Comprehensive understanding of Marx and Engels: Scientific Connotation of Communism
Yang Junling, School of Marxism, China University of Geosciences, Beijing: Journal of Marxism 2018, Issue 4
1. Communism is a scientific and rigorous logical system
First, from the tremendous development of productive forces to the free and all-round development of people, this is the evolutionary logic of the Marx-Engels communist logic system, and it is also the scientific method that Marx and Engels used to presuppose the future development of society.
The abundant development of productive forces is the basic material prerequisite for the free and all-round development of men, and it is also the original driving force for the development of people’s own abilities. Therefore, Marx believed that the development process of social productive forces is the development process of people’s abilities, and the history of the development of social productive forces is the history of the development of human power. If people want to achieve their own complete liberation, they must truly return productive forces to themselves, making it an inherent essential force that can be freely controlled by humans, rather than an alien force that controls people themselves. The logic of Marx-Engels communism is to eliminate the material servitude characteristics of the production process under capitalist private ownership through the tremendous development and complete liberation of productive forces, so that human subjects can achieve free and all-round development.
Second, the high development of social productive forces is the prerequisite for the collapse of capitalism and the realization of communism. The development of productive forces has caused the various ownership forms formed on the basis of the old productive forces to constantly negate themselves. At the same time, the disintegration of the old ownership forms and the formation and development of new ownership forms have promoted the continuous development and progress of social productive forces. Marx pointed out: “The community composed of labor subjects, and the property based on this community, ultimately comes down to a certain stage of the development of the productive forces of labor subjects, and the certain relationship between labor subjects and their certain relationship to nature corresponding to this stage.” “The development of productive forces disintegrates these forms, and their disintegration itself is the development of human productive forces.”
It can be seen that the tremendous development of productive forces is the basic material prerequisite for eliminating capitalist private ownership and establishing communist social ownership. At the same time, the higher development and more thorough liberation of social productive forces in the future society is also one of the important characteristics of communist society.
Third, the possession of all the means of production by the whole society is an inevitable requirement of highly developed socialized large-scale production, which embodies the fundamental characteristics of communist society.
In the view of Marx and Engels, communism is a union of free people. In this union, individuals participate neither as members of the nation or the state, nor as members of classes, strata or groups; in this union, everyone is just himself. Future communism is the organic unity of the social ownership of the means of production jointly owned by the united individuals and the individual ownership of the laborers, and the organic unity of the laborers with their own labor, labor products and labor objects. The realization of this “unity” will inevitably lead to the disappearance of classes and the demise of the regime and the state; at the same time, the common possession of the means of production by the society makes the whole society an economic subject, realizing the organic unity of the individual labor of the laborers and social labor, and the realization of this “unity” makes commodities and money lose their necessity for existence, so commodities and money also disappear. The society directly distributes the means of production and labor products to individuals according to social needs and the actual needs of the laborers themselves, that is, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” In such a society with highly developed productive forces and highly harmonious social relations, people not only have many-sided talents, but also have a lofty spiritual realm, becoming the true masters of nature, society and productive forces.
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