Communist Conundrum

I hear some of my more right-leaning friends and acquaintances constantly telling me that communism has never worked. What they seem to forget is that communism is a transition system that tries to correct the effects of rampant and unfettered capitalism. Once the correction has been effected, then a further transition to a system of capitalism, with checks and balances - social democracy, for want of a better term - is possible and indeed necessary if another revolution is to be avoided. Communism is not a system to be pickled in aspic - it's a stage in a process and not an end in itself. Many practitioners of communism, and not to forget opponents, seem to forget this.

Russia and China were countries with millions of disenfranchised poor prior to their respective revolutions - a revolution was inevitable. Communism 'freed' millions, paid everyone a living wage and raised literacy to unprecedented levels. In that manner it succeeded.

China is moving forward toward a quasi-capitalist economic system and is now an economy that everyone respects because of its power; Russia, however, seems to have gone too far too quickly and reverted to a rampant form of capitalism where a small clique runs the country for their own benefit and cannot be removed from office. Russia, along with Poland and Hungary - indeed a lot of former Soviet states - either are already fascist, or well on the road to fascism through rampant nationalism.

Communism, where it was implemented, did work compared to the feudal system what went before it. Communism as a permanent alternative to managed capitalism (or social democracy), or indeed a replacement for it, is not a solution. The problem with many implementations of communism, and what came after, was is not necessarily the fault of communism, but people who wanted to hang on to power at any cost, whether through a communist or fascist polity.