There has been some confusion, over quite a long time on GN, by posters who suggest or state that the Labour Party has Communist policies
This is so incorrect, I decided to explain what Communism actual was both in theory and in the "Communist" states we have had/do have.
. My parents were Communists - and have also studied politics and economics at uni.
We haven’t ever had a ‘true” Communist society, but these are the features:
No one, no one at all, owns any private property, nor owns any businesses, nor own any land, nor the means of production, nor goods beyond their needs.
All run by the state, which in theory was post a workers revolution, and workers co-operatives.
In the original communist theory:
People are paid not according to their abilities, but their needs.
All health and education and similar services are run by the state, no private opportunities at all.
All receive a state pension/welfare is necessary however much they have paid in, ie, again, according to need, not savings and so on.
Of course, the societies called Communist did not reach this theoretical Communism, but there was certainly no private ownership or other kinds of ownership as described as above: and health, education and welfare all run by the state.
Note - meals were provided at work, and schools and all welfare places, but there was only a few years when meals were communally provided for those who wanted
Most people, as we do, wanted to eat at home except for lunch or other work breaks, where food was still supplied, and did so, once the turmoil of revolution ended
*But States we called Communist were was not run by Worker’s Co-operatives, they were run by supposedly free elections -
- hence the rise of those in power as we have known them, and the KGB et al*
I suggest we stop using the term Communist unless it is accurate.
It as happened so many times I decided to explain, and will again.
So.....hence this thread.
