Lesson objectives

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Lesson objectives

1. To understand what is meant by the theory of
   communism
2. To be able to compare these ideas with the
   principles of capitalism.
3. To produce a brief drama skit to demonstrate the
   differences between capitalism and communism.

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Anyone want some chocolate?
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What is Communism?

• A Simple Lesson

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What is Communism?

• This is the symbol of Communism The Hammer and
  the Sickle

Hammer for the Workers
Sickle for the Peasants the farm labourers
Who are these blokes?
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What is Communism?

• Those Blokes wrote the Communist Manifesto
• in 1847. Its a short book but billions of
  people have read it.

This is Karl Marx, the Father of Communism.
People who believe in his ideas are called
Marxists
This is his good friend, Frederick Engels.
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The Communist Manifesto

• the history of all hitherto existing society is
  the history of class struggles
• workers of the world unite!
• the theory of the Communists may be summed up in
  the single sentence Abolition of private
  property.

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What is Communism?

• Marx and Engels studied the history of the
  worlds economies.
• This means the way that power, industry and
  finance are controlled.
• They saw the way countries developed in stages.

Communism
Socialism
Capitalism
Feudalism
Explain these please!
Primitive Communism
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What is Communism?
This is how humans first lived together in
small tribes. Primitive means not very advanced
e.g. hunting and gathering. Communism means that
everything was shared amongst the tribe food,
jobs, belongings. No-one owned land. Eventually a
group comes to power this leads to Feudalism
Primitive Communism
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What is Communism?
Under feudalism, a king or emperor or chief
becomes the ruler over all the people.
He gives land and privileges to nobles who rule
the people for him.
The people are kept uneducated and told that god
chose the king to rule. The church helps the king
this way.
Feudalism
As trade develops, some people get richer. This
leads to Capitalism..
Primitive Communism
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What is Communism?
The capitalists get more power to serve their own
interests.
The business owners or capitalists get richer
while the workers do all the hard work.
Capitalism
Feudalism
Capitalism creates a huge working-class of people
who soon get angry at the way they are treated.
They organise in unions and demand changes. This
will lead to a revolution and Socialism
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What is Communism?
Because nothing is made for profit, all people
benefit from education and health.
The workers take control of the country to
produce things for everyone.
Socialism
These ideas spread across the world to create
Communism.
Capitalism
In the Socialist revolution all the rulers
kings, churches, capitalists are got rid of.
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What is Communism?
The remaining capitalists put up a bitter fight,
but the will of the people will always win.
Communism
Socialism
All human activity goes towards benefiting each
other allowing all to live their lives to the
full.
As everyone now works together, war is a thing of
the past armies are not needed. Sharing means
no police are needed. Everything is provided by
the people so money becomes a thing of the past.
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Capitalism the ragged trouser philanthropist

• The Great money trick.

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Capitalism

• In a capitalist society people are given the
  freedom to buy and sell property as they please.
• The theory is that human beings are competitive
  and that allowing competition actually improves
  efficiency.
• For example

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People want a variety of chocolate bars

• In capitalism anyone is free to set up a business
  and sell their own type (if they have the money
  in the first place of course!)
• If there is demand for that type of chocolate
  (e.g. people like it) then it will sell well and
  more will be produced. Chocolate which isnt
  popular will not sell and therefore not be
  produced so the end result is that peoples
  needs/wants are met.
• However..

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Problems..

• Capitalism is good for many things, but some
  things it tends to fail to provide..
• For example most people agree that everyone
  should receive medical treatment
• However if you are poor you may not be able to
  afford it
• Under pure capitalism you would be left to die!
• So all countries have modified capitalism to an
  extend e.g. by having a free national health
  service and free education

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Capitalism doesnt equal democracy!

• There are plenty of examples of basically
  capitalism countries which dont have elections.
• The two do tend to go together, but it is not an
  absolute rule
• Some people would suggest that concentrating
  money in the hands of the few leads to less
  democracy

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So the difference?