Don’t communists advocate violence?
We are for peace, for peaceful solutions to both international and intra-national problems, and for a peaceful transition to socialism, wherever possible. This has become ever more essential in the nuclear age. Many revolutions have been relatively peaceful, including the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Vietnamese Revolution of 1945. The bloodshed comes when those formerly in power initiate a civil war, or foreign armies invade, trying to reestablish capitalist, feudal, or colonial power. It is not an either-or proposition, either Communists are guilty or the capitalists are guilty. While we think that an objective, detailed analysis of most situations over the last century would conclude that capitalist and reactionary governments and parties are responsible for most of the violence, it is true that Communists have engaged in armed struggle, and are not pacifists. Communists stand for the right of the working class and the oppressed to defend themselves and their gains against the
