Leningrad, USA
The story of Communism in America
Communism by definition, “ political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.” This in theory sounds like the ideal society, but as history has proven Communism cannot work in its current form, now there is only five communist ruled countries (North Korea, China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam). You can concur that these are not ‘paradises’, and these countries treat their people notoriously bad, compared to non-communist countries.
The United States Communist Party founded in 1919, quickly built a support base of more than 50,000 members in 1919, but the numbers maxed out at around 60,000 members before World War II. The Communist Party hasn’t had a presidential candidate since Gus Hall in 1984, and he garnered only 36,000 votes, then memberships declined at an alarming rate and are now barely surviving with only 2,000 members. The headquarters of the Communist Party of America is located in Manhattan, New York, which in 2014, is where they voted on their newest platform. They came up with four core principles:
- a party of socialism
- based on Marxism-Leninism
- engaged in proletarian internationalism
- organized on the principle of democratic centralism
If this wasn’t enough a small community in Virginia called Twin Oaks, is a small communist community in rural Virginia made up of over 100 adults and 15 children. This community is built on self-sufficiency, but even these Communist practice some Capitalistic ideas, as their main source of income comes from their hammock business, which generates over $600,000 a year for the Twin Oaks, Community, but one can only wonder how this tiny community in rural Virginia will fare in the future.
