) or as the final stage of history, in which the state has withered away, man exercises control over the way he interacts with his environment and fellow human beings, goods are distributed according to need, and scarcity has been overcome.

[jbaez]

Anarchism is a political ideology that seeks to abolish the state (which Anarchists view as an inherently hierarchical and oppressive structure) as part of a revolution directed against capitalism. The adherents of Anarchism tend to adopt non-hierarchical modes of organization and decision-making, and also place emphasis on building certain aspects of a post-revolutionary society before capitalism and the state have actually been overthrown, as exemplified by the squatting movement, and, for anarcho-syndicalists, revolutionary unions, which are intended not only to mobilize workers against capitalism but also to serve as the basic institutional framework of a society in which production is planned and goods distributed according to need. Socialism is not so much an ideology (depending on the context in which the term is used) but, for Marxists, refers to a historical stage that lies between capitalism, and prior to the attainment of a communist society, in which wage-labour and private property have been abolished, but goods are still distributed according to how much work people do (such that differences in needs and abilities are not accounted for) as a means of creating material incentives when the ideology of capitalism is still dominant, and the state still exists due to the threat of counter-revolution, from both internal and external sources. Communism can be either an ideology (in which case it tends to be understood as support for governments that have historically described themselves as being "socialist" and led by Communist Parties) or as the final stage of history, in which the state has withered away, man exercises control over the way he interacts with his environment and fellow human beings, goods are distributed according to need, and scarcity has been overcome.

That's what I call a damn good post. :D

[ZeroNowhere]

Communism and socialism are the same just socialism is the economic views and communism are the political views.
The first part was correct, the second is rubbish.


Communism is the belief should that everyone makes the same and that there is no private corporations all so called corporation is owed by the people for the people and has a government installed to maintain the country.
No, it most certainly is not.


Now anarchism differ from person to person some have communist views others don't but it is a country that is not maintained by a state but the people themselves them being the law and everything else.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'them being the law'. Anyways, all anarchists have communist views, in that they seek to create a classless, stateless society.

@OP: Socialism was used as a synonym of 'communism' by Marx, Engels, and most other early socialists, that is, a classless and stateless society. However, since Lenin, many have also used it to represent some kind of 'transitional stage'. This comes from Lenin referring to the difference between Marx's higher and lower stages of communism (both communist, only differed by the use of labour credits in the lower, and 'free access' in the higher one) as the 'difference between socialism and communism' or something of the sort. Still, the lower phase was still stateless, but Lenin did make a few confusing statements on the matter, such as this, "In striving for socialism, however, we are convinced that it will develop into communism and, therefore, that the need for violence against people in general, for the subordination of one man to another, and of one section of the population to another, will vanish altogether since people will become accustomed to observing the elementary conditions of social life without violence and without subordination."
As for anarchism, it seeks the abolition of hierarchal authority (including, naturally, capital. 'Anarcho'-capitalists are not anarchists).

[robbo203]

. Socialism is not so much an ideology (depending on the context in which the term is used) but, for Marxists, refers to a historical stage that lies between capitalism, and prior to the attainment of a communist society, in which wage-labour and private property have been abolished, but goods are still distributed according to how much work people do (such that differences in needs and abilities are not accounted for) as a means of creating material incentives when the ideology of capitalism is still dominant, and the state still exists due to the threat of counter-revolution, from both internal and external sources..


This certainly has nothing to do with the views of Marx at any rate. It was Lenin who invented the idea that socialism was a transition between capitalism and communism. Marxists reject it

[bruno]

Also I want to learn left ideas, as I understand Communism is the ideal society (like the smurfs) and socialism is the first stage of this society.

[teenagebricks]

The Smurfs are not communists, Greedy Smurf is extremely bourgeoisie.

[bruno]

The Smurfs are not communists, Greedy Smurf is extremely bourgeois.
In communism there will probably be greedy people. Why they aren't communists.

[teenagebricks]

This is true, there will always be greedy people, which is why I would hesitate to use a cartoon to describe socialism, I would have at least picked one where everyone actually is equal, The Poddington Peas, for example.