Communism and Censorship

Definition: System of government in which the state owns the means of production

Significance: Communist governments and their defenders are noted for their willingness to repress independent thought

Communism is a political and economic system that grew out of the writings of Karl Marx. A variety of communist parties and movements have arisen in a number of countries. Communism, however, remains more an ideal than a reality; as an ideal, it is the shared and just distribution of wealth. In historical example, however, communism has been the rule of dictatorships.

Communism means many things to many people. As a political and economic system, it involves organizing and controlling the distribution of power in society as well as the production and distribution of goods and services. The distribution of power and goods is made according to certain basic principles. As an ideology, communism asserts that private property is the basis of capitalism, a system that allows for controlling the means of production by owners in search of profit. Marx’s historical analysis argues that capitalism is ultimately the source of many social ills; communist philosophy amplifies on this. The evils of capitalism include the exploitation of workers by the moneyed class, chronic unemployment, poverty, urban squalor, and environmental destruction. Abolishing private property, nationalizing industry, and providing universal education are the typical solutions to these problems offered by communists.

Communism, in its mature form found in industrial societies, must be distinguished from primitive communism. A system of communal ownership found in traditional preliterate societies, primitive communism is common among nomadic hunters and gatherers. These small-scale societies display little social stratification—few class distinctions—and, concomitantly, little or no surplus wealth. People in these societies are extremely dependent on one another and regularly participate in cooperative or communal activities. Such societies may be called communal rather than communist, to distinguish them from those societies that are large in scale and modern in technological development.

Marxism and Communism

Marx’s economic, political, and social thought provided the inspiration for modern communism. According to his view of history, the mode of production in any particular society determines the character of the social, political, and spiritual life of that society. The mode of production is the prevailing type of productive techniques used in producing goods and services. This may range from simple handwork to craft production using very basic technology to highly specialized, fully automated operations. The economic base of society is the foundation or substructure of society according to Marx. Marx, in other words, was one of the first social and historical analysts to point out that to understand how a society works, one should watch how money is made in that society and where the money goes. All other social and cultural institutions—law, art, government, literature, and religion, for example, which he called the superstructure of society—develop out of the economic foundation.

All history is the history of class conflict, according to communist ideology. The economic history of Western society involves the evolution from slavery involving masters and slaves, through the feudal society of lord and serf, to the capitalist system of bourgeoisie (owners) and proletariat (workers). In capitalist societies, class conflict between owners and workers is hostile. With increasingly complex and efficient industrial technology and with the private ownership of the land, labor, capital, and machinery used in production, owners continually profit at the expense of the workers. Wealth is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands. Workers, who do not own the means of production, have only their labor to sell in the marketplace for wages. What is in the best interest of owners—increasing productivity and profits—is seldom in the best interest of workers. What is in the best interests of workers—higher wages, better fringe benefits, and improved working conditions—is seldom in the best interest of owners. The widening gap between owners and workers is seen in differences in education, income, ideas, and lifestyles.

Communists argue that as the conditions of life for workers worsen, the working class will eventually overthrow the existing bourgeoisie control of the means of production. Society will pass through a transitional period of socialism which, according to communist doctrine, will itself wither away and be replaced by a communist society. Most societies regarded as communist refer to themselves as “socialist”; although their industry has been nationalized—taken over by the government—private property, such as household items and consumer goods, has not been eliminated. State ownership of industry, itself, must also eventually cease because government is a vehicle for class domination and communism represents the end of classes and the end of class exploitation. The communist ideal of “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” will also not be realized until the emergence of a true communist society. In contrast to this ideal, in socialist societies people continue to be paid according to their work rather than their needs.

The Basis of Censorship

During this transitional socialist period, communist theory argues, communists must use whatever power, including force, is necessary to gain control of the means of production. In the process of nationalizing industry, all opposition to the revolutionary social and economic changes needed to create a socialist state must be crushed. Rather than withering away, the state must create political and economic arrangements that will concentrate authority in the hands of workers, the proletariat, as represented by the communist party. The state must grow stronger before it can wither away. This dictatorship of the proletariat remains a class rule rather than a classless rule.

Given the powerlessness and lack of organization of workers, the working class must be guided and led by a small highly motivated party of revolutionary intellectuals who better understand the laws of history leading to communism. This dedicated vanguard of communist party members must have access to and control over the masses if the transition to communism is to succeed.

The fall of communism in the former Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe has exposed communism to increased scrutiny. Communism continued to exist in 1996 in various forms in such diverse settings as Cuba, North Korea, and China as a political and economic system. In these countries and in the countries of the formerly communist Eastern Europe, sophisticated forms of censorship were devised and practiced, ranging from prior restraint to subtle pressures to assassination.

By assuming that the working class could not be trusted to discover and realize its own true interests, that, if left alone, workers would possibly follow the path of forming trade unions to bargain with owners over wages, fringe benefits, and working conditions, communists could assign themselves the responsibility for guiding the workers of the world. This guidance would include educating workers, using propaganda, brainwashing, and even force to convince workers that only communists understand the revolutionary struggle leading to socialism and ultimately to communism. By gaining control of not only the economy, in terms of the means of production, but having a monopoly of political power, communists had the means to bring all mass organizations, such as labor unions and religious organizations, under their control.

Class Consciousness and False Consciousness

To justify the temporary centralization of power through the dictatorship of the proletariat, communists have cited Marx’s notions of class consciousness and false consciousness. Class consciousness is the awareness, especially among the working class, of their common economic, political, and social conditions. Typically, workers tend to lack a shared sense of being exploited. They often accept the status quo of being dominated by a ruling class. Class consciousness among workers, the communist argument has gone, will only emerge when workers appreciate that there is a working class, that they are part of it, and that they share not only a common way of life but common hopes, objectives, and enemies. No transition to a socialist society and, ultimately, to a communist society will be successful until a significant number of workers understand the sources of their oppression. Then and only then can workers begin to organize to change the status quo. The transformation of society requires collective commitment and collective action.

Research has indicated that among workers in the United States and many other industrial societies class consciousness is not well developed. Workers continue to aspire to middle-class and upper-middle-class membership, holding out hope for some measure of upward social mobility. The beliefs of the ruling class in democratic society concerning the importance of individual initiative and enterprise in determining an individual’s success in life remain widespread, even among workers. These beliefs and attitudes are not in accord with the actual or objective situation of workers in capitalist societies. Such false consciousness accounts for the lack of commitment and action among workers to change their circumstances.

Formulating the notion of false consciousness allows communist parties to determine the interests and needs of workers, which workers themselves do not understand. This, in turn, becomes the basis for the communist parties’ attempt to carefully censor the flow of information in society. Following Marx’s admonition that whoever controls the “means of mental production” will eventually control the definition of reality in society, communists became increasingly adept at influencing the production and distribution of ideas. Through tightly regulating the broadcast and the print media—the content of radio, television, newspapers and magazines, and the educational system—communist rulers sought to control the flow of information. In many societies, communist parties have employed a small army of censors to review the content of broadcasts and printed materials before they are presented to ensure they are consistent with prevailing communist beliefs and ideas.

Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, as the Communist Party extends its control over people’s lives, through censorship and a variety of other means, it continually centralizes its power and control over the economy and production. Centralized government planning rather than consumer preferences, as expressed through the market, determines what goods and services are produced for consumers. Government planners also determine the price of various goods and services. As the communists strengthen their hold on society, they are able to further control the flow of information in society by abolishing any competing political parties.

With minor variations, communist parties in all societies have been governed by a central executive committee. Once the party apparatus has arrived at a decision, it is expected that all in the party will carry out the decision to the best of their ability. One of the major problems in many socialist societies was that the Communist Party and the government it established became increasingly rigid in their attempt to direct every aspect of life. Art, music, literature, drama, even science—every branch of learning—became a potential threat to the grip of the party and the state. In an effort to purge any trace of independence, the expanding bureaucracy of the party, the state, the police, and the military became increasingly unresponsive to the lives and needs of the masses. For example, centralized government planning and control resulted in an economic system that usually produced consumer goods that were of poor quality and in insufficient quantities.

Not surprisingly, rather than witnessing the rise of communism out of the demise of socialism, in Russia and throughout Eastern Europe the demise of socialism was accompanied by the overthrow of the Communist Party. Although communist parties continue to function in a number of societies, serious doubt has been cast on the continued existence of communism. The image of a world communist society as the culmination of a long series of class struggles, as a lengthy process of economic and political changes has dimmed. For many, the triumph of modern communism has become more myth than reality, more likely to be the subject of a romance novel than a viable alternative for modern living. The rise of trade unions, company profit sharing plans involving workers, and the decentralization of the ownership of the means of production (in the form of millions of owners of stock in tens of thousands of companies worldwide) are all important developments. Marx and other early communists could not anticipate these developments. These and other developments have contributed to reducing the notion of a communist society where there is the free sharing of material goods to a utopian ideal.

Bibliography

Donald Shanor’s Behind the Lines: The Private War Against Soviet Censorship (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985) offers an examination of mass media censorship in communist societies in the form of a case study of the former Soviet Union. A variety of documents are cited in Censorship and Political Communication in Eastern Europe, edited by George Schopflin (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983), to illustrate the role of censorship in the former communist states of Eastern Europe. Issues surrounding freedom of the press in these societies are also discussed. For an overview of the various censorship techniques employed in a communist society, Carlos Ripoll’s Harnessing the Intellectuals: Censoring Writers and Artists in Today’s Cuba (Washington, D.C.: Cuban American National Foundation, 1985) is insightful. This work examines the extent to which freedom of information exists in communist Cuba and how, through censoring literature, the arts and intellectuals in general and the production and dissemination of information can be controlled. For a historical account of the censorship of twentieth century Russian literature read John and Carol Garrard’s Inside the Soviet Writers’ Union (New York: Free Press, 1990).