Talk:History of communism

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Contents

[edit] noname

I think that this material is pretty well covered in many other articles. This articel appreas to be an essay (without the references), does it need to be kept or should it be deleted --nixie 06:20, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Council of Europe about the Communism

http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta06/Eres1481.htm Xx236 14:39, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] from (September 28, 1939).

What does it mean? Xx236 14:20, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merger and redirecting?

The material in this article is covered far better in History of socialism, and both the Communism and Communist state articles have extensive history sections. I suggest moving all useful material to other articles (if it isn't already covered there) and making this a redirect to history of socialism. -- Nikodemos 01:06, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WCM

There is a discussion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/World Communist Movement about deleting that article, and incorporating material in this one. --Soman 15:22, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Transfer of text

This is the text of the abolished article World Communist Movement. Some it can probably be incorporated into this article, which is pretty inadequate.

The World Communist Movement is an informal community of certain Communist parties around the world. It evolved out of the Communist International, which was dissolved in 1943. The WCM does not consist of all parties claiming to be communist, and it excludes Trotskyist parties as well as many of the anti-revisonist Marxist-Leninist organizations (the latter generally refer to themselves as belonging to an uncentered International Communist Movement).

Broadly, the components of the WCM come out of the pro-Soviet Communist tradition. The general principle has been that one country hosts only one WCM member party. Exceptions from this rule were West Germany and Spain, which had separated regional CPs in West Berlin and Catalonia respectively.

However, the WCM has not been devoid of internal strife. Under the leadership of the Italian Communist Party, a eurocommunist countercurrent emerged. The eurocommunists did not however break away entirely from the WCM, but remained as a faction within. In some countries (such as Sweden, United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Spain, etc.) where eurocommunists at some point emerged victorious in the internal debates within the national parties, orthodox pro-Soviet forces organized separate communist parties, leading to situations when more than one party from one country was being represented in the WCM.

The downfall of the Soviet Union caused a severe political crisis to most pro-Soviet communist parties around the world. There were, however, clear national and regional differences in how the movement developed in the post-1989 situation.

During the Cold War a series of international and regional conferences and the international magazine World Marxist Review could be seen as gathering points of the WCM. Today, the role of gathering the movement has to some extent been taken over by the Communist Party of Greece, which hosts an annual meeting of communist parties.

[edit] Western Europe

During the Cold War years, CPs existed in all European countries, except for the ministates Andorra, Liechtenstein and the Vatican. In Iceland, communists had opted for participation in a broader party, the Alþýðubandalagið.

In Southern Europe, CPs emerged as major political forces during these years. In Italy, San Marino and France CPs competed for government power in the electoral processes. In Spain, Portugal and Greece, CPs formed the backbone of resistance to the repressive right-wing dictatorships, and after the downfall of these regimes the CPs became an important part of the electoral politics of each country.

In northern Europe, CPs did not develop into mass parties like in the Mediterranean countries, with the exception of Finland. CPs were however represented in most national parliaments during 1970´s-1980´s.

In Western Europe, the position of the eurocommunists was the strongest. Practically all parties had either eurocommunist majorities or minorities. Some parties such as the French Communist Party and the Communist Party of Spain switched between eurocommunist and more orthodox positions. The Communist Party of Greece was divided in two factions.

After 1989, some of the Western European CPs changed the character of their parties, towards a non-communist direction. Others maintained their communist character. The parties that abandonned communism did however evolve in very different directions, with some moving towards social democracy (like in Italy), left socialist positions (like in Sweden, Finland) and some even turned into Greens (like in the Netherlands).

[edit] Central and Eastern Europe

In all Central and Eastern European states, the governing CPs lost their position as leading parties in the post-1989 process, even though some were able to return to government after having transformed themselves.

In Albania, the Party of Labour of Albania had distanced themselves from the WCM much earlier on. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ) had a peculiar role, but was for most of the time excluded from the WCM. Some eurocommunist parties maintained contacts with SKJ.

The different Central and Eastern European CPs evolved in different ways in the post-1989 situation. Only in one country, the Czech Republic, did the CP remain as a communist party. In Eastern Germany, the SED evolved into the Party of Democratic Socialism, a strongly leftist socialist party. In other countries, the CPs turned into social democratic or democratic socialist parties. In response to this, new communist parties were formed which took the place of the old CPs in the WCM.

As for repressions carried out by the Communist parties during their more than 40 year reign in Eastern Europe, according to cautious estimations (exact data is not available) the number of people killed by in Eastern Europe is 1 million; among the countries most affected was Poland (an estimated 440 000 victims in 1939, including the assassination of the Polish officers prisoners of war in Katyn, in 1940), Estonia (175 000 victims including assassination of 800 officers which amounts to 17,5 % of the whole population), Lithuania, Latvia (119 000 victims), Besarabia and North Bukovina. [1]

[edit] Middle East

Communist parties exist or have existed in practically all countries in the region, except Libya and some small Gulf countries. In countries like Syria, Iraq, Iran and Bahrain, the communists played a major part in national politics, and were at various times contenders for state power. In most countries, however, (including some of the ones mentioned above, such as Iraq) communists have suffered under severe government repression. Another problem for the Middle Eastern communists were the tight connections between the Soviet Union and various Arab governments, which often put local communists in awkward positions. In general, the communists in the region have been severely weakened.

In several countries, the referrents of the WCM grew out of the Arab Nationalist Movement rather than the ComIntern. This is the case of the Yemeni Socialist Party (no longer a Marxist party today however), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman (today largely defunct) and the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia (today defunct).

The Palestine Communist Party has transformed itself into the Palestinian People's Party, but a minority left the party and retook the name PCP.

In the Maghreb countries, the CPs distanced themselves from their ideological origins. Parti de l'Avant-Garde Socialiste of Algeria became the Mouvement Démocratique et Social and the Tunisian Communist Party became the Mouvement de la Rénovation-Ettajdid. The Party of Progress and Socialism of Morocco has retained its name but is no longer a marxist-leninist party.

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) fused with the Workers Party of Turkey (TIP) to form the United Communist Party of Turkey (TBKP). TBKP made an attempt to register itself as a legal party, which failed. The people around TBKP later merged with the Freedom and Solidarity Party. The Party of Socialist Power (SIP) was renamed as TKP and has been granted the legal right to that name. This TKP today represents Turkey in the WCM. There are however several contenders to the name TKP, such as the Ürün(Harvest) group (which was formed out of elements of the original TKP).

[edit] Africa

In sub-Saharan Africa there were only a handful of original Communist Parties, a prominent example being the Communist Party of South Africa (later reconstructed as the South African Communist Party), which was the only ComIntern section in the region.

The French Communist Party established a small branch in Senegal in 1925, led by Roger Roche. The French cell did however disappear as it was unable to expand. It did not have any Senegalese members. In 1943 French communists started the Communist Study Groups (GEC), which gradually started attracting African intellectuals. Later PCF would, instead of attempting to aid the build-up of communist parties in the French African colonies, develop close relations to the African Democratic Rally (RDA). Many of the founders of RDA had their background in GEC and there was a strong Marxist current in RDA. In the French National Assembly, RDA MPs sat together with the PCF delegation. However, under the leadership of Félix Houphouët-Boigny RDA turned from militant agitations to a moderate pro-French stance, and the link with PCF was definitely broken by 1955. However, several of the former member parties of RDA, such as the Sudanese Union in Mali, Union of the Peoples of Cameroon and the Democratic Party of Guinea would continue on a socialist path.

In 1957 the first communist party was founded in French West Africa, the African Independence Party (PAI). PAI was initially based in Senegal, but later expanded. It would come to play an important role in Burkina Faso during the time of Thomas Sankara through its mass front Patriotic League for Development.

As the emerging national liberation movements started building closer political relations to the Soviet Union, several of these groups came to adopt a Leninist party model, even though they sometimes didn't formally adopt Marxism-Leninism as their ideological foundation. Many of these parties, which sometimes became the dominant party in their respective countries, would emerge as referents of the WCM. Prominent examples include the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) of Angola and the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) of Mozambique. However, following the fall of the Soviet Bloc these parties disassociated themselves from the WCM, and oriented themselves towards social democracy.

Today, the South African Communist Party is by far the most prominent African component of the WCM. Other CPs include the Party of Independence and Labour in Senegal (the original PAI) and the Communist Party of Lesotho.

According to cautious estimations at least 1.7 million people have been killed by communist regimes in Africa. [2]

[edit] East & South-East Asia

Communist parties have been established throughout the Far East region, and played an important role in most countries. In 1918, the revolution was victorious in Mongolia. The Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) had emerged out of the socialist organization in 1920. The Communist Party of China was established in 1921, and the Communist Party of Japan (later Japanese Communist Party) was established in 1922. The Comintern delegated the Indonesian communist Tan Malaka to build up the Comintern sections in the South-East Asian region, but this work gave little fruit. In 1925, the South Seas Communist Party was formed out of CPC exile units in South-East Asia. SSCP functioned as a preliminary organization before national CPs were formed. In 1930, the Indochina Communist Party was formed under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, and CPs were also formed in the Philippines, Siam, Malaya and Burma.

During the Second World War, communists were engaged in anti-fascist resistance struggles against Japanese occupations. This gave Asian communists military experiences and an expanding political base. At the end of the War, communists were in a much stronger position than before. Revolutions were victorious in China, North Korea and North Vietnam. Armed struggles began in Malaysia and Burma. In Indonesia, the PKI became a mass party, with a membership of around two million.

After the Sino-Soviet split, a large number of South-East Asian CPs followed the Communist Party of China. Khmer Rouge lead by Pol Pot also followed the Maoist pattern. Several parties, such as in Mongolia, Vietnam and North Korea took an ambiguous stand toward the split in the beginning. These countries did however identify themselves more clearly with the Soviet side as the Sino-Soviet conflict developed, especially in the case of the Vietnamese party. The Communist Party of Japan distanced themselves from the Soviet Union and developed a close relationship with the eurocommunist parties. CPJ was the only major non-Western CP to follow eurocommunism.

Today, several communist parties retain their influence, and not last among them the Khmer Rouge.

According to cautious estimations, at least 70 million people have been killed by communist regimes in China, Cambodia, Vietnam and North Korea. http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc05/EDOC10765.htm

[edit] South Asia

The Indian communist movement was born at a meeting in Tashkent in 1920. However, the Communist Party of India today considers December 26, 1925, as the founding date of the party. CPI was allowed full membership of the Communist International in 1934. Out of CPI, the Communist Party of Pakistan was born in 1948. CPP in its turn would later be divided and give birth to the Communist Party of East Pakistan (today Communist Party of Bangladesh). The Communist Party of Nepal was founded in Calcutta, India in 1949. The Communist Party of Sri Lanka was born in 1943, formed out of the pro-Soviet wing of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.

CPI was divided in 1964 when its left-wing created a separate party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist). CPI(M) was initially perceived as somewhat pro-Chinese, but is was never a full-fledged Maoist party. In 1967, the maoists broke away from CPI(M), later forming the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). These splits in the Indian communist movement created reprecussions in the neighbouring countries, especially Nepal and Bangladesh.

[edit] Latin America

The oldest CP in the region is Partido Comunista de Chile, which was founded as Partido Obrero Socialista in 1912. The first group to be organized as a modern communist party was Partido Comunista de México, founded by the Indian revolutionary M.N. Roy. During the Cold War years, CPs existed in all countries in the region.

In Central America, the CPs of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras united with guevarist and other revolutionary organizations to form united revolutionary fronts. When these guerilla organizations turned political parties during the 1990s, the CPs fused with the new parties.

In Spanish-speaking South America, CPs remain active in all countries. In Ecuador, the CP had merged with the Socialist Party, but a group later resurrected the PCE.

In Brazil, the Partido Comunista Brasiliero became the Partido Popular Socialista and moved towards a more center-left position. The role of the PCB as the Brazilian referent has been taken over by a breakaway group from 1956, Partido Comunista do Brasil, and to a minor extent by a group that resurrected a party with the name Partido Comunista Brasiliero when the old one became PPS.

The Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) plays an important role in the WCM. PCC amalgated the earlier CP and WCM referent in Cuba, the Partido Socialista Popular. However, in its international relations in Latin America and the Caribbean, PCC often gives priority to broader leftist or guevarist national liberation movements rather than traditional pro-Soviet CPs.

Peruvian communist group Sendero Luminoso, usually not regarded as an entity of pro-Moscow WCM, started rural partisan warfare, which it continues up to this day.

According to cautious estimations, at least 150 000 people have been killed by communist regimes in Latin America. [3]

[edit] North America

The Communist Party USA suffered a split in 1992: moderates established the Committees of Correspondence as a non-Leninist democratic socialist caucus when the 1991 CPUSA convention failed to change the party's direction away from the Soviet model following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The group soon left the party and, in 2000, changed its name to the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. The CPUSA continues to exist as a Communist Party, and is actively maintaining links to the WCM.

The Communist Party of Canada voted to dissolve itself in 1991, but a minority faction refused to do so and relaunched itself as the Communist Party of Canada in 1992. The majority faction transformed itself into the Cecil-Ross Society, a progressive political foundation. The majority took most of the old party's assets. The minority party struggled to survive and was decertified by Elections Canada when it was unable to run a sufficient number of candiates in the 1993 election. However, the party fought the decertification, had it overturned in court, and has re-established itself as a functioning organization, although much smaller than the old CPC.

[edit] Oceania

The Communist Party of Australia took a eurocommunist position, which led to the formation of an orthodox break-away party, the Socialist Party of Australia. When the old CPA dissolved, SPA took the name CPA.

The Communist Party of New Zealand was the only one of the old "western" CPs that took the side of China in the Sino-Soviet split. This led to the formation of a pro-Soviet group, the Socialist Unity Party. The SUP has since dissolved and been replaced by the Socialist Party of Aotearoa (a group that broke away from SUP in 1990) in the WCM.

[edit] See also

[edit] World Communist Movement/History of Communism

I would agree that the article, after the early years, is almost totally about the Soviet Union. Although this is important, it is only a part of the history of Communism. It is also, in no way a substitute for the WCM article, which, although it should be broader, is an accurate account of what is generally recognised as the WCM. Either the WCM article should be incorporated into this one, with the gaps filled in, or it should be re-instated as a separate article.

[edit] rewrite

i put up the rewrite-tag. At the moment the majority of contents in the article belongs in History of the Soviet Union rather than here. --Soman 09:27, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History of the Portuguese Communist Party

I wrote that article myself. You may find useful content in it. I'd like to help you, however, due to my non native English speaking, I prefer not doing it. But if you have any questions or requests, just say. Cheers! Mário 21:52, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

    • Where are the chineese in this "history of communism?" North Korea?Laos? Vietnam? Cuba? The soviet union is indeed history but there needs to be more on all of theese nations too. Zhukov 18:50, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Shifting material over here

See comment at Talk:Communist party. --Soman 09:30, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] international communist conspiracy

Perhaps I am not searching correctly. But was looking for information on what was known in the US by some paranoids as the international communist conspiracy. The notion that anything and everything was a communist plot out to conquer the world and destroy the United States. This theory also held that the Soviet Union was out to conqueror the world and place all of humanity under one global communist dictatorship headed in Moscow. I know this wouldn't necessarily be under "History of communism", but I've thus far come to a dead end as far as wikipedia is concerned. It is remarkable the number of people who make fun of conspiracy theories but who accepted without question the existence of an International Communist Conspiracy. writes author and former US State Department employee William Blum. http://killinghope.org/aer43.htm 67.53.78.15 15:34, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Edit

I recently made a major edit on the article.

  • Trimmed the intro, 'akin to' is a bit to contextually dependent, the line on shadow governments a bit odd. If the article focuses on the communist movement, then that per se includes both legal and illegal communist groups.
  • Communist party is a term that emerges at the time of the October Revolution, in opposition to the social democratic mainstream. Reworded formulation on First International.
  • "Since the collapse of the Soviet Union debate surged on the "collapse" or "death" of communism and the consolidation of Chinese economic reform. One by one, the major communist resistance worldwide has either been crushed or been subsumed under a wider capitalist-oriented framework as effectively loyal opposition. But active resistance-based communism as a political ideology today is still very strong when taken in an international context. All of Europe, Scandinavia, and Asia have extremely strong communist movements of various types, often prone to violent clashes with police and other law enforcement, and often in leadership and/or influential in a wide swath of Europe's labor movement — a situation which stands in direct contrast to most of the Americas and especially to the United States, where communism is and always has been markedly weaker." is just so incorrect that it has to be removed, and replaced by a completly different text. Extremly strong, violent prone communist movement in Scandinavia?
  • "Communist revolutionaries also take credit for many of the major semi-permanent social-policy upheavals that fall short of outright revolution; for example, they and their brethren in the worldwide labor movements often make the argument that were it not for the leadership of communist activists to counterbalance capitalist exploitation, social welfare and the welfare state would not exist as extensively as they do today. Thus, a case is made that even without revolution in the near term, communist agitation is necessary as an effective opposition force to help make governments afraid of their people (as opposed to the other way around), and to maintain that new power balance by any and all means." Commentary style, OR?
  • "However, today as in the past, revolutionaries who may cast themselves as righteous communist liberators in a given resistance struggle against capitalism and imperialism, will often "sell out" this struggle once they gain state power (for major examples of this, see "Socialism with Chinese characteristics", doi moi, and "peaceful coexistence"). This, in turn, disappoints and demoralizes other communists around the world who may have gone out of their way to support these revolutionaries. This happened, of course, the most markedly with the alleged sell-outs of the Soviet Union and Mao Tse-Tung, but it has also been the case with many who had supported the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, various communist-leaning republics in Africa, and/or the Iranian communist movement before 1979, only to have the hopes and dreams promised by these movements allegedly betrayed." Commentary style, highly unencyclopediatic. Sell-out in Iran pre-1979? Hardly npov.
  • "Today, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which formerly led an armed insurrection in Nepal, has joined the country's new unity government, which many communists allege is yet another example of a "sell out". However, communist guerrillas are still actively fighting the governments of the Philippines (which is also fighting an Islamist insurgency at the same time) and Colombia (which simultaneously has to deal with almost uncontrollably rampant drug trafficking and human trafficking) and Peru (though the Shining Path is not now any longer a threat to Peru's government). Notably, there is a strong, cohesive communist opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran led by Worker-Communist Party of Iran and its offshoot, the Worker-Communist Party of Iran-Hekmatist, which is descended from the original Iranian communist movement that had originally shared power with the Ayatollah before he kicked the communists out of the unity government in which he had assured them they would share. Both the WCPI and the WCPI(h) groups claim that they continue the path of Mansoor Hekmat, famous Iranian communist and founder of the worker-communist parties of Iran and Iraq. Despite being sidelined after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, these parties are still trying to overthrow the leadership of the country." Commentary on Nepal highly pov, passages on Philippines, Peru and Colombia written from a state-centric perspective (and largely covered below in the text), Hekmat marginal feature in the world communist movement as a whole.
  • "but the revolutions in Germany, Hungary and Finland were crushed, leading to Socialism in One Country", incorrect. Socialism in one country was a political positioning, result of political debates. not all communists were convinced of this analysis.
  • CPI(M) is not part of the Indian government.
  • CPN(Maoist) has resigned from the government.

--Soman 05:26, 26 September 2007 (UTC)