Why didn't communists agree with freedom of speech?

Question

What were their reasons? I have to do a debat about communism, so finding info about this isn't as easy as I thought.

thanks!

Answer 1

In order to consolidate power and end civil war, the various Communists inevitable purged most of the revolutionaries (this is a rule of all revolutions.) The Communist Party structures made it easy for one man to seize control and once he was in control to eliminate his enemies. In China and Russia these clampdowns on expression occurred when the "conservative" factions came to power who'd promptly wipe out the "liberal" fringes as well as the non-communists.

Answer 2

All the communist governments we've seen have come into power through force of arms. That means it was not the choice of the little guy working the farm.

If enough little guys start talking to each other about how unhappy they are, resistance to the central government could begin. As a result, the central government denied people the right to speak freely so they could gather up the outspoken dissidents and terrify the little guy on the farm.

You cannot keep an oppressive government in power without controlling (1) information, (2) communication, (3) education, and (4) transportation.

A good example of this was in Afghanistan under the Taliban. They didn't allow people to own radios and they controlled what people could see on television (those that had the electricity so they could watch television). They refused to educate girls and kept a tight rein on what boys could learn. No one could move freely through Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union DID educate their citizens, but they decided who went to college. You had to have passports to leave the country and the only newspaper for a long time was Pravda (Truth). For the first forty years of the USSR, they kept a very tight control on what was published and what was said in public.

Answer 3

Communists do believe in freedom of speech - mass ownership requires that everyone has a voice because everyone is an owner. Communism comes from the word commune, which means common and common, as in common property and ownership, is the opposite of the absence of freedom of speech and free speech.

Dictatorships do not believe in freedom of speech. The confusion lies in the propaganda of anti-communists and in the failure of various revolutions around the world. Animal Farm buy George Orwell is a good place for a beginner to start to understand how the revolutionary becomes the oppressor.

Answer 4

Well, their reasons are very well known. This is like asking what color is Napoleon's white horse, but well.
They say that those who don't agree with them are the enemies of the People, the enemies of the State, etc. Just listen to that idiot Chavez.
But really they don't tolerate other opinions because then, they could not control EVERYTHING. See totalitarianism

Answer 5

For the same reason that other regimes don't like freedom of speech. They don't like people opposing their policies.