Communism is a political ideology that seeks to establish a future without social class or

formalized state structure, and with social organization based upon common ownership of
the means of production. It can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement.
Communism also refers to a variety of political movements which claim the establishment of such
a social organization as their ultimate goal.
Early forms of human social organization have been described as "primitive communism".
However, communism as a political goal generally is a conjectured form of future social
organization which has never been implemented. There is a considerable variety of views among
self-identified communists, including Maoism, Trotskyism, council communism, Luxemburgism,
and various currents of left communism, which are in addition to more widespread varieties.
However, various offshoots of the Soviet and Maoist forms of MarxismLeninism comprise a
particular branch of communism that had been the primary driving force for communism in world
politics during most of the 20th century.
Learn more about communism...
Show new selections
edit

Selected article
The history of the Portuguese Communist Party (Portuguese: Partido Comunista
Portugus or PCP), spans a period of more than 85 years, since its foundation in 1921 as the
Portuguese section of the Communist International(Comintern) to the present. The Party is still
an active force within Portuguese society.
After its foundation, the party experienced little time as a legal party before it was forced
underground after a military coup in 1926. After some years of internal reorganization, that
adapted the PCP to its new clandestine condition and enlarged its base of support, the Party
became a force in the opposition to thedictatorial regime led by Antnio de Oliveira Salazar,
despite being brutally suppressed several times during the 48 years of resistance and having
spent several years with little connection with the Comintern and the World Communist
Movement.
After the end of the dictatorship, with the Carnation Revolution in 1974, the party became a
major political force within the new democratic regime, mainly among the working class. Despite
being less influential since the fall of the Socialist blocin eastern Europe, it still enjoys popularity
in vast sectors of Portuguese society, particularly in the rural areas of the Alentejo and Ribatejo,
and also in the heavily industrialized areas around Lisbon and Setbal, where it holds the
leadership of several municipalities.
...Archive

Read more...
edit

Selected biography

Jiang Zemin (born 17 August 1926) is a retired Chinese politician who served as General
Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's
Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from
1989 to 2004. His long career and political prominence have led to him being described as the
"core of the third generation" of Communist Party leaders.
Jiang Zemin came to power following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, replacing Zhao
Ziyang as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. With the waning influence
of Deng Xiaoping and the other members of Eight Elders due to old age and with the help of
old and powerful party and state leaders, elder Chen Yun and former President Li Xiannian
Jiang effectively became the "Paramount Leader" in the 1990s.
Under his leadership, China experienced substantial developmental growth withreforms, saw the
peaceful return of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom andMacau from Portugal, and improved
its relations with the outside world while the Communist Party maintained its tight control over the
government. Jiang has been criticized for being too concerned about his personal image at
home, and too conciliatory towards Russia and the United States abroad.
...Archive

Read more...
edit

Selected quote
"The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the
momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also
represent and take care of the future of that movement. In France, the Communists ally with
the Social-Democrats against theconservative and radical bourgeoisie, reserving, however, the
right to take up a critical position in regard to phases and illusions traditionally handed down from
the great Revolution.
In Switzerland, they support the Radicals, without losing sight of the fact that this party consists
of antagonistic elements, partly of Democratic Socialists, in the French sense, partly of radical
bourgeois.
In Poland, they support the party that insists on an agrarian revolution as the prime condition for
national emancipation, that party which fomented theinsurrection of Cracow in 1846.
In Germany, they fight with the bourgeoisie whenever it acts in a revolutionary way, against the
absolute monarchy, the feudal squirearchy, and the petty bourgeoisie."

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, English
edition of 1888