There seems to be enormous confusion as to what these terms mean. They don’t describe governments. They describe social and economic systems. Left out of the mostly sophomoric debates is the concept of class. The terms are not about which do you prefer, like yelp stars. They represent the broad historical movements which Marx described. They are systems that represent different classes. All history is the history of class struggle, remember that? Marx’s theory of dialectical and historical materialism is a theory like Darwin’s evolution is a theory. It’s a description of reality that has continuously proven itself accurate. 

About 10-20 thousand years ago, there were few classes. Societies tended to be matriarchal and egalitarian. “Primitive Communism” Engels called it with reference to the Iroquois. 

Come to think of it, is there any other species on earth that divides itself into classes? Classes are an unnatural, destructive development. We have Marx to thank for allowing us to imagine a classless society.

Communism is an aspirational system which no society has come near to implementing. Socialism happens when the working class assumes power over the capitalist class. It make take decades for socialism to become the dominant system, but it could also happen quickly. We just don’t know. To get to communism, we will need socialism for perhaps centuries to convince the world what some of us learned in kindergarten: sharing is better than competing.

What humanity needs now is for the working classes of the world to join together and create the next phase of human development, as Lennon (John) described it where “the world can live as one.” There have been a number of attempts to implement Marx and Lennon’s vision, with enormous strides in human wellbeing in the USSR despite the German genocide of WWII. And China! Have you seen those trains?

But the point isn’t models, or even theory. What we want is to organize the working classes of the world to create much better lives for all of us. 

The reform movement is essential in this process. We start by demanding the changes we need now in order to survive: Free medical for all, free education for all, abolish ICE, international peace, fair elections, DC statehood. In the process of fighting for these reforms, people will realize their power. The role of leadership will be to create leaders of everyone. 

This may take a long time. It took a couple thousand or so years for slave societies to transform into feudal societies. And at least 500 years for capitalism to take over from feudalism. 

If 1917 Russia marks the beginning, socialism has had just over a hundred years to make a foothold. 1949 was indeed a great leap forward. 

The transformation has been and will be extremely violent. World war II can be seen as a massive effort to stop the spread of socialism. The working class will do everything in its power to minimize death and injury but not shirk from battle if attacked by the obscenely bloated arsenals of the capitalists.

We don’t need to get hung up on the details about how a new society might be organized: that is for the working class to figure out as it assumes power. Worker’s coops, government ownership, workers control through unions, collectives, communes.  The possibilities are endless. Democracy? We are not talking about a symbolic vote. We are talking about the people having a determinative say and a role in how society is organized. 

Democratic socialism can be a steppingstone, kind of like the Mensheviks in Russia. October might not have happened without February. Social democracy, like the New Deal, represents hard fought concessions from the capitalist class which leaves them in power. 

We, the working class, will create the new society out of the ashes of the old. Will we need a mass disciplined party? Maybe, but not dozens.

Looked at this way, the struggle doesn’t feel so grim. Of course the battle will be horrific. A capitalist class armed to the teeth knows its days are numbered. They’re thinking of escaping to Mars. Of course they will lie, cheat, and massively kill to stay in power. BUT WE HAVE THEM SO SO SO OUTNUMBERED. And we have this understanding in our favor: the transition to socialism is inevitable. And, it will be what we make it.