Communism - Is not dead
Many news articles are talking about Putin's latest address to his fellow Russians. Mr Putin makes some interesting statements such as

The Russian nation's mission to bring further civilisation to the Euro-Asian continent must be continued." He said this would involve "enriching and reinforcing our historical links through democratic values, multiplied by national interests".

Further civilizing?? He obviously still thinks the communist influence is 'civilizing' and wants to continue that 'progress'

He insisted such a transition was only possible through legal means. "Any unlawful methods of struggle ... for ethnic, religious and other interests contradict the principles of democracy,"

Yep. This is a standard communist concept. They want to control the power until they can put socialism back into place.

This is also why Russia has also recently removed democratically elected local governors with Putin's hand picked appointees.

Marxist/leninist Communism is all about idealistic dialectical materialism. Idealistic means that have an idealistic notions about human nature and behaviour. (Shown to have been wrong throughout history). Materialism means that communism is atheistic in nature. Dialectic means that communism is meant to 'progress' through a series of advances and withdrawals, much like a hammer hammering in a nail strikes and withdraws until the nail is in place. The end goal is always the same, however in looking at where communist controlled countries are heading at the moment (Both China and Russia have returned to capitalism - Called a 'negation') you cannot say that communism has failed, merely that it is going through a withdrawal (negation) before a new advance can occur.

So, whilst there was a victory against communism in the cold war, the fight against communism is far from over. Of course, the various communist causes that the USSR supported have been struggling since the USSR/Russia can no longer afford that support (It had been proping up Castro in cuba to the tune of around 12 million dollars a day). This is why cuba is in such a poor state today
- posted by Alan Grey @ Tuesday, April 26, 2005