The Negative Consequences Of Communism

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, communism emerged onto the world stage as a new organized governmental system. Communism's main principles were to promote civil equality and unification within society. Communism, was a polar opposite system of Europe's most popular government style, capitalism. Capitalism, a government method focused on industry, and production decreased the quality of life for many Europeans. Particularly between 1920 and 1940, some employers abused the rights of their workers for corporate, financial, and social gain. Employees strived to end the abuse through unionization and increased workplace equality rights. This mistreatment caused Europeans to consider the benefits communism offered to nations which struggled
However, Europe's attempt at deflationary methods backfired and ruined both the international trade and financial systems. This meant trade became limited and was no longer a viable source of national income. After the fall of the stock market in 1929,the Great Depression caused European capitalists to suffer many negative affects due to their dependency on North American trade and inability to handle such a crisis. Since there was very little revenue, Europe's economy deflated as well as their American counterparts. Similarly to the events in North America, thousands of industrial workers in Europe lost their jobs, which led to mass unemployment as a result of the Great Depression. In Britain and throughout Europe, hunger marches were organized to protest against the rise of capitalism and economic crisis. The Great Depression was perceived by many Europeans as a tragedy that was created by the growth of capitalism and industrialization. Europeans were desperate to find a solution to their economic problems, and believed a different and distinct government such as communism would save them from a bitter and unhappy
Karl Marx, the father of Marxism, communism's predecessor, advocated for the importance of unionization as well as the need to end capitalism. One of Marx's basic principles described in his famous document the Communist Manifesto, was equality of employee rights and wages. Though the Labour Movement primarily occurred in the early twentieth century, its aftermath proved to propel communist beliefs. With unionization, the majority of Europeans were able to accomplish a sense of equality as well as reduce both social and economic class distinctions. However, unionization proved to not be enough for some Europeans who believed capitalism needed to be eliminated all together. Increased unionization caused many Europeans to consider the benefits of communist rule as a government rather than its principles to be restricted to the