There are those who would argue that "Communism doesn't work". And, like they say in the military, "Opinions are like assholes - every body's got one." Opinions aside, what's the real deal?
1. - The Soviet Union
Everybody likes to point to the USSR and say, "See how fucked up communism is." Even communists and socialists are quick to denounce the USSR. For a variety of reasons. Namely, that Uncle Joe stole the revolution and made himself a dictator for life. Or, Russian communism was a 'tyranny of the bureaucracy'.
Well yeah, these charges are valid. But what about the 'cold war'. Isn't that what actually destroyed Soviet communism? And, kept Russian socialism from working?
In all, according to the Center for Defense Information, which provides information on military spending, the total cost of the Cold War was $13.1 Trillion dollars. Wow!
Basically, the USSR went down the tubes because it couldn't afford to spend as much money fighting capitalism as the West did fighting communism. Like Bismark says, you have to choose between guns and butter - you can't have both!
All that military hardware we used to see in the May Day parades kept the USSR broke, and kept socialism from working.
2. - Eastern Bloc - the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe
When the USSR liberated eastern Europe from the Nazis, their first move was to round up all the opposition and either shoot them or put them in a labor camp; their second, was to strip the country of all of its resources (after they raped all the women, of course); their third move was to set up a puppet regime.
The West conveniently looked the other way, while this was happening. Since the important thing was to defeat Hitler, and not to quibble about ideological differences.
Needless to say, the Eastern Bloc was communist in name only. And, that, I think, explains their rapid collapse at the end of the Cold War.
Communism didn't work in the Eastern Bloc because what passed for communism there was economic slavery and exploitation. Not democratic socialism.
3.- Cuba and Latin America
Pursuant to the Monroe Doctrine, the USA runs this part of the world. It calls the shots and tells all these countries what to think and do. If they don't play ball there are boycotts, economic sanctions, CIA 'black ops', and armed military intervention.
The people of Latin America haven't really done any better than the people of the Eastern Bloc. (Except maybe the US Army hasn't raped all their women.) Its a bleak picture of economic slavery and exploitation.
Props to Cuba - they have done a pretty good job with very few economic resources.
If you want to see how it works in this 'neck of the woods, study Nicaragua. You will see the lengths that the US power elite will go to trash a communist country and make sure that socialism doesn't work.
4.- Southeast Asia
The Vietnam War ended up costing the US around $584 billion according to this website: http://members.aol.com/usregistry/allwars.htm#cst
The real cost of Vietnam? For 58,000 Americans it cost them everything: The chance to ever see their families again, their chance to have a future, their chance to laugh, to cry, to have kids and grandkids, the chance to work at a job and experience life - all gone. For those of us who survived: The nights when you wake up with a flashback when you can still smell the burning flesh or remember the blood that splattered on you from a friend that you were talking to as an enemy's bullet hits him in the head. The terrible stomach problems that you endure because of Agent Orange and the VA will not recognize that its cause because the chemical makers have so much clout. The PTSD that makes people around you wonder what is wrong with you, the limp you have because a mine destroyed a leg. The real cost of the war? Far beyond $584 billion.
And, then there were countless other countries in Asia that the US power elite trashed to 'prove' that communism/socialism can't work.
5.- Korea
The Korean War cost Americans $335.9 billion in dollars; 33,686 dead, 92,134 wounded, and 4,759 missing.
North Korea is virtually isolated from the rest of the world. The corporate capitalists are intent on starving them out. Men, women, children and old people. No mercy can be shown to 'commies' anywhere on the globe. Otherwise, people may find out that communism can work...
6.- China
China is a unitary and socialist state whose constitution calls on the nation to “concentrate on socialist modernization by following the road of building socialism with Chinese characteristics” all the while adhering to the “leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory” as well as “the important thought of the Three Represents,” which are attributed to former CCP general secretary and president of China Jiang Zemin. The political system is led by the 66.4- million-member CCP. Political processes are guided by the CCP constitution and, increasingly, by the state constitution, both promulgated in 1982. The CCP constitution was revised in 2002, and the state constitution was amended in 1988, 1993, 1999, and 2004.
Both constitutions stress the principle of democratic centralism, under which the representative organs of both party and state are elected by lower bodies and in turn elect their administrative arms at corresponding levels. Within representative and executive bodies, the minority must abide by decisions of the majority; lower bodies obey orders of higher-level organs. In theory, the National Party Congress ranks as the highest organ of party power, but actual power lies in the CCP Central Committee and its even more exclusive Political Bureau. At the apex of all political power are the members of the elite Standing Committee of the Political Bureau.
Wow. And, there was a nasty rumor going around that China had given up on socialism and turned capitalist.
Bottom line: The USA, under the control of Corporate Capitalism, has all but bankrupted itself trying to destroy Communism, and do you know what happened? The Chinese Communists won!
What can we learn from this?
That Corporate Capitalism and its lackeys are not as smart as they think they are.
And, that's the Truth!
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