In a brief overview of just what communism is, I would highlight three things. First, politically it claims to represent everyone. Communism seeks to do away with class and interest groups, and in so doing seeks to end conflict in society. There is no more “us and them”. This is why communist states regard themselves as democratic even though they are one-party states because they maintain that as communism represents all classes and groups, no other parties are necessary. So, there is no need for a workers’ party or a middle-class party, neither is there a need for pressure groups, even trade unions; everyone is looked after. Ultimately, the state can ‘wither away’ as the state apparatus: laws, policing, etc is seen as only necessary when one class is seeking to assert itself over others.
Secondly, as far as the economic system is concerned, communism is a rejection of capitalism. It will get rid of private property and it will remove the profit motive. Marx said that ‘all property is theft’, meaning that property can’t be owned by one person, not even a group of people; it belongs to all of us. So, farms will be collectivised and factories, mines and the like will be nationalised. A ‘command economy’ will be instigated, the economy will produce what the state thinks its people need, i.e. what the state “commands”.
Thirdly, there will be equality in society. As Marx put it: ‘From each according to his ability; to each according to his needs.’ This applies to everything from housing, material possessions (communism isn’t necessarily against flat screen tv’s and the like) and to education, health care and provision for old age. Men and women are to be treated equally too – in theory!
So why do we end up with such authoritarian states: state terror, a massive secret police, party purges? The answer lies in what Marx called the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’. This is the necessary period between taking over the state and making it a communist state. It is a period when class enemies have to be got rid of and the rest of the people made ready for communism. The trouble is that the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, and the other communist states, never got past this period. Critics, however, would say there is an unrealistic vision, that goes against human nature (which itself can be debated), and there is the reality.