Do you think communism could work in the UK?

[safeduck]

Well, Yes or No, what do you think? If you want to, can you expand on how you think it could or couldn't also?

[Manic Impressive]

do you mean can communism work in one country? no Are you talking about a soviet union 2.0? no

this isn't a yes or no question you need to be a hell of a lot more specific.

[rundontwalk]

The UK wouldn't exist as such when the transition to communism takes place, but communism could work in the British Isles, yeah.

[RedAnarchist]

Communism can and will work anywhere and everywhere under the right conditions.

[Red Noob]

Communism can't function within borders. It's like dividing by zero. :blink:

[hatzel]

Why wouldn't it? Is it because Kerry Katona or is it because the Highland Games or is it because Epping Forest? That is to say are you suggesting there may be something inherent in the British people preventing them from ever adopting communism, some fundamentally capitalist leaning in their culture or the physical geography inhibiting communist distribution for some reason?

[Blake's Baby]

I'm gonna echo a bunch of other people - do you mean 'could communism work in the UK if there wasn't a revolution anywhere else?', or do you mean 'if there is a revolution everywhere else, would there be one in the UK?' or do you mean something else?

I won't say 'you need to answer yes or no'.

In short, I think communism would destroy the UK just like every other state, as it will be worldwide, or nothing.

[Ocean Seal]

Well, Yes or No, what do you think? If you want to, can you expand on how you think it could or couldn't also?
For communism to work it has to work everywhere.

[socialistjustin]

Only if you're Stalin would you believe that it could work in one country. The other posters are right, it has to work everywhere.

[Rainsborough]

So when it's argued that is has to happen everywhere, rather than a Stalinist single country communism, are we also to assume it must start everywhere at the same time? Or do we think it might happen in one country, then expand from there?

[Blake's Baby]

'It'?

Communism? Or revolution?

[Smyg]

BB... euhm...



Do you think communism could work in the UK?



Well, Yes or No, what do you think? If you want to, can you expand on how you think it could or couldn't also?

[Yuppie Grinder]

Under communism there are no nations.

[Inner Peace]

Communism can work anywhere, anyhow, people just must be ready for it

[00000000000]

I concur with previous posts, to be true success communism needs to international.

I'm dubious as to whether or not a revolution could ever take place here; I know the line is that when the conditions are right it will happen, but have no idea if / when that will be (if it didn't happen under Thatcher or Blair's tenure, when will it??)

Re a revolution in this country, I guess I'm a hopeful agnostic.

[Blake's Baby]

BB... euhm...

Thanks Smyg.

But, what I apparently didn't make clear was that I was talking to Rainsborough above me.

What Rainsborough said was "So when it's argued that is has to happen everywhere, rather than a Stalinist single country communism, are we also to assume it must start everywhere at the same time? Or do we think it might happen in one country, then expand from there?"

If the question is then 'does communism happen everywhere simultaneously, or does it happen in one country and spread?' then the answer is I think it happens simultaneously. But if the question is 'does the revolution happen everywhere simultaneously, or does it happen in one country and spread?' then the answer is actually 'neither', it starts in different places and spreads.

[IndependentCitizen]

Communism = classless stateless society. So how can a single country be communist? The UK can become socialist, and rather being called United Kingdom (Kingdom is because of the monarchy) Could be called Union of Socialist Republics, instead of using soviet. We had parliamentary socialism just after world war 2, the Labour government begun nationalising most major industries, and even many conservatives saw this as a move to make. We had all of that till 1979, until Thatcher came along. It can work, but that wasn't a Marxist approach. So it entirely depends if the UK took a revolutionary route (which would be Marxist) or an evolutionary way (through parliament).

[Kornilios Sunshine]

First we have to make the BNP fuckers get the fuck out of the UK and then it would be more easy for the UK to be communist.

[IndependentCitizen]

First we have to make the BNP fuckers get the fuck out of the UK and then it would be more easy for the UK to be communist.

The BNP is very small, virtually no footing in the UK. Their counter-revolutionary force would be easily destroyed in that case. The EDL would be more interesting to see how they'd react. I'd hope they all kill themselves as us dirty communists take over.

"MAH BELUVD INGLAND IZ GONE" *An heroe*

[danyboy27]

England is an industrialised country with the basic framework of a democratic structure and a strong bureaucratic structure, the only thing that is lacking is having an ally in europe undergoing the same transformation to communism.

you need the industry to product surplus, you need a democratic structure to manage it, and you need the managerial expertise from the former bureaucratic apparatus to make it all work together.

The only hurdle is to have a succesfull communist revolution in a country nearby beccause without it, england would become a stranded, isolated piece of land without much ressources and that would eventually result to tyranny to keep the new system in place.

[SHORAS]

Communism can work anywhere, anyhow, people just must be ready for it

This I think is totally incorrect. Do you think people have to have socialist consciousness before they act or does this consciousness advance on a mass scale because of action? I think people are ready for socialism now i.e they are capable of living in a socialist society. And they will be "ready for it" by acting for themselves.

Hope that makes sense.

[Blake's Baby]

First we have to make the BNP fuckers get the fuck out of the UK and then it would be more easy for the UK to be communist.

And where would you have them go, comrade? Do you want them coming over to Greece?

[SHORAS]

BNP are pretty fucking irrelevant (obviously not for the people they intimidate or use violence against) but in the wider scheme of things it is the major parties who do all the damage. Get rid of them (or rather support for them) and we might have a chance. An org like BNP can morph (its content) into other org's like EDL etc the problem is not the BNP per se in this regard.

[Die Rote Fahne]

I do not believe that any single nation, or even 10, 20, or 100 nations can attain communism, without first having the entire planet attain workers cotnrol of government and industry.

i.e. Dictatorship of the Proletariat must cover every nation, organize and build to abundance, and when the conditions are correct, the state will begin to wither away. Will some nations become communist before others in this situation? Yes, I think that's likely.

[Rooster]

I don't think that you need the whole planet to be under the DotP for communism to finally come around. I think what you just need is the majority of the productive areas to be socialist. Anyway, the very act of the DotP is to bring about socialist relations and the ending of classes from as soon as the proletariat is in power.

As to the OP, Britain is a small country but it contributes a large amount to the world economy. If the proletariat were to rise up then that contribution would disappear. Then again, the UK is a quite isolated country geographically. I'm not sure how revolution would spread from the UK but I think if there was a revolution in the UK, and I don't see why not, then I think that would be an extremely major event.

[Q]

As others have mentioned communism can only work on an international level. This is because capitalism is a global system. Having a go at socialism in the UK alone would not only be a waste of time, it would lead to disaster. I only have to mention one fact: The UK, and most other well developed countries, imports most of its food. Being isolated would literally starve the revolution, meaning if the new regime is to cling to power, a collapse into becoming a police state is inevitable. I.e. look at the failure of Russia.

Instead we need to work, at the very least towards positively taking power as a class on a continental level. This implies trans-European coordination of the workers movement and a direct engagement with the existing structures, such as the EU.

As rooster pointed out, this doesn't mean every inch of the world needs to have revolution though, before we can transcend to communism. It does mean that we need to win the core capitalist countries (Europe, North America, Japan, China and perhaps Russia) over to the revolution. If it succeeds here, the rest of the world can only follow. But this has to be an internationalist strategy, any "national roads to socialism" just won't do.

[Искра]

No.

There can only be anarchy in UK!

[Comrade Samuel]

It's a hard question to answer, it makes think about the failure of most if not all "communist" countries yet at the same time I feel in the right conditions it can work if the right people are in charge. The UK however I doubt it's probably the most westernized countries in Europe, second to America the whole world. I would expect if there ever to be another revolution in be in Greece a country where capitalism has failed and the people want change.