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:[[:en:Communist mode of production|English wiki]].

==Dominion Lede==
The '''Communist mode of production''' refers to a state of human society in which [[:en:classless society|no one is born into a class]] and the [[:en:Means of production|means of production]] are owned by all members of society in common. As a [[:en:Mode of production|mode of production]] it is the culmination of the development of human productive powers, which unfortunately was the subject a number of failed attempts in the 20th century. The next &sect; has the separate merge candidates as found in the English wiki when this article was created. Rather than an [[:en:The End of History and the Last Man|end]], the [[:en:prehistory|point at which human productive capacity begins to operate in a rational framework]] can be associated with the limit socialization of production, which, reaching fever pitch in Late Capitalism finally breaks free of the fetters of the old system to move to the new required rationalization of the relations of production. [[:en:Sovereign state|Necessarily]], this process is integral with the decay of the [[:en:Nation state|nation-state]] system based on said relations.

{{Trotskyism}}



== Historical Attempts ==

Before and after the collapse of Soviet Communism, Trotskyists and other left communists held that the officially socialist states were "deformed" or "degenerated". The distinction is between a state where the workers at one point thru revolutionary action were in control of the state apparatus and those where that never happened.

=== Deformed Workers State ===

In [[:en:Trotskyism|Trotskyist]] political theory, '''deformed workers' states''' are states where the [[:en:bourgeoisie]] has been overthrown through [[:en:social revolution]], the industrial means of production have been largely nationalized bringing benefits to the working class, but where the [[:en:working class]] has never held political power (as it did in Russia shortly after the [[:en:Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]]). These workers' states are ''deformed'' because their political and economic structures have been imposed from the top (or from outside), and because revolutionary working class organizations are crushed. Like a [[:en:degenerated workers' state]], a deformed workers' state cannot be said to be a state that is transitioning to socialism.

The concept of deformed workers' states was developed by the theorists of the [[:en:Fourth International]] after [[:en:World War II]], when the [[:en:Soviet Union]] had militarily defeated [[:en:Nazi Germany]] and created [[:en:satellite state]]s in [[:en:Eastern Europe]]. Taking [[:en:Leon Trotsky]]'s concept of the Soviet Union as a [[:en:degenerated workers state]], the 1951 Third World Congress of the International described the new regimes as deformed workers' states. Rather than advocating a social revolution, as in the capitalist countries, the Fourth International advocated [[:en:political revolution]] to oust the [[:en:Stalinism|Stalinist]] [[:en:bureaucracy]] in the Soviet Union (which was degenerated) however its attitude to Eastern Europe was different, as in Yugoslavia where it sent greetings to the [[:en:Yugoslav Communist Party]] and requested attendance at their conference as it thought they could become revolutionary. This approach has been defended by the Trotskyist currents that trace their political continuity through the World Congresses between 1951 and 1965, such as the [[:en:reunified Fourth International]] and [[:en:Committee for a Workers International|CWI]]. The [[:en:League for the Fifth International]] argues that the Eastern European states were degenerate workers states, in that they were "degenerate from birth" being qualitative degenerated rather than having quantitative deformations. Therefore a political revolution would be needed, which goes against the Fourth International who sought to reform the [[:en:Yugoslav Communist Party]] among others.

Those Trotskyist currents that split from the Fourth International before 1948 over differences with Trotsky on the Soviet Union tend to disagree with this interpretation and have adopted theories describing the post-war Stalinist states as being [[:en:state capitalist]] or [[:en:bureaucratic collectivist]]. 

Most Trotskyists cite examples of deformed workers' states today as including [[:en:Cuba]], the [[:en:People's Republic of China]], [[:en:North Korea]] and [[:en:Vietnam]].  The [[:en:Committee for a Workers International]] has also included states such as [[:en:Syria]] or [[:en:Burma]] at times when they have had a [[:en:nationalised]] economy.

Some Trotskyist groups such as [[:en:Socialist Action (US)|Socialist Action]], while having some disagreements with the Cuban leadership, consider Cuba a healthy [[:en:workers' state]].  Others, such as the [[:en:Freedom Socialist Party]], say that the People's Republic of China has gone too far on the road of capitalist restoration to be considered a deformed workers' state.  

=== Degenerated Workers State ===

In [[:en:Trotskyist]] political theory the term '''degenerated workers' state''' has been used since the 1930s to describe the state of the [[:en:Soviet Union]] after [[:en:Stalin]]'s consolidation of power in or about 1924.  The term was developed by [[:en:Leon Trotsky]] in ''[[:en:The Revolution Betrayed]]''<ref>Leon Trotsky, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/revbet/index.htm The Revolution Betrayed]'', 1936</ref> and in other works ,<ref>See, for example, Leon Trotsky, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/tia38.htm "The USSR and Problems of the Transitional Epoch"], extract from ''The Transitional Program'' (1938), or [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/12/abc.htm "The ABC of Materialist Dialectics"], extract From "A Petty-Bourgeois Opposition in the Socialist Workers Party" (1939), in Leon Trotsky, ''In Defense of Marxism'', 1942)</ref> but has its roots in [[:en:Vladimir Lenin|Lenin's]] formula that the USSR was a workers' state with [[:en:bureaucracy|bureaucratic]] deformations.<ref>''Cf.'' among other places: "Our Party Programme ... shows that ours is a workersâ state with a bureaucratic twist to it." V. I. Lenin, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/dec/30.htm "The Trade Unions, the Present Situation and Trotsky's Mistakes"], speech on December 30, 1920, in V. I. Lenin, ''Collected Works'', Volume 32.</ref>

====The Trotskyist definition====
The [[:en:Soviet state]] of the period between the [[:en:October Revolution|1917 October Revolution]] and [[:en:Joseph Stalin]]'s consolidation of power, was held to be a genuine [[:en:workers' state]], as the [[:en:bourgeoisie]] had been [[:en:Russian Revolution of 1917|politically overthrown]] by the [[:en:working class]] and the [[:en:economic]] basis of that state laid in [[:en:Common ownership|collective ownership]] of the [[:en:means of production]]. Contrary to the predictions of many [[:en:socialist]]s such as Lenin himself, the revolution failed to spread to [[:en:Germany]] and other industrial [[:en:Western Europe]]an countries, and consequently the Soviet state began to degenerate. This was worsened by the material and political degeneration of the [[:en:Russia]]n [[:en:working class]] by the [[:en:Russian Civil War|Civil War]] of 1917â1923. After the death of [[:en:Lenin]] in 1924, the ruling stratum of the Soviet Union, consolidated around [[:en:Joseph Stalin]], was held to be a bureaucratic [[:en:caste]], and not a new ruling class, because its political control did not also extend to economic ownership. The theory that the Soviet Union was a degenerated workers' state is closely connected to Trotsky's call for a [[:en:political revolution]] in the USSR, as well as Trotsky's call for defense of the USSR against [[:en:capitalism|capitalist]] restoration.    

The term "degenerated workers' state" is commonly used to refer only to the Soviet Union. The term [[:en:deformed workers' state]] was coined by Trotskyists of the [[:en:Fourth International]] to describe those states, like the [[:en:Eastern Bloc|Soviet satellite states]] of [[:en:Eastern Europe]], which are or were based upon [[:en:collectivise]]d means of production, but in which the working class never held direct political power.

====Critics====
Besides the supporters of the Soviet Union holding the belief that the state was a healthy [[:en:workers' state]], the theory has been criticised from within the Trotskyist movement, and by other [[:en:socialist]]s critical of the Soviet Union. Among the disputed issues are the relationships between a workers' state (of any type), and a [[:en:planned economy]]. Some tendencies tend to equate the two concepts, while others draw sharp distinctions between them.

Among Trotskyists, alternative but similar theories include [[:en:State_capitalism#Use_by_Trotskyists|state capitalism]] and [[:en:bureaucratic collectivism]].

==See also==
* [[:en:State_capitalism#Use_by_Trotskyists|State capitalism]]
* [[:en:Bureaucratic collectivism]]
* [[:en:Coordinatorism]]
* [[:en:New class]]
* [[:en:State Capitalism]]
* [[:en:State socialism]]
* [[:en:Statism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* Third World Congress of the Fourth International, [http://listserv.cddc.vt.edu/marxists/history/etol/document/fi/1950-1953/fi-3rdcongress/1951-congress08.htm Class Nature of Eastern Europe] 
* [[Pierre Frank]], [http://listserv.cddc.vt.edu/marxists/history/etol/writers/frank/1951/08/eeurope.htm Evolution of Eastern Europe], Report to the Third World Congress

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[[Category:Trotskyism]]
[[Category:Marxist theory]]
[[Category:History of socialism]]

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