Czech Communists may get share of power after snap election

[NYAnarchist222]

An opinion poll conducted by Czech pollster SANEP gave Social Democrats a 27.0 percent share of the vote, followed by the Communists with 16.7 percent, and the conservative TOP09 party with 13.1 percent.

Another communist party about to come to power. :)

[Fourth Internationalist]

A communist party will never come to power through an election. Only through revolution should the working class come to power, not the party. What type of communist party is it? Marxist-Leninist?

[Sasha]

"communist"

[NYAnarchist222]

Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM)

I believe they are marxists

[Brutus]

If a communist party were to gain power in an election, it mustn't be through a coalition for they would share the blame (and rightly so) for the actions of the bourgeois party they have entered a coalition with. There again, anyone who thinks socialism can be achieved through parliament should repeatedly bang their head against a brick wall with excessive force.

[Tim Cornelis]

In the regional elections they won 20.43% of the votes.


A communist party will never come to power through an election. Only through revolution should the working class come to power, not the party. What type of communist party is it? Marxist-Leninist?

It's a weak rehash of Marxism-Leninism. You can read their views on "socialism" here, which is essentially a sort of Alec Nove-type of market socialism (arguably a watered down market socialism).

http://www.kscm.cz/our-politics/documents/39736/


We consider social ownership as the economic basic of socialism. It will not be however limited to a state form. We see as important a stronger direct influence of the state only in some economic sectors, namely for strategic reasons.
...
Social ownership will have more concrete forms (including various forms of self-administrative and cooperative ownership). The principle of ownership plurality does not exclude even private enterprising. All kinds of economic subjects will saturate by tax-payments from profits all-social funds. Social economy in our conception will be a market economy with strategic planning, oriented to securing social priorities and leaning on a control of decisive positions in the national economy.

Some positive aspects, they advocacy workers' control in some sectors, and direct democracy:


We want that it is a society born with the support of an absolute majority of the citizens, a society which is fully democratic, based on the principle of civil self-administration. We want that the forms of democracy should further develop, that society should use more and more elements of direct democracy where decisions are adopted with the participation of all concerned.

But the negatives outweigh the positive aspects, and they certainly wont produce socialism.

[Paul Pott]

Interesting.

We don't really need to point out the obvious, people.

[tuwix]

An opinion poll conducted by Czech pollster SANEP gave Social Democrats a 27.0 percent share of the vote, followed by the Communists with 16.7 percent, and the conservative TOP09 party with 13.1 percent.

Another communist party about to come to power. :)

But there is small problem. They are not communists at all. This party has its origins in Czechoslovakia which was state capitalism country. IMHO one can be for capitalism (regardless state or classic) or for communism. He can't be for both.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Just tell me that they're better than the dreadful Russian "Communists" at least

[tuwix]

If that will makae you happier, I tell you they are better. :)

[Popular Front of Judea]

This is the historic Czechoslovakian Communist Party -- at least the Czech portion of it. It will be interesting if the Social Democrats finally relent and form a coalition with them.

[Delenda Carthago]

A. Communist parties dont get in power by participating in capitalist governments. On the contrary, there is the experience that has proved that they become a typical bourgeois party when they do.

B. That specific party is already a mess. Socialism and markets do not go together. And "direct democracy" with the keys of economy to the hands of capital is a joke meant to fool the fools.

[KurtFF8]

A. Communist parties dont get in power by participating in capitalist governments. On the contrary, there is the experience that has proved that they become a typical bourgeois party when they do.

Indeed, parties like the KKE and the PCF learned this quite well and the Left should too. That's not to say that participating in government automatically transforms a Communist party into a bourgeois party (that wouldn't make much sense) but it certainly presents certain dangers for that Party.

I'm not too familiar with the Czech Party however so I'm not sure if they would be able to use this as a real opportunity to promote Marxism or if the sight of the opportunity will make them opportunists.

[hashem]

Another communist party about to come to power. :)

extremely naive!

[Comrade Jacob]

Being elected won't do shit, look at Cyprus and Moldova. It's good that the idea of Communism has reasonable support and it gives it some public platform for real discussion but elections within a bourgeois system will never work. They need to build up their membership with strong men and women and give them guns.

[Popular Front of Judea]

The Czechs have plenty of experience with strong men with guns Comrade Jacob. Read about the 1948 coup. There is a historic reason why the Social Democrats have been leery about working with the Communists.


Being elected won't do shit, look at Cyprus and Moldova. It's good that the idea of Communism has reasonable support and it gives it some public platform for real discussion but elections within a bourgeois system will never work. They need to build up their membership with strong men and women and give them guns.

[Mather]

I see no good reason to get excited by this news.

If the Czech 'communists' were to come to power, it would be a repeat of what happened in Moldova and Cyprus. In practice, the so-called 'official communist' parties are social democratic and reformist and are communist in name only.

[Orange Juche]

A communist party will never come to power through an election.

I've never found any basis for this statement, it is always with a heavy dose of conjecture. I'm not saying it's easy, or even that more often than not said parties sell themselves out and are nothing more than "progressive" social democratic parties. But this doesn't mean it can "never" work.

[Tolstoy]

A communist party will never come to power through an election. Only through revolution should the working class come to power, not the party. What type of communist party is it? Marxist-Leninist?
Can we all stop knocking on Communists for trying to get elected. Seriously, this is positive news as it means a large section of the Czech public is interested in Communism, and the Communists could get some real social reform through.

While its no alternative for Socialism, Reform IS a good thing

[Luisrah]

Can we all stop knocking on Communists for trying to get elected. Seriously, this is positive news as it means a large section of the Czech public is interested in Communism, and the Communists could get some real social reform through.

While its no alternative for Socialism, Reform IS a good thing

It's certainly better than another party getting elected.
And if that means that workers get more rights and better lives then it's always a good thing, even if not perfect.

[ANTIFA GATE-9]

The opinion poll was for legislative elections or presidential?

[Devrim]

An opinion poll conducted by Czech pollster SANEP gave Social Democrats a 27.0 percent share of the vote, followed by the Communists with 16.7 percent, and the conservative TOP09 party with 13.1 percent.

Another communist party about to come to power. :)

First they are not about to come to power. If all goes as expected the KSČM (communists) will be the junior coalition partner of the ČSSD (social democrats).

Second as has already been pointed out there is nothing in any way communist about this party at all.

Devrim

[Mather]

I've never found any basis for this statement, it is always with a heavy dose of conjecture.

There is plenty of basis and it can be found in the numerous historical examples we have.


I'm not saying it's easy, or even that more often than not said parties sell themselves out and are nothing more than "progressive" social democratic parties. But this doesn't mean it can "never" work.

It can't work because the problems are structural, they are inherent to the capitalist system. It is idealistic to think that the parliamentary way can work based on nothing more than the sheer willpower of those involved to make it work. Ideas and good intentions cannot change the material reality of class relations and class rule under capitalism and so far material reality tells us that bourgeois democracy is rigged against us and cannot be used to transform the nature of society and class relations at the fundamental level.

If you really think that the parliamentary way can work, tell us how?

[Red_Banner]

"There again, anyone who thinks socialism can be achieved through parliament should repeatedly bang their head against a brick wall with excessive force."

And what?

A party can't arm and mobilize a country to spread socialism?

[Fourth Internationalist]

It's certainly better than another party getting elected.
And if that means that workers get more rights and better lives then it's always a good thing, even if not perfect.

It hurts workers in the long run. The more communism is distorted by the right and left-reformist parties alike, the longer it will take to get towards communism. This isn't to say we shouldn't support reforms to temporarily help workers. However, we should point out communism from left-reformism which is all we have really done here.

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk 4

[Mather]

Can we all stop knocking on Communists for trying to get elected. Seriously, this is positive news as it means a large section of the Czech public is interested in Communism, and the Communists could get some real social reform through.

That opinion poll may show that more people are interested in communism and that they are looking for some form of political alternative, but supporting the KSCM would cancel out any potential interest that the Czech working class would have in communism. Should the KSCM ever come to power, then at most all they will have to offer is social democracy. I hope that everyone can agree that whatever reforms and laws a KSCM government would pass, the one thing that a KSCM government cannot offer is a stateless, moneyless and classless society (communism).

By falsely claiming to be communists, parties like the KSCM tarnish and confuse communism with the failings of social democracy.


While its no alternative for Socialism, Reform IS a good thing

Why?

[tuwix]

The opinion poll was for legislative elections or presidential?

Definetely legeslative. Czech president is chosen by parliament,

[Devrim]

Czech president is chosen by parliament,

This used to be the case, but now the President is chosen by direct election.

Devrim

[Rss]

Another social democratic party with the word "communist" in their name, yay.

Their symbol isn't even hammer and sickle.

[Red_Banner]

"Another social democratic party with the word "communist" in their name, yay.

Their symbol isn't even hammer and sickle."

So what?

They have a Red Star in their logo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KSCM_Logo.svg
Besides, when they were in power in Czechoslovakia, the emblem of the country had a Red Star.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Czechoslovakia_COA_1961-1989.svg