What will happen?

[Marxist Leninist]

I am new to communism

And i wonder what will be the first thing to do after the revolution?

Who will rule the country?

And when will the goverment "fade away"?

And how will the DictatorSHIP of the Proletariat work? (how will things be decided?)

[Valkyrie]

The first thing to do after the revolution is instated is to make sure everyone has food, shelter, clothing and thier basic needs as well as jobs and health care treatment. Resources will be moved around to areas where they are needed most and to whom has need of them most.

The people will rule the countries cooperatively.

The transitional government will fade away as soon as we know that everything is solidly in place, running smooth, efficiently and safeguarded.

[Marxman]

Paris, that is kind of utopian, don't you think? Aren't you forgetting the establishment of workers' democracy or should we say the dictatorship of the proletariat?

People ruling is in communism. Communism, may I emphasize, cannot be accomplished overnight nor in a century but it's a long process.

Workers' democracy is the first step. Why? Well, I don't have time to explain now and you must probably know that already.

But I agree, certianly. The first thing is for everyone to be supplied with enough goods and stuff. Then the programme of building socialism is installed with good deeds and then the dictatorship of the proletariat makes such a system that noone can either become a stalinist or a capitalist.

[Valkyrie]

Well, that's a given it's not going to happen overnight, that intent not relative to my comment. However, if it takes a century to instate it is reeking with bureaucracy and bound to fail.

First: distributing needs and moving resources.
Second: Oraganizing work co-ops.
Third: etc.

[peaccenicked]

Socialism needs to be re-thought. The internet makes the possibility of democratic planning much more efficent.
the dictatorship serves merely to get rid of the old excesses, otherwise we dont really need it.

[Valkyrie]

Oh yeah!! I believe that too! And when I say transitional government or Dictatorship of the Proletariat, I am making a concession. I don't think it's needed either. (oh the heresy!!) Yes, Rethinking socialism. Though I don't think Marx would appreciate being reinterpretated by the Stalinists/authoritarians et el. I am sure he would agree in the practicality of applying it to the social structure of today, given the technological advances, population explosion and ecological imperatives we face today.

[Marxman]

Planned economy over INTERNET?!

Oh, come on. Nothing, absolutely nothing is aged about Marx's writings. Au contraire, everything that Marx wrote is now 10 times more apparent than it was in the 19th century.

Workers' democracy is absolutely necessary if we are even talking about socialism. Why? Because its main tasks are planned economy, destroying every form and link of bueracracy, applying to the collective work, making everyone supplied, destroying traces of states, etc.

[Iepilei]

situations change, but the thought is still there. Amazingly his writings still hold ground quite firmly.

[Marxman]

Situation hasn't changed, a bit. There are things that Marx wrote about.

[peaccenicked]

Strange to hear a ''Dialectitician'' tell us things have not changed a bit. Methinks you are a dogmatist.

[Valkyrie]

Yeah Marxman. I don't think he meant planning the economy over the Internet, but rather that information can be exchanged quicker by means of internet technology. Remember back in Marx's day had he something to relay to someone, he would have to light up his candle, take a walk down to the post, fire up his horse and gallop across town under the moonlit sky. hence the origin of the word "horsepower." That's not to say Marxism is not relevent today. It is, and even more so. but the situation has changed considerably.

(Edited by Paris at 8:56 pm on Sep. 22, 2002)

[redstar2000]

I seem to recall that comrade Engels made it quite clear what he (and presumably Marx) meant by the phrase "dictatorship of the proletariat". Writing an introduction to a 3rd or 4th edition of Marx's pamphlet on the Paris Commune, Engels said "that is the dictatorship of the proletariat."

The irony is that there really was no clear-cut "Marxist" party involved in the Paris Commune at all...or so I've been led to believe.