[Marxism] Communism and socialism

[Jscotlive at aol.com]

Eli:
 
Would 
that mean the old definition of "communism" has to be thrown out,  or 
re-thought?

Reply:
 
Not at all, Eli. I've always felt the Leninist definition of socialism  as 
constituting the lowest stage of communism to be apt. The focus of the work  of 
Marx and Engels was the deconstruction and analysis of capitalism, its  
provenance and how its development fit in with their materialist  conception of 
history. Marx never gave much thought to the transition from  capitalism to 
communism, I think because he was clever enough to know that  predictions of the 
future are about as useful to a revolutionary as  indicators on a submarine. He 
certainly did not envisage  underdevelopment as offering the potential for 
socialist revolution,  as was the case in Russia. Lenin and Trotsky understood 
that due  to Russia's underdevelopment they were relying on the Russian  
Revolution to act as a catalyst for international revolution, and that without  this 
international revolution they could go no further than an attempt to  develop 
Russia's productive forces under socialist planning, knowing full  well that 
socialism under conditions of underdevelopment is impossible  to achieve. The SU 
was thereafter stuck in a transitional stage  from capitalism to socialism, 
with communism nothing more than a dream  for a future society far beyond their 
grasp given the material conditions they  were facing. They adopted the word 
communism to describe their party  and state as much for propaganda and 
agitational reasons as any other.
 
Communism in this light requires not only the superabundance of an advanced  
capitalist society, but also a massive shift in consciousness. The social  
conditioning undergone by humanity under capitalism has lasted 350  years. It 
seems reasonable to expect communist ideas and consciousness just  as long to 
create the 'new man' that Che described.