[Part of Groundings in the Communist World Outlook. Click here for the table of contents.]

Communism as the goal of proletarian revolution

• Last session, we talked about proletarian revolution as the solution. But proletarian revolution is really the first step—towards communism.
• Communism is where humanity has moved beyond class divisions, and all the oppressive social relations, culture, and ideas bound up with them. It’s where humanity, on a global scale, has collectively taken hold of the socialized means of production and uses them for the all-around development of humanity, and not at the expense of the environment and the natural world. It’s where there is no longer any private property or private ownership; instead humanity lives by the principle of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.” Communism means no more men over women, no more imperialist or oppressor nations over oppressed nations—no nations or national divisions, period.
• Communism is not a utopia, not an idealist dream, but something entirely possible. That’s because communism resolves the fundamental contradiction of capitalism—between private appropriation (by the bourgeoisie) and socialized production (by the proletariat).
• The problem under capitalism is not that not enough is produced to meet people’s needs, but that what’s produced is privately appropriated, privately owned, and turned into commodities. It’s commodity production for commodity exchange—making things to sell them to make a profit. Under communism, what’s produced is produced to meet social needs and wants, under collective planning. The commodity form, and with it, the calculation of “what’s in it for me?,” will cease to exist.
• Communism is closer to how humanity lived at its beginnings, in communal groups, without class divisions or private property. The difference is that whereas the “OG” communism was living directly off nature without any production as such, the future communism will use the technology and means of production that class-divided societies have brought forth but for the benefit of humanity, not the ruling class. And it will discard means of production that are harmful to humanity and the environment. Humanity will consciously decide what tools and technology it needs and uses.
• Under communism, humanity will develop forms for collectively running society, on a global scale. We cannot say what those forms will look like exactly, but there will no longer be a division between those who work with their minds (mental labor) and those who work with their hands (manual labor).

Communist philosophy

• What enables us to see the future and the path to get there is communist philosophy. Communist philosophy is called materialist dialectics, or dialectical materialism.
• The materialist part means taking a scientific approach to understanding the world around us and our place within it, analyzing the matter and energy that constitutes reality.
• The dialectical part means understanding that matter and energy are always in motion, driven by internal contradictions. Internal contradictions means the unity of opposites that constitutes everything, which are the driving forces of change (brainstorming examples might be a helpful exercise).
• When applied to human society, materialist dialectics can show us how humans enter into relations of production to meet their social needs and wants, the contradictions inherent in those relations of production, and how those contradictions give rise to struggle to transform the relations of production.
• Under capitalism, humans meet their social needs and wants through entering into socialized production using industrial means of production. But those laboring in socialized production are deprived of ownership over the social means of production, which are instead owned by the bourgeoisie, the class that privately appropriates the products and then sells them for a profit.
• The fundamental contradiction of capitalism, between private appropriation and socialized production, is resolved by the proletariat overthrowing the bourgeoisie and exercising socialized ownership of the means of production—proletarian revolution establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The first leap: establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism

• Materialist dialectics teaches as that contradictions are resolved through leaps, with quantitative or incremental changes making way for qualitative changes. For example: water getting incrementally hotter until it boils and undergoes a qualitative change into steam.
• Proletarian revolution is the first leap on the path from capitalism to communism. It is a qualitative change, where the bourgeoisie is thrown out of power, its state apparatus is destroyed, and the proletariat puts itself in power and develops its own state apparatus: the dictatorship of the proletariat.
• The dictatorship of the proletariat deprives the bourgeoisie of political power while enabling the masses to exercise power and determine the direction of society. It does so first and foremost by placing the means of production under state ownership instead of private ownership, and carrying out production according to a social plan rather than driven by the quest for profits, the accumulation of capital.
• It also develops institutions of political power that involve the masses, the formerly exploited and oppressed, in figuring out how to advance the revolutionary transformation of society, with the communist vanguard party playing a leading role in that process.
• With the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, state ownership over the means of production, and the masses running society with the leadership of the communist vanguard party, we have the establishment of socialism, a transition period that begins after the overthrow of capitalism and lasts until we reach communism.

Immediate measures

• The establishment of socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat allows us to solve, or begin the process of solving, the most pressing social problems facing the masses. The Manifesto of the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries outlines some immediate measures the socialist state will take. These include:
• Guaranteeing basic necessities—such as food, healthcare, and housing—for all, because these things will no longer be allocated based on profit, but on human need.
• Banning discrimination in all forms, because the state will be in the hands of the (formerly) exploited and oppressed.
• Devoting resources to “raising the bottom up,” i.e., oppressed peoples and impoverished areas would no longer have the worst schools, decaying infrastructure, lack of jobs and services, etc.
• Dismantling all the structures of white supremacy and banning racist ideas from public institutions. The new socialist state will be multinational in character, based on equality between all peoples, but will also respect the rights of self-determination for oppressed nations.
• Relinquishing the imperialist role of the US. The bourgeoisie’s military will be dismantled, and there will be no more US military bases all around the world. The foreign debt of the oppressed nations to US financial institutions will be canceled. US “overseas territories” will be granted independence if they have not already won their independence. The socialist state will give support to revolutionary struggles around the world.
• Violence against women and LGBT people will be outlawed and forcibly punished. Reproductive rights and freedoms will be guaranteed. The sex trade will be banned, with prostitutes rehabilitated and given employment that contributes to socialist society and their own well-being. No more objectification and commodification of women’s bodies in the media and in culture. Women’s organizations will be established to empower women for the collective revolutionary struggle, not just individual advancement—not girlboss feminism but proletarian power equality.
• Quickly moving off of fossil fuels and away from production methods that destroy the environment. Public transportation will be built up. There will be a massive reduction in, and eventual elimination of, wasteful private consumption. There will be a mass campaign to develop ways of living in harmony with nature, including transforming the urban/rural divide.

How the masses rule, wielding the three magic weapons

• The above immediate measures of the socialist state and other radical transformations will be possible because the proletariat is in power. To hold onto its power and use its power to move humanity towards communism, the proletariat will continue to make use of the three magic weapons, but in the context of socialist society.
• The communist vanguard party will lead the socialist transition to communism. It will be made of up those most dedicated to the masses and the goal of communism. Its members will be trained in how to understand and move through the contradictions of socialist society (a subject we’ll turn to shortly). The vanguard will be strengthened by being linked with the masses, recruiting more and more masses into it and leading higher and higher levels of mass participation in determining the direction of society. While before the revolution, the communist vanguard party is a rebel force, facing repression, after the revolution, the vanguard party’s leadership is institutionalized throughout society, from government to education to economic planning to the military.
• The revolutionary army of the proletariat that overthrew the bourgeois state will become the armed forces of the new socialist state. Its mission will be to defend the proletariat’s power from the overthrown bourgeoisie and from the remaining international bourgeoisie, and support revolutionary struggles around the world. It will be a deeply politicized institution, educated in the communist world outlook, not just one based on blindly following (bourgeois) orders. It will be linked with the masses through taking part in productive and cultural activity alongside the masses, not just staying in barracks.
• The united front under the leadership of the proletariat will continue under socialism, but with the revolutionary proletariat in power instead of being an insurgent force. Political forces who are not communist but broadly in alignment with socialism will be welcomed to participate in society, including government. Achieving full equality and liberation for the oppressed nations and nationalities within the multinational socialist state will be one of the primary goals of the united front. And the petty-bourgeoisie will be led to contribute their skills, expertise, and mental labor to society while transforming themselves to no longer use their skilled labor for personal gain, but instead for the benefit of humanity.

Moving through the contradictions of socialist society to get to communism

• The three magic weapons will be used to go beyond the immediate measures of socialism, described above, to a more thoroughgoing transformation of society. While some things can be changed overnight—finding places for homeless people to live, for example—other transformations will require a more protracted process. This is why socialism is a transition period, and getting to communism is not just one qualitative leap, but a process.
• The reasons for that protracted process are:
• (1) The ideas, social relations, and culture of bourgeois society have been deeply embedded among the people, especially the petty-bourgeoisie but also the proletariat. Socialism springs up from bourgeois soil, which must be uprooted. While some bourgeois thinking and behaviors cannot be tolerated and must be forcibly stamped out (white supremacy, violence against women and LGBT people, etc.), we can’t just force people to change the way they think and act. Instead, we need a protracted process of struggle and debate, with the masses unleashed to transform themselves as they transform the world. (Example: patriarchal thinking and behaviors that aren’t violence being struggled with and transformed over time.)
• (2) Commodity production and exchange cannot all be done away with overnight. The major means of production can be socialized and many basic necessities (food, housing, education, healthcare, etc.) can be made freely available relatively quickly. However, small-scale commodity production and exchange will persist for some time under socialism because eliminating all of it would throw the economy into chaos and result in the petty-bourgeoisie, who has skills and expertise that the masses need, rebelling, or emigrating from, socialist society. (Example: if we started paying doctors the same as everyone else, many would leave, and socialist society wouldn’t have doctors.)
• (3) The division between mental and manual labor has been solidified over centuries and cannot be eliminated overnight. The expertise of people who do mental labor is needed by socialist society, and cannot just be replaced by mass participation (e.g., engineers are necessary to make sure infrastructure is built that is safe and functional). But mental vs. manual labor is a class division, and if socialism just leaves it as is, it will widen into a division between exploiters and exploited. Socialist society can work at this contradiction by developing the conditions, including an education system, in which no one just works with their minds and no one just works with their hands, but people do a mix of different productive, intellectual, and cultural activity, becoming full human beings. More immediately, the criteria for becoming a skilled or mental worker will include a dedication to serve the people instead of self, and the approval of the masses, in addition to intellectual capabilities.
• The communist vanguard party is responsible for navigating through these and other difficult contradictions of society. Within the vanguard, different approaches to these contradictions will inevitably develop, some that will move through the contradictions towards communism, and others that will move society backwards to capitalism. For this reason, two-line struggle is necessary within the vanguard and throughout society to sort out which approaches are revolutionary and which approaches are ultimately counterrevolutionary.
• Counterrevolutionary lines are strengthened within the vanguard party when its leaders and members become divorced from the masses, using their leadership positions to lord it over them and acquire personal benefits. For this reason, members of the vanguard party must continually ideologically remold themselves by integrating with the masses, including laboring alongside them, and struggling against bourgeois ideology in their thinking and habits.
• At crucial junctures in the socialist transition to communism, the two-line struggle in the vanguard will give rise to the need for cultural revolutions, where the masses are unleashed to overthrow counterrevolutionary lines within the vanguard party and leaders of the vanguard who have regressed into bourgeois ideas and habits. These cultural revolutions can advance the socialist transition by strengthening the revolutionary character of the vanguard party, involving the masses more deeply in running society, and further transforming the production and social relations, ideas and culture, in the direction of communism.

Socialist history vs. anti-communist slander

• We have a good sense of how to move through the contradictions of the socialist transition to communism based on the experience of socialist societies, especially the Soviet Union from 1917–1956 and China from 1949–1976. The theory and practice of two-line struggle and ideological remolding in the vanguard party and cultural revolution was developed in socialist China under the leadership of Mao Zedong, especially during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution unleashed and led by Mao beginning in 1966.
• Especially in the Soviet Union under Stalin’s leadership, but also in socialist China, there were plenty of mistakes made by the vanguard party leading the socialist transition to communism. Some of those mistakes did real harm to sections of the masses. But the achievements of those socialist societies far outweigh their shortcomings, and capitalism does not compare with them.
• In both the Soviet Union and socialist China, newly generated bourgeois elements in the vanguard party, advocating counterrevolutionary political lines, eventually managed to take power, transforming those societies back to capitalism, at first in a state-ownership form but with the profit motive in command. Consequently, the masses lost state power, and the dictatorship of the proletariat became a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
• The bourgeoisie has used those defeats, of socialism and of the proletariat, to howl endlessly about the evils of communism and paint capitalism as the best possible world. They slander the actual experience of socialism, outright lying about the history or seizing on real mistakes of socialist states to trash them. The standard narrative they paint is one of evil, self-serving dictators, of human nature being all about self-interest, and of power corrupting. None of that bourgeois propaganda deals with the actual contradictions of socialist society.
• Our task is to study the history of socialist societies and use the communist philosophy of materialist dialectics to understand how we can meet the challenges of the socialist transition to communism, and arm the masses with that understanding.

Discussion questions

What will communism be like? Why is communism possible?

How do internal contradictions shape the development of everything in our world? How do they shape the development of human societies and give rise to revolutions? What’s the fundamental internal contradiction of the capitalist system?

What’s the difference between quantitative changes and qualitative changes, and what’s the relationship between the two?

How is communist philosophy—materialist dialectics—different from other ways of understanding the world and human society?

How does the dictatorship of the proletariat enable the masses to rule and transform society?

What makes the immediate measures of the socialist state outlined in the Manifesto of the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries possible after the revolution? How do these immediate measures address the pressing problems facing the masses of people?

How can the proletariat wield the “three magic weapons” to advance the socialist transition to communism?

Why is the socialist transition period a protracted process? What are the contradictions of socialist society that cannot be resolved quickly, or in one single leap? How can the communist vanguard party and the masses move through those contradictions toward communism?

How do the contradictions of socialist society get concentrated and expressed within the leadership of the communist vanguard party? What kind of struggles are needed to keep the vanguard on the revolutionary road?

What are your questions about the historical experience of socialist societies and proletarian rule? How has the bourgeoisie’s anti-communist ideological onslaught shaded our understanding of this historical experience? Why is the bourgeoisie so intent on slandering this historical experience?

Key terms

communism

commodity production, commodity exchange

mental labor, manual labor

social ownership, social appropriation

materialist dialectics (dialectical materialism), unity of opposites, contradiction, internal contradiction

fundamental contradiction (of capitalism)

quantitative change, qualitative change, leaps

dictatorship of the proletariat

socialism, socialist transition to communism

communist vanguard party

armed forces of the socialist state

united front under the leadership of the proletariat

bourgeois soil, bourgeois right

two-line struggle

ideological remolding

cultural revolution

counterrevolution

Soviet Union, Lenin, Stalin

socialist China, Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong