r/communism101

54K archived posts · Sep 2012 – Sep 2026

Communism101 - Each one teach one!

r/communism101

Each one teach one!

Created Jun 20, 2012

173KMembers (last snapshot)

54KArchived posts

#★ Communism 101 ★

Welcome! This is a place for learning and teaching Marxism. No question is too simple, but please post overly academic, complicated, or otherwise "non-101" questions in r/communism.

Before posting, please make sure you:

read the rules below
check the /r/communism101 FAQ
use the search feature

RELATED SUBREDDITS:

r/Communism discussion
r/Communism101 learning
r/DebateCommunism debate

EXTERNAL RESOURCES:

Study Guides

Basic Marxism-Leninism Study Plan
Debunking Anti-Communism Masterpost
Beginner's Guide to Marxism (marxists.org)
A Reading Guide (marx2mao.com) (mirror)
Topical Study Guide (marxistleninist.wordpress.com)
Connolly Youth Movement's Educational Materials

Explanations

Kapitalism 101 on political economy
Marxist Philosophy understanding DiaMat
Reading Marx's Capital (with David Harvey)

Libraries

Marxists.org largest Marxist library (mirror with Marx/Engels Collected Works)
Marx2Mao.com another popular library (mirror)
BannedThought.net collection of revolutionary publications

★ Rules ★

Patriarchal, white supremacist, cissexist, heterosexist, or otherwise oppressive speech is unacceptable.
This is a place for learning, not for debating. Try r/DebateCommunism instead.
Give well-informed Marxist answers. There are separate subreddits for liberalism, anarchism, and other idealist philosophies.
Posts should include specific questions on a single topic.
This is a serious educational subreddit. Come here with an open and inquisitive mind, and exercise humility. Don't answer a question if you are unsure of the answer. Try to include sources and/or further reading in any answers you provide. Standards of answer accuracy and quality are enforced.
check the /r/Communism101 FAQ, and use the search feature
No chauvinism or settler apologism. Non-negotiable: https://readsettlers.org/
No tone-policing.

Star flair is awarded to reliable users who have good knowledge of Marxism and consistently post high quality answers.

★ Definitions ★

Communism: A term describing a stateless, classless, moneyless society with common ownership of the means of production. "Communism" can also describe the revolutionary movement to create such a society.
Socialism: An umbrella term used to describe social ownership of the means of production. Social ownership can include common ownership, state ownership or collective ownership. "Socialism" can also refer to an intermediate and transitional form of society between capitalism and communism featuring a Dictatorship of the Proletariat (sometimes referred to as "lower" or "the first phase of" communism).
Means of Production: An all-embracing term that describes every non-human material factor involved in the process of socially useful production.
Bourgeoisie: The capitalist class; the ruling class in capitalist society. The social class which owns the means of production and exploits hired labor. The buyers of labor power. This class is made up of a very small minority of the population.
Proletariat: The working class; the class of people in capitalist society who, deprived of any ownership of the means of production, must sell their labor power to the capitalists in order to survive. The exploited class; the producers of surplus value.
Exploitation: Exploitation is making use of some vulnerability in another person in order to use them to attain one’s own ends at their expense. Marxists specifically use the term to refer to the expropriation (theft) of the labor of a worker (via the extraction of surplus value) by the owners of the means of production. Capitalists make their profit from exploitation.
Dictatorship of the Proletariat: A state of proletarian rule where the working class organizes to democratically control the means of production, defend against bourgeois reaction, and create the material basis for a gradual transition to communism. "Dictatorship" in this sense does not mean rule by one individual; Marxists view any state as being under the "dictatorship" of a class. This term is the antithesis of the "Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie" that exists under capitalism where the minority class rules society.
State: The state, in Marxist terminology, is a mechanism for class rule. It is the primary instrument of political power in class society, consisting of organs of administration, and of force. A state of one kind or another will exist as long as social classes exist.

For more definitions see the Dictionary of Revolutionary Marxism or the Marxist Internet Archive Encyclopedia. Thank you for visiting!

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