difference between marxism and communism.

[Pratheek]

Can anyone please tell me the difference between Marxist ideas and communist ideas. And the differance between other forms of leftism.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Communism is the final stage of Marxism. It's a stateless, classless and moneyless society based on the idea "to each accorrding to his need; from each according to his ability". In the non marxist sense, anarchy, it refers to a very similar idea to marxism but without the transitory socialist phase (dictatorship of the proletariat).

Marxism is the whole theory pretaining to dialectical materialism, class struggle, violent revolution when the conditions are right, dictatorship of the proletariat (when the working class takes political power), and finally communism.

What other leftist ideas? Anarchy, social democracy, trade unionism, etc.?

Wikipedia can be your friend to teach the basics, but always ask questions and refer to other sources as well.

[Manic Impressive]

There is no difference if you are a Marxist you are a communist if you are not a Marxist I would say you are not a communist.

Anarchists reject the Dictatorship of the Proletariat preferring to dismantle the state as soon as possible. Most advocate workers control built from the ground up.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

the shortest way of saying it is that communism is the definition of a type of socio-economic system and that marxism is a theory or a set of theories that aim to bring about the said stateless and classless socio-economic system. most on the left agree on the definition of communism, that it is a classless and stateless society - its just there are different approaches to its realisation, marxism and anarchism being the dominant ones.

[Kowalsky]

Marx and Engels wrote that "Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things."
So, it's quite strange to me to see that someone define "communism" as a "stage"

Social democracy can mean different things, generally is used to point a society where a compromise between labor and capital has taken place, but this meaning became widespread only after the split between communists and socialists

[The Idler]

All Marxists are communists, but not all communists are marxists?

[Kowalsky]

All Marxists are communists, but not all communists are marxists?

when i was at high school, i had a history teacher that called himself a "reactionary marxist", meaning that he analyzed society using marxian categories, but being on the part of capital :laugh:

anyway, in the Manifesto, Marx and Engels talk about other socialist, non-scientific, tendencies (i.e. Proudhon and companu). nowadays, many follower of the theories by Hardt and Negri state that they are communist but not marxist

[The Idler]

Marxian is just the economic aspect of Marxism.

[Die Rote Fahne]

when i was at high school, i had a history teacher that called himself a "reactionary marxist", meaning that he analyzed society using marxian categories, but being on the part of capital :laugh:

anyway, in the Manifesto, Marx and Engels talk about other socialist, non-scientific, tendencies (i.e. Proudhon and companu). nowadays, many follower of the theories by Hardt and Negri state that they are communist but not marxist

You had a history teacher that was a huge troll.

[cowslayer]

I would say that Marxism stands more in the realm of philosophy, specifically its stress on historical materialism. Communism, to me, is obviously the stage of society that all Marxists wish to achieve. Classes abolished, proletarian democracy of some form, common ownership of property and the means of production, etc. are of course the most well known factors of a communist society. Marxism is more of the analytical view some Communists take. Drawing upon Das Kapital, Marxism is much more of a anti-Capitalist philosophy with a certain way of describing and interpreting Capitalism. And because of this anti-Capitalist view, Communism is advocated to eradicate the problems caused by Capitalism.


As stated before, not all Communists are Marxists. Materialism is the backbone of Marxism, and so naturally a large majority of us are atheists. But some have combined Communism with Christianity and other religions. Also I am pretty sure that Anarcho-Communists are not Marxists. Most would say that the difference is that non-Marxist communists do not advocate a workers state, or a dictatorship of the proletariat.

Hope this helps