The Myth of Monolithic Communism

Mises Daily: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 by = Murray N.=20 Rothbard

[Libertarian Review, 1979]

For decades it was an axiom of conservative faith that international=20 Communism was and must be a monolith, that Communism in all its aspects = and=20 manifestations was simply pure evil (because it was "atheistic" and/or=20 totalitarian by definition), and that therefore all Communism was = necessarily=20 the same.

For one thing, this meant that all Communist parties everywhere were = of=20 necessity simply "agents of Moscow." It took conservatives years to = disabuse=20 themselves of this mythology (which was true only during the 1930s and = most of=20 the 1940s). Tito's courageous break with Stalin and world Communism in = 1948 was=20 considered a trivial exception; and for many years after the bitter = China-Russia=20 split, conservatives clung to the fond hope that this split must be a = hoax=20 designed to deceive the West. However, now that China has shifted from = attacking=20 Russia for not being opposed enough to US imperialism, to urging the = United=20 States ever onward to a war with Russia; and now that the Vietnamese = Communists=20 have crushed the Cambodian Communist regime in a lightning thrust, this = myth of=20 a world Communist monolith has at last had to be abandoned.

Why should all Communist parties and groups necessarily form a = monolith? The standard conservative answer is that Communists all have = the same=20 ideology, that they are all Marxist-Leninists, and that therefore they = should=20 necessarily be united. In the first place, this is an embarrassingly = naive view=20 of ideological movements. Christians, too, are supposed to have the same = religion and therefore should be united, but the historical record of=20 inter-Christian warfare has been all too clear. Secondly, Marx, while = eager=20 enough to criticize feudalist and "capitalis" society, was almost = ludicrously=20 vague on what the future Communist society was supposed to look like, = and what=20 Communist regimes were supposed to do once their revolution had = triumphed. If=20 the same Bible has been used to support an enormous and discordant = variety of=20 interpretations and creeds, the paucity of details in Marx has allowed = for an=20 even wider range of strategies and actions by Communist regimes.

Moreover, ideology is not all. As libertarians should be aware, = whenever=20 any group, regardless of ideology, takes over a State, it = immediately=20 constitutes a ruling class over the people and the land governed by that = State.=20 It immediately acquires interests of State, which can readily clash with = the=20 interests of other State ruling classes, regardless of ideology. The = splits=20 between Yugoslavia and Russia, China and Russia, and now Vietnam and = Cambodia,=20 were mixtures in varying proportions of inter-State and ideological = clashes. And=20 generally when one of these conflicts launched the fray, the other soon = caught=20 up.

But if everyone must now concede that there can be and are clashes = and even=20 bitter warfare between Communist states, libertarians have been slow to = realize=20 that Communism is not a monolith in yet another sense =E2=80=94 in the = sort of=20 "domestic" or internal regime that Communist rulers will impose. There = are now=20 vast differences among the various Communist regimes throughout the = globe,=20 divergences that literally spell the difference between life and death = for a=20 large part of their subject populations. If we want to find out about = the world=20 we live in, therefore, it is no longer enough for libertarians to simply = equate=20 Communism with badness, and let it go at that.

This necessity for grasping distinctions is particularly vital for=20 libertarians: For our ultimate aim is to bring freedom to the entire = world, and=20 therefore it makes an enormous difference to us in which = direction=20 various countries are moving, whether toward liberty or toward slavery. = If, in=20 short, we consider a simplified spectrum of countries or societies, with = total=20 freedom at one end and total slavery at the other, different varieties = of=20 Communist regimes will range over a considerable length of that = spectrum, from=20 the horrifying slave state of Pol Pot's Cambodia all the way to the = quasi-free=20 system of Yugoslavia.

Until World War II, Soviet Russia was the only example of a Communist = regime.=20 And even it had gone through remarkable changes. When the Bolsheviks = assumed=20 power in late 1917, they tried to leap into full "communism" by = abolishing money=20 and prices, an experiment so disastrous (it was later dubbed "War = Communism")=20 that Lenin, always the supreme realist, beat a hasty retreat to a mere=20 semisocialist system in the New Economic Policy (NEP). During the mid = and late=20 1920s, the ruling Communist apparatus debated within itself what path to = pursue=20 in the future. Nikolai Bukharin, Lenin's favorite theoretician, = advocated moving=20 forward to a free-market economy, with peasants allowed to develop their = land=20 voluntarily and to purchase manufactured goods from abroad. For a while = it=20 looked as if Bukharinism would win out, but then Stalin seized power in = the late=20 1920s and early 1930s and brutally collectivized the peasantry and the = rest of=20 the economy, ushering in two decades of the classic Stalinist model:=20 collectivized economy, forced industrialization and political = terror.

The Case of Yugoslavia

The first break from the Stalinist model was that of Tito, who = followed his=20 1948 political break two years later with a remarkably rapid shift away = from the=20 collectivized economy and toward the market. By the late 1960s, = Yugoslavia,=20 which had never dared to collectivize agriculture, allowed numerous = small=20 private businesses, while the "socially owned sector" had been shifted = to=20 producers' coops, owned by the workers in each particular firm. Among = these=20 firms, a roughly free-price and free-market system was allowed to = operate, and=20 taxes were drastically lowered so that each worker-controlled firm = controlled=20 its investments out of its own profits. Along with the shift to the = market came=20 the welcoming of foreign investment, the freedom of emigration and = return,=20 extreme decentralization for the nationalities within Yugoslavia, and = even=20 limited contested elections and limited check by parliament upon the=20 executive.

Even philosophically, the Yugoslavs began to stress the primacy of = the=20 individual over the collective; and while political prisoners continue = to exist=20 there and free speech is feeble, the contrast with Stalinism is = enormous. The=20 Titoites have even decided to take seriously the long-forgotten Marxian = promise=20 of the "withering away of the State"; the way to do it, they have = concluded, is=20 to start withering. All observers remark that Belgrade and especially = Croatian=20 Zagreb are the only Communist cities in the world where the spirit of = the people=20 is happy, consumer goods are diverse and plentiful, and life is not = simply a dim=20 gray haze of shortages, queueing up, rationing, and enforced = silence.

Following Yugoslavia's lead, the rest of Eastern Europe has also gone = far=20 along the path to free markets and a price system, although not nearly = as far as=20 pioneering Yugoslavia. The least degree of liberalization has occurred = in=20 Russia, although even here the status of dissidents today is far better = than=20 under Stalin.

This does not mean, of course, that Yugoslavia is "libertarian," or = that the=20 free market has been fully established there. But it does mean that = there is=20 hope for freedom and for the human spirit when Eastern Europe has come = so far in=20 a relatively short time from collectivized misery to at least a semifree = system.=20 Conservatives have always believed that once a nation goes Communist it = is=20 irrevocably doomed =E2=80=94 that collectivism, once adopted, is = irreversible.=20 Yugoslavia, and to some extent the remainder of Eastern Europe, have = shown that=20 this is not true, that the spirit of freedom can never be = extinguished.

The Liberalization of China

For a long while it looked as if China would never be liberalized, = that it=20 would remain locked in the super-Stalinism of Maoism. For nearly a = decade after=20 their takeover, the Chinese Communists did retain a semi-free-market = system,=20 only to extirpate it in two savage thrusts into totalitarianism: the = Great Leap=20 Forward of the late 1950s (which featured such disastrous economic = experiments=20 in self-sufficiency as a steel plant in every rural commune's backyard), = and the=20 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s (in which the = division=20 of labor was crippled, education was stifled, economic incentives were=20 eliminated, and compulsory communes were strengthened with a repressive=20 apparatus extending into each urban block and rural village). Art, = literature,=20 and speech were all brutally suppressed.

It all came apart with the death in 1976 of the founding absolute = despot=20 himself, Mao Tse-tung. The "Gang of Four," led by Mao's widow Chiang = Ching and=20 leaders of the radical Left, were arrested, to the tune of spontaneous=20 outpourings of joy by the Chinese populace, even in "red" Shanghai. = Mao's=20 successors, led clearly over the last year by the twice-disgraced Teng=20 Hsiao-p'ing, have moved with remarkable speed to dismantle totalitarian = Maoism=20 and to shift rapidly toward a far freer economy and society. Western = culture is=20 now permitted and encouraged. Wall posters are allowed that call for=20 ever-greater democracy and human rights, one even quoting from the = American=20 Declaration of Independence. And consumers are permitted to escape the=20 compulsory anthill uniformity of clothing and to buy a variety of = consumer=20 goods. Workers are allowed to respond to economic incentives to produce = and=20 consume (instead of the "moral" incentives imposed by the bayonet and by = Communist Party snoops). A far greater interplay of small-scale private = property=20 and free markets is permitted. A rule of law is soon to replace = arbitrary whim=20 by ad hoc military and party committees. And particularly = important is=20 that the Chinese are now telling their people that Mao, and even Marx = himself,=20 were not always right, that even Marxism must pass judgment before the = bar of=20 truth (now called, in Tengian jargon, "the Norm of Truth"). Foreign = investment=20 and trade is being encouraged.

In a sense, China has only now gone as far as Stalinism, although = even that=20 is a great improvement over Mao. But there are signs that it will go = much=20 further toward the Eastern European system. When Chinese Premier Hua = Kung-fo=20 visited Yugoslavia last year, he clapped his hands with glee when he = heard that=20 worker-owned firms there can actually go bankrupt. In the October 6, = 1978, issue=20 of China's major journal, the People's Daily, the veteran = economist and=20 historian Hu Chiao-mu, once a secretary to Mao, dumped during the = Cultural=20 Revolution, and now president of the new Tengian Academy of Social = Sciences,=20 published a highly significant article charting the nation's new = economic course=20 =E2=80=94 "Observe Economic Laws and Speed Up the Four Modernizations" = (People's=20 Daily, Oct. 6,1978; for an analysis, see China News Analysis, = #1139,=20 Nov. 10, 1978).

Hu called for radical reorganization of the Chinese system, and for = "rule by=20 contracts instead of mandatory rule of the economy, with minimum = government=20 interference, which would also entail the withdrawal of the Party from = running=20 the economy. He advocated division of labor, freer trade, and putting = economics=20 above political power. Hu's statement that "experience has shown that = socialism=20 cannot guarantee that political power will not do immense damage to = economic=20 development" is a remarkable one, considering the source. China News=20 Analysis concludes that

What Hu describes is a free economy in which the workers sign a = contract=20 with the enterprise, the enterprise makes its own decision in the form = of=20 contracts with other enterprises or with the State, and the = implementation of=20 the contracts is controlled by the judiciary. What Hu envisages is, = though=20 this is not stated explicitly, an independent judiciary competent to=20 adjudicate on contracts not only between individuals but also between = the=20 State and individual firms. Similarly the villages are to be left free = to=20 decide what to sow, and they are not to come under the authoritative = rule of=20 officials.

Again, no one is saying that China is or will soon become a = libertarian=20 paradise, but the contrast with anthill Maoism is staggering.

Toward Liberty in Southeast Asia

This brings us finally to Vietnam and Cambodia. With its unfortunate = and=20 vicious nationalization of the merchants in the South last year, Vietnam = has now=20 taken its place as a typical Stalinist country. But Cambodia = ("Democratic=20 Kampuchea") was something else again. It was undoubtedly the most = horrendous=20 regime of this century anywhere in the world. Not only did the Cambodian = Communists quickly murder millions after taking power, and forcibly = evacuate the=20 cities at one blow; not only was death the penalty for the slightest = infraction=20 or disobedience to the regime: the key to its diabolic control was its = abolition=20 of all money, abolition is also enforced through murder and terror. Even = Stalin,=20 even Mao, retained the use of money; and so long as money exists, there = is some=20 sort of price system, and people are able to buy goods of their choice = and move=20 from place to place, even if in black markets or in disobedience to = government=20 regulations. But if money is abolished, then everyone is helpless, = dependent for=20 his very subsistence on the meager rations grudgingly handed to him by = the=20 regime in power. From the abolition of money came compulsory rural = communalism,=20 including the abolition of private eating, the institution of compulsory = marriages, and the eradication of learning, culture, the family, = religion, etc.=20 Cambodia was horror incarnate.

The Vietnamese lightning thrust that smashed the Cambodian regime was = not=20 solely or even primarily caused by ideological considerations. = Undoubtedly=20 uppermost were ancient ethnic hostility between the more prosperous = Vietnamese=20 and the more backward Khmers (inhabitants of Cambodia); the desire of = the=20 Vietnamese rulers to dominate all of Indochina; anger at long-repeated = border=20 incursions by Cambodian troops; and the Vietnamese fear of growing = encirclement=20 by the combined forces of the United States and China, supporting = Cambodia on=20 its southwestern flank. But there is no denying the horror that even the = Vietnamese Stalinists felt for the Cambodian monstrosity. When they = entered the=20 Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, the Vietnamese described the desolation = of that=20 city, and spoke of the deliberate mass murders, the forced evacuations. = A top=20 Vietnamese Communist official, Phan Trong Tue, spoke of the late = Cambodian=20 regime as having killed masses of people "with hammers, knives, sticks = and hoes,=20 like killing wee insects."

And then Tue rose to a pitch of eloquence:

The whole country was reduced to nil; no freedom of movement, no = freedom of=20 association, no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, no freedom = to=20 study, no freedom of marriage, no currency, no business, no trade, no = more=20 pagodas, and no more tears to shed over the people's sufferings. = (D.P.I.=20 dispatch, January 12, 1979)

We may contrast this to the shameful whitewashing of Cambodia by the = American=20 media after Cambodia's mentor, China, drew closer to the United States, = and to=20 the US defense of Cambodia against Vietnam before the United Nations, = coupled=20 with the barest slap on the wrist for its "possible" violations of human = rights.

$15 $10

I hasten to add =E2=80=94 for the benefit of attentive readers = =E2=80=94 that I do not=20 condone the Vietnamese violation of the principle of nonintervention, = and that=20 if I were a Vietnamese, and in the unlikely event that I could express = my=20 dissent freely, I would have opposed the invasion. But now that the = invasion has=20 been concluded, we can all surely be permitted to rejoice at the death = of the=20 most monstrous, bizarre, and evil State in many centuries. As I tried to = make=20 clear at the collapse of the Thieu dictatorship in South Vietnam, one = can=20 hail the death of a State without implying approval of the State = that=20 replaces it. The new Vietnamese-backed Salvation Front regime of Heng = Samrin has=20 already restored money, freedom of religion, freedom of marriage, = freedom to=20 return to cities, and freedom to cook and eat in one's own home = (symbolized by=20 the new regime's restoring a cooking pot to each family previously = dragooned=20 into communal kitchens). The new Salvation Front regime is indeed a = haven of=20 freedom for the individual Cambodian compared to the previous slavery = under Pol=20 Pot. But this by no means implies that the new regime is libertarian or = that its=20 own statism should not be opposed and combated by the Cambodian = people.

But for the people of China and Cambodia, recent events have meant a = leap=20 toward freedom that can only bring rejoicing to the hearts of = libertarians=20 everywhere.

Murray N. Rothbard (1926=E2=80=931995) was dean of the Austrian = School. He was an=20 economist, economic historian, and libertarian political philosopher. = See Murray=20 N. Rothbard's article = archives.

This article was originally published as "The Myth of Monolithic = Communism"=20 in Libertarian Review, Vol. 8., No. 1 (February 1979), p. 32.

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Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Myth of Monolithic Communism

The Case of Yugoslavia

The Liberalization of China

Toward Liberty in Southeast Asia

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