From a communist's POV, Capitalism is built off of the exploitation of workers. The owner becomes rich off of the labor of the employee, yet the employee's wages represent just a small fraction of the total profit made from their work. The desire for a more communal society, without "owners" and "employees", is the central desire behind communism.

• There is currently enough money around in the United States for every inhabitant to have a house, a car, and food to eat. So, why don't they? 
• It makes little sense that the US government spent $816.7 Billion on the military in 2023, yet there are currently roughly 653,000 homeless people in America today. This shows that there is enough money, it just is not going to the people that need it.

In order for wealth to be redistributed, all private property must be made public-- meaning owned by the state.

This would prevent a few members of the population (business owners) from controlling the production of goods and making loads of money off of it.

• There is a constant struggle between the upper class ("bourgeoisie") and the working class ("proletariat")
• The Bourgeoisie exploits the Proletariat by making money off their labor and not paying them a fair wage.
• The solution to this problem is the replacement of private property with public ownership, where wealth is distributed based on a person's need.
• Marx and Engels argued that a revolution is inevitable-- that the proletariat would always eventually rise up and overthrow the bourgeoisie.
• Social classes would be eliminated.
• The leaders of the society would be democratically elected, and would not make more or less money than the workers.
• In true communist society, everyone is happy and taken care of.

Other attempts at communism:

• 1948: The Kim Dynasty takes control of North Korea and establishes a so-called communist state-- however, most outsiders agree that North Korea is not truly communist, but highly authoritarian and totalitarian.

• 1959: Fidel Castro and Che Guevara established a one party communist state in Cuba (which still remains today)

• 1979: The Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua saw the Communist FSLN overthrow the US-backed dictator and take control. Communism still exists in Nicaragua today.

• Many African nations such as Ethiopia, the Congo, and Angola attempted their own forms of communism-- however, these attempts were largely unsuccessful due to the existing economic hardships in Africa.

"There must be something good about [communism], otherwise the man wouldn't be coming down on [Davis] so hard."

This quote verbalizes how a general mistrust of the US government played a part in the appeal of communism-- since the US mistrusted communism, and African Americans mistrusted the US, it's clear to see why communism became popular among African Americans.

The video presents two different perspectives on Guevara: was he a heroic revolutionary or a murderous villain?

Communism up until the present:

• After Stalin's death, the Soviet Union gradually moved further and further away from communism until its collapse in 1991.

• The Chinese Communist Party is still in control of China today-- however, most agree that China's current political system is closer to authoritarianism and even capitalism than it is to true communism.

• The only countries claiming to be communist in 2024 are China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, and North Korea.

1921: White inhabitants of Tulsa, Oklahoma, spend two days burning and destroying 35 blocks of black neighborhoods, an event that came to be known as the Tulsa Race Massacre.

The Scottsboro boys were 9 African American teenagers who were falsely accused of rape and sentenced to death-- until the Communist Party of America stepped to their legal defense.

“I don’t care whether they are Reds, Greens, or Blues. They are the only ones who put up a fight to save these boys and I am with them to the end.” - Janie Patterson, mother of Haywood Patterson. This quote encapsulates why many African Americans saw appeal in the communist party-- they saw communism as a system that fought for them, as opposed to the injustice legal and political system of the day.

Roughly 2 million Africans did not survive their journey to the Americas.