Communism: A Brief Definition

 “We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence.”

• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology

This is a short post to explain what communism is. Many say that it is a society which is stateless, classless, and moneyless, and to a certain extent this is true. But only to an extent. Communism, in its truest meaning, “...is not a state of affairs to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself.” (The German Ideology). Communism is not something that is out there, beyond you and me. Communism is the negation of a world that bases itself in relations between commodities in favor of a world which is based in pure, direct relations between people and their labor. Communism is the movement here and now that rejects the relations that have been imposed on you and me from above; money, private property, consumerism, the spectacle, post-modernity; it rejects all these things… in favor of what?

In truth, there is not a single definition of what communism embraces or advocates for. I could say that communism is the movement that fights against unjust gender relations, and that would be true. I could say it is the movement that fights against unjust race relations, and that would also be true. And I could say that it is the movement which fights against the endless expansion and consumption of capitalism, and that would be true as well. But none of these things fully encompass what communism is. There is, in truth, only one true definition of communism; the movement against class society. Whether it be social, racial, gender based or economic class, communism is the movement which seeks to transcend it. 

As such, there is no need to lie in wait for the coming of the proletarian revolution. A revolutionary who sits and waits for the revolution to come is no revolutionary at all, and he will never see his goals fulfilled. The work of the revolutionary lies not in the future, but in the immediate present. It involves saying no to the order which has been imposed upon him. It is the affirmation of the dignity of life against the cold and dead machinations of capital which seek to squash it. 

The sabotage of state and corporate property, the rejection of police authority, the act of rioting against unjust treatment and living conditions, even the simple act of the worker or student refusing to work and obey; these are all examples of communism as a living movement. It doesn’t matter if the people involved are self proclaimed communists. They could have never even heard of communism. This is because communism, at its core, is not a movement based in ideals; it is a movement based in material reality.

Further examples include; people coming together to occupy abandoned buildings communally, students forming underground literary journals, reading groups and protest groups, workers defying their unions and participating in wildcat strikes or conspiring together to come up with ways to get away with working as little as possible. People shoplifting food and distributing it to those in need; those in need shoplifting the food themselves. Socially marginalized people forming unofficial gun clubs to practice self defense, and queer people coming together to create safe houses for their queer and trans kids who’ve been kicked out of their homes; these are all examples of the real movement which abolishes the present state of things.

It is therefore of the utmost importance that anyone who wishes to radically change the world doesn’t sit around and wait for “the right moment.” When is the right moment if not here and now? There is work to be done! Never give up, and never bow!

“People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth”

• Raoul Vaneigem