Communism

Political Studies: Edexcel A Level, topic 7.1.3

The Principle of Communism

Communism is the belief that collectively owned wealth should form the basis of society.

Communism believes that wealth in society should be commonly owned by all individuals.
A communist economic system has a planned economy and public ownership of industries.
In a planned economy, the state owns and controls all means of production such as land, capital and labour.

Karl Marx's ideas are important within communism.
Karl Marx believed capitalism would be brought to an end by the exploited working class revolting and overthrowing the owners of capital in society.
For Marx, the revolution by the working class would cause capitalism to end.
For Karl Marx, communism is a classless society, although this would only be achieved after a transitional period following revolution.

The communist belief that business owners exploit the working class in society exists in organisations today.
Topshop's employees have protested in the past over their pay which they complained was less than the 'Living Wage' of £9.40 in London and £8.25 for the rest of the UK.
TNS Knitwear, a clothes supplier to the store Primark, was found by a BBC investigation in 2009 to pay its workers £3.50 an hour in its factories, and employ illegal workers in poor conditions in Manchester.