Communism

Student Friendly

• Communism is a system of government where the government is in complete control. You are assigned a job, you do it, and the government provides what you need. There is no private ownership in a communist country. The idea is for everyone to be equal and receive the same things.

Examples of Communism

• China is one of the most well known communist countries, being communist since 1949 when Mao Zedong took control of the countries.

• We fought a war in Vietnam, supporting South Vietnam because they were democratic, North Vietnam took control and became a unified communist country.

Continued• The Soviet Union was communist until

1990 when it became Russia. • Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1961,

turning it fully communist. • Laos became communist in 1975

when there was a revolution supported by the Soviet Union and Vietnam.

• North Korea became a communist country in 1948 when Japan took it over.

Mao Zedong and Vietnam

book definitionMarx defined his ideas by examining human history to see if a struggle

for power existed. He believed that there were two types of people that existed historically. The “haves” and the “have-nots” would be involved with a constant struggle for resources. The “haves” were called “capitalists” because they had all the money needed to build new factories, mines, railways or other “means of production.” The capitalists would then force the “have-nots,” who he called the “proletariat (working class),” to work for them. This situation was unfair in the distribution of wealth within a society that would cause problems.

Book Definition continuedProblems emerge when capitalists pay the working classes very low

wages while keeping the profits for themselves. In this manner the rich would become richer and the poor would become poorer. This situation would lead to the working class becoming frustrated and angry, therefore rising up to “seize the means of production.” The purpose of the uprising by the workers would be to distribute the wealth in a fair manner among all members of society. This stage of historical evolution would be called “socialism.”

A socialist state would have the workers own the means of production and all would share the profits equally. The workers would be working for themselves, not for the benefit of the capitalists. All forms of government would slowly disappear, as the workers understood the benefit of working for the good of each other. Once this model state of affairs occurred, his ideal society that he called communism would exist.

http://www.saskschools.ca/~history20/unit1/sec6_03.html