Communism Reading
- Write down what you THINK communism is. There is no right/wrong answer; it’s just what you THINK.
Communism is a theory and system of social and political organization. In simple words, it is an idea about how societies should share everything equally. A society is a group of people, such as American society or European society.
- What is a society?
The opposite of communism is capitalism .The US is a capitalist society. In capitalism each person is responsible for earning their own money and creating their own wealth. There are social classes since some people have more money than others. Property and goods are not equally shared.
In theory, communism is a society with no social classes and in which all property is owned by the community as a whole and where all people enjoy equal social and economic status. As a political movement, communism tried to end capitalism through a workers revolution and redistribute the wealth in the hands of the working class. That means that every person would earn the same amount of money no matter what their job was.
- What are the social classes in communism?
- Explain what capitalism is.
- Put the phrases in the box in the correct category.
Early Communism Communist ideas have existed since ancient times. Primitive humans, living in tribes, worked for the benefit of their entire clan and shared the fruits of their labor.
Some people in the 1800s decided to create their own communist “utopia”, a perfect community. Unfortunately these didn’t last very long.
- What does “utopia” mean?
The most important Communist thinker was Karl Marx. Marx wanted the whole world to become communist. His most famous book, written with Friedrich Engels, is called the Communist Manifesto. They said that in each society, a small group of people owned or controlled the means of production (how things are made). They were called the ruling class or “bourgeoisie”. Most people, however, in the middle and lower class didn’t get to own or control much of anything at all. This group without control or money was called “proletariat”, which means industrial workers.
- Who was the most important Communist thinker?
- What was the name of Marx & Engel’s Communist book?
- The ruling class is called the ______.
10.The group without control or money is called the ______.
Marx thought it was only a matter of time before the working classes of the world, united & took over the ruling class (bourgeoisie). Then they could spread all the wealth to all people and everyone would be equal, finally.
A Command Economy is an economy where the government is in complete control of every economic decision.
How is this different than a free-enterprise system like the United States has? The economy of the United States is based on ______and ______.
Communist Countries and Governments Many nations in the 20th century were run by such Communist Parties, who identified themselves as true communists implementing socialism, and attempted to govern (rule) themselves like Communists. The following is a list of countries that were or are Communist
- Soviet Union and its Soviet Republics
- Afghanistan
- People's Republic of China
- Vietnam
- Laos
- Cambodia
- Cuba
- Ethiopia
- North Korea