What is Communism?
Communism is a political theory advocating community ownership of all property, the benefits of which are to be shared by all according to the needs of each individual. The theory originated by the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Their "Communist Manifesto" (1848) further specified "dictatorship of the proletariat," a transitional stage Marx called Socialism; communism was the final stage in which not only class division but even organized state, seen by Marx as inevitably an instrument of oppression, would be transcended. That distinction was soon lost, and "communist" began to apply to a specific party rather than a final goal. Joseph Stalin's version of communism, was synonymous to many with totalitarianism.
(Image of the Communists boycott against a Jewish-owned business, 1933)
(Image of the Communists boycott against a Jewish-owned business, 1933)