Professor Wolff gives reasonable good explanations of Socialism vs Communism. However the idea of 'Communism' is more than just employee control of workplaces, it is the absence of all exploitation, of which the employee/employer relationship is only one kind. It should also be the end of state/subject and sex related exploitations for example. Marx called it the Realm of Freedom. And the practical difference between really existing Socialist and Communist parties (whose policies, as Wolff explains, are actually Socialist in one of three forms, and not actually Communist) is that Socialist parties usually fall in line with the foreign policy of their capitalist home government, whereas Communist parties consistently oppose capitalist Imperialism everywhere. That's why I am a member of the CPUSA, the original Communist party in the USA. (ACP is an upstart which wants to separate itself from concern over LGBTQ issues among others.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMn7RxaUJL4
The largest socialist group in USA, DSA, was once fairly ambivalent about US support of Israel (lots of liberal Zionists were part of DSA) until recently, when DSA has taken a strong stand against Gaza Genocide. Many liberal Zionists left the party. I have remained a member of DSA too, there's no rule that says I can't be. (DSA used to enforce a rule that Communist members could not vote in DSA elections. The founder of DSA was extremely anti-Communist.)
PSL is another anti-imperialist and essentially communist party, possibly one I like the most, but as it turns out, it's so Marxist-Leninist that only dedicated cadres can become true members rather than just supporters. That was like Lenin's Bolshevik party, until it rose to power, he wanted only a small number of the most dedicated and trustworthy. So I am a supporter but not a member.
It may be instructive to examine their official statements on the war in Ukraine.
https://international.dsausa.org/ukraine/
https://cpusa.org/article/the-communist-partys-position-on-russias-war-in-ukraine/
https://liberationnews.org/psl-statement-on-russias-military-intervention-in-ukraine/
DSA condemns Russia the most, PSL condemns Russia the least, and CPUSA is somewhere in between, with condemnation of US/NATO trending in the opposite direction.
ACP, which may at yet be a very small organization with an outsized influence in social media, has a position which does not condemn Russia at all. I can't find a link but google AI says:
- Support for Russia: The ACP supports Russia's "special military operation," arguing that Ukraine represents a "legacy of fascism" while Russia continues the "legacy of the Soviet Union" in aiding developing countries.
- Denounces Ukraine's government: The ACP has described the government that took power in Ukraine in 2014 as a fascist-backed "junta" and expresses solidarity with communists in Russia, the Donbas, and Ukraine who oppose it.
- International cooperation: The ACP cooperates with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) and Russian Left Front, and has received praise from KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov.
- Humanitarian aid: The ACP has provided humanitarian aid to Donbas, which it says is to "make the lives of people there better and help them fight NATO aggression".
- Current status: In August 2025, the party's continued alignment with Russia was noted by Zyuganov and other Russian officials.
In my experience, most actual communists think more like PSL or even ACP. They will emphasize that the US 'provoked' this war and the Russian response was defensive towards ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
I am shocked to see I agree most with ACP here. I am disappointed with DSA and CPUSA which in my view mostly soft pedal the 80 years of US meddling in Ukraine and what that means wrt the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government and what that means wrt the war (though CPUSA does spell that out in detail and condemn it, they simply both-sides it with the 'Russian aggression' which in my view is unfair to Russia).