Ask Lemmy

Communism is by the way a classless, moneyless society that never existed on a grand scale after civilization existed. So how can money be concentrated on top of a communist society, if money doesn't even exist in a communist society???

Socialism is meant to be the necessary precursor to reach communism. It is often defined as that the working class own and control the means of production together. (meaning factories, machines etc.) Right now in capitalism, the ones that own the means of production are the capitalists, the bourgoeis class.

In marxist theory, the worker is the only one actually creating the value. So if a capitalist makes money off a workers' work, it's exploitation. The capitalist state works to protect the rights and interests of the capitalist and is ever ready to carve away the rights of the working class even if that means to transition into a terroristic form of the capitalist state: fascism.

Now, the socialist revolution aims to break up the capitalist state and to establish a socialist state. That only works if the workers unite. Thats why the capitalists try to keep us divided to upkeep their power.

The socialist state is a state where the production is controlled by the workers for the workers. It is planned together to fulfill the needs of the people, instead of the blind capitalist goal of profit increase.

To work together effectively, to have a refined strategy for the revolution, we need a communist party. This party must be accepted as the revolutionary leadership through their natural competence in marxist-leninist theory. It has to be decided by the wide working class, and only then the revolution can work.

Now to your question: How to keep the power from being concentrated in the hands of the few: The communist party needs to be and stay the tool of the working class until the transition into communism. It shouldn't be allowed to "eat up" the state. It needs the well educated worker, about democracy, marxist theory and many rights to say in the system. It should be protected from bureaucratic calcification which may stifle the development of a democratoc socialist state that acts in the needs and interests of the working class.

At some point in the soviet union that failed. But today we are in a lucky position to know and learn why.

Some self-proclaimed socialist/communist countries weren't really socialist according to Marxist-Leninist theory but were revisionist, making up their own theory that doesnt fulfill the needs of the actual working class. These can be authoritarian etc.

Then there are socialist governments that became more authoritarian because of external pressures, C.I.A.-backed counter-revolutions wanting to restore capitalism etc. If youre self-isolating as a sole socialist state among capitalism, you will eventually get crushed under the pressure. Because for capitalism, crushing a socialist state is potential for new markets, natural resources, etc. Another reason is wanting to stop socialism from spreading. More socialist countries, less countries to imperialistically exploit.

Why categorically exclude socialism from the discussion? Think about why it's made to be such a taboo topic in regular political discussion. The more I read about socialism, the more I know that it's the way to go. But people need to rid themselves of the redscare propaganda that they were taught early on.

We can make a better, modern socialism. Imagine the possibilities nowadays with the internet, computers and machine learning. We could make a great planned economy for everyone.