Anti-communism
Anti-communism is an ideology of opposition to
communist organization, government and ideology. It often incorporates opposition to other policies and ideologies that threaten property interests or advocate left radicalism (e.g.
anarchism,
socialism,
syndicalism etc)
The term came to have a global meaning during the
Cold War, when the powers of
Western society sought to coordinate an opposition to what they claimed was the expansionist foreign policy of the
Soviet Union. For much of the period between
1950 and
1991 anti-communism was one of the major components of the
Cold War and what
U.S. leaders claimed to be a
containment policy against the
Soviet Union.
Today, many liberal anti-communists object to the lack of individual freedom in
Communist states, criticize the way in which the concept of democracy is interpreted by communists very differently than in Western
liberal democracy, and critique the socialist economic programs proposed by communists.
Many communists rebut this criticism by saying that democracy is actually essential for a planned economy to prevent what many more left-winged communists call "
state-capitalism", in which they say a
dictatorship would act just as oppressive to the workers as the corporations in
capitalism.
After the
Russian
October Revolution in
1917, critics of communism were inspired to resist communist ideology from a
conservative point of view. With the advent of
Stalinism in the
1920s, many liberal communists,
Trotskyists, and
social democrats opposed the
Soviet Union for its violations of human rights, thus anti-communism became common on both the
Left and
Right of the
political spectrum.
Different people have opposed communism for very different reasons. Conservative and liberal critics of communism often oppose Marxism or even
socialism in general. They see communism as a doctrine based on radical, and incorrect, arguments. They believe that
capitalism gives economic freedoms to everyone (whereas the communists says only the
bourgeoisie [
see Marxism] have economic liberties over the
proletariat), and regard the lack of
property rights under communism as a violation of their conception of
human rights.
Others oppose communism due to contradictions or errors within the communist theory and gaps between communist theory and practice. Many anti-communists feel that the theory is less objectionable than its adherents' actions in power. Democratic socialists as
Bertrand Russell and
anarchist theorists such as
Noam Chomsky see communism as a doctrine whose aims are noble in theory but which fails to attain them in practice.
See also: Anti-Comintern PactFascism and "Soviet"
communism are political systems that arose to prominence after
World War I. Historians of the period between World War I and
World War II such as
E.H. Carr and
Eric Hobsbawm point out that
liberal democracy was under serious stress in this period and seemed to be a doomed philosophy. The success of the
Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in a brief revolutionary wave across Europe, in Germany and Hungary in particular. The socialist movement worldwide split into separate
social democratic and
Leninist wings with the formation of the
Third International prompting severe debates within social democratic parties resulting in supporters of the Russian Revolution splitting to form
Communist Parties in most industrialised (and many non-industrialised) nations. The acceptance of the war by the social democratic parties gave the communist parties credibility with many people, as a result of them labelling it as being
imperialist.
At the end of World War I there were attempted socialist uprisings or threats of socialist uprisings throughout Europe. Most notably in Germany where the
Spartacist uprising in Germany led by
Rosa Luxemburg and
Karl Liebknecht in January 1919 failed. In Bavaria, Communists successfully overthrew the government and established the
Munich Soviet Republic that lasted from 1918-1919. A short lived Soviet government was also established in Hungary under
Béla Kun in 1919.
The Russian Revolution also inspired attempted revolutionary movements in Italy with a wave of factory occupations, a strike wave in Britain, the
Winnipeg General Strike, the
Seattle General Strike and other radical events.
Many historians view fascism as a response to these developments -- a movement that both tried to appeal to the
working class and divert them from
Marxism and also appealed to
capitalists as a bulwark against
Bolshevism. Italian fascism founded and led by
Benito Mussolini took power with the blessing of Italy's king after years of leftist unrest led many conservatives to fear that a communist revolution was inevitable. Throughout Europe numerous
aristocrats and
conservative intellectuals as well as capitalists and industrialists lent their support to fascist movements in their countries which arose in emulation of Italian fascism while in Germany numerous right wing nationalist groups arose, particularly out of the post-war
Freikorps which were used to crush both the Spartacist uprising and the Munich Soviet.
However, certain anti-communist authors have disputed the view of fascism as a reaction against socialist revolutionary movements and instead stressed what they believed to be essential similarities between communism and fascism in both theory and practice. The noted
Austrian School economist Friedrich Hayek, author of
The Road to Serfdom, argued that various modern
totalitarian movements, including fascism and communism, have common philosophical roots both springing from the opposition to the
classical liberalism of the 19th century. Anti-communists arguing from these positions see it as far more than a coincidence that
Benito Mussolini himself was an enthusiastic
Marxist socialist and a prominent member of the Italian Socialist Party before the
World War I, while many philosophical founders of fascism, such as
Sergio Panunzio and
Giovanni Gentile, came from a Marxist or
syndicalist background.
With the worldwide
Great Depression of the 1930s it seemed that liberalism and the liberal form of capitalism was doomed and communist and fascist movements swelled. These movements were bitterly opposed to each other and fought each other frequently. The most notable example of this conflict was the
Spanish Civil War, which became a
proxy war between the fascist countries and their international supporters who backed
Francisco Franco and the worldwide Communist movement (allied uneasily with
anarchists and
Trotskyists) who backed the
Popular Front and were aided chiefly by the
Soviet Union.
Initially, the
Soviet Union supported the idea of a coalition with the western powers against
Nazi Germany as well as
popular fronts in various countries against domestic fascism. This policy was largely unsuccessful due to the distrust shown by the western powers (especially Britain) towards the Soviet Union. The
Munich Agreement between Germany, France and Britain heightened Soviet fears that the western powers were endeavoring to force them to bear the brunt of a war against Nazism. The Soviets changed their policy and negotiated a non-aggression pact with Germany, known as the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939. The Soviets later argued that this was necessary to buy them time to prepare for an expected war with Germany. However, some critics question this claim, pointing out that along with a non-aggression clause, the pact also laid out extensive economic cooperation between the Soviets and Germans, in the form of the
German-Soviet Commercial Agreement, providing Nazi Germany some of the materials it needed to build its war machine. This detail is used by the aforementioned critics to argue that Stalin expected the war to be waged solely between Germany and the Western Allies, with the Soviet Union keeping its neutrality while its two greatest enemies fought each other.
Whatever the case, it is clear that Stalin did not expect the Germans to attack until 1942, so he was taken by surprise when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, with
Operation Barbarossa. Fascism and communism reverted to their relationship as lethal enemies - with the war, in the eyes of both sides, becoming one between their respective ideologies.
|
A Cold War propaganda film depicts the Soviets painting the globe red with blood. |
The first major manifestation of anti-communism in the
United States occurred
1919"
1920 in the
Red Scare led by Attorney General
Alexander Mitchell Palmer.
Following
World War II and the rise of the
Soviet Union many of the objections to Communism took on an added urgency because of the stated Communist view that the ideology was universal. The fear of many anti-Communists within the United States was that Communism would triumph throughout the entire world and eventually be a direct threat to the government of the United States. This view led to the
domino theory in which a communist takeover in any nation could not be tolerated because it would lead to a
chain reaction which would result in a triumph of world communism. There were fears that powerful nations like the Soviet Union and the
People's Republic of China were using their power to forcibly assimilate other countries into communist rule, in a new form of
Imperialism. The Soviet Union's expansion into
Central Europe after World War II was seen as evidence of this. These actions prompted many politicians to adopt a kind of
pragmatic anti-Communism, opposing the ideology as a way of limiting the expansion of the
Soviet Empire. The US policy of halting further communist expansion came to be known as
containment.
The United States government has usually motivated its anti-communism by citing the human rights record of Communist states, most notably the Soviet Union during the Stalin era,
Maoist China, the short-lived
Khmer Rouge government in
Cambodia led by
Pol Pot, and
North Korea, because those states ended up killing of millions of their own people and continued to suppress civil liberties of the surviving population.
Anti-communism became significantly muted after the fall of the Soviet Union and
Eastern bloc communist regimes in Eastern and Central Europe between 1989 and 1991, and the fear of a worldwide Communist takeover is no longer a serious concern. Remnants of anti-communism remain, however, in United States foreign policy toward
Cuba,
mainland China, and
North Korea. In the case of
Cuba, the United States continues to maintain economic sanctions against the island in a policy which is sharply criticized outside of the United States, but which has substantial support in the US, particularly from the
Cuban-American constituency, including many of the Cuban exiles living in
Florida who oppose any such normalization with the Cuban government. Much of the
conservative wing of American politics also opposes trade normalization with Cuba while the
Communist Party of Cuba retains its influence.
Due to expanding American trade interests with the
People's Republic of China, much of the United States foreign policy establishment does not regard "Communist China" as communist in any meaningful sense. Nevertheless, there is some hostility toward the People's Republic of China, particularly among conservative Congressional Republicans which can be regarded as remnants of anti-communism. For example, national security issues were raised during Chinese state-owned CNOOC Ltd.'s takeover bid for
Unocal, an American energy firm. North Korea remains staunchly
Stalinist and economically
isolationist, and tensions between the country and the US have heightened as the result of reports that it is stockpiling
nuclear weapons and is generally willing to sell its nuclear weapons and
ballistic missile technology to any group willing to pay a high enough price.]
After the
October Revolution,
allied intervention troops tried to crush the revolution. In the summer of 1918, some 13,000 American soldiers, 44,000 British, 13,000 French, and 80,000 Japanese were fighting against the
Red Army. In addition, these countries provided significant financial and material help to the
White Movement (e.g., United States provided 500,000
US dollars, 400,000
rifles, etc.).
Communist political parties and organizations were actively opposed by conservative governments in
Eastern Europe after the failed communist revolutions around 1920, in
Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe, in
Japan during
World War II, in China by the
Kuomintang in the 1920s and 1930s, in post-war
Taiwan and
South Korea, in
Latin America by various right-wing military regimes (
Augusto Pinochet in
Chile,
Dirty War in
Argentina, civil war in
El Salvador, etc), and in many other places and instances.
There was also some
political repression in the name of anti-communism in the
United States, most notably in the
Red Scare of the 1920s and the
McCarthyist era after
World War II.Communists and communist sympathizers often emphasize the persecution of their political movement by "reactionary" forces, which they feel is being downplayed by capitalist governments. Anti-communists respond to this by pointing out that communist governments have often used similar methods to deal with their political enemies, including fellow communists. Regarding this issue, the opinions of communists are divided: some of them support the actions of those communist governments on the grounds that they were necessary in order to deal with dangerous terrorists and criminals, while other communists agree that such actions cannot be justified and put in question the self-proclaimed communist nature of the governments willing to carry them out.
Little is known about anti-communist massacres after World War II, not least because of the efforts by the anti-communist regimes to cover up such events. Such a massacre happened on the island of Jeju (South Korea) in April 1948 (
Jeju massacre). The estimates of the number of victims range from 30,000 to 140,000. Another example is the
228 Incident in
Taiwan in
1947, which until recently was considered a taboo subject even in private (although not many communists were involved).
During the Cold War many authoritarian regimes, often supported by the US, used the fear of communism as a means of legitimizing repression or as an excuse to persecute its opponents.
Augusto Pinochet's
Chile, for example, is often cited by critics as an example of this, although others argue that the threat of communism to Chile was very real. The worst case was probably that of General
Suharto in
Indonesia who, using the excuse of foiling a failed Communist coup d'etat attempt, seized executive power and killed about 500,000 people in his mass purges arresting more than 200,000 other people on merely being suspected of being involved with the coup. Most communists, alleged communists and so-called "enemies of the state" were sentenced to death (although some of the executions were delayed to 1990). The alleged or demonstrated complicity of the
CIA with these regimes seriously discredited anticommunism and the pretense of the US to represent a
"Free World" in the eyes of critics. Others, however, have argued that extreme measures were needed to prevent the spread of communism during the height of its expansion and
to preserve the security of the Free World as we knew it.
Proponents of communism in capitalist countries tend to challenge the accuracy of anti-communist claims. A common rebuttal of anti-communism is that communist countries had created a new, non-proletarian ruling class and thus were not in fact communist. This is a view first put forward by
left communists in the twenties and
Trotskyists in the 1930s, and today it is accepted by the majority of western communists. Indeed, most modern communists do acknowledge failings on the part of communist governments, saying that
Marxism is clearly against these dictators' practices.
Anti-communists respond to these claims by saying that they believe communist states are totalitarian by nature, and that in Marxist theory too much power is given to the state. They point out that several communist governments have existed, but none have been considered democracies. Anti-communists also question if a classless communist society can truly be achieved.
Some anti-communists, particularly those with
Libertarian leanings, extend their criticisms well beyond Soviet-style communism, associating it with any state-run activity beyond the most minimal. People who support a
mixed economy where some services are supplied by government-run institutions, such as what takes place in
social-democrat countries, resent the association with communism.
Some writers and historians object to anti-communists' comparisons of communism to fascism (under the blanket term "
totalitarianism", which they believe to be incorrect). They cite historical evidence, such as the fact that the
Soviet Union fought against
Adolf Hitler during
World War II and said that fascism was the enemy of communism (a view that was shared by Hitler himself, who was one of the most virulent anti-communists of the time), while many anti-communists in occupied Europe took the side of
Nazi Germany. Others, however, placed anti-fascism or national independence above their dislike of communism.
Yet another objection to anti-communism which became more widely advanced in the
1970s was that in pursuit of anti-communism, the
United States was conducting a
foreign policy in which it supported people and governments that sometimes egregiously violated
human rights, which it saw as lesser evils than communism. In order to justify these actions, U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick stated the
Kirkpatrick doctrine which argued there was a difference between
totalitarian regimes and
authoritarian regimes.
Many staunchly anti-communist regimes have been dictatorial and guilty of egregious human rights abuses, oppression, and sometimes
genocide. These may include
Nazi Germany, secular Middle Eastern dictatorships in
Syria,
Iraq,
Egypt, and the
Sudan, right-wing military juntas in
Latin America such as those in
Chile or
Panama, the
apartheid regime in
South Africa, the anti-communist regime in
Zaire under
Mobutu Sese Seko, and anti-communist regimes in the Far East as
Suharto's
Indonesia and
Chiang Kai-Shek's
Republic of China. Citing governments like these as evidence, communists claim that much Cold War policy was driven by simple anti-communism and a disregard for problems in nations ruled by anti-communist but undemocratic governments.
Various Western countries, the United States first and foremost, are also often accused of racism, oppression and violence, denial of political or labour rights, support for governments which presided over mass killings, torture and detention of political opponents, or engagement with regimes (usually on the basis of their shared anti-communism) which practised genocide or racial segregation. In
Italy, the use of the
Strategy of tension in the 1970's has been widely criticized.
Nevertheless, anti-communists generally believe such claims to be of an "
and you are lynching negroes" variety. They argue that while capitalist governments may have some faults, Communist ones are worse. Many also state that they disapprove of some actions undertaken by anti-Communist leaders, though the defeat of communism and Soviet influence during the Cold War was a top priority. Some also believe that it is easier for countries previously ruled by an authoritarian, anti-Communist government to transition into a democracy, while it is more difficult for a totalitarian Communist nation to do so.
The communists take the other side in claiming which government is more flawed, stating that while communist governments may have had some faults, capitalist ones are worse. Communists cite democratic and popular support for a variety of Marxist-oriented governments (or at least anti-anti-Communist governments) that existed during the Cold War era, such as
Allende's
Chile. Communists condemn support for oppressive regimes for the sole purpose of eliminating communist influence, and claim that this sort of action is worse than any differences that communist nations may have had with capitalist countries. In addition, communists assert that a transition from an authoritarian, anti-communist state to a democratic one could only occur with military intervention, civil war, or the death of a leader, as evidenced by the nations in the
Axis during World War II, or the death of
Francisco Franco in
Spain.
Communists also claim that in some former Communist countries, conditions were better before its collapse. An example used in this argument is Russia, which has faced a bumpy transition to capitalism and has a 25% poverty rate, whereas
Belarus, under the central, socialist-style planning of
Lukashenko, was the only former
SSR that suffered very little economic damage.
Ironically, many anti-communists were more focused on the perceived challenges of communism than on the internal problems in certain communist states, and few anti-communists were able to predict the fall of the Soviet Union even as late as the mid-1980s.
This section lists a number of significant intellectual, political, and military opponents of communism. Note that there is a certain overlap between the listed categories. For example, many prominent political
dissidents in the former communist countries, like
Václav Havel, are also renowned for challenging the theory and practice of communist regimes in their writings.
The persons listed are not classified by their own ideological positions from which they opposed communism, and clashes between their views were often no less severe than their opposition to communism. Most anti-communists in the
1930s and
1940s were also staunch opponents of fascism; however, during the
Cold War, anti-communism did lead some people who had previously criticised fascism to support other anti-communist dictators.
Objections to communist theory
The central part of
Karl Marx's communist theory is
historical materialism, a methodology for studying history using dialectical reasoning which concludes that human society has grown or evolved through several historical stages due to the contradictions inherent in each stage, with each transition to the next stage involving the overthrow of the existing socioeconomic order. This idea was first theorized by
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, but Marx used it to formulate his beliefs. Using this method, Marxists conclude that capitalism will be followed by socialism, just as
feudalism was followed by capitalism. Marxists then conclude that socialism would be followed by communism, which Marx claimed would not be able to be improved upon as it has no contradictions of its own.
Most anti-communists reject the entire concept of historical materialism, or at least do not believe that socialism and communism must follow after capitalism. Some anti-communists question how and why the state is supposed to wither away into a true communist society.
Many critics also see a key error in communist economic theory, which predicts that in capitalist societies, the bourgeoisie will accumulate ever-increasing capital and wealth, while the lower classes become more dependent on the ruling class for survival, selling their
labor power for the most minimal of salaries. Anti-communists, claiming that this argument is equivalent to the statement that "the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer", point to the overall rise in the average standard of living in the industrialized West as proof that contrary to Marx's prediction as, they assert, both the rich and poor have steadily gotten richer. However, sympathizers question the possibility of everyone becomming richer at the same time; given that there is a limited amount of resources in the world, which is becomming increasingly scarcer under capitalist ideals (e.g. oil). Unless these resources are obtained through depleting another region's supply or manufacturing them through modern and future technology, this view would be preposterous. Communists reply that even during periods of great prosperity, the rich get rich much faster than the poor, and posit that such periods of prosperity are historical abberations and will be wiped out by future crises of production.
Another reply to this criticism is that the nations who most endorse capitalism today, such as the
United States, the
United Kingdom and
Germany, had a long history of bountiful natural resources, strategic geography, military victory, and technology long before many capitalist intricacies, giving them these benefits today. Similarly, they claim nations such as
Russia,
Vietnam, and
Cuba had long histories of military defeats, brutal environments, strict dictatorships, and underdeveloped economies throughout their histories, making living conditions harsher even after socialist revolutions. Anti-capitalists, on the other hand, often argue that capitalism is now a global economical system, therefore affecting the whole world. Thus, it is necessary to see economical trends without national boundaries. They state for example that much of the commodities sold in the
United States are produced or enhanced in one way or another, in a poorer country. And on an international scale, the division between the rich and poor has generally increased.
Communists also argue that the industrialized West profits immensely from the
exploitation of the
Third World through
globalization, that the gap between rich and poor capitalist countries (sometimes called the
North-South Gap) has widened greatly over the past hundred years, and that poor capitalist countries vastly outnumber the rich ones. The standard anti-communist reply to the latter argument is to point out the examples of former Third World countries that have successfully escaped out of poverty in the recent decades under the capitalist system, most notably the
Asian Tigers,
India and even nominally Communist
China itself. Anti-communists also cite numerous examples of Third World Communist regimes that failed to achieve development and economic growth and in many cases led their peoples into an even worse misery, for example the
Mengistu regime in
Ethiopia or the
North Korean totalitarian government. Supporters of Mengistu or Kim typically attribute the shortcomings in their societies to "imperialist" Western meddling. Other communists, such as the
Trotskyists, while agreeing that imperialism harmed these countries, also say that Ethiopia and North Korea were never communist--they were
Stalinist, meaning that they were ruled by a clique of bureaucrats who claimed to be acting in the popular interest but actually betrayed it, being more oppressive to its working class.
Many refer to both communism and
fascism as totalitarianism, seeing similarity between the actions of communist and fascist governments. It should also be noted that many modern left-attributed communists, particularly
anarcho-communists, use these similarities, and actual sayings from Marx himself, to argue that those self-proclaimed communist regimes were not actually following any sort of communism at all. One such quote by Marx to support this simply says,
"Democracy is the road to socialism."
Anti-communists also object to the actual practices of communist governments in contrast to the stated promises of communism, questioning whether or not they are truly able to be called "communist". For example, the view of "human nature" usually expounded by anti-communist
Objectivists is that while an egalitarian society could be looked at as ideal, it is virtually impossible to achieve. They state that it is human nature to be motivated by personal incentive, and point out that while several communist leaders have claimed to be working for the common good, many or all of them have been corrupt and totalitarian. Communists retaliate that "human nature" essentially doesn't exist, since human beings are extremely adaptable with inbred logic and have shown themselves to be able to live in a wide variety of social organizations, some similar to communism, throughout history.
Anticommunist histories
One of the most influential anti-communist historians was
Robert Conquest who argued in his works that Communism was responsible for tens of millions of deaths during the 20th century.
Communist parties (sometimes combined with left socialist parties as workers' parties) which have come to power have likewise tended to be rigidly intolerant of political opposition. Most communist countries have shown no signs of advancing from Marx's "socialist" stage of economy to an ideal "communist" stage. Rather, communist governments have been accused of creating a new ruling class (called by Russians the
Nomenklatura), with powers and privileges far greater than those previously enjoyed by the upper classes in the pre-revolutionary regimes.
It should be noted, however, that many communists do not support or justify such repressive actions. In particular,
Trotskyists have been virulent critics of the policies carried out by Stalin's Soviet Union and other nations who followed the same model. They refer to these nations as
Stalinist rather than communist, and sometimes call them
deformed workers states. The anti-communists reply that the repression in the early years of the
Bolshevik regime, while not as extreme as that during Stalin's reign, was still severe by any reasonable standards, citing the examples such as
Felix Dzerzhinsky's secret police, which eliminated numerous political opponents by extrajudicial executions, and the brutal crushing of the
Kronstadt rebellion and
Tambov rebellion. According to them,
Trotsky could hardly claim any moral high ground, having been one of the top-ranking Bolshevik leaders during these events. Trotsky was later to claim (unconvincingly) that the Kronstadt rebels were early harbingers of the bureaucratisation which he associated with Stalinism.
Anti-communists will likewise argue that the contemporary communist/Marxist claim that any communist regime that perpetuated human rights abuses was not a "true" communist state is merely a convenient excuse that can be evoked to avoid taking responsibility (and thus a version of the
No true Scotsman logical fallacy). It's important to notice, however, that a brief summary of
Marxist ideology would prove nations such as
Soviet and
China as being further away from "true" communism then many other societies have been.
Economic performance of communist governments
Communist supporters may point to the fact that those countries were far behind the West to begin with, and they may argue that communist governments have in fact reduced this pre-existing gap. Also, they often point to
Cuba, whose economic performance was arguably better than that of the neighboring countries. However, this argument has two main weaknesses, it ignores the prosperity in Cuba prior to Castro, and it is often based upon present Cuban government statistical data widely believed to be incorrect. During the 1990's, however, Cuba suffered a debilitating economic crisis following the loss of her major trading partners (most notably the Soviet Union), and was forced to allow foreign investments in the tourism market as a means of recovery. Critics of the Cuban government under
Fidel Castro argue that the Cuban Cold War trading arrangements with the USSR amounted to little more than a direct Soviet subsidy to the regime, and that prior to the ascension of Castro, Cuba was actually among the "richest" Latin American countries.
In other cases, such as the separated nations,
West Germany and
East Germany and
North Korea and
South Korea, the capitalist portion has advanced far ahead of its communist counterpart. In the case of East Germany, communists claim that they received the "raw end of the deal," since all the traditional industrial and commercial centers lay in the capitalist part of the country. However, in certain cases, capitalist countries like the United States levy sanctions to the communist counterpart while aiding the capitalist portion by donating or selling military and economic aid. In addition, in this case, the
Soviet Union removed plant and other resources, claiming them as
reparations. Similar conditions distinguished North and South Korea, with the former suffering under an American-led bombing campaign between 1950 and 1952 that reduced every industrial center above the 38th parallel to uniform rubble, while the latter was spared devastation to the same extent. Also, the anti-communists cite the example of
Czechoslovakia, which was among world's most developed industrial countries prior to
World War II, but fell far behind the Western nations under the Communist rule.
The hallmark of some Communist economic policies,
collective farming, has sometimes been called economically inefficient and often disastrous, especially in the cases of the former Soviet Union, China, and North Korea.
In general, anti-communist economic criticism centers on the belief that communists ignore the realities of economic life and production in favor of their ideas about how things ought to be done. Anti-communists believe that this leads to economic disruption and poverty and generally see the examples of former Communist nations as supporting the veracity of their views.
Anarchist anti-communism
The anarchist critique of communism comes from a different angle. Anarchists (who are not
Anarcho-capitalists) agree with communists that capitalism is a tool for oppression, that it is unjust and that it should be destroyed, one way or another. Anarchists, however, go on to say that
all centralized or coercive power (as opposed to just wealth) is ultimately injurious to the individual. Therefore, the concepts of
dictatorship of the proletariat, state ownership of the means of production, and other similar tendencies within Marxist thought are anathema to an anarchist, regardless of whether the state in question is democratic. There are, also, strong anti-anarchist tendencies among Marxists, who have been denounced variously as unscientific, romantic, or bourgeois.
The debates between
Mikhail Bakunin and Karl Marx are well-known. While Bakunin's own philosophy owed much to Marx's critique of capitalism, their views diverged sharply over questions of how a post-capitalistic society should be organized. Bakunin saw the Marxist State as simply another form of oppression: "The question arises, if the proletariat is ruling, over whom will it rule? This means there will remain another proletariat which will be subordinated to this new domination, this new state." He loathed the idea of a vanguard party ruling the masses from above, quipping that "when the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick.'"
Anarchists initially rejoiced over the 1917 revolution as an example of workers taking power for themselves, and indeed played a part in the revolution. It quickly became evident, however, that the communists and the anarchists had very different ideas regarding the kind of society they wanted to build there. Anarchist
Emma Goldman, who got deported from the USA to Russia in 1919, was enthusiastic about the revolution, but left sorely disappointed, and began to write her book
My Disillusionment in Russia. Anarchist
Victor Serge, in response to the pro-Leninist sentiment in the global Left, said, "All right, I can see the broken eggs. Now where's this omelette of yours?"
Anarchists often cite the crushing of the
Kronstadt Rebellion, in which the Red Army defeated an embryonic anarchist commune, as a specific example of the tyranny they perceived in the Bolshevik government. The
typhus epidemic, and subsequent crushing of
Nestor Makhno's weakened "Black Army" in the
Ukraine was also a specifically controversial action of the early Bolsheviks.
During the
Spanish Civil War, a pro-Soviet Communist Party gained considerable influence due to the necessity of aid from the Soviet Union. Communists and liberals on the Republican side fought mainly against the
Falange fascists, but also put some effort against the
anarchist Spanish Revolution, ostensibly to bolster the anti-Fascist front (the anarchist response was, "The revolution and the war are inseparable"). The most dramatic action against the anarchists was in May of 1937, when Communist-led police forces attempted to take over a
CNT-run telephone building in
Barcelona. The telephone workers fought back, setting up barricades and surrounding the Communist "
Lenin Barracks." Five days of street fighting in the
Barcelona May Days ensued. The enmity between anarchists at communists reached a new high, and remained there.
Bitter feelings between anarchists and communists are apparent even today in revolutionary circles. Much conflict and arguing occurs as it did in the 19th century between Marx and Bakunin. However, in recent times, anarchists and communists often join in protest (at least for pragmatic purposes) on certain issues, such as the recent
2003 invasion of Iraq.
*Fascist Politicians
Francisco Franco,
Adolf Hitler,
Benito Mussolini,
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu*Democratic Politicians
Winston Churchill,
Ronald Reagan,
Joseph McCarthy,
Margaret Thatcher,
Gregory Lauder-Frost,
Robert Menzies*Economists
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk,
Milton Friedman,
Friedrich Hayek,
Ludwig von Mises*Historians
Robert Conquest,
Paul Johnson,
Richard Pipes,
Nikolai Tolstoy*Writers
Taylor Caldwell,
David Caute,
Robert A. Heinlein,
Arthur Koestler,
Richard Lowenthal,
Revilo P. Oliver,
Franz Borkenau,
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,
Peregrine Worsthorne*Religious Leaders
Pope John Paul II,
Francis Cardinal Spellman,
Rev. Sun Myung Moon*
Hannah Arendt*
Ayn Rand*
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn*
Lech Wałęsa*
B.A. SantamariaSee also .*
Václav Havel (
Czechoslovakia) - playwright, later became the last President of
Czechoslovakia (1990-1992) and the first President of the
Czech Republic (1993-2003)
*
Lech Wałęsa (
Poland) - later became the president of Poland 1990-1995
*
Adam Michnik (Poland) - prominent figure in Workers Defense Committee (KOR-KSS), Solidarity adviser, became editor of
Gazeta Wyborcza in 1989
*
Zviad K. Gamsakhurdia (
USSR) -
Georgian dissident during the Soviet regime, later became the president of Georgia
*
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (
USSR) - famous
Russian novelist
*
Alexander Galich (
USSR) - famous
bard and screenwriter.
*
Corneliu Coposu (
Romania)
*
Milovan Đilas (
Yugoslavia)
*
Harry Wu (the
People's Republic of China)
*
Wang Youcai (the People's Republic of China)
*
Pieter Willem Botha prime minister (later state
president) of
apartheid South Africa 1978-
1989*
Zbigniew Brzezinski -
United States National Security Advisor to President
Jimmy Carter,
1977-
1980*
Winston Churchill -
British Prime Minister, 1940-45, 1951-55, leader of counterrevolutionary forces in
Russian Civil War.
*
Martin Dies, Jr. -
United States congressman 1930-1944, 1952-1958
*
Ngo Dinh Diem - President of
South Vietnam 1955-1963, assassinated
*
Samuel Kanyon Doe - President of
Liberia 1980-1990, assassinated
*
King Faisal - King of
Saudi Arabia, assassinated in
1975*
Francisco Franco - leader of
Spain 1939-1975, following the
Spanish Civil War*
Licio Gelli, head of
P2*
Barry Goldwater -
United States Senator 1953-
1964,
1968-
1987,
Republican Party nominee for President in the
1964 election*
Jesse Helms -
United States Senator
*
Adolf Hitler -
Chancellor of
the Third Reich 1933-1945
*
Miklós Horthy -
Regent of
Hungary 1920-1944
*
Ion Antonescu - leader of
Romania 1940-1944
*
Félix Houphouët-Boigny -
President of Côte d'Ivoire 1960-
1993 [
1]
*
Chiang Kai-Shek - leader of the
Republic of China 1928-1975, which was later relocated to
Taiwan*
John F. Kennedy - President of the
United States 1961-1963, assassinated
*
Jomo Kenyatta - President of
Kenya 1964-1978
*
Nguyen Khanh - premier (1964) of
South Vietnam and current Chief of State of the
Government of Free Vietnam 2005-
*
Ayatollah Khomeini, religious leader of
Iran 1979-1989, toppled the last
Shah of Iran [
2] [
3]
*
Jeane Kirkpatrick -
United States diplomat, ambassador to the
United Nations under
President Reagan*
Henry Kissinger -
Secretary of State for the
Nixon and
Ford administrations
*
Vytautas Landsbergis - Leader of
Lithuanian independence movement and first head of state of current Republic of Lithuania (1990-1992),
MEP 2004-current
*
Daniel Malan - prime minister of
apartheid South Africa 1948-1954, banned the
Communist Party of South Africa*
Douglas MacArthur -
United States general, led the American forces in the
Korean War*
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim - White military leader, later
President of Finland 1867-1951
*
Ferdinand Marcos - President of the
Philippines 1965-1986, established diplomatic relations with the
People's Republic of China and the
Soviet Union, both in
1975*
Mobutu Sese Seko - President of
Zaire 1965-1997 (although the country he ruled did not become
Zaire until
1971)
*
Joseph McCarthy -
United States Senator 1947-1957
*
Benito Mussolini -
Fascist leader of
Italy 1922-1944
*
Richard Nixon - President of the
United States 1969-1974, established diplomatic relations with
Communist China*
Lon Nol - Premier (later president) and dictator of
Cambodia, overthrown by the
Khmer Rouge*
Boun Oum - Prince of
Laos*
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi -
Shah of
Iran 1953-1979, overthrown in the
Iranian revolution*
George Papadopoulos -
Greek leader from 1967 to 1974
*
Augusto Pinochet - leader of
Chile 1973-1990,
overthrew the
socialist government of
Salvador Allende.
*
Ronald Reagan - President of the
United States 1981-1989
*
Syngman Rhee - president of
South Korea 1948-1960
*
António de Oliveira Salazar - Dictator of
Portugal 1932-1968
*
Jonas Savimbi - rebel against the Marxist government of
Angola, killed in battle in
2002*
Ian Smith - Prime Minister of
Rhodesia, now
Zimbabwe*
Paul Schäfer - former leader of the anti-communist
Colonia Dignidad community in
Chile*
Anastasio Somoza García - president of
Nicaragua, assassinated
*
Anastasio Somoza Debayle - president of
Nicaragua 1967-1972, 1974-1979, overthrown by the
Sandinistas, later assassinated in
Paraguay*
Luis Somoza Debayle - president of
Nicaragua*
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom - Prime Minister of
apartheid South Africa 1954-1958, severed relations with the
Soviet Union [
4]
*
Alfredo Stroessner - leader of
Paraguay 1954-1989
*
Suharto - President of Indonesia
*
Svinhufvud -
President of Finland 1931-1937
*
Robert Taft -
United States Senator
*
Eugène Terre'Blanche - founder and leader of the
Neo-Nazi Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging*
Margaret Thatcher - Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom 1979-1990
*
Nguyen Cao Ky - Premier (later Vice-President) of
South Vietnam*
Nguyen Van Thieu - President of
South Vietnam 1967-1975, resigned just days before the
Fall of Saigon*
Moise Tshombe - President of
Katanga*
Rafael Trujillo - leader of
Dominican Republic, assassinated
*
Harry S. Truman - President of the United States, 1945-1953
*
Arthur H. Vandenberg -
United States Senator*
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd - Prime minister of
apartheid South Africa 1958-1966, architect of
grand apartheid, assassinated
*
Jorge Rafael Videla -
Argentine political and military leader
*
Balthazar Johannes Vorster - Prime minister of
apartheid South Africa 1966-1978
*
Andrey Vlasov - head of the
Russian Liberation Army and
Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia.
*
Pyotr Wrangel - leader of the Russian republic in the
Crimea and commander in chief of the anti-Bolshevik
Russian Army.
See also: :Category:Russian counter-revolutionaries*
Anton Ivanovich Denikin*
Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel*
Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak*
Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich*
Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov*
Fanny Kaplan*
Luis Posada Carriles - allegedly blew up a Cuban passenger jet in
1976, killing the 73 passengers aboard, and admitted to plotting attacks that damaged tourist spots. [
5]
*
Orlando Bosch*
Stefano Delle Chiaie*
Kenkokukai -
Japanese nationalists who bombed the
Soviet embassy in
1928*
Eugène Terre'Blanche*
Michael Townley*
Osama Bin Laden - financially and logistically supported the
Mujahideen in their fight against the
Soviet forces in
Afghanistan.
*
American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia*
Anti-fascism*
Cold War*
Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia*
Criticisms of communism*
Evil empire*
House Unamerican Activities Committee*
Joseph McCarthy and
McCarthyism*
National Committee for a Free Europe*
Nationalist Movement*
Operation Condor*
Operation Gladio*
Radio Free Europe*
Red Scare*
Reagan Doctrine*
Stay-behind*
Strategy of tension*
Truman Doctrine*
World Anti-Communist League*
Industrial Workers of the World: The IWW Shattered " an excerpt from
Howard Zinn's
A People's History of the United States
