Gold

Socialism and Gold

Historically, and to present day, gold has been considered a highly valuable material in almost all cultures, and the struggle for possession of gold has even been the direct or indirect cause of wars. But not all political ideologies share this view on gold. The Marxist theory, although fully understanding the present value of gold, does not believe that the importance of gold is everlasting. According to Marxism and those who believe in it, a future communist society would be a world where everything was free, and therefore there would be no need for money. Gold would also lose its value.

Related Topics:
Marxist - Communist

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The Russian Communist leader Lenin had the opinion that in a future communist world, gold could be used to manufacture toilets. ?When we are victorious on a world scale I think we shall use gold for the purpose of building public lavatories in the streets of some of the largest cities of the world. This would be the most just and most educational way of utilising gold for the benefit of these generations which have not forgotten how, for the sake of gold, ten million men were killed and thirty million maimed in ? Lenin, The Importance Of Gold Now And After The Complete Victory Of Socialism, 1921. http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1921/nov/05.htm

Related Topics:
Lenin - First World War - 1921

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The American Communist leader James P. Cannon however pointed out that the revolutionary socialist government would make important usage of gold for a temporary time during the transition from capitalism to socialism. ?...the new workers? government will lay official hands on all the gold buried in the ground at Fort Knox, and use this gold as the basis for American money. This will be the ironic paradox of history: that it took the workers? government to establish a sound dollar in the United States, based on gold reserves... Eventually, money will be dispensed with altogether. The fully developed socialist society will have no use for it. But in the meantime, the workers? government will have a sound dollar regulating the national economy, and no inflation.? James P. Cannon, America Under the Workers? Rule, 1953. http://www.marxists.org/archive/cannon/works/1953/workersrule.htm

Related Topics:
James P. Cannon - Capitalism - Socialism - Fort Knox - 1953

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?When people will have no further use for money, they will wonder what to do with all this gold, which has cost so much human labor and agony. Lenin had a theory that under socialism gold could be used, maybe, to make doorknobs for public lavatories, and things like that. But no Marxist authority would admit that in the socialist future men will dig in the earth for such a useless metal.? James P. Cannon, What Socialist America Will Look Like, 1953. http://www.marxists.org/archive/cannon/works/1953/socialistamer.htm

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