Term Paper

[comrade_cyanide444]

So I'm writing a term paper and I've picked my topic. I want to write a term paper on how Socialism (true Socialism) affected Cuba, the USSR and China. How did it promote civil and economic liberty? Finally I want to go into reasons why USSR turned away from true Marxism under Stalin and his succeeding leaders. I am not asking to be spoonfed. I just want to know what historical documents I should look at, what arguments I should counter and where the best place for sources.

EDIT: And how did Communism/CPUSA promote civil/economic liberty in the US? Thanks for helping out a noob here!

[The Idler]

Russia 1917-67: A socialist analysis (1967) (http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/etheory/Russia1917to67/index.html)

[comrade_cyanide444]

Hm well I've got great sources on how Marxist economic government helped Soviet Russia, but I have limited argument on how it helped USA. I looked at some civil rights cases (like Powell), those look very interesting, but I'm more interested in the economical and political validity of the Marxist train of thought. An argument I keep getting caught off guard on is that the market is controlled by people who create competition. If prices are too high and wages are too low for one company, then another one will hire the worker and sell their products. If Coke is raised to $50 a can, then people will supposedly drink Pepsi. I'm not sure how to counter this. I try to show that these companies eventually dominate markets via horizontal integration, making it difficult for smaller businesses to market their product. However, people say that I am taking market economy as an inelastic concept.....

So I really want to find arguments that might show how Capitalism has negatively affected USA and other countries, though the primary purpose of my paper is to compare the world before that little spark of 1917 (the globe pre-Socialist revolution era and post-Socialist revolution era). I mainly want to go into Cuba, Vietnam and USSR in the beginning, but since this is for AP US History, I have to find ways that Socialism (not stuff like USPS or government spending) aided USA in times of crisis.

Thanks for the response Idler. I now have two good sources demonstrating the successes of the USSR post-1917 (the Kenny paper and this book).

[Die Rote Fahne]

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a Capitalist Society - Raya Dunayevskaya
http://marxists.org/archive/dunayevskaya/works/1941/ussr-capitalist.htm

The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union, and Where is it Going? - Leon Trotsky
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/revbet/index.htm

Social Democracy vs. Communism - Karl Kautsky
http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1930s/demvscom/index.htm

Hope these help you with the USSR.

[Ocean Seal]

EDIT: And how did Communism/CPUSA promote civil/economic liberty in the US? Thanks for helping out a noob here!

Look into the Black Panthers for this part.

Here is a really great thread on them: http://www.revleft.com/vb/black-panther-guide-t59295/index.html (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BggYSUAIEOk&feature=player_embedded)

Here is a video dispelling many of the myths surrounding them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BggYSUAIEOk

And of course the Black Panther movie in case you want to watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRIw-eJ7h38&feature=related

(Its 2 hours but I really enjoyed it)

[comrade_cyanide444]

Hmm. Interesting. I have a question for you guys. How would you define Marxism (not Leninism, Maoism, etc, just plain Marxism)?

I believe that Marxism uses historical analysis of class struggle to formulate a system that involves a truly stateless and classless egalitarian aggregate working to distribute goods amongst a certain population. Is that accurate? I also want to counter the argument that the capitalist -- the owner of a company (small or large) is responsible for much more work than the production of the worker. How true is this? All I can see is that the owner invests money in the production of something. He then pays workers to do work for him -- in effect the worker is a sort of means of production (though this is not the true definition of the term). The profit resulting from the sale of the product on open market is the result. The Capitalist has just used his initial investment to generate more money/capital. What am I thinking wrong?

[NoOneIsIllegal]

EDIT: And how did Communism/CPUSA promote civil/economic liberty in the US? Thanks for helping out a noob here!
One of the prouder moments of the Communist Party in the U.S. is that they were the only people who fought racism in the Deep South (specifically Alabama) in the 30s. They were fighting for civils right decades before Martin Luther King Jr, the Freedom Riders, etc.

Here's a book specifically on the topic, and I'm sure you could find more on the internet if you look:
http://www.amazon.com/Hammer-Hoe-Communists-Depression-Morrison/dp/0807842885/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305811872&sr=8-1

[comrade_cyanide444]

So I'm trying to correlate wage to the percentage of wealth distributed amongst percentile sections. I've found a source for the percentages, but not for the average wage over time.