Communization is a contemporary communist theory that posits revolution as the immediate abolition of capitalist social relations, including the state, wage labour, and value. Unlike traditional Marxist conceptions which often involve a transitional period of socialism, communization theory holds that a communist society must be created directly through the revolutionary process itself. The theory emerged from ultra-left currents in France during the 1970s and gained renewed attention in the early 21st century amid the perceived failures of 20th-century revolutionary movements.
Central to communization is the concept of the self-abolition of the proletariat. Instead of the working class affirming its identity to seize power, it must abolish itself as a class as part of the destruction of the capital–labour relationship. Proponents of communization offer a critique of "programmatism"—the strategy of the historical workers' movement which aimed to build power through parties and unions to eventually manage production. Communization theorists argue that historical changes in capitalism, particularly the period of "real subsumption", have made this strategy obsolete.
