Why communism?
Because our current society is a machine made to create value and spill blood. Communism represents a horizon beyond the current capitalist mode of production for the real history of humanity to start. Our current world is ending and a new one struggles to be born.
Why here?
With the defederation of most Lemmy communities from Lemmygrad and Hexbear, there is a lack of a place to discuss communist politics but without the general toxicity of the terminally online left. This community, founded with the principles of SLRPNK.net in mind, aims to be a place to discuss communist politics without the so-called “tankie” left.
What kind of communism are we talking about?
Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence. ~ Karl Marx
Communism a rich discipline and tradition. This community aims to cater to as many tendencies are possible. Unfortunately, there is a certain tendency in the “online left” that aims to be contrarian, to win “debates,” to defend past legacies and dictatorships. “Communists” may do these things, but this is not communism. Communism is not some doctrine to be defended (as if not defending Stalin would cause the movement to collapse), but a theory and praxis by which to revolutionize the world. With Hexbear and Lemmygrad defederated, I think this particular community can be a place to discuss communist politics without the spectacle of contrarianship and sectarianism.
That said, all tendencies of the left and post-left are welcome here. What isn't welcome are specific uncomradely practices as outlined elsewhere.
Why not tankies?
State socialism/state capitalism/the bureaucracy has proven itself an effective mode of development—but only up to a certain point. The bureaucratic mode of development is still capitalist in nature, with wages, money, markets, etc. That they are often authoritarian is often beside the point (but for anarchists, it is quite the point on why not tankies). Many on the communist left understand this, from the leftcoms (ICP, ICC, ICT), the council communists, the communizers, the libertarian communists, the anarcho-communists, the autonomists, and so on.