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Most of the early colonies started out as communal systems; it's kind of a natural idea when you have a small group of people that know each other, and are facing an enormous challenge together. Much like a infantry unit.

However, while the Pilgrims had a communal system, I doubt it was abolished the very first year they were in the New World, and their Thanksgiving in December 1621 was NOT about its demise!

This story reads as if information found in the “diary of William Bradford” was actually the history of the Jamestown settlement over a decade before. That colony struggled for several years under its communal system, and starvation was a constant threat. Most of the colonists were noblemen and were resistant to doing hard labor, and as a result, only a few were working to feed everyone; with predictable results.

Things got so bad that, like the Hope Colony a few years before, the colonists abandoned the settlement and set sail for England. However, before they sailed out of the James River, they were met by another supply fleet coming from England. The new Governor that came with it, really shook things up (in the modern vernacular: he kicked ass and took names!) He abolished the communal system, ordered the nobles to work, commanded Sunday worship of all, and community service (militia, building repairs, etc.)
Within a year, the colony was flourishing. In 1619, they held the first official Thanksgiving by Englishmen in America.

Yes, the Virginia thing was the first by English speaking people. But actually it was second or third by Western Europeans.

The Southwest has a claim to First, but so does Bar Harbor, Maine. The St. Sauveur colony, under the French flag but actually composed of Bretons (who we know were the descendants of the original inhabitants of Roman Brittain), edged them out in 1598 or 1599.

I don't know if the folks at the Portuguese colony in Newfoundland did the same thing, but when Spain took over Portugual, that colony shut down and the colonists were taken South to the Caribbean (which was undoubtedly far nicer).

What we have in Thanksgiving is an American custom that arose spontaneously in most places, but which does have identifiable antecedents.

In fact, my own genealogical research demonstrates that one of the attendees at St. Sauveur certainly was present for the first Thanksgiving at Jamestown, and may well have attended the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth. He'd gone into real estate sales with John Smith.

...was actually the history of the Jamestown settlement over a decade before

Yes indeed. (afraidfortherepublic, direct descendent of Edward Gurgonay who arrived at Jamestowne on The Prosperous -- 1607.

But the Jamestowne Thanksgiving was preceded by at least a half a century with celebrations by the Spaniards in Florida.