Understanding Socialism Part 1: The difference between Marxism, Socialism and Communism

Understanding Socialism Part 1: The difference between Marxism, Socialism, and Communism.

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The idea of Socialism is something that has intrigued me since my high school days many years ago, not in the sense that I agree with it, at least not now. It was more in the sense of its influence on political regimes, particularly during the deadly 20^th century. I have come to the conclusion that most people do not fully understand socialist doctrine, the impact it has had on history, and how it affects even today’s modern societies. I do not pretend to know everything about Socialism, there is too much to know, and even today I am still learning. Also, there is so much that can be said that it is impossible to write everything, so instead I intend to cover what I believe are the main points and use examples that demonstrate these points. This blog is the first of at least four that I plan to write on the subject, however, this particular blog is about laying the foundations from which the subsequent blogs can build from.

There are three terms that generally come in the discussion of socialist doctrine, they are Marxism, Socialism, and Communism. Some use them interchangeably, however, they all have distinct definitions. In order to understand Socialism and why I am writing about this rather than Communism or Marxism, it is important to properly understand each of the terms individually. What is important to understand, however, is that they are all based on the principle of collectivism, in other words, it stresses the importance of the good for the collective group or society over the importance of the individual.

What is Marxism?

Marxism is the term given to the belief systems of Karl Marx. Karl Marx was a German journalist and philosopher born in Prussia in 1818. Marx held radical political beliefs from a young age and was expelled from both Germany and France for these beliefs. In 1848 with Friedrich Engels he published ‘The Communist Manifesto’, it is in this manifesto where Marx laid the platform for his Socialist and Communist beliefs.

Marxism is the overarching ideology that encompasses both Socialism and Communism, together they form his solution to the problems he saw in the capitalist system. It is important to understand that Marxist theory is the polar opposite of capitalism and that Marx sought to overthrow and replace capitalism. Marxism is more than just Socialism or Communism, Marx held a whole set of personal beliefs that he believed Socialism and Communism could fix. Some of these beliefs were cultural in nature as opposed to economic, which is where today’s Post-Modern Neo-Marxism has infiltrated western society (This will be covered in the 4^th installment of this series).

Most, if not all versions of Socialism seen implemented since Karl Marx, find the ancestry of their beliefs in the writings of Karl Marx. That is not to say that these ideologies did not exist before this time, as they did. There is much debate for example, over the French Revolution of 1789 as to whether it was a socialist revolution. My intention here is not to get into this argument as it is a very deep rabbit hole, it is more to point out that socialist sentiment did exist during the French Revolution and in fact was well and truly alive post-Industrial Revolution. What Karl Marx’s writings did, was articulate the set of core beliefs that could be used by those wishing to implement Socialist ideology. His writings became extraordinarily popular and are still read widely today.

The single most fundamental rule of Marxist theory is that there are only two classes of people, the oppressed and the oppressors. According to Marx, history is a constant battle between these two forces.

“Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed.”

This is a very important fact to understand in order to really understand Socialist theory, as all of its ideology rests upon this one principle.

Marx believed in the eradication of religion, as he believed it created a competition of thought, or ‘competition within the domain of knowledge’, creating the opportunity for oppressor and oppressed to continue in this domain. Likewise, Marx also believed in the eradication of the family unit, he believed the institution of marriage viewed wives as private property and a was a force for capitalist consumption, and also, that family taught hierarchy and was an institution for which wealth could be passed down from one generation to the next. Marx believed that by eradicating marriage and the family unit, he could remove this perceived avenue of cultivated cultural inequality. Children he believed could then be taught and brought up communally. Marx’s views on the family unit are particularly odd, as he himself was married with seven children.

There are a range of problems with Marx’s ideology that do not fit historical truths, also, assumptions about human nature that are false, all of these will be examined in a later blog. For a detailed understanding of Marx’s beliefs, the Communist Manifesto is a good place to start.

What is Communism?

The ideology of Communism has a number of components which are essential to its philosophy. For Karl Marx, Communism was the end game, it was the final step to his utopian society. Marx believed that it was too difficult to transition directly from the existing capitalist society to a Communist society, so he believed that the intermediate step would be to first transition to a Socialist society, then to a Communist society.

Whereas in a capitalist society, people can own property and own land. Communism seeks to eradicate any form of ownership and any form of hierarchy. It seeks to eliminate all ideas of class, including leaders. After reaching the state of Socialism, leaders would give up their positions of power and become one with the people. In a Communist society, all forms of production are owned by the people, and people contribute to society what they can, and take only what they need.

There are three essential requirements for a Communist society to exist:

•         Elimination of money
•         Elimination of class
•         Elimination of state

In a Communist society there is no need for money, as there is no buying or selling, likewise, there is no longer any class, as everyone is equal. The idea of a country is also done away with, there would be no borders, no boundaries and no nationalism.

When looking at the three requirements of a Communist society, you may ask whether there has in fact ever been a Communist nation. The answer is no, there has never been a Communist nation as defined by Marx’s definition of Communism. All of the countries that you have been brought up to believe were Communist, were in fact, Socialist. The leaders may well have believed initially in a Communist society, but once they took the first step to Socialism and were in power, were too reluctant to give that power up, so never made the final transition to Communism. The irony is, of course, the Marxists sought to overthrow the oppressors on behalf of the oppressed, in doing so, they themselves became the oppressors.

In reality, though, a Communist society is impossible. What if someone decided to believe in God? Someone has to be in power to punish those with thoughts and words that do not align with the Communist values. This is only one of the many problems that Marxist thought did not foresee, this problem, and other unforeseen problems with Marx's ideology lead to the death of close to 100 million people in the 20^th century.

What is Socialism?

Hopefully, by now the picture is becoming a little clearer, and you are starting to see that there is a difference between these three terminologies. Socialism was the intermediate phase of Marx’s plan to bring about his utopian society, the Socialists needed to take power in order to bring about the final transition into Communism. In order to bring about this Socialist society, revolutionaries needed to overthrow the existing ruling class and take power. Once in power they could take control of the means of production, by this I mean that they could take ownership of the farms, factories, and any privately-owned property. This is an important distinction from Communism, with Communism, the people own the means of production, in Socialism, the government owns the means of production.

Once in power, the government can begin to eliminate those in society who they believed were the oppressors, this could be the ruling class, business owners, and landowners. In Russia, this included thousands of farmers who only two generations prior were slaves under serfdom. The government can also begin to eliminate those who might be opposed, or do not believe in their agenda, this also means that the rights to free speech are removed and the press taken over by the government.

A system of collectivisation is generally implemented by the new ruling class, farm crops are taken from the farms and taken to a central location for distribution by the government as they see fit. It is very typical to see famine in a Socialist country within a decade of a Socialist government haven taken power. Venezuela is the latest example of this, with thousands in the country starving. It now also looks like South Africa may be the next victim, with the government passing legislation that will soon allow them to forcibly take farmland off white farmers with no compensation, a law that was proposed by a Marxist political party. There are reasons for why a famine generally takes place, and this will be discussed in a later blog.

I hope this post has been useful to help understand the difference between Marxism, Communism, and Socialism. Part 2 of this series will look at the history of Socialism in practice. Please leave your thoughts and questions in the feedback section of this post.