Proletarian internationalism
Encyclopedia
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class
concept based on the view that capitalism
is now a global system, and therefore the working class
must act as a global class if it is to defeat it. Workers should struggle in solidarity with their fellow workers in other countries on the basis of a common class interest.
Proletarian internationalism is closely linked to Marxist goals of world revolution
, to be achieved through successive or simultaneous communist revolution
s in all nations. Marxist theory is that world revolution would lead to world communism
, and later still, stateless communism
.
Marxists regard proletarian internationalism as the antonym
of bourgeois nationalism
but the term has been subjected to different interpretations by various currents of Marxist thought.
, published in 1848. However, Marx and Engels' approach to the national question was also shaped by tactical considerations in their pursuit of a long-term revolutionary strategy. In 1848, the proletariat was a small minority in all but a handful of countries. Political and economic conditions needed to ripen in order to advance the possibility of proletarian revolution.
Thus, for example, Marx and Engels supported the emergence of an independent and democratic Poland, which at the time was divided between Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary. Rosa Luxemburg's biographer Peter Nettl writes, "In general, Marx and Engels' conception of the national-geographical rearrangement of Europe was based on four criteria: the development of progress, the creation of large-scale economic units, the weighting of approval and disapproval in accordance with revolutionary possibilities, and their specific enmity to Russia." Russia was seen as the heartland of European reaction at the time.
Founded in 1864, the IWA was the first mass movement with a specifically international focus. At its peak, the IWA had 5 million members, according to police reports from the various countries in which it had a significant presence. Repression in Europe and internal divisions between the anarchist and Marxist currents led eventually to its dissolution in 1876. Shortly thereafter, the Marxist and revolutionary socialist tendencies continued the internationalist strategy of the IWA through the successor organisation of the Second International, though without the inclusion of the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movements.
at the Seventh Congress of the Second International
at Stuttgart in 1907. This asserted that:
The resolution concluded that:
In fact, Luxemburg and Lenin had very different interpretations of the national question. Lenin and the Bolsheviks opposed imperialism and chauvinism by advocating a policy of national self-determination, including the right of oppressed nations to secede from Russia. They believed this would help to create the conditions for unity between the workers in both oppressing and oppressed nations. Specifically, Lenin claimed “The bourgeois nationalism of any oppressed nation has a general democratic content that is directed against oppression and it is this content that we unconditionally support." By contrast, Luxemburg broke with the mainstream Polish Socialist Party (PPS)
in 1893 on the national question.
Luxemburg argued in that the nature of Russia had changed since Marx’s day. Russia was now fast developing as a major capitalist nation, while the Polish bourgeoisie now had its interests linked to Russian capitalism. This had opened the possibility of a class alliance between the Polish and Russian working class.
In the event the leading party of the Second International, the SPD
, voted overwhelmingly in support of Germany's entry into the First World War by approving war credits on 4 August 1914. Many other member parties of the Second International followed suit by supporting national governments and the Second International was dissolved in 1916. Proletarian internationalists characterized the combination of social democracy and nationalism as social chauvinism
.
but the majority of delegates took a pacifist rather than a revolutionary position.
In prison, Luxemburg deepened her analysis with the Junius Pamphlet of 1915. In this document she specifically rejects the notion of oppressor and oppressed states: "Imperialism is not the creation of one or any group of states. It is the product of a particular stage of ripeness in the world development of capital, an innately international condition, an indivisible whole, that is recognisable only in all its relations, and from which no nation can hold aloof at will."
Proletarian internationalists now argued that the alliances of the First World War had proved that socialism and nationalism were incompatible in the imperialist era, that the concept of national self-determination had become outdated, and in particular, that nationalism would prove to be an obstacle to proletarian unity. Anarcho-syndicalism
was a further working class political current that characterised the war as imperialist on all sides, finding organisational expression in the Industrial Workers of the World
.
The internationalist perspective influenced the revolutionary wave towards the end of the First World War, notably with Russia's withdrawal from the conflict following the Bolshevik
revolution and the revolt in Germany beginning in the naval ports of Kiel
and Wilhelmshaven
that brought the war to an end in November 1918. However, once this revolutionary wave had receded in the early 1920s, proletarian internationalism was no longer mainstream in working class politics.
Lenin and Trotsky more firmly embraced the concept of national self-determination for tactical reasons. In the Third International the national question became a major bone of contention between mainstream Leninists and "left communists". However the latter soon became an isolated minority, either falling into line or leaving the International.
By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939 only a few prominent communists such as the Italian Marxist Amadeo Bordiga
and the Dutch council communist Anton Pannekoek remained true to the principles of proletarian internationalism as elaborated in the 1907 resolution. But in 1943, following the collapse of the Mussolini regime in Italy, Bordigists regrouped and founded the Internationalist Communist Party
(PCInt). The first edition of the party organ, Promoteo (Prometheus) proclaimed: "Workers! Against the slogan of a national war which arms Italian workers against English and German proletarians, oppose the slogan of the communist revolution, which unites the workers of the world against their common enemy — capitalism." The PCInt took the view that Luxemburg, not Lenin, had been right on the national question.
and Comecon
, invading Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia
in 1968. The Sino-Soviet split
in 1950s and 1960s produced two groups of socialist countries.
, the International Communist Current
and the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party
(which includes the PCInt) follow the Luxemburgist and Bordigist interpretations of proletarian internationalism, as do some libertarian communists.
believed that "in all countries the poor are more national than the rich." To this, Marxists might counter that while the rich may have historically had the awareness and education to recognize cross-national interest of class, the poor of those same nations likely have not had this advantage, making them more susceptible to what Marxists would describe as the false ideology of patriotism. Marxists assert that patriotism and nationalism serve precisely to obscure opposing class interests that would otherwise pose a threat to the ruling class order.
Marxists would also point out that in times of intense revolutionary struggle (the most evident being the revolutionary periods of 1848-9, 1917–1923 and 1968) internationalism within the proletariat can overtake petty nationalisms as intense class struggles break out in multiple nations at the same time and the workers of those nations discover that they have more in common with other workers than with their own bourgeoisie.
On the question of imperialism and national determination, proponents of third worldism argue that workers in "oppressor" nations (such as the USA or Israel) must first support national liberation movements in "oppressed" nations (such as Afghanistan or Palestine) before there can be any basis for proletarian internationalism. For example, Tony Cliff
, a leading figure of the British Socialist Workers Party
, denied the possibility of solidarity between Palestinians and Israelis in the current Middle East situation, writing "Israel is not a colony suppressed by imperialism, but a settler’s citadel, a launching pad of imperialism. It is a tragedy that some of the very people who had been persecuted and massacred in such bestial fashion should themselves be driven into a chauvinistic, militaristic fervour, and become the blind tool of imperialism in subjugating the Arab masses."
Trotskyists argue that there must be a permanent revolution
in third world countries, in which a bourgeoisie revolution will inevitably lead to a worker's revolution with an international scope. We may see this in the Bolshevik Revolution before the movement was stopped by Stalin, a proponent of Socialism in One Country
. Because of this threat, the bourgeoisie in third world countries will willingly subjugate themselves to national and capitalist interests in order to prevent a proletarian uprising.
Internationalists would respond that capitalism has proved itself incapable of resolving the competing claims of different nationalisms, and that the working class (of all countries) is oppressed by capitalism, not by other workers. Moreover, the global nature of capitalism and international finance make "national liberation" an impossibility. For internationalists, all national liberation movements, whatever their "progressive" gloss, are therefore obstacles to the communist goal of world revolution
.
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
concept based on the view that capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
is now a global system, and therefore the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
must act as a global class if it is to defeat it. Workers should struggle in solidarity with their fellow workers in other countries on the basis of a common class interest.
Proletarian internationalism is closely linked to Marxist goals of world revolution
World revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class...
, to be achieved through successive or simultaneous communist revolution
Communist revolution
A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, typically with socialism as an intermediate stage...
s in all nations. Marxist theory is that world revolution would lead to world communism
World communism
World communism, also known as international communism or global communism, is the terminal stage of development of the history of communism in Marxist theory. It has also usually been equated to the Comintern . This is the meaning that typically and historically has been meant by opponents of...
, and later still, stateless communism
Stateless communism
Stateless communism, also known as pure communism, is the post-capitalist stage of society which Karl Marx predicted would inevitably result from the development of the productive forces...
.
Marxists regard proletarian internationalism as the antonym
Antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not...
of bourgeois nationalism
Bourgeois nationalism
Bourgeois nationalism is a term from Marxist phraseology. It refers to the alleged practice by the ruling classes of deliberately dividing people by nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion, so as to distract them from possible class warfare...
but the term has been subjected to different interpretations by various currents of Marxist thought.
Marx and Engels
Proletarian internationalism is summed up in the slogan coined by Marx and Engels, Workers of all countries, unite!, the last line of The Communist ManifestoThe Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party is a short 1848 publication written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the...
, published in 1848. However, Marx and Engels' approach to the national question was also shaped by tactical considerations in their pursuit of a long-term revolutionary strategy. In 1848, the proletariat was a small minority in all but a handful of countries. Political and economic conditions needed to ripen in order to advance the possibility of proletarian revolution.
Thus, for example, Marx and Engels supported the emergence of an independent and democratic Poland, which at the time was divided between Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary. Rosa Luxemburg's biographer Peter Nettl writes, "In general, Marx and Engels' conception of the national-geographical rearrangement of Europe was based on four criteria: the development of progress, the creation of large-scale economic units, the weighting of approval and disapproval in accordance with revolutionary possibilities, and their specific enmity to Russia." Russia was seen as the heartland of European reaction at the time.
The First International
The trade unionists who formed the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), sometimes called the First International, recognised that the working class was an international class which had to link its struggle on an international scale. By joining together across national borders, the workers would gain greater bargaining power and political influence.Founded in 1864, the IWA was the first mass movement with a specifically international focus. At its peak, the IWA had 5 million members, according to police reports from the various countries in which it had a significant presence. Repression in Europe and internal divisions between the anarchist and Marxist currents led eventually to its dissolution in 1876. Shortly thereafter, the Marxist and revolutionary socialist tendencies continued the internationalist strategy of the IWA through the successor organisation of the Second International, though without the inclusion of the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movements.
The Second International
Proletarian internationalism was perhaps best expressed in the resolution sponsored by Lenin and Rosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
at the Seventh Congress of the Second International
Second International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
at Stuttgart in 1907. This asserted that:
"Wars between capitalist states are, as a rule, the outcome of their competition on the world market, for each state seeks not only to secure its existing markets, but also to conquer new ones. In this, the subjugation of foreign peoples and countries plays a prominent role. These wars result furthermore from the incessant race for armaments by militarism, one of the chief instruments of bourgeois class rule and of the economic and political subjugation of the working class.
"Wars are favored by the national prejudices which are systematically cultivated among civilized peoples in the interest of the ruling classes for the purpose of distracting the proletarian masses from their own class tasks as well as from their duties of international solidarity.
"Wars, therefore, are part of the very nature of capitalism; they will cease only when the capitalist system is abolished or when the enormous sacrifices in men and money required by the advance in military technique and the indignation called forth by armaments, drive the peoples to abolish this system."
The resolution concluded that:
"If a war threatens to break out, it is the duty of the working classes and their parliamentary representatives in the countries involved, supported by the coordinating activity of the International Socialist Bureau, to exert every effort in order to prevent the outbreak of war by the means they consider most effective, which naturally vary according to the sharpening of the class struggle and the sharpening of the general political situation.
"In case war should break out anyway, it is their duty to intervene in favor of its speedy termination and with all their powers to utilize the economic and political crisis created by the war to rouse the masses and thereby to hasten the downfall of capitalist class rule."
In fact, Luxemburg and Lenin had very different interpretations of the national question. Lenin and the Bolsheviks opposed imperialism and chauvinism by advocating a policy of national self-determination, including the right of oppressed nations to secede from Russia. They believed this would help to create the conditions for unity between the workers in both oppressing and oppressed nations. Specifically, Lenin claimed “The bourgeois nationalism of any oppressed nation has a general democratic content that is directed against oppression and it is this content that we unconditionally support." By contrast, Luxemburg broke with the mainstream Polish Socialist Party (PPS)
Polish Socialist Party
The Polish Socialist Party was one of the most important Polish left-wing political parties from its inception in 1892 until 1948...
in 1893 on the national question.
Luxemburg argued in that the nature of Russia had changed since Marx’s day. Russia was now fast developing as a major capitalist nation, while the Polish bourgeoisie now had its interests linked to Russian capitalism. This had opened the possibility of a class alliance between the Polish and Russian working class.
In the event the leading party of the Second International, the SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
, voted overwhelmingly in support of Germany's entry into the First World War by approving war credits on 4 August 1914. Many other member parties of the Second International followed suit by supporting national governments and the Second International was dissolved in 1916. Proletarian internationalists characterized the combination of social democracy and nationalism as social chauvinism
Social chauvinism
Social chauvinism can be described as aggressive or fanatical patriotism, particularly during time of war, in support of one's own nation versus other nation, displayed by those who are socialists or social democrats. During World War I, most left-of-centre political parties took a...
.
First World War
The hopes of internationalists such as Lenin, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were dashed by the initial enthusiasm for war. Lenin tried to re-establish socialist unity against the war at the Zimmerwald conferenceZimmerwald Conference
The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between revolutionary socialists and reformist socialists in the Second International.-...
but the majority of delegates took a pacifist rather than a revolutionary position.
In prison, Luxemburg deepened her analysis with the Junius Pamphlet of 1915. In this document she specifically rejects the notion of oppressor and oppressed states: "Imperialism is not the creation of one or any group of states. It is the product of a particular stage of ripeness in the world development of capital, an innately international condition, an indivisible whole, that is recognisable only in all its relations, and from which no nation can hold aloof at will."
Proletarian internationalists now argued that the alliances of the First World War had proved that socialism and nationalism were incompatible in the imperialist era, that the concept of national self-determination had become outdated, and in particular, that nationalism would prove to be an obstacle to proletarian unity. Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
was a further working class political current that characterised the war as imperialist on all sides, finding organisational expression in the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
.
The internationalist perspective influenced the revolutionary wave towards the end of the First World War, notably with Russia's withdrawal from the conflict following the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
revolution and the revolt in Germany beginning in the naval ports of Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
and Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...
that brought the war to an end in November 1918. However, once this revolutionary wave had receded in the early 1920s, proletarian internationalism was no longer mainstream in working class politics.
The Third International: Leninism versus Left Communism
Following the First World War the international socialist movement was irreconcilably split into two hostile factions: on the one side, the social democrats, who broadly supported their national governments during the conflict; and on the other side Leninists and their allies who formed the new Communist Parties that were organised into the Third International, which was established in March 1919. However, during the Russian Civil WarRussian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
Lenin and Trotsky more firmly embraced the concept of national self-determination for tactical reasons. In the Third International the national question became a major bone of contention between mainstream Leninists and "left communists". However the latter soon became an isolated minority, either falling into line or leaving the International.
By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939 only a few prominent communists such as the Italian Marxist Amadeo Bordiga
Amadeo Bordiga
Amadeo Bordiga was an Italian Marxist, a contributor to Communist theory, the founder of the Communist Party of Italy, a leader of the Communist International and, after World War II, leading figure of the International Communist Party.- Early life :Bordiga was born at Resina, in the province of...
and the Dutch council communist Anton Pannekoek remained true to the principles of proletarian internationalism as elaborated in the 1907 resolution. But in 1943, following the collapse of the Mussolini regime in Italy, Bordigists regrouped and founded the Internationalist Communist Party
International Communist Party
The International Communist Party is a left communist international political party which is often described by outside observers as Bordigist, due to the contributions by longtime member Amadeo Bordiga...
(PCInt). The first edition of the party organ, Promoteo (Prometheus) proclaimed: "Workers! Against the slogan of a national war which arms Italian workers against English and German proletarians, oppose the slogan of the communist revolution, which unites the workers of the world against their common enemy — capitalism." The PCInt took the view that Luxemburg, not Lenin, had been right on the national question.
Socialist internationalism
Socialist internationalism allegedly regulated relationship between socialist countries. In reality Soviet Union controlled smaller countries using the Warsaw PactWarsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
and Comecon
Comecon
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance , 1949–1991, was an economic organisation under hegemony of Soviet Union comprising the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states elsewhere in the world...
, invading Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
On the night of 20–21 August 1968, the Soviet Union and her main satellite states in the Warsaw Pact – Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic , Hungary and Poland – invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in order to halt Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring political liberalization...
in 1968. The Sino-Soviet split
Sino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
in 1950s and 1960s produced two groups of socialist countries.
Proletarian internationalism today
Some political groupings such as the International Communist PartyInternational Communist Party
The International Communist Party is a left communist international political party which is often described by outside observers as Bordigist, due to the contributions by longtime member Amadeo Bordiga...
, the International Communist Current
International Communist Current
The International Communist Current is an international centralised left communist organisation which was formed in 1975 and which has sections in France, Great Britain, Mexico, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Venezuela, Brazil, Sweden, India, Italy, USA, Switzerland, Philippines and...
and the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party
International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party
The Internationalist Communist Tendency is a political international whose member organisations identify with the Italian left communist tradition...
(which includes the PCInt) follow the Luxemburgist and Bordigist interpretations of proletarian internationalism, as do some libertarian communists.
Leftist opposition to proletarian internationalism
In contrast, some socialists have pointed out that social realities such as local loyalties and cultural barriers militate against proletarian internationalism. For example, George OrwellGeorge Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
believed that "in all countries the poor are more national than the rich." To this, Marxists might counter that while the rich may have historically had the awareness and education to recognize cross-national interest of class, the poor of those same nations likely have not had this advantage, making them more susceptible to what Marxists would describe as the false ideology of patriotism. Marxists assert that patriotism and nationalism serve precisely to obscure opposing class interests that would otherwise pose a threat to the ruling class order.
Marxists would also point out that in times of intense revolutionary struggle (the most evident being the revolutionary periods of 1848-9, 1917–1923 and 1968) internationalism within the proletariat can overtake petty nationalisms as intense class struggles break out in multiple nations at the same time and the workers of those nations discover that they have more in common with other workers than with their own bourgeoisie.
On the question of imperialism and national determination, proponents of third worldism argue that workers in "oppressor" nations (such as the USA or Israel) must first support national liberation movements in "oppressed" nations (such as Afghanistan or Palestine) before there can be any basis for proletarian internationalism. For example, Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff , was a Trotskyist who was a founding member of the Socialist Review Group which went on to become the Socialist Workers Party...
, a leading figure of the British Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...
, denied the possibility of solidarity between Palestinians and Israelis in the current Middle East situation, writing "Israel is not a colony suppressed by imperialism, but a settler’s citadel, a launching pad of imperialism. It is a tragedy that some of the very people who had been persecuted and massacred in such bestial fashion should themselves be driven into a chauvinistic, militaristic fervour, and become the blind tool of imperialism in subjugating the Arab masses."
Trotskyists argue that there must be a permanent revolution
Permanent Revolution
Permanent revolution is a term within Marxist theory, established in usage by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels by at least 1850 but which has since become most closely associated with Leon Trotsky. The use of the term by different theorists is not identical...
in third world countries, in which a bourgeoisie revolution will inevitably lead to a worker's revolution with an international scope. We may see this in the Bolshevik Revolution before the movement was stopped by Stalin, a proponent of Socialism in One Country
Socialism in One Country
Socialism in One Country was a theory put forth by Joseph Stalin in 1924, elaborated by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and finally adopted as state policy by Stalin...
. Because of this threat, the bourgeoisie in third world countries will willingly subjugate themselves to national and capitalist interests in order to prevent a proletarian uprising.
Internationalists would respond that capitalism has proved itself incapable of resolving the competing claims of different nationalisms, and that the working class (of all countries) is oppressed by capitalism, not by other workers. Moreover, the global nature of capitalism and international finance make "national liberation" an impossibility. For internationalists, all national liberation movements, whatever their "progressive" gloss, are therefore obstacles to the communist goal of world revolution
World revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class...
.
See also
- MarxismMarxismMarxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
- CommunismCommunismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
- Socialism in One CountrySocialism in One CountrySocialism in One Country was a theory put forth by Joseph Stalin in 1924, elaborated by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and finally adopted as state policy by Stalin...
- Global Citizens MovementGlobal citizens movementIn most discussions, the global citizens movement is a socio-political process rather than a political organization or party structure. The term is often used synonymously with the anti-globalization movement or the global justice movement. Colloquially the term is also used in this imprecise manner...
- Socialist InternationalSocialist InternationalThe Socialist International is a worldwide organization of democratic socialist, social democratic and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...
- Social PatriotismSocial PatriotismSocial Patriotism is an openly patriotic standpoint which combines patriotism with socialism. It was first identified at the outset of the First World War when a majority of Social Democrats opted to support the war efforts of their respective governments and abandoned socialist internationalism...
- Stateless communismStateless communismStateless communism, also known as pure communism, is the post-capitalist stage of society which Karl Marx predicted would inevitably result from the development of the productive forces...
- World revolutionWorld revolutionWorld revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class...
- World communismWorld communismWorld communism, also known as international communism or global communism, is the terminal stage of development of the history of communism in Marxist theory. It has also usually been equated to the Comintern . This is the meaning that typically and historically has been meant by opponents of...