Politicide is a punk band formed in the early 80's. Their song "51st State" appeared on the Bullshit Detector compilation. Reformed in 2002.
Politicide is a form of mass, targeted killings in which a group of people are destroyed because of their political or ideological beliefs. It is similar to genocide, but different in that politicide does not specifically target ethnic, racial or cultural groups.
The phrase is sometimes used to describe the campaigns of killing committed by Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, in which many individuals were killed because of their anti-communist or "bourgeois" political views. Large groups of anarchists and libertarian socialists were also systematically killed by Stalin. The phrase is also used sometimes to describe the US support to dictatorships that killed communists or alledged communists.
Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling also used the term in his book 'Politicide: Sharon’s War Against the Palestinians' in which he defined politicide as a process designed to eliminate Palestinian political existence. This he believed had been present throughout Israel's confrontations with the Palestinians, but was epitomised by the thought and action of Ariel Sharon.