What is communism? Is that fair?

In this article, I will explain how the government participates in communism and I will finish with my opinion telling if that’s, for me, fair or not.  I will divide the communism in two aspects, social and political. In each aspect I will explain how the government was involved and how it affects to the society.
 I choose this subject because I think it is important to know how sometimes many people took control of everything and you, as a human being, need to have your values very marked for not being abused.

Like a general definition of communism, I can say that is a political movement with objects. These objects were a society without a division of society in different classes’ society. What it marked this period was the abolition of the private property.

In the social aspect we can see that the society live in equality of conditions, that means same conditions for everybody to have a healthier society and reject individualism because that produces competition, winners and losers. But some people work harder and they receive the same conditions, money, food, etc.
In communism, the power is vested in a group of people who decide the course of action. It is the group of people who decide on the activities of the public and may interfere in the public life of others. As I look in a webpage, Marx detailed the 10 essential tenets of communism: Central banking system, government controlled education, government controlled labor, government ownership of transportation and communication vehicles, government ownership of agriculture means and factory, total abolition of private property, property rights confiscation, heavy income tax on everyone, elimination of rights of inheritance, regional planning. The government distributes land and property among the people; communism sets a standard of equality among its followers.  

As we look up in the article, the government took control of everything for make a government with equality. Communism came from the world common that is the same. I disagree about this because I think people deserve a lifestyle because of their own effort. I know that the country have to be very solidarity, but it’s unfair that some people work hard and live in the same conditions with people doesn’t work as them. In the part that government controlled the banking system, or the labor it’s useful because with that we live in peace and we prevent wars, discussions or any fight. When I read that in this period there were no private privacy I thought that people need privacy, people need a place where they feel “free” and  also to feel that feeling of “MY house” were you make whatever you want and nobody tells you anything. Think about what would be your life sharing everything and cannot say, that's mine and i get it from my effort. In my point of view, that would be awkward. 




                                                                            Written by: Camila Richter

Is Hitler a leader?

In this article I will write about Hitler as a leader. I think this subject is very interesting because when I was looking for information I notice that there were many opinions about this character, and you can notice that actually, people have different points of view about him and how some people can show him as an example of a real leader. Is Hitler a leader?

In a very short summary, Hitler was one dictatorship of the XX century. Was born in Austria.

Time passed, and he starts to involucrate more on the political works. That brought a certain rejection from Jewish people against him. Then he was the principle exponent of the Nazi party and at the beginning of his government, he was a much known person because of his charisma and the spreading of his anti-Semite and antimarxism ideas.
He started to gain power and finally he turned into the leader of all German.

What Hitler wants to do in German was to finish with the crisis they were going through. For example, the crisis they had because of the WW, the conclusions of the treaty of Versailles and the crisis of 29. But one problem of the Nazis was that they believed in the superiority of the ‘Aryan master race’ (racism), and said they had the right to persecute the Jews and conquer lebensraum (‘living space’) in Eastern Europe.
Hitler and his party hated the Communists. Also they had a paramilitary wing that attacked other parties and assassinated rival politicians. To gain people and more right-wing parties, they create a Young club to believe in the Nazi message.

For many people, the time when Hitler was in the power and the Nazi regime was the happiest time ever. In the economic aspect, the Nazis give them security for having a job, prosperity and financial security. Also he improves transport and Germans had hope, and self-belief, and there was a feeling that Hitler ‘keeps me safe from all harm.' Also, Nazi culture was very youth-oriented.

“On the other hand, all workers had to join the German Labor Front, wages fell, and strikers could be shot.   All culture had to be German or Nazi.   Women doctors, teachers and civil servants were forced to give up their careers and girls were forced to concentrate on the three Cs (Church, children, cooker).   ‘True Aryan girls’ were sent off to special camps where they were bred (like farm animals) with selected 'Aryan' boys.   Most of all, people were not free (there was no freedom of speech).”   http://www.johndclare.net/Basics_Germany.htm

Finally I think that Hitler isn’t a leader, because a TRUE leader makes the best for all the country, for all the people. Actually, he “helped” Germany and gave, even if it was only a feeling, the security to people. But what he made to the Jews, gypsies, meanwhile black people, the mentally ill, the disabled and the deaf hasn’t name. I think people have freedom, and they don’t deserved to be treat like he treat them. First, the Jews and gypsies were persecuted, he put them into concentration camps or they were used for medical experiments. They treat them as animals, as if they don’t have feelings. When I look the movie “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” I have an idea of what they make them and it wasn’t fare. They are persons like us, they were good people and they deserve to live. He also kills children without purpose. That’s not all; he sterilized or killed a person that “doesn’t help”. Also beggars, homosexuals, prostitutes, alcoholics, pacifists and hooligans were put in concentration camps. That’s why I know that Hitler isn’t a true leader.

Now that you know this, Is Hitler a leader?

Written by: Camila Richter 

Economic context in Italy before the establishment of fascism

Italy was very far from being a great country in terms of economy even in the years before 1914. The First World War was only the sparkle of an economic crisis that had been in danger for very long before.

In the interwar period, between 1918 and 1922, Italy had five different governments, all incapable of taking the right decision that the time and situation required. Until Mussolini and the Fascist regime took the power.

But the economic facts that lead to the establishment of fascism are too important to be ignored, because a happy, well-living, economically stable society wouldn’t admit a dictatorship that easily.

But the First World War did make things worse. Before, Italy had a fake but stable economy, based on strong loans obtained from the United States, the tax system was an actual mess, and the banks were in crisis. Right after the Great War, Italy was devastated in every aspect.

The living cost increased immensely, causing the value of the lire to drop until it was only worth one fifth of the American dollar. Besides the concerning monetary devaluation, a public debt to the United States, and an internal shortage, Italy didn’t have an organized budget, nor a well-planned economic solution to the crisis.

But that wasn’t it, in October of 1929; the American economy suffered the Wall Street Crush. Since the United States had become the leading country in economy, this event affected investments of the entire European Continent, causing the Great Depression almost immediately.

America took action right away, turning into a protectionist economy and applying the “beggar-thy-neighbor” policy, which meant that no more loads would be giving and the commerce would be left apart, as every country tried to alleviate their crisis making the economical problems of other countries worse.

An example of the Italian crisis was the serious unemployment the country was undergoing, reaching significant levels that didn’t improve until late 1937.

Internationally, trade decreased in 30 percent after the imposing of these policies. Western leading countries cut back harshly on the purchase of resources and other merchandises, causing the price of coffee, cotton, rubber, tin, and other raw materials to dropped 40 percent. The collapse in this particular possessions and agricultural commodity prices led to social unrest, making it easier for a totalitarian regime to take over, by promising to find a way out the catastrophe.

The measures taken by the United States’ economic department had a significant impact on Italy, and are said to be responsible of at least half the Italian economic deficit.

Written by: Analucia Castagnino

Collective farms developed in Russia during Stalin’s rule.

When Stalin took over the Russian government in 1920, he realized that he needed a stable amount of money every year if he wanted to set his communist regime.

First, Joseph Stalin accused the land owning peasants that had become wealthy, or kulaks; claiming that their first priority wasn’t the Soviet Union, and that they weren’t supplying the industrial workers with enough food, therefore, they were not doing their work correctly.

To “improve” the production, Stalin decided to forced people to set up collective farms that were owned by the government. Collectivization was basically about grouping small farms in one single area called collective. The peasants who were part of the collective joint their animals, tools and labor to work for the benefit of the whole community.

For example, major grain-producing areas were collectivized by 1931, and each collective had a quote of grain it had to send to the estate in a determined date, regardless of the aim of the populace, even if communism is supposedly the government for the people.

This collectivization was fully implemented around 1928, and it was supposed to be applied with a relative pace and calmness, but the following year the dictator sped up the process because the peasants rather kill their crops and animals than handling them to the government. So they were forced by the regime to join the collectives.

With the intention of increasing collective membership, peasants were given motivations such as the machinery tractor station in Russia, where peasants that were part of the collectives could borrow machinery in order to increase their production in return for crops.

But Stalin also had a plan for the wealthy land-owners, he ask them to hand over their lands, houses and everything they owned to the government, and to distribute their machinery and crops among the collectives. Around 5 million kulaks were exiled because they refused to give in their lands.

But not every peasant or land-owner was even allowed to join the collectives, and the ones that didn’t fit the demands were sending into labor camps or executed right away.

However, the collective farms did not increase the production, or the food supply; they were, in fact, the source of great food shortages, causing millions to die in famine after this crazy experiment.

Written by: Analucia Castagnino

Indoctrination in communism.

We have been taught that communism is a system that does not take the society anywhere and that is bad for a country progress. Personally, I have always wonder what did they taught the children in the time when Russia was a communist society? When I first began searching for this information, I read that the communism said that the capitalisms system was bad and selfish. That capitalism and the religion harmed the idea of a collective development of the country because it concentrates in individual progress. The communism was think for the common good and these are just other ways of saying that the indoctrination of the communist’s ideal are: life and collective development and not only the individual development. This was a very radical idea, but it was just a reaction of what was happening in that times when people were starving, they need help urgently and they don’t get it. When the communism was established as the new system the education was one of the most important priorities of Russia to create a new society in which everyone can have an opportunity they live the life they deserve that they couldn’t get through the imperial system in the first years of the XX century.

Soviet Youth indoctrination begins in Kindergarten with stories of “Grandfather Lenin” that make him out to be a sort of Santa Claus figure to children throughout the world. In first grade children join the Little Octoberists, their first official Communist group. The good of the group is emphasized over that of the individual. They learn about their duty and social obligations to the Motherland. Loyalty to the state is emphasized over loyalty to family or oneself. This was the ideas that people taught their children so they continue the same system.

In the case of the education it was equal for everybody. No private schools just one educative project for all with the goal to stand out in every field of knowledge like: art, math, physics, science, music, etc. All this was paid by the state so the parents don’t have to spend money in education and, at the same time, promoted the development of the skills of each student to maximize their potential. In this way the future generation of Russia not only has the idea of continue a communist society but also they were very good prepared having the best people in every area.

With all this communism, that start at the beginning of the XX century and over the years, get to made Russia a world power but that would come to an end near the 80’s because, although the first generation had the idea of communism, little by little emerged people who wanted to have an individual progress.

Like I have already said communism was just a reaction to the Russian aristocracy of that time, that were totally indifferent and inoperable, concentrating first in foreign wars and not paying attention to the problems of its country. We can finally say that communism was almost necessary to take the country forward when they most needed.

Written by:  Maria Claudia Villar 

Religion in Communism

In the Communist Russia, Marxism-Leninism was considered as the basis for the perfect society. According to this philosophy, political leaders would quickly replace religious leaders, whose beliefs had no place in a scientifically managed nation. Lenin was highly critical of religion. Atheism is an essential and inseparable part of Marxism, of the theory and practice of scientific communism. In this system, each individual took responsibility for contributing to the good of all.

Because of this, Russia was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion and its replacement with atheism. The state atheism was known as gosateizm. The communist regime confiscated religious property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in schools. Marxism–Leninism has always supported the control, suppression, and elimination of religion. Within about a year of the revolution, the state expropriated all church property, including the churches themselves, and in the period from 1922 to 1926, 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and more than 1,200priests were killed. Many more were persecuted but even with all this, according to various Soviet and Western sources, however, over one-third of the country's people professed religious belief. The role of religion in the daily lives of the Russian citizens varied greatly. Two-thirds of the Soviet populations were irreligious. About half the people, including members of the ruling Communist Party and high-level government officials, professed atheism. For the majority of the Russian citizens religion seemed irrelevant.

Marx said: “The religion is the opium of the people” This mean that according to the communist ideas the religion manipulates society, like for example in the catholic church that promised salvation and an afterlife in paradise for the people that do what the church says, as measured by the tenets of the Bible and what communism want is to be the only one that the society has to obey, but having to compete with something as big as what the church promises it was much easier to just eliminate it. Other reasons why communisms want to disappear the religion was that the church said they want the common good but under their own rules and the communism with its own idea of common good said that what the church told us are just lies and trick so we do whatever they want and that, according to the communist ideas, was just to make it bigger and stronger.

In conclusion we can say that the two mayor reasons of why having a religion or a belief was not an option for the communist society were: First, that religion gain more authority in the people than the government and like communism wanted to be the only authority they just eliminate it so there were no more competition. And second, were the two different ideas of collective good, the one of the church that was under tier own rule according to communism and the one of the communist system that wanted to make the country progress.

Written by: Maria Claudia Villar

Racism in Nazism

During World War II the Nazis sent millions of Jews,Slavs, Gypsies and others to concentration camps, where they were tortured and murdered. Hitler directed his most bitter attacks against the Jews. In 1938 Nazis attacked Jews on the streets. Hitler secret police arrested Jews, and many of them were shot and others were sent to concentration camps, in these camps people were confined under harsh conditions. Hitler was obsessed with ideas about race, he beliefs in racial “purity”, for Hitler the ideal “Aryan” that was blond, blue-eyed and tall, after this he proclaims Germany’s destiny to rule over inferior races; and they identify Jews as racial enemies, he said “No Jew, therefore, may be member of the nation”.

He believed the Jews to be an exceptional evil, working within the nation to subvert “racial purity”. He urged the “removal of Jews from Germany.

Hitler and other Nazi leaders viewes the Jews not as a religious group. But as a poisonoes “race”, which “lived off” the other races and weakened them.

 Hitler took the power, and Nazi teachers in school classrooms began to apply the “principles” of racial science, they measured skull size and nose length and they recorded the color of their hair and eyes to determine if they belonged to the true “Aryan” race. Jewish and Gypsies students were often humiliated in this porcess.

He also believes that “racial purity” requires state regulation of huma reproduction; Hitler issues the law to prevent hereditarily diseased offspring.

The measure prohibits “undesirable” from having children and mandates forced sterilization of certain physically or mentally impaired inidividuals.

This law affected many people.

Hitler did many things to have a pure race, not all these things were right especially the racism that occurred in that time. Jews and Gypsies were innocent people, who had no fault to be like they were. These people suffered many humiliations from the nazis, the worst thing about this is that they were sent to concentration camps, where they lived in harsh conditions, and most of these people were killed. Hitler thought that one day he would obtain that pure race that he wants, making this even hard to Jews and Gypsies people. Finally Hitler was detained and many of these innocent people were saved.

  Written by: Andrea Alva

Women in Communist Society

Communist Russia, established by the Bolsheviks through the Russian Revolution of 1917, was the most radical government in Europe at the time. One part of these radical visions the Communists had troubled women. Womens were responsible of taking care of their families and kids.Lenin had a genuinely valued the support of the women and the equality with men. He want to improve the living conditions and positions of women in Communist society. These change by the time of Stalin and WWII, the state were degenerated and abused, and women were frequently encouraged to embody new kids of values and hold different beliefs. Lenin’s policies that had favored the liberation of women and institutions to support women were often cut back by Stalin’s bureacracy.

In the November Revolution of 1917 the proclaimed women’s complete economic, sexual and political equality to men for the first time. Lenin especially was a big supporter of women’s rights, and they want the total emancipation of women. The Bolsheviks, contrary to the rather conservative Mensheviks who often refrained from taking serious action, were impatient to work to make women liberation a higher priority than it had been. In Communist society, wome were “sopposedly” equal to men.

Womens were granted the same work rights, and they would be paid the same as mens were. Lenin saw that womens should also need to participate in politics. Men and women were given equal standing in marriage, and women could get divorced easily. Abortion also became legal in 1920. Woman was considered a independent person so they can’t be bound by their husbands.

They were allowed to hold land and become the head of a household; they also have the right to own a property.

The Bolshevik government, under Lenin launched programs and establishes facilities to promote women to participate in all aspects of life. Bolsheviks started to provide certain material to support women. One policy separate from domestic life was the policy on women’s education, women began to educate themselves. 

This equality had limitations, men did not easily accepted the idea of the participation of women in the politics. They pretended to agree with the idea that women are equal to men, and they do this to gain the support from the leaders who advocated for women rights. These limitations led to women not being treated as equal as they should. Women were often paid less than men, women were still discriminated against in the workplace.

But their participation in the politics help them to give their oppinions about women rights and also they know everything about what was going on in the state.

Lenin was right with women liberation and the equality with men. In the other hand we have Stalin that disagrees with Lenin ideologies. They pretended to accept women but they didn’t treat them well, for example there was law established that women had to be paid the same as men but this was not practiced, also some men didn’t accepted  the idea of woman in the politics or they were discriminated in the workplace. Little by little communism was accepting women in society.

  Written by: Andrea Alva