What is state communism?

Ideology

State communism is a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, moneyless, and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production.

Marxist theory holds that pure communism or full communism is a specific stage of historical development that inevitably emerges from the development of the productive forces that leads to a superabundance of material wealth.

The theory claims this can be accomplished by creating an all-consuming dictatorship with ownership and control over all society. No real-world example has ever existed to prove it ever progresses beyond this point. Central planners lack market price signals, making it difficult to determine supply-and-demand conditions, leading to shortages and resource misallocation. The economic calculation problem strikes again.

State communism is also plagued by the free-rider problem, suppression of dissent, violations of individual rights, and repeated famines.

Followers

State communists support maximum restrictions on both economic and cultural freedoms. State communists oppose all private property rights. State communists do not tolerate criticism of their ideology.

Allies

State communists will ally themselves with other socialists, known as useful idiots, for as long as they derive utility from the association. Once their usefulness ends, state communists will betray their allies, often with deadly force.

As they lean toward the authoritarian side of the political spectrum, state communists will view socialists on the libertarian side of the spectrum with suspicion and mistrust. As such, they are less likely to ally with these socialists.

Enemies

State communists consider liberals and capitalists to be their enemies and seek to destroy them utterly for daring to end the tradition of collectivism that was practiced for most of human history. State communists will employ entryist strategies to infiltrate and subvert liberal and capitalist organisations so as to destroy them from within.

Location on the political spectrum

State communism is located at the far-top far-left of the political spectrum. It is bordered by national socialism, authoritarian socialism, and international socialism. As it is a fringe ideology, state communism does not occupy as much space on the spectrum as more mainstream ideologies.