DOES severe famine ALWAYS precede Marxist/Communist/Fascist REVOLUTION by about 5 years ???
486755
Famine is almost always man-made, and is almost always completely avoidable.\n\nYes, the famine in Ukraine was a direct result of the Collectivisation movement PLUS the effort on the part of Stalin to destroy a renewal of Ukrainian nationalism remaining from the German puppet state created in 1918. First, Stalin increased the demand from the central government for Ukrainian agricultural products by about 40% while decreasing material assistance. Further, when people were told they would be Collectivized (their lands would be pooled with everyone elses as well as posessions) they killed all of their livestock to make the government feed them. The government did not feed them, and approximately 23 million died. There had been earlier famines under the Bolshevik regime, so people should not have thought they could outsmart Stalin like this.\n\nSometimes famine preceeds Communist take-over, but it ALWAYS follows Communist take-over.
157264
*Blinking* Famine, Pestilence, then Death? \n\nWhich war? More details help...
208570
The Real Social Impact of Stalin’s Rule over Russia.\n\nThe First Five Year Plan:\n\nBy squeezing profits out of the agricultural sector, heavy industrial production increased from 300-600 percent. \n\nBelieved rapid industrialization was the only way to preserve socialism. \n\nIndustrial labor force was created overnight as men and women were put at work.\n\nThe number of women in the industrial work force tripled in the decade after 1929.\n\nIndustrial production also increased between the years 1929-1932.\n\nStalin forced collectivization and confiscated land. By 1938, private land was almost eliminated. \n\nThe Second Five Year Plan:\n\nSucceeded in reducing the Soviet Union’s dependence on foreign imports (heavy industry, machinery, metal works)\n\nThe industrial development and collectivization brought growing urbanization to the country. \n\nComintern(Communist International):\n\nStalin wanted it to promote the unity of working classes everywhere and cooperate with existing worker organizations. \n\nIt must seek to sever the ties between Communist parties and social democratic parties. \n\nAs a result, socialism in Europe was badly split between communists and democratic socialists. (ruined the triumph of fascists movements; Germany.\n\nThe New Soviet Estate:\n\nStalin was committed to the liberation of women.\n\nTheir double burden became heavier during his reign. \n\nThey held full time jobs while doing household chores and taking care of the children.\n\nThe family was glorified as the mainstay of the socialist order.\n\nThe independence of women was challenged as a threat to Soviet productivity. \n\nMassive Loss of Human Life\n\nBecause of the collectivization, 25 million peasants suffered. At least 5 million peasants died between 1929 and 1932. Collectivization ripped apart village life, ruined families, and sent homeless peasants into exile. \n\nAbout 300,000 people were put to death. (engineers, managers, officers of the navy, etc.)\n\n7 million people were placed in labor camps. \n\nThey dealt a severe blow to the command of the army.\n\nIt also resulted in the shortage of qualified industrial personnel, therefore, slowing growth of industry.
1127294
I am not a communist but in know this.\nCapitalism and Communisima are in a fight to the death.\nCaptilism has better PR.\nWhat we call Communism like Russsia Cuba China is not real communisim its not close, it is pretty much Fascism with the rehtoric of the worker, people ect. Those were horrible, Capitlism is horrible too but not as bad, depends on where you are in the food chain....\n\nIn theory shouldn't everyone be equal. Wouldn't god want that. isn't that what Heavan in our Christian doctrine is all about.\n\nHumor me now.....\nImagine if Heavan were physical place, during the 50 we would be threating to Bomb them....
444564
The economy and middle class are indeed growing at a fast pace in China, but the majority of Chinese still live the way they did 30 or 40 years ago.  I think the chinese government is trying to slowly convert the country into a capitalist - or at least a french-style socialist - society without making the mistakes Gorbachev made in USSR 15-20 years ago.  Time will tell if they succeed, though there are rumors of increasing discontent in the rural areas.  The same thing happened in the US in 1920s - right before the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.  Hopefully China will not suffer the same fate.
526220
Not very long. The north was far more industrialized the the agrarian south. What the person above said is true as well.
419783
Your concept is not how economic work. In a very simplified way, you are assuming every potential consumers wants or demands what limited resources cannot supply.\n\nMarkets do not work this way, in practice, and this is the main reason Marxist economic doctrine failed. To each according to his need is a great concept but some people cannot work and represent no productivity and others are extremely productive, far beyond any need they would ever have in a thousand years. With no market to balance outputs you have a system bound for disaster like the former Soviet Union.\n\nA doctor who earns a lot of money and does research that eventually created jobs by way of new technologies and techniques can afford to pay higher taxes as do the people who win new employment because of his research, to help  pay the cost of the care for the individual who is not productive, say because he or she is disabled.\n\nEven in a seriouly distressed situation, like drought or famine, markets can come to the aid of the suffering region because some elements of the market will have surplusses. Also in this day, there are no real famines because transportation can get any amount of food to any point on the globe in little time therefore the real issue is politics and culture not economics.\n\nUntil there are literally too many proplr to fit on the planet, there will be resources to meet the supply and demand marketplace. Maybe not in all commodites but in general.
275511
There was a time not so long ago when the future looked promising....end of the cold war, the emergence of people power in harsh regimes, popular culture's role in addressing the world's starving, the advances in science that promised the eradication of disease and poverty, etc.  Now it seems that the "old order" has reasserted itself and the most powerful governments of the world are once again committed to jingoistic warmongering activities that place us all at risk once more.  Unfortunately those human traits that are no longer required but have survived evolution to date (greed, fear, aggression) are still a driving force behind most, if not all of, world politics today.  Strangely enough, everyone knows deep down the correct path to take......just no-one has the guts.
196927
Hard to tell really, if it has ANYTHING to do with this particular Religion and Spirituality forum.\n\nThe closest, best-guess I can come up with is something about "1914" though... wasn't that when the leader/s of JW predicted the 'end of the World' the first time around and nothing happened?? And then there were two or three other later dates for the same cataclysmic event, but neither one of them panned out either?? LOL. I dunno! I don't see the connection between that and "wheat"...\n\nI give up. What's the Miracle Wheat Scandal of 1913??
511600
You will have to research Marxist history, Do not focus ont the revolts of 1848 in Europe, Focus on The Paris Commune of 1872, The Revolt of 1905 in Russia, and The Bolshevik revolt. I believe it originated in the Paris Commune. The other two revolts will tie in Vladimir Illich Ulaynov.(Lenin)
176814
If you believe that "communism is as communism does," and you use those shoddy tyrannies as the only possible socialist models, than the answer is no. On the other hand, if you consider the basic proposals of communism (actually socialism), then it gets more interesting. \n\nFirst let's get rid of the sillyness that equates socialism with tyranny. That's a little like saying that because Pinochet was dictatorial and pro-capitalist, then capitalism is dictatorial. And even though it's true that the democratic socialist movements were invariably short-lived, it's also true that their lives were most often cut short by their opponents - e.g., from Allende to Pinochet,  from Arbenz to a succesion of military dictators, etc. In short, there is nothing in socialist theory that prohibits democracy - in fact, many of its proponents have made the case that democracy is necessary in order to have the deliberation necessary to create a productive society. And capitalism, the real opposition to socialism, has done very well under a plethora of dictatorial forms, thank you very much.  \n\nThat being said, I do agree with the writer who implies that perhaps our species is not ready to deliberate on its own economic future. As a whole, we may not be intellectually or ethically equipped to get much past our present dismal state of quasi-anarchy. There's the "rub." Just as the population of the Soviet Union was told, "don't worry about the economy ... the party will look after it," capitalist regimes say, "don't worry about the economy, the 'invisible hand' and the captains of industry will look after it."
653208
Another example of fascism posing as humanitarianism.  Truman should have threatened to nuke Russia in 1947.  He didn't because he wanted to draw out the benefits from a 50 year Cold War.
808641
I don't think that after the removal of the regime there would be an insurgency. North Korea is so poor that the society would just totally collapse after the present regime was removed. All the years of communist agriculture practises (look it up, some commies actually think plants will grow differently for them!) have denuded the soil in North Korea.  Most of the civilians would start moving towards the DMZ, Chinese border or any refugee camps that were provided. The country is not self-sufficent in food as it is; so without the goverment around to issue food-aid rations, the people would have to go where the food is. Any insurgents would be SOL without food. That's not to say the people would be in a celebatory mood post Kim Jong-ll, they would be struggling to survive just like during and after the first Korean war. \n\nThe real hazard post Kim Jong-Il would be potential conflict between Chinese troops and US+Korean troops. It's not as if the Chinese would sit idely by while US troops came up to the Yalu river. That's a given. I suppose it's possible that the US and China could work together on some sort of transition. However the Chinese are unlikely to let the south just take over the north, so the people of North Korea don't have any good options.
97524
No food results in people leaving.  \n\nThe Great Famine or the Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol), known more commonly outside of Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, is the name given to a famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. The Famine was at least fifty years in the making, due to the disastrous interaction of British economic policy, destructive farming methods, and the unfortunate appearance of "the Blight" —the potato fungus that almost instantly destroyed the primary food source for the majority population. The immediate after-effects of The Famine continued until 1851. The number of deaths is unrecorded, and various estimates suggest totals between 500,000 and more than one million in the five years from 1846. Some two million refugees are attributed to the Great Hunger (estimates vary), and much the same number of people emigrated to Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia (see the Irish Diaspora).
984758
Well besides my Avatar and screen name saying it all I'll elaborate.\n\nCommunism is so damn romaticised todays as been a form of liberation and equality for all but what most people don't realise is that in communist societies everyone is equal but not in a good way. You work equally as hard, you get equally as little money and in the end Party members are more "equal" than everyone else.\n\nPeople (like here) ramble on about how great communism is on paper and how wonderful it must be in it's purest form. What I want to point out here is that EVERY communist country hasn't followed communism 'by the book' and have always turned into a terrible society where everything is collectivised, the Party rules all with an iron fist and all suffer and work insanely hard and in the end get lied to. This is what communism is and has become synonymous with. \nWhat it isn't synonymous (for most) is utter evil. It has claimed more lives than anything else in the world. Around 100,000,000 people have died because of communism. Add up the death tally for China, USSR, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cuba, etc and it will reach this total but everyone calls Nazism the epitome of evil. Communists did everything the Nazis did but still communism is so romanticised.\n\nLets look at Russia to answer your Q of people wanting it's return. Go to the link (political parties in Russia now) and you'll notice that so many have the word "people's" or "communist" or "red" or even "bolshevik" in the title. It could really happen there but never like they once were.\nI can sort of understand the desire of so many Russians for communism's return. Think about it... under communism Russia was a world power that equalled the US. Now they are a shadow of their former selves. I hear crime and corruption is rife in Russia, neo-Nazis are running around all over and the quality of life isn't so good (heard this all from Russians myself). People there probably see communism as a way to regain that lost political power and restore control over everything like in the days of the Reds.
569940
No, because Communist Dictatorships are beginning to Flourish in Central, and South America. Most Notably Venezuela, and now Brazil.There is an Open Alliance with Cuba that, when Castro Dies, his Regime will, unfortunately Continue. I Hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so.
910002
Nope. There will always be those types of people who will take advantage of the "weaker" people. When I say weaker, I mean those people who are physically or perhaps even emotionally or mentally not as strong as others. If there was no government, you would have roving bands of folks going around and taking things from others and forcing others off their land. Eventually, these bands would form dictatorships. To counteract these bands, you would have regular folks ban together into Militias or something like that. And these Militias would either work democratically or have some sort of leader. Ultimately, you would have to set down rules to get together. Ultimately, these rules would have to be enforced when folks broke them. The bigger the group, the more rules that get broken and the more time you need to spend enforcing the rules. Suddenly, it makes sense to have a smaller group do all the enforcing and that group becomes the intervention of an outside authority. One of the ideas of the Bolsheviks was to have a dictatorship of the proletariat for about 5 years after the revolution and then all the people would govern themselves in a model communist utopia. That 5 years became 70 and eventually the USSR broke up and communism stopped there without this utopia where the people governed themselves knowing exactly what is good for them.\n\nThe trouble is that, even in this day and age where everyone is supposedly reasonable, people really aren't that reasonable. People are selfish. They want more than their fair share. Then some people come up with crazy ideas that they want to impose on everyone else. There is a major irrational side to every human being. It causes people to rape and murder and take drugs and do all kinds of things they shouldn't. It also causes love and compassion. This side will always be in humans and will always cause some people to do some stupid and some good things. Because of this, unless you have a really small group, you will always need the intervention of an outside authority.