Page 53 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

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Karl Marx on the State

The Commune—the reabsorption of the state
power by society as its own living forces instead of
as forces controlling and subduing it, by the pop- ing power, these Communist revolutionaries sought to
ular masses themselves, forming their own force “build socialism,” which meant creating modern societies
instead of the organized force of their suppres- that were distinctly different from their capitalist coun-
sion, the political form of their social emancipa- terparts. The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin (ruled
tion instead of the artificial force—appropriated 1929–1953) and China under Mao Zedong (ruled
by their oppressors (their own force opposed to an 1949–1976) represent by far the most important exam-
organized force against them)—of society wielded ples of this process.
for their oppression by their enemies. The form
was simple like all great things....The general Putting Marxism
suffrage, till now abused either for the parliamen- into Practice
tary sanction of the Holy State Power,or a play in The first step involved the ending of old inequalities.
the hands of the ruling classes, only employed by Wealthy landowners had their property expropriated
the people to choose the instruments of parlia- and distributed to the peasants. In China, teams of
mentary class rule once in so many years, now young revolutionaries were sent to the country’s many vil-
adapted to its real purposes: to choose by the lages, where they mobilized local peasants to confront
communes delusion as if administration and polit- landlords, to seize their property, and, not infrequently,
ical governing were mysteries, transcendent func- to kill them. Privately owned industries were nationalized
tions only to be trusted to the hands of a trained without compensation to their owners. Communist gov-
caste—state parasites, richly paid sycophants ernments in both countries took immediate steps to
and sinecurists, in the higher posts, absorbing guarantee equal rights for women within marriage and in
the intelligence of the masses and turning them public life, ending the legal disabilities that they had long
against themselves in the lower places of the hier- suffered.
archy. Doing away with the state hierarchy alto- Since the Soviet Union and China were overwhelm-
gether and replacing the haughty masters of the ingly agricultural societies, creating socialism in the coun-
people with always removable servants, a mock tryside was a priority for both of them. The distribution
responsibility by a real responsibility, as they act of land to the peasants, although revolutionary, was
continuously under public supervision. hardly socialist because it left both countries with large

Source: Marx, K. (1971). Drafts for The Civil War in France. In D. McLellan. The numbers of small privately owned family farms.To Com-
Thought of Karl Marx:An Introduction. (pp. 193). New York: Harper & Row, Pub-
lishers, Inc. (Original work published 1871) munist leaders, this was neither modern nor efficient, and
it opened the door to a revival of capitalism and rural
inequality as some farmers prospered while others
them—in a Russian Empire just beginning to industrial- became impoverished. The solution in both the Soviet
ize when the Communist regime came to power in 1917, Union in the late 1920s and early 1930s and China dur-
in backward and impoverished China (1949), in a Cuba ing the 1950s lay in large collective farms in which land,
dependent on sugar production in 1959, and in Vietnam, animals, and tools were held in common.The process of
which was emerging from French, Japanese, and Ameri- enlisting peasants into these collective farms unfolded
can imperialism at the end of the Vietnam War in the mid- with great violence and amid much resistance in the
1970s. In these countries, revolutionaries called them- Soviet Union and was accompanied by a horrific famine
selves “Communists,” to distinguish themselves from caused by the heavy demands of state authorities for
“social democrats” in the West who still continued to grain.The Chinese Communist Party, with deep roots in
struggle peacefully through political processes.After seiz- the rural areas, accomplished basic collectivization much