Is this a good definition of Communism?

[Red Star Rising]

I need to write a fairly all-encompassing Marxist definition of Communism for a project that I will be able to break down and explain - is this good enough? What changes, if any, should I make? Have I missed anything important out?

"Communism is, according to Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, a class-conscious, antinationalist revolutionary ideology that is principally committed to the liberation of the proletariat (workers) from the oppression of the capitalist class system and the progression towards a classless and stateless, moneyless society in which the means of production and subsistence are held in common."

[Blake's Baby]

I'd say it's not an 'ideology'.

From the German Ideology:

"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. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence."

So in Marxist terms, it's not an 'ideology' at all, because it's not a subjective (and alienated) construct of the mind to which reality is supposed to conform, but instead a description of the dynamics inherent in capitalist society, which will tend towards the abolition of that society. It's not a plan we have to put into practice.

Workers will struggle against the conditions of their existence, because capitalism produces the conditions for that struggle; workers can see and understand their place in capitalist society and because of this can form a movement against their own conditions of life. It is not 'Marxism' (or 'communism') that 'liberates' the working class but the working class itself, through its own struggle, that confirms (or otherwise) the validity of Marxism, by liberating itself (and, somewhat incidently, everyone else).

Communism is a potential new form of social organisation which only the working class can bring about, because of its place in prouction. I'd agree that the last bit - a classless and stateless, moneyless society in which the means of production and subsistence are held in common - is a fair description of communist society, though I don't really know why you use 'production and subsistence', perhaps there's some subtlty there I'm not getting.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

"Communism is, according to Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, a class-conscious, antinationalist revolutionary ideology that is principally committed to the liberation of the proletariat (workers) from the oppression of the capitalist class system and the progression towards a classless and stateless, moneyless society in which the means of production and subsistence are held in common."

Alright, so, first of all, I agree with BB that communism (what I would call Marxist socialism) is not an ideology; I would say that it is a movement (both "socialism" and "communism" can refer to either a movement or a specific type of society).

Furthermore, what does it mean to say that an ideology or movement is class-conscious?

I don't know if "anti-nationalist" is needed; I would say that it is implied by the rest of the definition.

I would remove the word "principally". It introduces qualifications where none should exist.

"Liberation of the proletariat (workers) from the oppression of the capitalist class system" is an odd way of putting it. First of all, the proletariat is, broadly, composed of wage workers, although that is a simplification. "Class system" smacks of "classism" and similar liberal bromides to me, but perhaps that's just my usual charitable attitude. I would say something like "the end of class society", "the overthrow of the capitalist state" and so on.

"Held in common" is a bit vague (the m.o.p. in co-ops are held in common for some value of 'common'); to make things clearer, I would say that the means of production are under social control. And why "means of subsistence"?

I would also add that production is rationally planned instead of being left to the market.

[CollectivRed]

I would say that is an overall fair definition. Though, I personally would replace the word "ideology" with the word "movement," and the word "antinationalist" with "internationalist." There could be some other changes as others on this thread have mentioned, but this is perhaps one of the better definitions of "communism" that I have come across.

[tuwix]

I need to write a fairly all-encompassing Marxist definition of Communism for a project that I will be able to break down and explain - is this good enough? What changes, if any, should I make? Have I missed anything important out?

"Communism is, according to Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, a class-conscious, antinationalist revolutionary ideology that is principally committed to the liberation of the proletariat (workers) from the oppression of the capitalist class system and the progression towards a classless and stateless, moneyless society in which the means of production and subsistence are held in common."

You missed a second meaning of a term which is a socioeconomic system without private property.

[Red Star Rising]

You missed a second meaning of a term which is a socioeconomic system without private property.

In the context of my essay, I'm referring to the theory and movement.

[Brutus]

Friedrich Engels*

[Lowtech]

I can't really add much after Blake's baby's great post but wanted to mention that I like the term you use: "the capitalist class system" as it IS very much their system, and unnatural.


Workers will struggle against the conditions of their existence, because capitalism produces the conditions for that struggle; workers can see and understand their place in capitalist society and because of this can form a movement against their own conditions of life.

Blake's baby's comment above is so brilliant, I hope you can utilize it somehow. Share and sharealike.

[Vogel]

The way I've learned it, communism can be summed up by the phrase "Democracy at Work" or "Democracy in the Workplace".

Also, if you say, dictatorship of the Proletariat, it would serve you well to explain the Marx lived before Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini came to power. So although he says 'dictatorship', what Marx is talking about is the Roman republic practice of electing a person with the power to carry out a mandate for short periods of time. For Marx, I think it would be for the transition period into full communism.

I hope I'm not to late to help you and your speech. :grin: