Exercises on the History of Communism

(Medicina Rio Preto - SP) The basic ideas of the so-called scientific socialism (1848-1867) define a reform of society in order to:

1. to create an eminently industrial structure that provides a predominance of the countryside over the city.
2. to achieve harmony among all men organized into communities.
3. structuring social organization based on agricultural cooperatives.
4. eliminate private property as well as the capitalist system.
5. generate a new order that values ​​the spirituality of man.

(Pelotas-RS) The authors poignantly record the dramas of the proletarian populations that crowded the cities, at the time of the Industrial Revolution, living in subhuman conditions, surrendered to vice, unable to fit into the moral precepts of the bourgeois class. The experience of these individuals in the same miserable life provides the birth of a series of social movements, many of which denounce the evils of capitalism. At that time, a philanthropic boss sensitive to the proletarian problem took initiatives that would give birth to the cooperative movement. It was him:

1. Robert Owen.
2. Karl Marx.
3. Mikhail Bakunin.
4. Georges Soros.
5. Friedrich Engels.

One of the first elaborations of an ideal social order, which presupposed the elimination of inequalities, can be found in the Greek philosopher Plato, who, even accepting slavery, defended, in a way:

1. the end of private property and the creation of a state responsible for the management of industry, thus developing the productive forces of society.
2. the abolition of society based on Christian religious premises, affirming the need to end the nobility through peasant revolts.
3. the end of the family and property, reinforcing an ideal of community that would put individual and family interests in the background.
4. the end of private property, pointing to the need for an egalitarian collectivization of wealth, in addition to planting food on public plots and distributing it among the population.

Throughout the history of humanity, a number of thinkers have presented models of social organization that overcome existing social inequalities, pointing out more egalitarian ways of living than those in which these thinkers were inserted.

In the alternatives below, indicate which sentence incorrectly the thinker and his proposal for social change.

1. Thomas More – wrote the work “Utopia”, where he laid new foundations, stating that communism would be lived through mechanisms that subordinate individuality in favor of collectivism.
2. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels – had a daring proposal for transformation by seeking in the class struggle and historical materialism rational means of change. For them, inequalities would be suppressed the moment the subordinate classes took control of the state.
3. Robert Owen – By encouraging cooperative work, employers, managers and workers could live in harmony, thus raising the moral and educational precepts of society as a whole.
4. Plato – defended the end of the family and property, reinforcing an ideal of community that would put individual and family interests in the background. However, the sexual union should have a permanent character, and the raising of children would be the responsibility of the families themselves.

Letter D . The ideology of scientific socialism aimed to point out the need to overcome capitalism so that the exploitation of man by man was abolished from society. However, this situation would be reached through class, political and economic struggle, demonstrating its viability through a theory elaborated on the scientific precepts developed at the time.

Letter A . Robert Owen created experiences of cooperative work in places he owned, seeking a social form that would encompass all participants in a harmonious way, despite the existing differences in the social division of labor. In addition to harmony in the workplace, Owen sought to encourage the education and moral training of workers. He was termed by the Germans Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as a utopian socialist, as opposed to what they termed scientific socialism.

Letter C . Plato proposed an ideal model of society in which there would be social equality among its members, but this position did not lead him to criticize the social inequalities existing in Greek society at the time.

Letter D . The error of the alternative lies in the fact of affirming that the sexual union would be permanent and the raising of the children, responsibility of the families. On the contrary, Plato defended the temporary sexual union and that the raising of children be done collectively, leaving this task under the responsibility of the State.