The History of Communism Doesn’t Begin With The USSR
Neither end with the USSR, nor with WWII or the Cold War.
When did “communist ideals” first appear?
In all human history, there are many examples of societies divided between powerful and exploited people, therefore, there always have been many examples of “class struggle”, and communism is a direct answer to “class struggle” (it wants the end of it).
The first intellectual to use the word was Victor d’Hupay (1746-1818). The term was, then, largely used in politics in Europe during the 19th century as an answer to the over-exploitation of the working class in factories, although there were people also being heavily exploited outside the factories. For example, child labor was being cruelly used for chimney cleaning (a very nasty job at that time).
What communism wants?
There are several workers’ parties or communist parties around the world. These parties try to put the working class (the class of people who can only sell its labor force to survive) in the state budget or even ruling the state (or even ruling factories and everything).
If a left-wing party is really radical, then it must preach the end of the bourgeoisie and demonstrate the bad effects of a profit-based society. A radical leftist, for example, would show if private interests were not as influential as they are in capitalism, the universalization of employment, and the universalization of health care would certainly be a reality. After all, there is a lot of work to be done in the capitalist world and there is a lot of misery and unemployment because the private sector has no interest in universalizing employment (whereas in communist countries the unemployment rate is very very very low).
A communist today could even call the United States "the democratic republic of Jeff Bezos" since it seems many workers are exploited to give exorbitant profits to only a very small number of people.
Is the working class respected as it should today?
The working class is not respected as it should be, so communism still has a reason to be (there is still one class exploiting others). That’s why there still exist many communist countries and communist parties around the world.
