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Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and reaching global dimensions during the Cold War. In this sense anti-communism does not necessarily indicate aversion to the ideology of communism, but rather opposition to MarxistLeninist one-party states, such as the former Soviet Union and its allies, which have been criticised as not being communist societies, but rather only in name: see state communism.

Most anti-communists reject the concept of historical materialism[citation needed], which is a central idea in Marxism. Anti-communists reject the Marxist belief that capitalism will be followed by socialism and communism, just as feudalism was followed by capitalism. Anti-communists question the validity of the Marxist claim that the socialist state will "wither away" when it becomes unnecessary in a true communist society. Anti-communists also accuse communists of having caused several famines that occurred in 20th century communist states, such as the Russian Famine of 1921 and the much more severe famine in China during the Great Leap Forward.

Anti-communists[who?] argue that the repression in the early years of Bolshevik rule, while not as extreme as that during Joseph Stalin's rule, was still severe by reasonable standards, citing examples such as Felix Dzerzhinsky's secret police, which eliminated numerous political opponents by extrajudicial executions, and the brutal crushing of the Kronstadt rebellion and Tambov rebellion.[citation needed] Some anti-communists[who?] refer to both communism and fascism as totalitarianism, seeing similarity between the actions of communist and fascist governments.[citation needed]

Opponents argue that communist parties that have come to power have tended to be rigidly intolerant of political opposition. Communist governments have also been accused of creating a new ruling class (a Nomenklatura), with powers and privileges greater than those previously enjoyed by the upper classes in the non-communist regimes.

Since the split of the Communist Parties from the socialist Second International to form the Communist Third International, democratic socialists and social democrats have been in conflict with Communism, criticising it for its anti-democratic nature. Examples of left-wing critics of Communist states and parties are George Orwell, Boris Souveraine, Bayard Rustin, Irving Howe and Max Shachtman.

Although many[who?] anarchists describe themselves as communists, all anarchists criticize authoritarian Communist parties and states. They argue that Marxist concepts such as dictatorship of the proletariat and state ownership of the means of production are anathema to anarchism. Some anarchists criticize communism from an individualist point of view.

The anarchist Mikhail Bakunin debated with Karl Marx in the First International, arguing that the Marxist state is another form of oppression.[1] He loathed the idea of a vanguard party ruling the masses from above. Anarchists initially participated in, and rejoiced over, the 1917 revolution as an example of workers taking power for themselves. However, after the October revolution, it became evident that the Bolsheviks and the anarchists had very different ideas. Anarchist Emma Goldman, deported from the United States to Russia in 1919, was initially enthusiastic about the revolution, but was left sorely disappointed, and began to write her book My Disillusionment in Russia. Anarchist Peter Kropotkin, proffered trenchant criticism of the emergent Bolshevik bureaucracy in letters to Vladimir Lenin, noting in 1920: "[a party dictatorship] is positively harmful for the building of a new socialist system. What is needed is local construction by local forces ... Russia has already become a Soviet Republic only in name."[citation needed] Many anarchists fought against Russian, Spanish and Greek Communists; many were killed by them, such as Lev Chernyi, Camillo Berneri and Constantinos Speras.

The communist principle of redistribution of wealth acquired in capitalist accumulation is held by anti-communists to be opposed to the principle of voluntary free trade.[citation needed] Furthermore many capitalist theorists believe that communism interferes with the price mechanism that is only optimized in private competition. See economic calculation debate.

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx lays out a 10-point plan advising the redistribution of land and production, and Ludwig von Mises argues that the initial and ongoing forms of redistribution constitute direct coercion.[2][3] Neither Marx's 10-point plan nor the rest of the manifesto say anything about who has the right to carry out the plan.[4]Milton Friedman argued that the absence of voluntary economic activity makes it too easy for repressive political leaders to grant themselves coercive powers. Friedman's view was also shared by Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes, both of whom believed that capitalism is vital for freedom to survive and thrive.[5][6]

Many capitalist critics[who?] see a key error in communist economic theory, which predicts that in capitalist societies, the bourgeoisie will accumulate ever-increasing capital and wealth, while the lower classes become more dependent on the ruling class for survival, selling their labor power for the most minimal of salaries, blaming the effect on capitalism. Anti-communists[who?] point to the overall rise in the average standard of living in the non-communist West and claim that both the rich and poor have steadily gotten richer.[citation needed] Anti-communists argue that former Third World countries that have successfully escaped poverty in recent decades have done so using capitalism, most notably India and China. Anti-communists[who?] cite the Mengistu regime in Ethiopia as an example how a Communist regime in the Third World failed to achieve development or economic growth.[citation needed]

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