What Is Communism?

[Learning about commies]

I want to learn about the radical left, so do you mind telling me, what is communism and why we need it?

[Veg_Athei_Socialist]

From wiki:

"Pure communism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_communism)" in the Marxian sense refers to a classless, stateless (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stateless_society) society, one where decisions on what to produce and what policies to pursue are made in the best interests of the collective society with the interests of every member of society given equal weight in the practical decision-making process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_making) in both the political and economic spheres of life.
A communist society would

1. Have abolished social classes
2. Have abolished private property (i.e. society at large democratically owns all property)
3. Have abolished wages
4. Distribute goods according to need (i.e. free education, health care, food, housing, etc.)
5. Have no government
6. Have no currency or marketshttp://www.revleft.com/vb/basics-communism-t138817/index.html?t=138817&highlight=basics+communism

Goods are distributed "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need".

[StoneFrog]

I want to learn about the radical left, so do you mind telling me, what is communism and why we need it?

To abolish exploitation via the natural inequalities inherent to capitalism. Each day workers go to work and labour is extracted form them, even though they are the one who produce the use out of the materials given; it is their employers who are the ones whom profit from it. Within a class structure the proletariat(workers/employees) are forces via material need to sell their labour to the bourgeoisie(bosses/employers) to survive, the capitalist structure produces this material need to make them sell their labour. So the capitalist system only profits that of the bourgeoisie while workers are exploited.

To really understand this relationship between labour and value you need to read Marx, its more a social relationship between people in capitalism that produces value. Communism is to change that social relationship to show the truth behind things we use and need everyday, instead of exchange from one to another its a collective relationship so what is produced is freely accessible by all.

Infamous Marxist phrase:

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need



5. Have no governmentI think government is a relative term, i think within a communist society the people end up being the government instead of an outside structure ruling onto the people. More accurate to say no state.

[The Idler]

People aren't getting what they need to live under capitalism.