1.
Communism
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Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, anarchism, and the political ideologies grouped around both. The primary element which will enable this transformation, according to analysis, is the social ownership of the means of production. Likewise, some communists defend both theory and practice, while others argue that historical practice diverged from communist principles to a greater or lesser degree, according to Richard Pipes, the idea of a classless, egalitarian society first emerged in Ancient Greece. At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, in the medieval Christian church, for example, some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property. Communist thought has also traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia, More portrayed a society based on ownership of property. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. Later, following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine, in the early 19th century, Various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the emphasis with a rational. Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana, in its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels, in 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. The 1917 October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for the rise to power of Lenins Bolsheviks. The revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, in which the Bolsheviks had a majority, the event generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development, Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule, the moderate Mensheviks opposed Lenins Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Great Purge of 1937–1938 was Stalins attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the Communist Party and its leading role in the Second World War saw the emergence of the Soviet Union as a superpower, with strong influence over Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. The European and Japanese empires were shattered and Communist parties played a role in many independence movements
2.
Commune
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In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become important core principles for many communes. There are many contemporary intentional communities all over the world, a list of which can be found at the Fellowship for Intentional Community, for the usually larger-scale, political entities in communist political theory, see socialist communes, which are similar but distinct social organizations. Some communes, such as the ashrams of the Vedanta Society or the Theosophical commune Lomaland, formed around spiritual leaders, for others, the glue is simply the desire for a more shared, sociable lifestyle. Moreover, some find it is more economical to live communally. The central characteristics of communes, or core principles that define communes, have expressed in various forms over the years. At the start of the 1970s, The New Communes author Ron E. Roberts classified communes as a subclass of a category of Utopias. Roberts three listed items were, first, egalitarianism – that communes specifically rejected hierarchy or graduations of social status as being necessary to social order. Second, human scale – that members of some communes saw the scale of society as it was organised as being too industrialized. And third, that communes were consciously anti-bureaucratic, twenty five years later, Dr. Sharing everyday life and facilities, a commune is an idealized form of family, being a new sort of primary group. Commune members have emotional bonds to the group rather than to any sub-group. With the simple definition of a commune as a community with 100% income sharing. Some of these are institutions such as abbeys and monasteries. Many communes are part of the New Age movement, in Germany, a large number of the intentional communities define themselves as communes and there is a network of political communes called Kommuja with about 30 member groups. Germany has a tradition of intentional communities going back to the groups inspired by the principles of Lebensreform in the 19th century. Later, about 100 intentional communities were started in the Weimar Republic after World War I, in the 1960s, there was a resurgence of communities calling themselves communes, starting with the Kommune 1 in Berlin, followed by Kommune 2 and Kommune 3 in Wolfsburg. Today, there are dozens of urban communes growing in the cities of Israel, the urban kibbutzim are smaller and more anarchist. Most of the communes in Israel emphasize social change, education. Some of the communes have members who are graduates of zionist-socialist youth movements, like HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed, HaMahanot HaOlim
3.
Anti-capitalism
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Anti-capitalism encompasses a wide variety of movements, ideas and attitudes that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the sense of the word, are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economic system. State or worker cooperative ownership is in opposition to private ownership of means of production. Most socialists argue that capitalism unfairly concentrates power, wealth and profit, among a segment of society that controls capital. Socialists argue that the accumulation of capital generates waste through externalizations that require costly corrective regulatory measures, socialists view private property relations as limiting the potential of productive forces in the economy. For the influential German individualist anarchist philosopher Max Stirner private property is a spook which lives by the grace of law, in other words, private property exists purely through the protection of the State, through the States grace. And what is their principle, whose protector they always love, not that of labour, rather it is interest-bearing possession. Labour certainly, yet little or none at all of ones own, and so to fight against capitalism is a pointless task, since be it State capitalism or Enterprise capitalism, as long as Government exists, exploiting capital will exist. The fight, but of consciousness, is against the State and it is a negatively connoted term used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labor by focusing on similarities between owning and renting a person. Libertarian socialists believe if freedom is valued, then society must work towards a system in which individuals have the power to economic issues along with political issues. American anarchist Emma Goldman believed that the system of capitalism was incompatible with human liberty. She also argued that capitalism dehumanized workers, turning the producer into a particle of a machine, with less will and decision than his master of steel. Noam Chomsky contends that there is little difference between chattel slavery and renting ones self to an owner or wage slavery. He feels that it is an attack on personal integrity that undermines individual freedom and he holds that workers should own and control their workplace. Many libertarian socialists argue that voluntary associations should manage industrial manufacture. As such, they see a distinction between the concepts of property and personal possession. He believes that Tucker overlooked this due to Tuckers focus on individual market transactions. The theoretical sections of Studies in Mutualist Political Economy are presented as an attempt to integrate marginalist critiques into the theory of value
4.
Class conflict
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The view that the class struggle provides the lever for radical social change for the majority is central to the work of Karl Marx and the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. In the past the term Class conflict was a term used mostly by socialists, from this point of view, the social control of production and labor is a contest between classes, and the division of these resources necessarily involves conflict and inflicts harm. It can involve ongoing low-level clashes, escalate into massive confrontations, however, in more contemporary times this term is striking chords and finding new definition amongst capitalistic societies in the United States and other Westernized countries. This was only a potential, and class struggle was, he argued, not always the only or decisive factor in society, by contrast, Marxists argue that class conflict always plays the decisive and pivotal role in the history of class-based hierarchical systems such as capitalism and feudalism. Marxists refer to its overt manifestations as class war, a struggle whose resolution in favor of the class is viewed by them as inevitable under plutocratic capitalism. Where societies are socially divided based on status, wealth, or control of production and distribution. It is well documented since at least European Classical Antiquity and the popular uprisings in late medieval Europe. One of the earliest analysis of these conflicts is Friedrich Engels The Peasant War in Germany, one of the earliest analyses of the development of class as the development of conflicts between emergent classes is available in Peter Kropotkins Mutual Aid. In this work, Kropotkin analyzes the disposal of goods after death in pre-class or hunter-gatherer societies, chris Hedges wrote a column for Truthdig called Lets Get This Class War Started, which was a play on Pinks song Lets Get This Party Started. And I think that can go on for so long without there being more and more outbreaks of what used to be called class struggle. The particular implementation of government programs which may seem purely humanitarian, such as disaster relief, in the USA class conflict is often noted in labor/management disputes. Although Thomas Jefferson led the United States as president from 1801–1809 and is considered one of the founding fathers, among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep and this is a true picture of Europe. Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention, do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the affairs, you & I, & Congress & Assemblies, judges & governors shall all become wolves. In 2005 Buffet said to CNN, Its class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldnt be. In a November 2006 interview in The New York Times, Buffett stated that here’s class warfare all right, but it’s my class, the class, that’s making war. Later Warren gave away more than half of his fortune to charitable causes through a developed by himself
5.
Collectivism
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Collectivism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the group and its interests. Collectivism is the opposite of individualism, collectivists focus on communal, societal, or national interests in various types of political, economic and educational systems. Horizontal collectivism is based on the assumption that individual is more or less equal. Horizontal collectivists tend to favor democratic decision-making, while vertical collectivists believe in a strict chain of command. Horizontal collectivism stresses common goals, interdependence and sociability, vertical collectivism stresses the integrity of the in-group, expects individuals to sacrifice themselves for the in-group if necessary, and promotes competition between different in-groups. For example, worker cooperatives operate on a basis but require the direct input of each individual member. Theoretically, collectivism goes beyond considering the individual as the prime mover of society, in doing so it recognizes society as a collection of individuals and so remains with the understanding that any collective organization is fundamentally composed of individuals. Depending on how conscious a collectivity is of this reality determines how genuinely it maintains respect for individuality, on the other hand, individualism which encourages individuality at the expense of others cannot be considered collectivist, nor even individualist, since individualism is not the same as egotism. Research has proposed that collectivism and individualism came about through an evolutionary adaptation, some societies are on the whole more collectivist and some on the whole more individualist. Harmony within these groups is considered paramount, for example, it may be considered inappropriate for a member of an in-group to openly criticize another in public. There are two objections to collectivism from the ideas of individualism. One is that collectivism stifles individuality and diversity by insisting upon a social identity. The other is that collectivism is linked to statism and the diminution of freedom when political authority is used to advance collectivist goals, criticism of collectivism comes from liberal individualists, such as classical liberals, libertarians, Objectivists, and individualist anarchists. A notable modern criticism of economic collectivism is the one put forward by Friedrich Hayek in his book The Road to Serfdom, published in 1944. Ludwig von Mises wrote, On the other hand the application of the ideas of collectivism cannot result in anything but social disintegration. Many socialists, particularly libertarian socialists, individualist anarchists, and De Leonists criticise the concept of collectivism, some anti-collectivists often argue that all authoritarian and totalitarian societies are collectivist in nature. Yet in the subsequent sentence he also warns of the tyranny of private ownership over the means of production and that a return to free competition means for the great mass of people a tyranny probably worse, because more irresponsible, than that of the state. Marxists criticize this use of the term collectivism, on the grounds that all societies are based on class interests, the liberal ideal of the free individual is seen from a Marxist perspective as a smokescreen for the collective interests of the capitalist class
6.
Gift economy
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A gift economy, gift culture, or gift exchange is a mode of exchange where valuables are not traded or sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. This contrasts with an economy or a market economy, where goods. Social norms and custom govern gift exchange, Gifts are not given in an explicit exchange of goods or services for money or some other commodity. The nature of gift economies forms the subject of a debate in anthropology. Anthropological research into gift economies began with Bronisław Malinowskis description of the Kula ring in the Trobriand Islands during World War I. The Kula trade appeared to be gift-like since Trobrianders would travel great distances over dangerous seas to give what were considered valuable objects without any guarantee of a return. According to anthropologists Maurice Bloch and Jonathan Parry, it is the relationship between market and non-market exchange that attracts the most attention. Gift economies are said, by some, to communities. Gift ideology in highly commercialized societies differs from the typical of non-market societies. Gift economies must also be differentiated from several closely related phenomena, such as common property regimes, however, he claims that anthropologists, through analysis of a variety of cultural and historical forms of exchange, have established that no universal practice exists. Gift exchange is frequently embedded in political, kin, or religious institutions, gift-giving is a form of transfer of property rights over particular objects. The nature of property rights varies from society to society, from culture to culture. The nature of gift-giving is thus altered by the type of property regime in place, property is not a thing, but a relationship amongst people about things. According to Chris Hann, property is a relationship that governs the conduct of people with respect to the use. Anthropologists analyze these relationships in terms of a variety of actors bundle of rights over objects, an example is the current debates around intellectual property rights. Hann and Strangelove both give the example of a book, over which the author retains a copyright. The gifts given in Kula exchange still remain, in some respects, in the example used above, copyright is one of those bundled rights that regulate the use and disposition of a book. Gift-giving in many societies is complicated because private property owned by an individual may be limited in scope
7.
Stateless society
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A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state, or, especially in common American English, has no government. Stateless societies are highly variable in economic organization and cultural practices, while stateless societies were probably the norm in human prehistory, few stateless societies exist today, almost the entire global population resides within the jurisdiction of a sovereign state. In some regions nominal state authorities may be weak and wield little or no actual power. Over the course of history most stateless peoples have been integrated into the state-based societies around them, some political philosophies, particularly anarchism, consider the state an unwelcome institution and stateless societies the ideal. In archaeology, cultural anthropology and history, a stateless society denotes a complex human community without a state, such as a tribe, a clan. An additional criterion is population size, the bigger the population, the more relationships have to be reckoned with. Indeed, one of the functions of the state is the defense of territory. Nevertheless, there are exceptions, Lawrence Krader for example describes the case of the Tatar state, characteristically the state functionaries are mainly not self-supporting, but rather materially supported and financed by taxes and tributes contributed by the rest of the working population. Such permanent surpluses were not produced on a significant scale in smaller tribal or clan societies. Similarly, in the earliest large-scale human settlements of the age which have been discovered, such as Çatal Höyük and Jericho. The Çatal Höyük settlement of a farming community spanned circa 13 hectares, modern state-based societies regularly pushed out stateless indigenous populations as their settlements expanded. Uncontacted peoples may be considered remnants of prehistoric stateless societies, to varying extents they may be unaware of and unaffected by the states that have nominal authority over their territory. Some political philosophies consider the state undesirable, and thus consider the formation of a society a goal to be achieved. A central tenet of anarchism is the advocacy of society without states, the type of society sought for varies significantly between anarchist schools of thought, ranging from extreme individualism to complete collectivism. In Marxism, Marxs theory of the state considers that in a post-capitalist society the state, a related concept is that of stateless communism, a phrase sometimes used to describe Marxs anticipated post-capitalist society. Anthropologists have found that social stratification is not the standard among all societies, in many stateless societies, conflicts between families or individuals are resolved by appealing to the community. Each of the sides of the dispute will voice their concerns, even when there is no legal or coercive authority to enforce these community decisions, people tend to adhere to them, due to a desire to be held in esteem by the community
8.
Wage slavery
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Wage slavery refers to a situation where a persons livelihood depends on wages or a salary, especially when the dependence is total and immediate. It is a term used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labor by focusing on similarities between owning and renting a person. Similarities between wage labor and slavery were noted as early as Cicero in Ancient Rome, before the American Civil War, Southern defenders of African American slavery invoked the concept of wage slavery to favorably compare the condition of their slaves to workers in the North. The United States abolished slavery after the Civil War, but labor union activists found the metaphor useful, according to Lawrence Glickman, in the Gilded Age, References abounded in the labor press, and it is hard to find a speech by a labor leader without the phrase. The introduction of labor in 18th century Britain was met with resistance. Historically, some organizations and individual social activists have espoused workers self-management or worker cooperatives as possible alternatives to wage labor. The view that working for wages is akin to slavery dates back to the ancient world, in 1763, the French journalist Simon Linguet published a description of wage slavery, The slave was precious to his master because of the money he had cost him. They were worth at least as much as they could be sold for in the market. It is the impossibility of living by any means that compels our farm labourers to till the soil whose fruits they will not eat. It is want that compels them to go down on their knees to the man in order to get from him permission to enrich him. What effective gain the suppression of slavery brought He is free, the most terrible, the most imperious of masters, that is, need. They must therefore find someone to hire them, or die of hunger, the view that wage work has substantial similarities with chattel slavery was actively put forward in the late 18th and 19th centuries by defenders of chattel slavery, and by opponents of capitalism. Some defenders of slavery, mainly from the Southern slave states argued that Northern workers were free but in name – the slaves of endless toil, and that their slaves were better off. In this period, Henry David Thoreau wrote that t is hard to have a Southern overseer, it is worse to have a Northern one, some abolitionists in the United States regarded the analogy as spurious. They believed that workers were neither wronged nor oppressed. The abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass initially declared, now I am my own master, no more crafty and effective devise for defrauding the southern laborers could be adopted than the one that substitutes orders upon shopkeepers for currency in payment of wages. It has the merit of a show of honesty, while it puts the laborer completely at the mercy of the land-owner, self-employment became less common as the artisan tradition slowly disappeared in the later part of the 19th century. In 1869 The New York Times described the system of labor as a system of slavery as absolute if not as degrading as that which lately prevailed at the South
9.
Workers' self-management
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Self-management or workers self-management is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organizations workforce. There are many variations of self-management, an enterprise that is self-managed is referred to as a labour-managed firm. Self-management refers to control rights within an organization, being distinct from the questions of ownership. An economic system consisting of self-managed enterprises is sometimes referred to as a participatory economy, the major proponents of self-managed market socialism in the 20th century include the economists Benjamin Ward, Jaroslav Vanek and Branko Horvat. The Ward-Vanek model of self-management involves the diffusion of entrepreneurial roles amongst all the partners of the enterprise, according to Horvat, these developments are moving the world toward a self-governing socialistic mode of organization. In the economic theory of self-management, workers are no longer employees, contemporary proponents of self-management include the American Marxist economist Richard D. Wolff and Anarchist Philosopher Noam Chomsky. The theory of the labor manager firm explains the behavior, performance, although self-managed firms can coincide with worker ownership, the two are distinct concepts, and one need not imply the other. According to traditional economic theory, in a competitive market economy. In Western market economies, despite their advantages in efficiency, the firm is comparatively rare. Benjamin Ward critiqued the labor managed firms objective function, the objective function of the labor managed firm creates an incentive to limit employment in order to boost the net income of the firms existing members. An economy consisting of labor-managed firms would thus have a tendency to under-utilize labor, in the 19th century, the idea of a self-managed economy was first fully articulated by the anarchist philosopher and economist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. This economic model was called mutualism to highlight the relationship among individuals in this system. Karl Marx championed the idea of an association of producers as a characteristic of communist society. This concept is related to the Marxist idea of transcending alienation, in his book Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel H. Pink argues on the basis of evidence that self-management/self-directed processes, mastery, worker autonomy. French trade-union CFDT included worker self-management in its 1970 program, before abandoning it. The philosophy of workers self-management has been promoted by the Industrial Workers of the World since its founding in the United States in 1905, such critics suggest that capitalism is more than a relationship of management. Guild socialism is a movement advocating workers control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds in an implied contractual relationship with the public
10.
World revolution
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World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class. The end goal of such internationally oriented revolutionary socialism is to achieve world socialism, particularly in the years 1918-1919, it seemed plausible that capitalism would soon be swept from the European continent forever. Given the fact that European powers controlled the majority of Earths land surface at the time, such an event could have meant the end of not just in Europe. With the prospect of world revolution so close at hand, Marxists were dominated by a feeling of overwhelming optimism, the European revolutions were crushed one by one, until eventually the Russian revolutionaries found themselves to be the only survivors. After those events and up until the present day, the situation never came quite so close to a world revolution again. However, none managed to finish in first and form a government, communist parties in Eastern Europe, meanwhile, though they did win elections at around the same time, Western media criticized the lack of liberal democratic elements in their rise to power. Many groups, however, such as the Progressive Labor Party, still pursue the goal of worldwide communist revolution. Communist revolution Proletarian internationalism Revolutionary wave Stateless communism Social Patriotism Workers of the world, unite
11.
History of communism
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Most modern forms of communism are based upon Marxism, a variant of the ideology formed by the sociologist Karl Marx in the 1840s. Some religious societies that have stressed egalitarianism and common ownership of goods have been described as communist, including early Christianity, however various left communist groups emerged who, to varying degrees, disputed the communist nature of the new state. Over the ensuing decades, governments using the Communist name obtained power in parts of the world, including most of eastern Europe, eastern Asia. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, most of these Communist regimes fell from power, in some cases, nominally Communist governments themselves adopted capitalistic policies, such as in the People’s Republic of China. Today, in addition to China, nominal Communist governments rule Cuba, Vietnam and his friend and contemporary author Restif de la Bretonne also describes him as a communist in one of his books. Socialism is also a word which is essentially the same as communism, however, the semantic evolution of these two words has led them to contain different associations. Infused the terms with their own political orientation, many historical groups have been considered as following forms of communism. Early Christianity supported a form of common ownership based on the teachings in the New Testament which emphasised sharing amongst everyone, other ancient Jewish sects, like the Essenes, also supported egalitarianism and communal living. In Europe during the Early Modern period, various groups supporting communist ideas appeared, tommaso Campanellas 1601 work The City of the Sun propagated the concept of a society where the products of society should be shared equally. The latter was involved in the Conspiracy of the Equals of 1796 intending to establish a regime based on communal ownership, egalitarianism. The plot was detected and he and several others involved were arrested and executed. Communism is the riddle of history solved, and it knows itself to be this solution, Marx was financially aided and supported by another German émigré, Friedrich Engels, who, like Marx, had fled from the German authorities in 1849. Engels regularly met Marx at Chethams Library in Manchester, England from 1845 and it was here Engels relayed his experiences of industrial Manchester, chronicled in the Condition of the Working Class in England, highlighting the struggles of the working class. He then published The Communist Manifesto in 1848, which would prove to be one of the most influential communist texts ever written. During the latter half of the 19th century, various left-wing organisations across Europe continued to campaign against the many autocratic right-wing regimes that were then in power, in 1890, the party was re-legalised, and by this time it had fully adopted Marxist principles. It subsequently achieved a fifth of the vote in the German elections, nonetheless, the new political ideology had gained sufficient support that an organisation was founded known as the Second International to unite the various Marxist groups around the world. Criticism also came from other sociologists, such as the German Max Weber, the Cominterns historical existence is divided among periods, regarding changes in the general policy it followed. The War Communism period which saw the forming of the International and these years also saw the complete subordination of all Communist Parties across the world to the directives of the Soviet Party, making the Comintern more or less an organ of the CPSU
12.
Communist state
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A communist state is a state that is usually administered and governed by a single party representing the proletariat, guided by Marxist–Leninist philosophy, with the aim of achieving communism. The term Communist state is used by Western historians, political scientists, Communist states can be administered by a single, centralised party apparatus, although countries such as the DPRK have several parties. These parties usually are Marxist–Leninist or some variation thereof, with the aim of achieving socialism. Marx saw that in his time, the new nation states were characterized by increasingly intensified class contradiction between the capitalist class and the working class it ruled over. The state ruled by the class during the transition into classless society is called the dictatorship of the proletariat. Vladimir Lenin created revolutionary vanguard theory in an attempt to expand on the concept, during the 20th century, the worlds first constitutionally socialist state was in Russia in 1917. In 1922, it joined other territories of the empire to become the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. After World War II, the Soviet Army occupied much of Eastern Europe, most Communist states in Eastern Europe were allied with the USSR, except for Yugoslavia which declared itself non-aligned. In 1949, after a war against Japanese occupation and a war resulting in a Communist victory. Communist states were established in Cuba, Vietnam, Laos. A Communist state was established in North Korea, although it withdrew from the Communist movement. In 1989, the Communist states in Eastern Europe collapsed under pressure during a wave of non-violent movements which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today, the existing Communist states in the world are in China, Cuba, Laos, Communist states share similar institutions, which are organized on the premise that the Communist party is a vanguard of the proletariat and represents the long-term interests of the people. The doctrine of democratic centralism, which was developed by Vladimir Lenin as a set of principles to be used in the affairs of the communist party, is extended to society at large. When used within a party, democratic centralism is meant to prevent factionalism. When applied to a state, democratic centralism creates a one-party system. The constitutions of most socialist states describe their system as a form of democracy. Thus, they recognize the sovereignty of the people as embodied in a series of parliamentary institutions
13.
Anarcho-communism
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Some anarcho-communists view anarcho-communism as a way of reconciling the opposition between the individual and society. Anarcho-communism developed out of radical socialist currents after the French Revolution, the theoretical work of Peter Kropotkin took importance later as it expanded and developed pro-organizationalist and insurrectionary anti-organizationalist sections. To date, the examples of anarchist communist societies were the anarchist territories during the Spanish Revolution. Anarchist communist currents appeared during the English Civil War and the French Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries, an early anarchist communist was Joseph Déjacque, the first person to describe himself as libertarian. Unlike Proudhon, he argued that, it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, returning to New York he was able to serialise his book in his periodical Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement social. Published in 27 issues from June 9,1858 to February 4,1861 and this was the first anarchist journal to use the term libertarian. The French anarchist journalist Sébastien Faure, later founder and editor of the four-volume Anarchist Encyclopedia, started the weekly paper Le Libertaire in 1895. He saw anarchic initiative, reasoned will and the autonomy of each as the conditions for the revolution of the proletariat. In Déjacques view, a government resulting from an insurrection remains a reactionary fetter on the initiative of the proletariat. As Bakunins associate, James Guillaume, put it in his essay, Ideas on Social Organization, When production comes to outstrip consumption. But, Errico Malatesta stated that instead of running the risk of making a confusion in trying to distinguish what you and I each do, let us all work, the federal congress at Florence has eloquently demonstrated the opinion of the Italian International on this point. The above report was made in an article by Malatesta and Cafiero in the Jura Federations bulletin later that year, Peter Kropotkin, often seen as the most important theorist of anarchist communism, outlined his economic ideas in The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops. Kropotkin felt that cooperation is more beneficial than competition, arguing in his scientific work Mutual Aid. Aims of life vary with each and every individual, and the society is civilized, the more will individuality be developed. He supported the expropriation of property into the commons or public goods. Some support a form of trade in the form of non-monetary commons. Others such as Tiziana Terranova easily see anarcho-communism being compatible with a non-hierarchical, open access, free association, so between 1880 and 1890 with the perspective of an immanent revolution, who was opposed to the official workers movement, which was then in the process of formation. They were opposed not only to political struggles but also to strikes which put forward wage or other claims, but While they were not opposed to strikes as such, they were opposed to trade unions and the struggle for the eight-hour day
14.
Marxism
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It originates from the mid-to-late 19th century works of German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As the contradiction becomes apparent to the proletariat through the alienation of labor, Marxism has since developed into different branches and schools of thought, and there is now no single definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has been adopted by a number of academics and theorists working in various disciplines. Critics have taken issue with particular Marxist claims or accused Marxism as a whole of being inconsistent, refuted based on new information. The Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of the material conditions, the economic system and these social relations form a base and superstructure. As forces of production, most notably technology, improve, existing forms of social organization become inefficient, from forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution and these inefficiencies manifest themselves as social contradictions in society in the form of class struggle. Under the capitalist mode of production, this struggle materializes between the minority who own the means of production, and the vast majority of the population who produce goods, the socialist system would succeed capitalism as humanitys mode of production through workers revolution. According to Marxism, especially arising from crisis theory, socialism is a historical necessity, in a socialist society private property, in the form of the means of production, would be replaced by co-operative ownership. A socialist economy would not base production on the creation of private profits, Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand. The historical materialist theory of history analyses the causes of societal development. All constituent features of a society are assumed to stem from economic activity, the base and superstructure metaphor portrays the totality of social relations by which humans produce and re-produce their social existence. According to Marx, The sum total of the forces of production accessible to men determines the condition of society and this relationship is reflexive, at first the base gives rise to the superstructure and remains the foundation of a form of social organization. As Friedrich Engels clarified, The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles, accordingly, Marx designated human history as encompassing four stages of development in relations of production. Primitive Communism, as in tribal societies. Slave Society, a development of tribal to city-state, aristocracy is born, feudalism, aristocrats are the ruling class, merchants evolve into capitalists. Capitalism, capitalists are the class, who create and employ the proletariat. According to the Marxist theoretician and revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, the content of Marxism was Marxs economic doctrine
15.
Christian communism
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Christian communism is a form of religious communism based on Christianity. It is a theological and political theory based upon the view that the teachings of Jesus Christ compel Christians to support communism as the social system. As such, many advocates of Christian communism argue that it was taught by Jesus, Christian communism can be seen as a radical form of Christian socialism. Christian communists may or may not agree with various parts of Marxism, Christian communists also share some of the political goals of Marxists, for example replacing capitalism with socialism, which should in turn be followed by communism at a later point in the future. However, Christian communists sometimes disagree with Marxists on the way a socialist or communist society should be organized, in general, Christian communism evolved independently of Marxism, and most Christian communists share the conclusions but not the underlying premises of Marxist communists. Christian Communists have adapted many of Karl Marxs social and economic ideologies to their system of communism. This includes belief of capitalism exploiting the working class and they do not agree with his atheistic views. Thomas J. Hagerty was a Catholic priest from New Mexico, USA, haggerty is credited with authoring the IWW Preamble, assisting in writing the Industrial Union Manifesto and drawing up the first chart of industrial organization. He became a Marxist before his ordination in 1892 and was influenced by anarcho-syndicalism. Haggertys formal association with the church ended when he was suspended by his archbishop for urging miners in Colorado to revolt during his tour of mining camps in 1903, ernst Bloch was a German Marxist philosopher and atheist theologian. Although not a Christian himself, he is said to have bridged the gap between Christian communism and the Leninist branch of Marxism. One of Blochs major works, the Principle of Hope, contains such declarations as, Ubi Lenin, ibi Jerusalem, diane Drufenbrock was a Franciscan nun and Socialist Party USA member. She was the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party USA in the United States presidential election,1980 and she worked as a teacher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Camilo Torres Restrepo was often considered to be a Christian Communist due to his attempts, as a priest, to reconcile Roman Catholicism with Marxism and he was a key person for Liberation Theology, which was called Communist by both the Vatican and the US government. Christian communists hold the Biblical verse Acts 4, 32-35 as evidence that the first Christians lived in a communist society, Acts 4, 32-35 reads, All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, with great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Gods grace was so powerfully at work in all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet, also, each according to his abilities has Biblical origins too. Act 11,29 states,29 Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, and To each according to his needs is Biblical, too
16.
International Workingmen's Association
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It was founded in 1864 in a workmens meeting held in St Martins Hall, London. Its first congress was held in 1866 in Geneva, in Europe, a period of harsh reaction followed the widespread Revolutions of 1848. The next major phase of activity began almost twenty years later with the founding of the IWA in 1864. At its peak, the IWA reported having 8 million members, in 1872 the organization split in two over conflicts between communist and anarchist factions. The Second International was founded in 1889, following the January Uprising in Poland in 1863, French and British workers started to discuss developing a closer working relationship. Henri Tolain, Perrachon, and Limousin visited London in July 1863, here there was discussion of the need for an international organization, which would, amongst other things, prevent the import of foreign workers to break strikes. On September 28, an international meeting for the reception of the French delegates took place in St. Martin’s Hall in London. Included among the last-mentioned of this band was a somewhat obscure 46-year-old émigré journalist, Karl Marx. The positivist historian Edward Spencer Beesly, a professor at London University, was in the chair, george Odger, Secretary of the London Trades Council, read a speech calling for international co-operation. The meeting unanimously decided to found an organisation of workers. The centre was to be in London, directed by a committee of 21, the French members were Denoual, Victor Le Lubez, and Bosquet. Other members were, Louis Wolff, Johann Eccarius, and at the foot of the list, Marx participated in his individual capacity, and did not speak during the meeting. This subcommittee deferred the task of writing in favor of sole authorship by Marx. On October 5, the General Council was formed with co-opted additional members representing other nationalities and it was based at the headquarters of the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes at 18 Greek Street. Wolff left for Italy, and Lubez rewrote it in a way which appalled Marx, through deft manipulation of the sub-committee Marx was left with all the papers, and set about writing the Address to the Working Classes to which was attached a simplified set of rules. At first the IWA had mostly male membership, although in April 1865 it was agreed that women could become members, the initial leadership was exclusively male. On 25 June 1867 Law was admitted to the General Council, due to the wide variety of philosophies present in the First International, there was conflict from the start. The first objections to Marxs influence came from the Mutualists who opposed communism and statism, however, shortly after Mikhail Bakunin and his followers joined in 1868, the First International became polarised into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads
17.
Communist International
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The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization that advocated world communism. The Comintern had seven World Congresses between 1919 and 1935 and it also had thirteen Enlarged Plenums of its governing Executive Committee, which had much the same function as the somewhat larger and more grandiose Congresses. The Comintern was officially dissolved by Joseph Stalin in 1943, while the differences had been evident for decades, World War I proved the issue that finally divided the revolutionary and reformist wings of the workers movement. The socialist movement had been historically antimilitarist and internationalist, and therefore opposed workers serving as fodder for the bourgeois governments at war. This especially since the Triple Alliance comprised two empires, while the Triple Entente gathered France and Britain into an alliance with Russia, karl Marxs The Communist Manifesto had stated that the working class has no country and exclaimed Proletarians of all countries, unite. Massive majorities voted in favor of resolutions for the Second International to call upon the working class to resist war if it were declared. Nevertheless, within hours of the declarations of war, almost all the socialist parties of the combatant states announced their support for the war, the only exceptions were the socialist parties of the Balkans. To Lenins surprise, even the Social Democratic Party of Germany voted in favor of war credits, Socialist parties in neutral countries mostly supported neutrality rather than total opposition to the war. The International divided into a left and a reformist right. Lenin condemned much of the center as social-pacifists for several reasons, Lenins term social-pacifist aimed in particular at Ramsay MacDonald, leader of the Independent Labour Party in Britain, who opposed the war on grounds of pacifism, but did not actively resist it. Discredited by its passivity towards world events, the Second International dissolved in the middle of the war in 1916, the victory of the Russian Communist Party in the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 was felt throughout the world. An alternative path to power to parliamentary politics was demonstrated, with much of Europe on the verge of economic and political collapse in the aftermath of the carnage of the Great War, revolutionary sentiments were widespread. The Bolsheviks believed that required a new international to ferment revolution in Europe. The Comintern was founded at a Congress held in Moscow March 2–6,1919, there were 52 delegates present from 34 parties. They decided to form an Executive Committee with representatives of the most important sections, the Congress decided that the Executive Committee would elect a five-member bureau to run the daily affairs of the International. However, such a bureau was not formed and Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev was assisted by Angelica Balabanoff, acting as the secretary of the International, Victor L. Kibaltchitch and Vladmir Ossipovich Mazin. Lenin, Trotsky and Alexandra Kollontai presented material, the main topic of discussion was the difference between bourgeois democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The central policy of the Comintern under Lenins leadership was that Communist parties should be established across the world to aid the international proletarian revolution, in this period, the Comintern was promoted as the General Staff of the World Revolution
18.
Fourth International
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Thus, Trotskyists founded their own, competing Fourth International. Today, there is no longer a single, cohesive Fourth International, ideologically, Maoists, left communists, and anarchists all consider Trotskyism, and thus also the Fourth International, to be ideologically bankrupt and impotent. Quite a few of these carry the label Fourth Internationalist either in their organisations name, major political position documents. It has not succeeded in capitalizing on the renewed interest in socialism, the FI suffered a major split in 1940 and an even more significant split in 1953. A partial reunification occurred in 1963, but the international never recovered enough to re-emerge as a single transnational grouping, Trotskyists regard themselves as working in opposition to both capitalism and Stalinism. This theory was advanced in opposition to the held by the Stalinists that socialism in one country could be built in the Soviet Union alone. Furthermore, Trotsky and his supporters criticised the increasingly totalitarian nature of Joseph Stalins rule. They argued that socialism without democracy is impossible, thus, faced with the increasing lack of democracy in the Soviet Union, they concluded that it was no longer a socialist workers state, but a degenerated workers state. Trotsky and his supporters had been organised since 1923 as the Left Opposition and they opposed the bureaucratisation of the Soviet Union, which they analysed as being partly caused by the poverty and isolation of the Soviet economy. Prior to 1924, the Bolsheviks international perspective had been guided by Trotskys position, Trotsky argued that Stalins theory represented the interests of bureaucratic elements in direct opposition to the working class. Eventually Trotsky was sent into exile and his supporters were jailed. The Left Opposition, however, continued to work in secret within the Soviet Union, Trotsky was eventually exiled to Turkey. He moved from there to France, Norway, and finally to Mexico and he was assassinated on Stalins orders in Mexico, by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish-born Soviet agent in August 1940. A political international is an organisation of political parties or activists with the aim of co-ordinating their activity for a common purpose, after the International Workingmens Association disbanded in 1876, several attempts were made to revive the organisation, culminating in the formation of the Socialist International in 1889. This, in turn, was disbanded in 1916 following disagreements over World War I and this was organised on a democratic centralist basis, with component parties required to fight for policies adopted by the body as a whole. By declaring themselves the Fourth International, the World Party of Socialist Revolution, the Trotskyists were publicly asserting their continuity with the Comintern and their recognition of the importance of these earlier Internationals was coupled with a belief that they eventually degenerated. Trotsky believed that its formation was all the more urgent for the role he saw it playing in the impending World War, in the early 1930s, Trotsky and his supporters believed that Stalins influence over the Third International could still be fought from within and slowly rolled back. They organised themselves into the International Left Opposition in 1930, which was intended to be a group of anti-Stalinist dissenters within the Third International, Stalins supporters, who dominated the International, would no longer tolerate dissent
19.
Thomas More
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Sir Thomas More, venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532 and he also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther, More also opposed the Kings separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason, of his execution, he was reported to have said, I die the Kings good servant, but Gods first. Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr, Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians. Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr, the Soviet Union honoured him for the Communist attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia. From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, Morton enthusiastically supported the New Learning, and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford, More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek, More left Oxford after only two years—at his fathers insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery. In 1496, More became a student at Lincolns Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, according to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk. Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London, although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year. In spite of his choice to pursue a career, More continued ascetic practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin. A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints, More married Jane Colt in 1505. She was five years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured, Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature. The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511, Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, going against friends advice and common custom, within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends. He certainly expected a mother to care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an economic union, he chose a rich widow. More was not viewed as being in haste to remarry for the gratification of sexual pleasure, as Alice was older than he, and their marriage was possibly not consummated. The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, Alice More lacked Janes docility, Mores friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a hook-nosed harpy
20.
Tommaso Campanella
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Tommaso Campanella OP, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was a Dominican friar, Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. Born in Stignano in the province of Reggio di Calabria in Calabria, southern Italy, son of a poor and illiterate cobbler, he entered the Dominican Order before the age of fourteen, taking the name of fra Tommaso in honour of Thomas Aquinas. He studied theology and philosophy with several masters, Campanella wrote his first work, Philosophia sensibus demonstrata, published in 1592, in defence of Telesio. In 1590 he was in Naples where he was initiated in astrology, campanellas heterodox views, especially his opposition to the authority of Aristotle, brought him into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities. Denounced to the Inquisition, he was arrested in Padua in 1594 and cited before the Holy Office in Rome, after his liberation, Campanella returned to Calabria, where he was accused of leading a conspiracy against the Spanish rule in his hometown of Stilo. Betrayed by two of his conspirators, he was captured and incarcerated in Naples, where he was tortured on the rack. He made a confession and would have been put to death if he had not feigned madness. He was tortured further and then, crippled and ill, was sentenced to life imprisonment, Campanella spent twenty-seven years imprisoned in Naples, in various fortresses. He defended Galileo Galilei in his first trial with his work The Defense of Galileo, be warned that while yours truly does state the thoroughly-forbidden opinion of the motion of the earth, you are not obliged to believe the reasons of those who contradict you. I doubt violence to people who do not know, the present Pope likely has not made his mind in this case. Campanella was finally released from his prison in 1626, through Pope Urban VIII, taken to Rome and held for a time by the Holy Office, Campanella was restored to full liberty in 1629. He lived for five years in Rome, where he was Urbans advisor in astrological matters, in 1634, however, a new conspiracy in Calabria, led by one of his followers, threatened fresh troubles. With the aid of Cardinal Barberini and the French Ambassador de Noailles, he fled to France, protected by Cardinal Richelieu and granted a liberal pension by the king, he spent the rest of his days in the convent of Saint-Honoré in Paris. His last work was a poem celebrating the birth of the future Louis XIV and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Campanella, Tommaso. Works in English translations The City of the Sun, A Poetical Dialogue between a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitallers and a Genoese Sea-Captain, his guest, translated to English by editor Henry Morley, Project Gutenberg. Sonnets of Michelangelo Buonarrotti and Tommaso Campanella,1878, translated into Rhymed English, by John Addington Symonds, author of Renaissance in Italy
21.
Robert Owen
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Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. He worked in the industry in Manchester before setting up a large mill at New Lanark in Scotland. In 1824, Owen travelled to America to invest the bulk of his fortune in an experimental 1, 000-member colony on the banks of Indianas Wabash River, New Harmony was intended to be a Utopian society. Robert Owen was born in Newtown a small town in Montgomeryshire, Mid Wales. He was the sixth of seven children and his father, also named Robert Owen, had a small business as a saddler and ironmonger. Owens mother came from a farming family called Williams. There Owen received almost all his education, which ended at the age of ten. In 1787, after serving in a shop for some years. He moved to Manchester, and was employed at Satterfields Drapery in St Anns Square, with money borrowed from his brother he set up a workshop making spinning mules but exchanged the business for 6 spinning mules, which he operated in a rented space. His entrepreneurial spirit, management skill and progressive moral views were emerging by the early 1790s, in 1793, he was elected as a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, where the ideas of reformers and philosophers of the Enlightenment were discussed. During a visit to Scotland, Owen fell in love with Caroline Dale, Owen convinced his partners to buy New Lanark, and after his marriage to Caroline in September 1799, he made his home there. He was a manager and part-owner of the mills, encouraged by his success in the management of cotton mills in Manchester, he hoped to conduct New Lanark on higher principles than purely commercial ones. The mill of New Lanark had been started in 1785 by David Dale, the water power provided by the falls of the River Clyde made it a great attraction. About 2,000 people had associations with the mills,500 of whom were brought at the age of five or six from the poorhouses and charities of Edinburgh. The children were treated by Dale, but the general condition of the people was unsatisfactory. Many of the workers were in the lowest levels of the population, theft, drunkenness, and other vices were common, education and sanitation were neglected, the respectable country people refused to submit to the long hours and demoralising drudgery of the mills. Many employers operated the system, and paid workers in part or totally by tokens. These tokens had no value outside the mill owners truck shop, the owners could supply shoddy goods to the truck shop and charge top prices
22.
Wilhelm Weitling
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Wilhelm Christian Weitling was a German-born tailor, inventor, and radical political activist. Weitling gained fame in Europe as a social theorist before emigrating to the United States, Wilhelm Christian Weitling was born in Magdeburg, Prussia, the son of Christiane Weitling and Guilliaume Terijon. Weitlings father was a young French officer who was billeted in occupied Prussia, who met and fell in love with Weitlings mother and his parents never married, with his father dying in the ill-fated 1812 French invasion of Russia. Weitling was raised in poverty, frequently in the care of others while his mother eked out a meager living as a maid. His formal education was minimal, limited to study in the public school of Magdeburg. He was raised as a Roman Catholic through the age of 12, in keeping with the dual ethnicity of his birth, Weitling was bilingual in French and German, learning English as well as the basics of Italian later in his life. Weitling was apprenticed to a tailor at an age, living with his master. He became a journeyman at the age of 18, leaving his hometown to travel across the German states in search of employment. He landed in the city of Leipzig in 1830, where he began to take an interest in politics and he made his way to Dresden in the fall of 1832 and from there to Vienna in 1834, where he worked fabricating artificial flowers and decorations for womens clothing. In the fall of 1837 Weitling emigrated to Paris, a city which he had visited two years before. He would remain there for four years, becoming involved in the radical political ideas of the day, in particular the writings of Fourier, Owen. After joining the League of the Just in 1837, Weitling joined Parisian workers in protests, a prelapsarian community of goods, fellowship, and societal harmony would then ensue, directed by Weitling himself. Much to Marx and Engelss annoyance, Weitlings giddy blend of evangelism and protocommunism attracted thousands of dedicated disciples across the Continent. In 1838, he published his first work, Die Menschheit, wie sie ist und wie sie sein sollte, which was translated into Hungarian and other languages. In 1841, after the rebellion of the Blanquists, he went to Switzerland, visiting Geneva, Vevey and Langenthal in the Canton of Berne. At all these places, he promoted the doctrines of communism with his preaching and publications, Weitlings work Das Evangelium eines armen Sünders came out in 1845, but by this time the attention of the Swiss authorities had been attracted. Found guilty, he was given a six-month sentence, on his release, he was deported back to Prussia. He resided for a time in Hamburg, but then left on a journey which took him to London, Treves, Brussels, Weitlings 1847 book Gospel of Poor Sinners he traced communism back to early Christianity
23.
Karl Marx
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Karl Marx was a Prussian-born philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Born in Trier to a family, he later studied political economy. His work has influenced subsequent intellectual, economic, and political history. These economic critiques were set out in works such as the three volumes, published between 1867 and 1894, that comprise Das Kapital. According to Marx, states are run in the interests of the class but are nonetheless represented as being in favor of the common interest of all. He predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system, socialism. Marx actively fought for its implementation, arguing that the class should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism. Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and his work in economics laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and subsequent economic thought. Many intellectuals, labour unions, artists and political parties worldwide have been influenced by Marxs work, Marx is typically cited as one of the principal architects of modern sociology and social science. Karl Marx was born on 5 May 1818 to Heinrich Marx and he was born at Brückengasse 664 in Trier, a town then part of the Kingdom of Prussias Province of the Lower Rhine. Marx was ancestrally Jewish, his grandfather was a Dutch rabbi, while his paternal line had supplied Triers rabbis since 1723. Marx was also a cousin once removed of German Romantic poet Heinrich Heine, also born to a German Jewish family in the Rhineland. Largely non-religious, Heinrich was a man of the Enlightenment, interested in the ideas of the philosophers Immanuel Kant, a classical liberal, he took part in agitation for a constitution and reforms in Prussia, then governed by an absolute monarchy. In 1815 Heinrich Marx began work as an attorney, in 1819 moving his family to a property near the Porta Nigra. Her sister Sophie Pressburg, was Marxs aunt and was married to Lion Philips Marxs uncle through this marriage, Lion Philips was a wealthy Dutch tobacco manufacturer and industrialist, upon whom Karl and Jenny Marx would later often come to rely for loans while they were exiled in London. Little is known of Karl Marxs childhood, the third of nine children, he became the oldest son when his brother Moritz died in 1819. Young Karl was baptised into the Lutheran Church in August 1824 along with his siblings, Sophie, Hermann, Henriette, Louise, Emilie. Young Karl was privately educated, by Heinrich Marx, until 1830, by employing many liberal humanists as teachers, Wyttenbach incurred the anger of the local conservative government
24.
Friedrich Engels
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Friedrich Engels was a German philosopher, social scientist, journalist, and businessman. He founded Marxist theory together with Karl Marx, in 1845, he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research in Manchester. In 1848, he co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Marx, though he also authored and co-authored many other works, after Marxs death, Engels edited the second and third volumes. Additionally, Engels organised Marxs notes on the Theories of Surplus Value and he also made contributions to family economics. Friedrich Engels was born on 28 November 1820 in Barmen, Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, Barmen was an expanding industrial metropolis, and Friedrich was the eldest son of a wealthy German cotton textile manufacturer. His father, Friedrich, Sr. was a Pietistic Protestant, as he grew up, however, he developed atheistic beliefs and his relationship with his parents became strained. His mother wrote to him of her concerns, She said that he had gone too far. She continued, You have paid more heed to other people, to strangers, God alone knows what I have felt and suffered of late. I was trembling when I picked up the newspaper and saw therein that a warrant was out for my sons arrest, when his mother wrote, Engels was in hiding in Brussels, Belgium, soon to make his way to Switzerland. In 1849, he returned to the Kingdom of Bavaria for the Baden, at 17, Friedrich had dropped out of high school due to family circumstances. He spent a year in Barmen, in 1838, his father sent the young man to work as a nonsalaried office clerk at a commercial house in Bremen. His parents expected that he would follow his father into a career in business and it would be some years before he joined the family firm. Whilst at Bremen, Engels began reading the philosophy of Hegel, in September 1838, he published his first work, a poem entitled The Bedouin, in the Bremisches Conversationsblatt No.40. He also engaged in literary and journalistic work. Also while at Bremen, Engels began writing newspaper articles critiquing the societal ills of industrialisation and he wrote under a pseudonym, Friedrich Oswald, to avoid connecting his life in a Pietist industrialist family with his provocative writings. In 1841, Engels joined the Prussian Army as a member of the Household Artillery and he was assigned to Berlin, where he attended university lectures at the University of Berlin and began to associate with groups of Young Hegelians. He anonymously published articles in the Rheinische Zeitung, exposing the poor employment, the editor of the Rheinische Zeitung was Karl Marx. Engels did not meet Marx until late November 1842, Engels acknowledged the influence of German philosophy on his intellectual development throughout his life
25.
Peter Kropotkin
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Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian activist, scientist, and philosopher, who advocated anarchism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, he attended a school and later served as an officer in Siberia. He was imprisoned for his activism in 1874 and managed to escape two years later and he spent the next 41 years in exile in Switzerland, France and in England. He returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution in 1917 but was disappointed by the Bolshevik form of state socialism, Kropotkin was a proponent of a decentralised communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises. He also contributed the article on anarchism to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, Kropotkin was born in Moscow, into the second-highest level of the Russian aristocracy. His mother was the daughter of a Cossack general and his father, Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin, was a prince in Smolensk, of the Rurik dynasty which had ruled Russia before the rise of the Romanovs. Kropotkins father owned large tracts of land and nearly 1,200 male serfs in three provinces, nder the influence of republican teachings, Kropotkin dropped his princely title at age 12, and even rebuked his friends, when they so referred to him. In 1857, at age 14, Kropotkin enrolled in the Corps of Pages at St. Petersburg, Kropotkins memoirs detail the hazing and other abuse of pages for which the Corps had become notorious. In Moscow, Kropotkin developed an interest in the condition of the peasantry, although his work as a page for Tsar Alexander II made Kropotkin skeptical about the tsars liberal reputation, Kropotkin was greatly pleased by the tsars decision to emancipate the serfs in 1861. In St. Petersburg, he read widely on his own account, in 1862, Kropotkin was promoted from the Corps of Pages to the army. The members of the corps had the right to choose the regiment to which they would be attached. For some time, he was aide de camp to the governor of Transbaikalia at Chita, later he was appointed attaché for Cossack affairs to the governor-general of East Siberia at Irkutsk. The expeditions yielded valuable geographical results, in 1866, Kropotkin began reading the works of the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and other political thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Alexander Herzen. These readings, along with his experiences among peasants in Siberia and his departure from a family tradition of military service prompted his father to disinherit him, leaving him a prince with no visible means of support. In 1871, he explored the glacial deposits of Finland and Sweden for the Society, accordingly, he refused the offer and returned to St. Petersburg, where he joined the revolutionary party. Kropotkin visited Switzerland in 1872 and became a member of the International Workingmens Association at Geneva, however, he found that he did not like IWAs style of socialism. Instead, he studied the programme of the more radical Jura federation at Neuchâtel and spent time in the company of the leading members, on returning to Russia, Kropotkins friend Dmitri Klements introduced him to the Circle of Tchaikovsky, a socialist/populist group created in 1872. Kropotkin worked to spread propaganda among peasants and workers
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