 Communism and Marxism
Communism is a political ideology that seeks to establish a future without social class or formalized state structure, and with social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production. It can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. Communism also refers to a variety of political movements which claim the establishment of such a social organization as their ultimate goal.
Early forms of human social organization have been described as "primitive communism". However, communism as a political goal generally is a conjectured form of future social organization which has never been implemented. There is a considerable variety of views among self-identified communists, including Maoism, Trotskyism, council communism, Luxemburgism, and various currents of left communism, which are in addition to more widespread varieties. However, various offshoots of the Soviet and Maoist forms of Marxism-Leninism comprise a particular branch of communism that had been the primary driving force for communism in world politics during most of the 20th century.
The Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party ( German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) is a short 1848 book written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League, it laid out the League's purposes and program. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms.
The book contains Marx and Engels' Marxist theories about the nature of society and politics, that in their own words, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." It also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism, and then eventually communism.
Ernesto " Che" Guevara ( June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as El Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, diplomat, military theorist and Cuban guerrilla leader. As a young man studying medicine, Guevara traveled "rough" throughout Latin America, bringing him into direct contact with the poverty in which many people lived. Through these experiences he became convinced that only revolution could remedy the region's economic inequality, leading him to study Marxism and become involved in Guatemala's social revolution under President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.
Some time later, Guevara became a member of Fidel Castro's paramilitary 26th of July Movement, which seized power in Cuba in 1959. After serving in various important posts in the new government and writing a number of articles and books on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the intention of fomenting revolutions first in the Congo-Kinshasa (later named the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and then in Bolivia, where he was captured in a CIA/ U.S. Army Special Forces-organized military operation. Guevara died at the hands of the Bolivian Army in La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967. Participants in, and witnesses to, the events of his final hours testify that his captors executed him without trial.
After his death, Guevara became an icon of communist revolutionary movements worldwide. An Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico (shown) has received wide distribution and modification. The Maryland Institute College of Art called this picture "the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century."
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist.".
Hélder Câmara
"Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Proletarians across the nations, unite!"
Karl Marx
"Democracy is indispensable to socialism."
Vladimir Lenin
“Struggles of masses and ideas. An epic that will be carried forward by our peoples, mistreated and scorned by imperialism; our people, unreckoned with until today, who are now beginning to shake off their slumber. Imperialism considered us a weak and submissive flock; and now it begins to be terrified of that flock...”
Che Guevara
"We must have faith in the masses and we must have faith in the Party. These are two cardinal principles. If we doubt these principles, we shall accomplish nothing."
Mao Zedong
"You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on -- into the dustbin of history!"
Leon Trotsky
"The devotion of such titans of spirit as Lenin to an Ideal must bear fruit. The nobility of his selflessness will be an example through centuries to come, and his Ideal will reach perfection."
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
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Articles:
- Dutch:
- Communistenbond van Bosnië-Herzegovina, De Tribune, De Vonk, Democratische Federatie van Hongaarse Vrouwen, Dimitrov Communistische Jeugdunie, Gerardus Johannes Marinus van het Reve, Hongaars Onafhankelijkheidsfront, Lijst van CPN-fractievoorzitters Tweede Kamer, Marxistischer Studentenbund Spartakus, Montenegrijnse Communistenbond, Nationale Raad van Hongaarse Vrouwen, De Waarheid, Elli Schmidt, Miljan Radović, Patriottisch Volksfront, PRON, Marko Orlandić, Ina Brouwer, Leendert van den Muijzenberg, Daan Monjé
- German:
- Arbeiterbund für den Wiederaufbau der KPD, Allgemeine Arbeiter-Union – Einheitsorganisation, GegenStandpunkt, Kommunistische Jugend Österreichs - Junge Linke, Kommunistischer StudentInnenverband, Kommunistische Partei der Türkei/Marxisten Leninisten, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, Kommunistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands (1970er), Kommunistischer Oberschülerverband, Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands, Marxistische Gruppe, Münchner Räterepublik, Rote Gruppe, Rote Marine, Roter Frontkämpferbund, Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterjugend, Spartakusbund, Vereinigte Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
- Spanish:
- Joventut Comunista del País Valencià, Colectivos de Jóvenes Comunistas, Frente Revolucionario Antifascista y Patriota, Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España, Las Trece Rosas, Julián Grimau, Gladys Marín, Luis Emilio Recabarren, Partido Comunista de España Unificado, Partido Socialista Popular (Cuba), Unión Navarra de Izquierdas, Organización Revolucionaria de Trabajadores
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