March 23, 2023

08:03

Mencius Melo – From Amazon Agency

MANAUS – Much is said about “communism” in social networks, but most of the opinions or even information about the ideology founded by German thinkers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the famous work “The Communist Manifesto”, 1848, are out of sync with the Marxist doctrine. A confusion of ideas, intentional or not, misrepresentations or false attributions have turned the concept of communism into a tower of babel, where much is said and little is understood. CENARIUM MAGAZINE decided to interview experts to help readers not to talk garbage on the internet.

Sociologist and professor of the Department of Social Sciences at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam) Luiz Antônio highlights examples of items that have become a resource of discourse in recent years in Brazil as “communist stuff”, among them the “gay kit” and “p*** bottle”.

“One of the characteristics of communism has always been to value issues dear to humanity, such as human dignity and education. At no time will a communist defend excrescences such as these. That was constructed. It is a blatant lie,” he criticized. “Already the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) exists and is not communist, on the contrary: it has always opposed communism and LGBTQIAP+, which are people who do not feel represented and come together to defend their existence. None wants to impose their sexuality on anyone,” he says.

The sociologist also explains differences of communism and capitalism. “Communism is a different form of state organization than capitalism. In capitalism, property is private and the state is the regulator of relations, whereas in communism property is public, under the governance of the state, which distributes this wealth for the common good. In capitalism, property is private and the wealth generated remains with the owner of the property,” he summarized.

In the political arena, communism functions under people’s organization. “The state is governed by juntas or representations of the people. This is what communist theory proposes, however, it must be said that there has never been a communist society in the world! Communism would be the last stage of a social development that surpasses capitalism. The intermediate path would be the socialist society. As an example, I cite the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, among others,” he said.

The market

Luiz Antônio explained other characteristics. “In capitalist society, the great lord that guides and determines things is the market. The market is a great abstract entity that is above the will of the people. The market regulates prices, offers and so on…In communist society, the market disappears, it doesn’t exist, it is overcome and the parameters of wealth will be set by the collective will of organized workers,” he explained. “But what is the market? The market is the owners of power. In Brazil, about 200 people. Owners of banks, land, brokerage houses, companies…”, he listed.

Economist Denise Kassama comes in to contribute from the political and economic point of view. “It is necessary to say that we do not have a country in the world that is communist because communism would be the last stage of a social evolution that advocates absolute equality among all citizens, with the possibility of abolishing the State, since it could be considered a form of social oppression, but we do not have any country in the world with these characteristics,” she said.

Kassama continued: “What we have are socialist countries, and socialism is a stage that precedes communism, but I think that we will never reach communism, sincerely speaking. Just look at the nomenclatures of countries like China, which is the ‘People’s Republic of China,’ and is not the ‘Communist Republic of China. The same thing is North Korea, which is called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and is not democratic at all, because it is, in fact, a socialist dictatorship,” he exemplified.

One Party

Using China and Cuba as examples, Denise Kassama points out the characteristics of what a socialist system would be. “Cuba, which is a socialist country and is called the ‘Republic of Cuba,’ owns the means of production in such a way as to generate almost equal treatment. In Cuba, the salary of a doctor does not differ from the salary of a teacher. China, on the other hand, has a single party and practices socialism where the state owns the means of production, too, but I consider China socialist in politics and almost capitalist in economics. To say that China is socialist is already an exaggeration, communist, then…”, he ironized.

Sociologist Marcelo Seraphic corroborates Luiz Antônio and Denise Kassama’s statements. “It is worth clarifying that communism never existed. Communists would be modern stateless societies. This has never existed anywhere on the planet,” he said. “It is necessary to make a distinction between utopias and their historical implementation experiences. Socialism, since the 19th century, has become a possibility for the positive transformation of capitalist society,” he said.

Seraphic also highlights the socialist stage that would be “pre-communism,” which is “really” the stage that was experienced in numerous countries. “Socialism is a form of overcoming the constraints imposed by the accumulation of political and economic power by an increasingly restricted layer of individuals, all of whom own or control the means necessary for the production of life for the majority of citizens,” he noted.

It’s not communism

Asked about topics associated with communism, such as abortion and feminism, Marcelo commented. “Abortion and feminism have become central political agendas in capitalist countries since the 1960s. Today, they are the agenda of any society that is concerned with the reduction of inequalities, as soon as there are groups, layers and social classes engaged in the struggle for the expansion of freedom and equality. Therefore, this is a broader agenda to be addressed by any society with democratic pretensions”, he attested.