By S. Callaghan

From the time we begin to understand the world around us, capitalist society teaches us to look at communism through the capitalist lens and interpret communist ideas in ways that serve capitalism. It’s fair to say that since it first challenged capitalism, communism has been defined—and distorted—by its enemies. Let’s set some of this right.

One of the most frequent examples is the term private property. Under capitalism, this covers everything with an individual or corporation as its legal owner regardless of size, value, or function in society. Communism, on the other hand, distinguishes between two very different forms of property, private property and personal property.

Communism limits the term private property to things that produce wealth, like farms, factories, and mines. Communists also refer to these things as the means of production. Whoever controls the means of production controls society and the economy.

The other type of property, personal property, includes the things we use to conduct our everyday lives, from clothing, housewares, and tools to our homes and automobiles. Capitalists distort this critical distinction between types of property to scare working people into thinking communists want to take away our homes and personal possessions, right down to everyone’s toothbrush. Capitalists also blur the distinction so working-class people will look at private property (something owned only by the rich few) with the same regard we understandably have for our personal belongings.

This is similar to how the word capitalist is used. To communists, capitalists are the small group of people who own the means of production and use it to protect and increase their personal wealth. They want working people to think the word capitalist applies to everyone who participates in the capitalist system (not just the people at the “top”) and fool us into thinking their interests are identical to ours. Unlike the capitalist who profits from our labor, we have no choice: participate in the system or die.

In truth, communism seeks a society where what is now private property serves the public, the overwhelming majority. In doing so, communism doesn’t just leave your personal property alone, it protects your personal property so you can use and enjoy it without the necessity of laboring endlessly for the owners of private property.

Because capitalists own the means of production and thus control society, they are also known as the ruling class. Despite the carefully cultivated image of democracy that capitalist countries universally lay claim to, the ruling class regards everything in terms of personal wealth and power. Under capitalism, it’s their job to organize society to expand their wealth and power.

The proletariat is the huge class of wage-earners, the class with no capital and no control over the means of production, thus having no choice but to sell their labor. Proletarians work for the ruling class regardless of personal well-being. This is not a bug, but a feature of capitalism. Without a program of worker exploitation enforced by state violence and the threat of poverty, the capitalist system cannot exist. Capitalism requires the ruling class to exploit the proletariat because the ruling class cannot be supported any other way.

This brings us to surplus value, one of the principal mechanisms capitalists use to profit from working class labor. Surplus value is simply the difference between the value you create though your work and what your employer charges for your work. This is also mandated by capitalism since the capitalist cannot take a profit otherwise. Surplus value is why capitalists and their hired hands always push us to work harder and faster, so we produce more value for them. The capitalist simply pockets the difference without any increase in wages.

One result is that working-class people are effectively forced to bid against each other to see who will take the lowest wages for the privilege of putting money into the capitalist’s pocket. Capitalism trains us to police each other for their benefit while making us fight each other for the crumbs they brush off the table.

Finally, one of the most misunderstood terms, Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Capitalists like to scare people by emphasizing the word dictatorship. What this really refers to is the stage between the end of capitalist society and the beginning of communist society, one finally free from coercion and need. During the intermediate stage the state will still exist, but we in the working class run it for own benefit. But because no revolution can immediately and completely purge society of all capitalist influence, including inevitable violent attempts by the former ruling class to retake power, the working class will use the dictatorship of the proletariat to protect and solidify the revolution. This means the hegemony of the working class, the overwhelming dominance of wage earners over capital. Nothing less will keep us from returning to the system we have now, a dictatorship of the ruling class that puts us all at the mercy of capitalism. A Dictatorship of the Proletariat is a society run by and for the working-class majority, one that will not allow capitalists to take it back.