Browsing this forum, I have seen a lot of anti-leftist statements that reek of ignorance, as well as a blind acceptance of Western "democracy" being a workable system. The truth is, it isn't. The answers to the world's problems require that the people themselves take charge of their affairs, that they establish socialism.
The communist movement may be in poor shape today, but it is still the progressive path. The other political movements attempt to prevent progression or regression, locking us in our current system, lead us back to the past, in some form or another, or are communism under a different name and unaware of the mountain of theory they have at their disposal and their allies across the world.
A socialist state is by definition democratic, which today's Parliamentarian-style "democracies" cannot boast. It will be unable to oppress the people, because everyone is involved, and has a quality education so that they can perform to their full potential. In an ideal socialist state, everyone has equal rewards and lives in comfort, without outstanding needs--the world has more than enough resources to provide for this if they are spent efficiently. Communism is a theoretical state beyond socialism, which will be completely different from our system today and involve people working purely for their own benefit, their needs being provided for by machines owned by a community. It will not be close to our day, though, so it is not relevent to contemporary discussion.
The problem is attaining socialism. Each part relies on the others for its stability, so it is hard to construct it from a system reliant on inequality. It is clear that Soviet-style communism, more accurately Stalinism, will not work. It failed to achieve true socialism every time it was instituted, though the Warsaw Pact countries were arguably more egalitarian and humanitarian places after the Krushchev thaws. This leaves two likely paths--a Trotskyist worldwide "Permanent Revolution" leading all countries to socialism from whatever stage they are in, or a democratic transition remniscient of that Allende backed in Chile.