Communism: The Basic Principles

4. The state as an instrument of class rule

Chapter 110's material, in one line here: the executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie, and political power properly so called is merely the organised power of one class for oppressing another.

5. Revolution

The transformation cannot be achieved within the existing arrangements, because the class which owns also controls the state, the law and the prevailing ideas. The proletariat, which capitalism has assembled, disciplined and made numerous, is the class whose interest requires the abolition of all class rule, and the Manifesto says the bourgeoisie produces, above all, its own gravediggers.

6. Dictatorship of the proletariat

A transitional stage. The proletariat, having made itself the ruling class, uses state power to sweep away the old conditions of production. The word dictatorship in the nineteenth century meant the rule of a class rather than of a person, and that should be said in an answer, though what it became in practice is chapter 730's business.

7. The classless and stateless society

Because the state exists to hold one class down, the end of classes removes its function. Engels's own account is that once there is no social class to be held in subjection, nothing remains to be repressed, state interference becomes superfluous in one domain after another and then dies out of itself, the government of persons being replaced by the administration of things; and he insists that the State is not "abolished". It dies out.

Distribution in the final stage follows Marx's formula from the Critique of the Gotha Programme: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

The stages

Students confuse socialism and communism partly because Marxists themselves use the words for two stages of one process, and setting the stages out solves it.

Capitalism, in which the means of production are privately owned and labour is sold as a commodity.

The dictatorship of the proletariat, a transitional period in which the working class holds state power and expropriates the owning class.

Socialism, the lower stage: the means of production are socially owned, classes have been abolished, but scarcity remains and distribution is according to work contributed.

Communism, the higher stage: abundance, the disappearance of the division of labour, the withering of the state, and distribution according to need.

This is the answer to a very common confusion. In Marxist usage socialism is not a milder alternative to communism; it is its first stage. In ordinary political usage socialism names a different family of doctrines altogether, most of which reject revolution. Chapter 740 is entirely about keeping the two senses apart.

Lenin's additions

Communism as a twentieth century movement is Marx plus Lenin, and an answer that omits Lenin has described only half of it.

The vanguard party. The working class left to itself develops only trade union consciousness, that is, a concern with wages and conditions, so a disciplined party of professional revolutionaries is required to bring it revolutionary consciousness and to lead.

Democratic centralism. Free discussion before a decision, absolute unity in carrying it out.

Imperialism. Capitalism postpones its crisis by exporting capital and exploiting colonies, which explains why the revolution came first in a country like Russia rather than in the most industrialised ones.

Revolution in a backward country. Marx expected socialism to arrive where capitalism was most developed; Lenin argued the chain would break at its weakest link.

Why this matters for the evaluation. The vanguard party is where the twentieth century's outcome begins. A party that claims to know the class's interest better than the class does is Michels's iron law at chapter 100 with a doctrine attached, and Rosa Luxemburg said so at the time.

Communism in India

Worth a short paragraph in an Indian answer.

Communist parties have contested Indian elections since independence and have formed State governments, most durably in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, which is a communist movement operating within a constitutional democracy.

Their land reform in Kerala and West Bengal is the most substantial redistribution achieved anywhere in India, and is the strongest practical argument available to them.

And the movement has split repeatedly, principally over exactly the question of chapter 740: parliamentary means or armed struggle.

A worked example

A garment factory pays its workers well above the statutory minimum, provides safe conditions, and is regarded as a model employer. Its owner takes a substantial annual profit.

A liberal sees nothing to criticise. The contracts are freely made, the terms are generous, and both parties are better off than they would otherwise be.

A social democrat may want a stronger union and a larger share, and treats the case as satisfactory.

A communist analysis is different in kind, and this example is chosen to show it. The question is not whether the workers are well paid. It is where the profit comes from. On the analysis, the workers produce more value than the value of their labour power, and the surplus is appropriated by somebody who did not produce it. That is true however high the wages are, so long as a surplus exists at all, which is why the objection cannot be answered by raising pay.

And the alienation point is independent of both. The workers do not decide what is made, how, or what happens to it. The product belongs to another the moment it exists.

Stating the example this way is what separates a good answer from one that treats Marxism as a complaint about low wages. The claim is structural: the relation, not the rate, is the object of the criticism.

Distinctions that carry marks

What communism is NOT

It is not the abolition of all property. The Manifesto is explicit that what is to be abolished is bourgeois property, that is, private ownership of the means of production, not personal possessions.

"Dictatorship of the proletariat" did not originally mean rule by a dictator. It meant the rule of a class, as against the rule of the bourgeoisie, and the shift in meaning is one of the things chapter 730 has to evaluate.

It is not the same as socialism in ordinary usage, and this is the commonest confusion in the whole module.

Exploitation is not a claim about low wages. It is a structural claim about the appropriation of surplus value, true of a generous employer as much as of a harsh one.

It is not a moral doctrine in its own presentation. Marx and Engels presented the analysis as an account of how history works rather than as a demand about how it ought to work, which is what the word scientific at chapter 690 was claiming.

Quick revision

1. Historical materialism: the mode of production conditions social, political and intellectual life; base and superstructure.
2. Class struggle: the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles; under capitalism, bourgeoisie and proletariat.
3. The analysis: labour theory of value, surplus value and exploitation, alienation in four forms, concentration and crisis.
4. The state is an instrument of class rule.
5. Revolution, because the owning class controls the state, the law and the prevailing ideas; the bourgeoisie produces its own gravediggers.
6. Dictatorship of the proletariat, a transitional stage, meaning the rule of a class.
7. The classless, stateless society: the state dies out of itself, the government of persons being replaced by the administration of things; distribution from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
8. The four stages: capitalism, dictatorship of the proletariat, socialism distributing by work, communism distributing by need.
9. Lenin adds: the vanguard party, democratic centralism, imperialism, and revolution at the weakest link. The vanguard party is where the twentieth century's outcome begins.

Test yourself

1. State the principles of communism. Historical materialism, that the mode of production of material life conditions social, political and intellectual life, with law, politics and ideas forming a superstructure on an economic base. Class struggle, the history of all hitherto existing society being the history of class struggles, simplified under capitalism into bourgeoisie and proletariat. The analysis of capitalism through the labour theory of value, surplus value and alienation. The state as an instrument of class rule. Revolution, since the owning class controls the state and the prevailing ideas. The dictatorship of the proletariat as a transitional stage. And the classless, stateless society distributing according to need.

2. Explain surplus value and say why it is not a complaint about low wages. The worker is paid the value of their labour power, that is, what it costs to reproduce it, and in the course of the working day produces more value than that; the difference is surplus value and is appropriated by the owner of the means of production. It is not a complaint about low wages because it holds wherever a surplus exists at all, which is to say in every profitable enterprise, however generous the pay and however decent the employer. The objection is to the relation by which the surplus is appropriated by somebody who did not produce it, and it cannot be answered by raising the rate.

3. Set out the stages between capitalism and communism. Capitalism, in which the means of production are privately owned and labour is sold as a commodity. The dictatorship of the proletariat, a transitional period in which the working class holds state power and expropriates the owning class. Socialism, the lower stage, in which the means of production are socially owned and classes are abolished, but scarcity remains and distribution is according to work contributed. And communism, the higher stage, marked by abundance, the disappearance of the division of labour, the withering of the state, and distribution according to need.

4. What did Lenin add, and why does it matter for the evaluation? The vanguard party, on the view that the working class left to itself develops only trade union consciousness so that a disciplined party of professional revolutionaries must supply revolutionary consciousness and leadership; democratic centralism, free discussion before a decision and absolute unity after it; the theory of imperialism, explaining how capitalism postpones its crisis by exporting capital and exploiting colonies; and the argument that the chain would break at its weakest link, so that revolution could come in a backward country. It matters because the vanguard party is where the twentieth century's outcome begins: a party claiming to know the class's interest better than the class is Michels's iron law of oligarchy with a doctrine attached, and Luxemburg said so at the time.

5. Explain what Engels meant by saying the state dies out, and why the wording matters. That once there is no social class to be held in subjection nothing remains to be repressed, so a special repressive force becomes unnecessary; state interference in social relations becomes superfluous in one domain after another and then dies out of itself, the government of persons being replaced by the administration of things. The wording matters because Engels expressly denies that the state is abolished. Abolition is what the anarchists demanded and he considered impossible; what he predicted was redundancy, arriving as a consequence of the disappearance of classes rather than as an act of policy.