What could communism have been if we could have separated it from the horrors of Stalinism?
Many try to justify even fascism by saying that it would have been different if there had been no Hitler, but this is not true.
Fascism is innately a totalitarian, militaristic racist ideology. Marx’s vision of communism is not; I am sincerely surprised that people still say or write these things and confuse the two doctrines.
Being conditioned in judgments, by historical facts, and by those who managed the two ideologies in the world is plausible and normal.
Still, it would be like saying that the Christianity of Jesus Christ is a criminal ideology because there were the Crusades.
Many things depend on the circumstances and who manages them. Still, Marx’s ideas have profoundly influenced every social democratic party in Western Europe.
The same social democratic movement effectively fought and drove out the Russian-run deviant Communism for decades.
Marx’s ideas in the socialist ideal have never gone away and have influenced the left but have never been fully implemented, except in very isolated or still imperfect cases, as in Italy or France.
It is also true that the ideal of Marx is tough to turn into reality.
This is mainly because thoroughly implementing an anarchist society without A state, without classes based on collective ownership of property is so difficult to implement that it is practically impossible.
This is one of the many reasons I am not a communist but a social democrat. I was a member of the Italian Communist Party in the past. It was the force that brought together the progressive forces of the country, where you found radical ideas of the left and the developing ecological consciousness.
At the same time, must also be clear in saying that Marxism is not Stalinism, nor even Marxism-Leninism (despite the name) and is essentially benign compared to those perversions of central ideology.
You can recognize this thesis with a minimum of attention to the various manifestos, even without really thinking that Marxism is viable because I am afraid it is not.
I really think the same thought, that, in fact, it is unrealizable in its entirety.
As a matter of fact, it is challenging to be a fascist without being racist because they are intertwined with Nazi and fascist ideology…
Relatively easy to be a communist and despise Stalinism as well – most do so and have a clear and precise political logic.
Marx had no vision for himself. He believed that communism was historically inevitable. He was predicting rather than imposing.
At least, this is what you easily understand even without reading the entire Capital. Mind you, his prediction was wrong, of course. Still, it was not a dictatorship that imposed and did not want to eliminate human beings.
A few days ago, a friend reminded me that Marxism and communism (not his vision but what he has become) are entirely different concepts.
The difference between the basic fascist ideas is substantial. From these differences, we must start again for a more fair society.
Suppose there is a future for an alternative to capitalism.
In that case, we must recognize that this may be communism but not fascism.
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