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The Suppression of Communism Act 44 of 1950 (renamed the Internal Security Act in 1976) was legislation of the national government in apartheid South Africa, passed on 26 June 1950 (and coming into effect on 17 July)[1] which formally banned the Communist Party of South Africa and proscribed any party or group subscribing to communism according to a uniquely broad definition of the term.

The Act defined communism as any scheme aimed at achieving change--whether economic, social, political, or industrial--"by the promotion of disturbance or disorder" or any act encouraging "feelings of hostility between the European and the non-European races...calculated to further [disorder]". The government could deem any person to be a communist if it found that person's aims to be aligned with these aims. After a nominal two-week appeal period, the person's status as a communist became an unreviewable matter of fact, and subjected the person to being barred from public participation, restricted in movement, or imprisoned.[2][3]

Passage of the Act was justified by the involvement of members of the South African Communist Party being involved in the anti-apartheid movement.[4]

The Act was frequently used to silence critics of racial segregation and apartheid. Justice Frans Rumpff, presiding in the 1952 trial of African National Congress leaders, observed such "statutory communism" might have "nothing to do with communism as it is commonly known."[5]

The Act facilitated the government suppression of organisations such as the ANC and PAC and others which advocated for black equal rights.[4] The Suppression of Communism Act forced these groups to go underground with their activism. Because of this Act, groups such as uMkhonto we Sizwe, led by Nelson Mandela as a branch of the ANC, did seek financial support from the Communist Party.[citation needed]

Most of the Act was replaced in 1982 by the Internal Security Act, 1982.[6]

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Updated December 19, 2018

Communism is an economic system where the groupowns thefactors of production. In countries, the government represents the group. The means of production arelabor, entrepreneurship,capital goods,andnatural resources. Although the labor force aren't legally owned by the government, the central planners tell the people where they should work.

German philosopher Karl Marx developed the theory of communism.

He said it was, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." In his view, capitalistic owners would no longer siphon off all the profits. Instead, the proceeds would go to the workers.

To Marx, "From each according to his ability," meant people would work at what they loved and did well. They happily contributed these skills for the good of all. The economy would prosper because they would work harder than in capitalism.

"To each according to his need" meantthe community would take care of those who couldn't work. It would distribute goods and services to everyone as they required them. Those who were able to workwould be motivated by enlightened self-interest.

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and co-auther Friedrich Engels outlined the following 10 points:

The manifesto mentions state ownership in its last three points. That makes even this pure vision of communismsoundlike socialism. But Marx argued that state ownership is a valid stage in the transition to communism.

In a true communist economy, the community makes decisions. In most communist countries, thegovernment makes those decisions on their behalf. This system is called acommand economy. The leaders create a plan that outlines their choices. It's executed with laws,regulations,and directives.

The goal of the plan is to give to "each according to his need." Communist countries have freehealth care, education, and other services. The plan also seeks to increase the nation'seconomic growth. It secures national defense and maintains infrastructure.

The state owns businesses on behalf of the workers. In effect, the government owns amonopoly. The government rewards company managers for meeting the targets detailed in the plan.

In communism, central planners replace the forces of competition and the laws of supply and demand that operate in amarket economy. They also replace the customs that guide atraditional economy.

Communism is most similar to socialism. In both, the people own the factors of production. The most significant difference is that output is distributed according to need in communism, and according to ability under socialism. Communism is most different fromcapitalism, where private individuals are the owners. It is similar to fascism in that both use central plans.

But fascists allow individuals to retain factors of production. Many countries turned to fascism to ward off communism.

Advantages

Communism has a centrally planned economy. It can quickly mobilize economic resources on a large scale. It is able to execute massive projects and create industrial power.

Communism can move so effectively because it overrides individual self-interest. It subjugates the welfare of the general population to achieve imperative social goals.

Communist command economies can whollytransform societies to conform to the planner's vision. Examples includeStalinistRussia, MaoistChina, and Castro's Cuba. Russia's command economy built up the military might to defeat the Nazis.It then quickly rebuilt the economy after World War II.

Some say communism's advantages mean it is the next obvious step for any capitalistic society. They see income inequality as a sign oflate stage capitalism. They believe that capitalism's flaws mean it has evolved past its usefulness to society.

They don't realize that capitalism's flaws are endemic to the system, regardless of the phase it is in. America's Founding Fathers included promotion of the generalwelfare in the Constitution to balance these flaws. It instructed thethe government to protect the rights of all to pursue their idea of happiness as outlined in theAmerican Dream. It's the government's role to create a level playing field to allow that to happen. That can happen without throwing out capitalism in favor of another system.

The most significant disadvantage of communism stems from its elimination of the free market. The laws ofsupplyanddemanddon't set prices, the government does. Planners losethe valuable feedback these prices provide about what the people want. They can't get up-to-date information about consumers' needs.As a result, there is often a surplus of one thing and shortages of others.

To compensate, citizens create a black market to tradethe things the planners don't provide. This destroys the trust inMarx's pure communism. People no longer feel the government can give "to each according to his needs."

The last five remaining Communist countries are China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam.They aren't pure communism butare transitioning from socialism. That's where the state owns the components ofsupply. According to Marx, that is a necessary midway point between capitalismand the ideal communist economy. Modern communist societies rely on amixed economy.

China. In October 1949, Mao Tse Tung established the Chinese Communist party. In the late 1970s, China began moving toward a mixed economy. It phased-out collective farms and allowed private businesses. But it still strictly follows a five-year economic plan. The government's policies favor state-owned enterprises in sectors vital to its goals. In 2010, China became the world's largest exporter. In 2016, it became the world's largest economy.

Cuba. In April 1960, Fidel Castro proclaimed thePartido Communista de Cubato be the ruling party. The Soviet Union gave economic support to the impoverished country. In return, Cuba supported it patron in the Cold War against its neighbor, the United States. After the fall of the USSR, Cuba suffered. In April 2011, it began allowing economic reforms. Cubans can now buy appliances, cell phones, real estate, and cars. More than 400,000 Cubans have created their own businesses. For example, farmers can now sell goods to hotels.

Laos. In 1949, the nation won independence from France. In 1986, it began decentralizing control and encouraging private businesses. It's created tax incentives to encourage foreign direct investment. It wants to expand its economy beyond exporting its natural resources.

North Korea. In 1953, its allies China and Russia helped create North Korea to endthe Korean War. The country followed strict central planning with communal farming. It suffered famine and poor living conditions in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2002, it allowed semi-private markets to sell some goods.

Vietnam. In 1945, communist leader Ho Chi Minh declaredhis country'sindependencefrom France. The French, backed by the United States, seized southern Vietnam. Ho, backed by China, took the northern part. In 1954, the French agreed to divide Vietnam at the 17th parallel. But in 1964, Ho led Viet Cong soldiers to reunite the country. In 1975, the communists were successful. In 1986, Vietnam began transitioningtowards a more market-based economy. It still needs to reform state-owned enterprises, reduce red tape, and increase financial sector transparency.

In 1922, the Union ofSoviet Socialist Republics was established with six communist countries: Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation. In 1936, the Federation became Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.

By 1992, when it dissolved, the USSR contained 15 countries. The remaining nine were Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

In 1955, the USSR created theWarsaw Pact with other communist military allies. They included:Albania,Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary,Poland, and Romania.

The USSR had many other communist allies. Many became communist in the 1970s, but shifted to another form of government after the USSR collapsed. They included:Afghanistan,Angola,Benin, Congo, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Somalia,South Yemen, andYugoslavia.

Cambodiawas a communist country from 1975 to 1979. In his misguided attempts to create an agricultural communist society, he killed 2 million people.

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Communism: Definition, Pros, Cons, Examples, Countries

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Karl Marx is considered the Father of Communism. Marx was a German philosopher and economist who wrote about his ideas in a book called the Communist Manifesto in 1848. His communist theories have also become known as Marxism.

Marx described ten important aspects of a communist government:

Communism began in Russia with the rise of the Bolshevik Party led by Vladimir Lenin. They led the 1917 October Revolution that overthrew the current government and took power. Lenin was a follower of Marxist philosophies. His views on government became known as Marxism-Leninism.

Russia became known as the Soviet Union. In World War II Russia sided with the Allied Powers in order to help defeat Germany and Adolf Hitler. However, after the war the Soviet Union took control of several countries in Eastern Europe. They became known as the Eastern Bloc. The Soviet Union became one of the world's two superpowers along with the United States. For many years they fought the west in what is today called the Cold War.

Another major country to be ruled by a communist government is China. The Communist Party gained control after winning the Chinese Civil War. The communists took over mainland China in 1950. Mao Zedong was the leader of communist China for many years. The type of communism in China at the time is often called Maoism. It was also heavily based off of Marxism.

The actual results of communist governments have been nothing like the theories of Marxism. The low class people that were supposed to be helped by Marxism, were treated horribly by the leaders of the government. For example, it is estimated that Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin had over 40 million people murdered for the "good of the state". Stalin created labor camps for anyone who disagreed with the government. He even created famines in order to break the will of the people and gain total control.

Communist states generally have much less freedom. They prevent the practice of religion, order certain people to work certain jobs, and prevent people from moving around or moving to other countries. People lose all rights to ownership and government officials become incredibly powerful.

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By the 1800s many countries followed the economic system called capitalism. Under capitalism, individual people, called capitalists, own property and run companies. Some capitalists became rich but paid their workers very little. In response, many workers began supporting the ideas of socialism. In a socialist system, the government owns companies and divides wealth more fairly among the people. Karl Marx, a German thinker of the 1800s, took socialist ideas one step further. Marxs ideas became the basis of Communism.

Marx called the workers the proletariat. Marx thought that some day the workers would lead a revolution and overthrow the capitalists. After taking control, the proletariat would become the new ruling class. At first there would be a dictatorship of the proletariat to defeat all opposition. Then a true Communist society would develop. This would include common ownership of property and no government. People would work to produce wealth according to their abilities. Everyone would share in this wealth according to their needs.

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Communism is a political and economic system in which the major productive resources in a societysuch as mines, factories, and farmsare owned by the public or the state, and wealth is divided among citizens equally or according to individual need. In its most common usage, the term communism refers to the type of ideal society envisioned by the 19th-century German revolutionary Karl Marx or to forms of government based on Marxs ideas that were established in Russia, China, and other countries in the 20th century. Communism is one form of socialism, which is a system in which the productive resources of a society are publicly rather than privately controlled. Communism was a major force in world politics for most of the 20th century: at one time, about one-third of the worlds population lived under communist governments. Today communism is the official form of government in only a handful of countries.

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, many philosophers and political scientists have tried to imagine what a genuinely ideal society would be like. Several of these thinkers advocated a form of government based on communist principles (though the word communism itself was not used until the 1840s). The Greek philosopher Plato, for example, argued that in the best state the ruling class of philosophically trained guardians would live together communally, sharing not only property but even spouses and children. Nearly 1,000 years later the English humanist scholar Thomas More described an imaginary communist city-state called Utopia in which money was abolished and citizens shared all property. The word utopia has since come to mean a perfect or ideal (and thus imaginary) society.

The early Christians practiced a simple form of communism, in part to express their contempt for worldly possessions. The later monastic orders of the Roman Catholic church required their members to take a vow of poverty and to share their meager possessions with each other. In 1534 the radical Anabaptists established a communist government in the German city of Mnster, where they practiced polygamy as well as the common ownership of property. In 1649 a group known as the Diggers founded a short-lived communist agricultural community on an unoccupied hillside in southern England. Communist or socialist colonies were also established in the United States; the best-known were New Harmony (182528), in the state of Indiana, and Brook Farm (184147), in Massachusetts.

Like many 19th-century reformers, Karl Marx was a witness to the profound changes in European society brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The invention of new technologies and the development of the factory system of manufacturing made both agriculture and industry more efficient and created great wealth for factory owners. But this prosperity was built on the misery of the industrial workers, the great majority of whom lived and died in dire poverty in growing urban slums.

The philosophical theory of communism that Marx developed with his colleague Friedrich Engels was based on what they believed was a scientific understanding of human history. In The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), they argued that history is a series of struggles between economic classes. In the last stage of historythe one in which Marx and Engels thought they were livingthe proletariat, or working class, is pitted against the bourgeoisie, or capitalist class. As the bourgeoisie continues to accumulate wealth by exploiting the proletariat, the disparity between the two classes increases, eventually making the condition of the proletariat so desperate that it must resort to violent revolution. The result will be the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of a proletarian dictatorship. Eventually the proletarian state will wither away because it will be unnecessary, and a fully communist society, in which there are no class divisions, will emerge.

Marx died in 1883 and Engels in 1895. Thereafter, Marxs large international following split into two camps, a revisionist group that favored a gradual and peaceful transition to communism and a more orthodox group that adhered to Marxs original vision of violent revolution.

One of the leading figures in the orthodox camp was Vladimir Ilich Lenin, the head of the Bolsheviks, a revolutionary faction that broke away from the Russian Social-Democratic Workers party in 1903. According to Lenin, the revolution could not be made spontaneously by the proletariat itself, because the workers lacked the information and understanding necessary to discern their true interests. Therefore, they needed to be guided by a vanguard party of disciplined revolutionaries. Lenin also believed that the revolution would not take place in the industrialized countries of Europe but in economically underdeveloped countries such as Russia, where the exploitation of workers was more severe. Lenins version of communism eventually became known as Marxism-Leninism.

In February 1917, after Russian armies suffered a series of disastrous defeats in World War I, the tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, was forced to abdicate, and a provisional government took power. Lenin, who had been living in exile in Switzerland, hurried to the Russian capital of Petrograd (later Leningrad, now St. Petersburg), where he persuaded his Bolsheviks to withhold their support from the provisional government and to increase their representation in the soviets, or workers and soldiers councils, which were the real power in Russia at the time. The Bolsheviks seized power in a nearly bloodless coup in November (October, old calendar) 1917 (see Russian Revolution).

Lenin proceeded to establish what he called a dictatorship of the proletariat, though in reality it was a dictatorship over the proletariat. The new Soviet government nationalized nearly all industries, redistributed large agricultural estates to peasant cooperatives, and even attempted to replace money with a system of barter. The ensuing economic chaos forced Lenin to retreat from some of these measures.

When Lenin died in 1924, effective leadership of the party fell to his former deputy Joseph Stalin. From about 1929 until his death in 1953, Stalin ruled the Soviet Union as a dictator with nearly absolute power.

Stalinism, the theory and practice of communism in the Soviet Union under Stalin, was notorious for its totalitarianism, its widespread use of terror, and its cult of personalityits portrayal of Stalin as an infallible leader and universal genius. Stalin used the Soviet secret police to arrest anyone who might oppose his rule. Not fewer than 5 million people from all walks of life were executed, imprisoned, or sent to labor camps in Siberia. In the 1930s Stalin staged a series of show trials in which thousands of prominent individuals were convicted on false charges of treason and executed.

In pursuit of his policy of socialism in one countrythe idea that the Soviet Union should transform itself into a major industrial and military power before attempting to export communist revolution abroadStalin forced peasant farmers to work on large agricultural collectives and undertook a program of rapid industrialization. The collectivization of agriculture resulted in the death by starvation of several million people.

Following the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Stalin installed communist puppet governments in most of the Eastern European countries occupied by Soviet armies, as well as in the eastern third of Germany, which became the communist country of East Germany (the western part became the democratic country of West Germany). The former German capital of Berlin, which was wholly inside East Germany, was divided between communist East Berlin and democratic West Berlin. In 1961 the East German government built a wall around West Berlin to prevent East German citizens from fleeing the country. The Berlin Wall became a potent symbol of the lack of individual freedom under communism.

Stalins successor, Nikita Khrushchev, gradually relaxed the Communist partys control of Soviet society and introduced modest economic reforms. Despite his policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, Soviet relations with the United States were hostile and suspicious. The Cold Warthe political, economic, and military rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United Stateswas in full swing. After Khrushchev was deposed in 1964, Leonid Brezhnev and subsequent leaders tried to reassert the Communist partys traditional authority. During the era of dtente in the 1970s, the Cold War subsided as the Soviet Union and the United States concluded important arms-control agreements and other treaties.

In 1985 a reform-minded member of the Politburo, Mikhail Gorbachev, became the leader of the Communist Party. His policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) introduced freedom of expression, democratic elections for some offices, and various economic reforms. Similar changes in the communist countries of eastern Europe eventually led to the collapse of communism there in 198990. One year later it collapsed in the Soviet Union itself. Gorbachev resigned his post as president on December 25, 1991, and the country ceased to exist the same day. It was replaced by a loose confederation called the Commonwealth of Independent States, at the center of which was a newly democratic Russia.

In 1945 China was plunged into a bloody civil war between communist armies led by Mao Zedong and nationalist forces under Chiang Kai-shek. In 1949 the nationalists were forced to withdraw to the island of Taiwan, and Mao declared the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in the mainland capital of Beijing.

Mao developed his own version of Marxist communism. In order to justify the revolution in China, which at the time was an agricultural and not industrial society, Mao adopted Lenins idea that the revolution would start in economically underdeveloped countries. In addition, Mao applied Marxs concepts of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to whole countries rather than just to social classes. Mao believed that proletarian countries such as China were being exploited by bourgeois countries such as the United States. The world communist revolution would come when the proletarian countries surrounded the bourgeois countries and cut off their supplies of cheap labor and raw materials.

In 1966 Mao launched a nationwide campaign to strengthen the revolutionary values of the people and to punish anyone who displayed rightist tendencies. During the Cultural Revolution, which lasted until Maos death in 1976, countless numbers of people were publicly humiliated, imprisoned, or executed, and the country descended into political and economic chaos. After Maos death Chinas leaders were more pragmatic. In the 1980s and 90s the government adopted extensive economic reforms that helped the Chinese economy to grow at a blistering pace.

In the first decades after World War II, many countries in the developing world experimented with communism and socialism. Both the Soviet Union and China supported wars of liberation in the former colonial states of Africa and Asia and in other parts of the world. Some of these conflicts became wars by proxy between the Soviet Union and the United States; others involved one of the superpowers or China directly. With few exceptions, communist countries in the developing world relied heavily on the Soviet Union or China for economic and military aid. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many of these countries had abandoned communism for some form of democratic government. Today, traditional Soviet-style communism is practiced in only one country: North Korea.

The end of the Soviet Union also resulted in a steep decline in the influence of communist parties in democratic countries. Nevertheless, Marxs original vision of a classless utopia continued to inspire for some intellectuals and activists of the political left, whether or not they called themselves communists. While the Soviet Union existedand especially before the extent of Stalins crimes became widely knownmany well-meaning people in the West believed that Marxs utopia had been realized in the Soviet Union. Very few people would make that mistake today.

Allan, Tony. The Long March: The Making of Communist China (Heinemann Library, 2001).Berlin, Isaiah. Karl Marx: His Life and Environment, 4th ed. (Oxford University Press, 1996).Crossman, R.H.S., ed. The God That Failed (Columbia University Press, 2001).Rice, Earle, Jr. The Cold War: Collapse of Communism (Lucent Books, 2000).Spence, Jonathan D. Mao Zedong (Viking, 1999).

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