Communism

Evolution and Actualization of the Idea of Communism

The idea of communism is a very old one that has its roots in the vision of a society based on the absolute equality of human conditions and the elimination of individual enrichment. It is present in the works of many thinkers from Plato through the 18th-century utopians, the Soviet analysts, and some contemporary theoreticians. The terms communism and communist were first used in France during the 11th century to designate the common practices, interests, and rights of some peasants. During the French Revolution, some authors used the word communism in its more modern sense of a general sharing of goods in a regime established by a revolutionary process. Others, for example, Robert Owen, Etienne Cabet, Wilhem Weitling, and Moses Hess, used the term to designate utopian projects of societies based on a new system of exchanges and distribution. But it was around the mid-19th century that the idea of communism became more widespread. The creation of the Communist League by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1847 and the publication of their Communist Manifesto in 1848 marked a turning point in the evolution of the communist idea as embodied in a political structure and metamorphosed into a coherent doctrine that, despite Marx's protests, quickly took on a religious and dogmatic dimension. The word communism came to refer to a general project, a political action, and a political ideology presented as a real and powerful science, different from reformism. For Marx, communism meant not only social equality and the end of private property but also the necessity of a revolution based on class struggle directed by an organized proletariat that would completely destroy capitalism and the bourgeoisie, establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. After this first step, it would be possible to establish a perfected new order with collective ownership, a progressive disappearance of the state, and the dissolution of social classes.

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