Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a future
classless, stateless social organization, based upon common
ownership of the means of production. It can be classified as a
branch of the broader socialist movement. Early forms of human
social organization have been described as 'primitive communism' by
Marxists. However, communism as a political goal generally is a
conjectured form of future social organization. There is a
considerable variety of views among self-identified communists,
including Maoism, Trotskyism, council communism, Luxemburgism,
anarchist communism, Christian communism, and various currents of
left communism, which are generally the more widespread varieties.
However, various offshoots of the Soviet (what critics call the
'Stalinist') and Maoist interpretations of Marxism-Leninism
comprise a particular branch of communism that has the distinction
of having been the primary driving force for communism in world
politics during most of the 20th century. The competing branch of
Trotskyism has not had such a distinction
