I’m worldbuilding a fictional universe centred on communist societies, and I want to write the socialism/communism aspects as accurately as possible.
So if a country is currently monarchist, fascist, imperialist, etc but with a socialist revolution is underway, there is certainly going to be extreme resistance from the existing State. In a situation like this, do you think the socialist revolution should do things that help them, but would be considered unethical in war, aka “war crimes”? For example, things like poisoning key figures of the existing State, using “cruel weapons”, torture, etc. Especially if the existing State is already acting in that way? Would this contradict socialist philosophy or morality? What if the revolution is in danger of being extinguished by the State?
War crimes should always be avoided, because they alienate the populace. When such crimes happen – and they will – those responsible should face harsh punishment; this punishment should be swift, brutal, and above all visible. This is one way we draw people to our side. The masses are not especially political; many of them won’t really care if the person a soldier raped was a worker or a member of the bourgeoisie. All they will know is that the revolutionary army allowed a crime to go unpunished, and they will not feel safe with us. (N.B. for any NSA agent reading: the “we” here is purely hypothetical).
The thing about violence is this. We Marxists do not advocate it as such. We uphold, rather, the right of the working class to defend itself by any means necessary. When the bourgeoisie initiates violence – as it has in many parts of the world today – we respond with violence. A peaceful transition to socialism is always preferable, and we advocate it; unfortunately the bourgeoisie never lets it happen. Thus, we should never lose sight of the real “instrumental” character of violence. It is a tool, not an end in itself.
There is also the problem of revolutionary discipline; an army which engages regularly in atrocities loses all cohesion, which is one reason why the US army is so bad. (And even the US, like Imperial Japan, reserves special “dirty” units to carry out its worst reprisals – the idea is to keep the culture in these units from contaminating the rest of the troops). But even more, we should remember the working classes attitude toward violence. They deal with violence every day of their lives, and they don’t want more of it. Here is where anarchism, fascism, and ultraleftism all betray their petty-bourgeois origins. It’s easy, if you are from the middle class and frustrated with injustice, to fantasize about the cathartic and redemptive character of violence. Working people are far less sympathetic to such ideas, and calling for violence is the best way to alienate them. We should emphasize rather construction, a positive program, the fact that we, unlike pretty much everybody else in politics, are actually serious about making working people’s lives better – and we should add that we reserve, in the name of self defense, the right to violently overthrow oppressors. That is the way forward.