We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from premises now in existence. Communism is not a utopian blueprint for the future nor has it got anything to do with the communist regimes of the past where capitalism was managed by the state. Communism is the movement towards the abolition of states, classes, private property, money and hierarchies of power, and the collective creation of the means to satisfy our needs and desires. It neither requires the blessing of a self-styled vanguard in order to exist, nor status as a dogma.
Communism is simply the movement to overthrow the conditions of life imposed by the rule of capital.
This statement is as true today as when in 1848 Marx wrote that workers had nothing to lose but their chains. Yet 2001 is not 1848. The spectre of communism still haunts capitalism, but capitalism has evolved. This evolution has not ameliorated the need for revolution only the way the workers respond to it. The 'old' workers movement was composed of parties, unions and mass organizations.