Friday, November 08, 2024

Chinese Maoists ask: What does it mean to suffer twice and be punished twice?

 Two interesting observations from contemporary capitalist China


"Suffering twice and being punished twice" is what we, the post-60s generation, often wrote in our essays when we were in school. The background at that time was to criticize Lin Biao and Confucius, and later it was to fight back against the rightist trend of reversing verdicts and criticize the capitalist-roaders, all of which were about class struggle. The general meaning of the whole sentence is: If their conspiracy to restore the old order succeeds, we, the poor and lower-middle peasants (or the working class), will suffer twice and be punished twice. These two times of suffering and two crimes refer to the old society, which means that if we follow their path, the working class and peasant class will return to the dark old society and work like slaves for others. We were born in the new society and have no idea what life was like in the old society, how much suffering there was, and what kind of punishment we suffered?

Today, I say "suffer twice, be punished twice", because I think the saying at that time is still quite effective and reasonable. Isn't it the case now? Thirty years in the east, thirty years in the west, the workers and peasants who have been liberated are now oppressed again.

At the bottom, those who are laid off are laid off, those who lose their lands lose their lands. Most people live at the bottom of society, and it is estimated that they will never be able to turn over and become masters of their own destiny as before. In China today, people without real power have no voice, let alone the ability to defend their rights. Under the oppression of the system, although some people get a lot of money, they are bitter, depressed, and numb inside. The machine gun of power is wantonly shooting at the head of dignity. It is an extremely abnormal social phenomenon that the majority of people are controlled by a few people to do whatever they want. Therefore, a large part of us will "suffer twice and be punished twice". This suffering is material, but more of it is spiritual. This is a sad world. Pu Xianhong's BLOG

Since ancient times, "Those who work with their minds rule over others, and those who work with their hands are ruled by others." Only the era under Mao's leadership was an exception. Mao Zedong once said: "I don't want to see the phenomenon of people exploiting people again on the land of China, and capitalists, business owners, hired workers, prostitutes and opium smokers appear again; if that happens, the blood of many martyrs will be shed in vain..." Mao Zedong also said: "Born in adversity, die in comfort." "Wang Anshi once said in his later years, 'The overlord took the two rivers alone, and his descendants mostly surrendered with hundreds of cities (a line from Wang Anshi's four poems "Recalling the Past in Nanjing")'.  We must learn from the experience and lessons of history and prevent ourselves from being "peacefully evolved" by bourgeois ideology; otherwise, wouldn't the blood of so many of our revolutionary martyrs have been shed in vain? Even if you sit in a spacious and bright modern office today, you will experience the system of slave society and know what slaves and slave owners are. They oppress you mentally and exploit you economically. In such an environment, the Chinese people live without any dignity in order to survive. It seems that we have returned to feudal society and slave society.

………………….

Suffering twice, being punished twice: Little Red Building in Shanghai, minors in Xi'an

2021-12-8 22:40 | Posted by: Antarctic | Views: 5692 | Comments: 4 | Original author: Red Guardian | From: Red Song Network

Abstract : In 1959, during the Hangzhou Conference, Chairman Mao said something about peaceful evolution: "I don't want the phenomenon of man exploiting man to appear again on the land of China, and capitalists, business owners, hired workers, prostitutes and opium addicts to appear again; if that happens, the blood of many martyrs will be shed in vain..." That...

  In 1959, during the Hangzhou Conference, Chairman Mao spoke about peaceful evolution and said:

  "I don't want the day when the phenomenon of man exploiting man, capitalists, business owners, hired workers, prostitutes and opium addicts will appear again on the land of China; if that happens, the blood of many martyrs will be shed in vain..."

  At that time, probably many people did not quite understand this sentence.

  He was worried that the people would suffer twice and be punished twice. In order to prevent the phenomenon of man exploiting man again on the Chinese land, the old man was ready to smash it to pieces. Concerned about the country and the people, he did his best.

  Before his death, many people found it difficult to understand why this weathered old man, who had sacrificed six of his relatives for the revolution, would not take a break but continue to fight.

  However, decades later, his worries became a reality.

  In the Shanghai Xiaohonglou (Liitle Red Building) case, Zhao Fuqiang used violence to force women into prostitution, accumulating 1 billion yuan in 20 years, and was not arrested until 2019. Beating, imprisonment, insults, egg extraction, severing fallopian tubes, and filming sex videos, the methods he used to enslave and control women are hard to imagine, but this is indeed what happened in 2019.

  Du Yuesheng, a Shanghai gangster, would be ashamed of himself if he saw such means. He was rampant in Yangpu District, Shanghai, and many political and legal officials escorted him. The victims went to the police station to report to the police, but it was useless. The collusion between officials and businessmen made people despair. Just the night before Zhao Fuqiang was arrested, Lu Yan, the former secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Yangpu District Committee, pulled him into the office and complained to him, "Go quickly, the net will be closed soon ." If it weren't for the victims' desperate reports, no one knows how long the crimes of the Little Red Building would continue.

  In Xi'an, the Huashang Daily reported a case of forcing a minor into prostitution. A 13-year-old girl who was on leave from school to work was beaten, burned with cigarette butts, and forced to take nude photos. She had been "serving customers" for more than half a month. When she was rescued, her body was still covered with scars. When she parted her hair, she saw blood on her head. Ironically, she was rescued because a client had a change of heart.

  It is true that the secretary in Shanghai has no bottom line, while the clients in Xi'an have a conscience.

  What does it mean to suffer twice and be punished twice? After this painful experience, we should have woken up, right?

  Faced with such a tragedy, should we remain indifferent, gloat over its misfortune, or thank God that it did not happen to us?

  Is this a coincidence?

  The author searched the Internet for relevant information and found that there are news about pornography in Xi'an almost every year. A dozen villages in the city have been in the news because of streetwalkers. The most famous of them is of course Jixiang Village. "Come here, auntie will tell you something" has become a well-known laughing stock. News about forcing minors to accompany drinking and prostitution has also become commonplace.

  The measure of women's liberation is the natural measure of universal liberation. Women and even girls as young as 12 or 13 are forced into prostitution, which shows how serious the problem is. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to eliminate pornography, gambling and drugs, the People's Government made continuous efforts to transform a large number of fallen women into self-reliant workers, and then announced in 1964 that venereal diseases and open and hidden prostitution had been completely eliminated.

  Why have prostitution, gambling and drugs, which have been eradicated, become rampant again? Why were the poor Chinese able to enjoy dignity back then, but are now forced to sell themselves out?

  When public ownership turns into private ownership, everyone thinks they can get rich, but the reality is that only a few people get rich while the majority become workers for the capitalists. Under the exploitation of capital, on the one hand, the rich enjoy wine and meat, while on the other hand, people freeze to death on the road. In order to survive, many people have to give up their dignity and sell their bodies. In places where people cannot see and where the masses cannot supervise, it is difficult for unrestrained power to resist the temptation to take a share of the pie.

  However, people who have suffered twice and been punished twice should be able to see the reality more clearly, understand Chairman Maos painstaking efforts, and seek new ways to liberation.

 


Saturday, August 17, 2024

My letter to Peter Dutton, Leader of the Opposition

 The Leader of the Australian Opposition, the despicable racist ad reactionary Peter Dutton, has said that Australia should not take in refugees or grant any form of visa to Palestinians from Gaza, because they may be terrorists. However, he is happy for Jewish Australian citizens to serve in the genocidal and terrorist Israeli Defence Force, and to take in Israeli citizens applying to come to Australia.

I have sent him the following letter to remind him of the cruel inhumanity of his attitude towards the victims of Israel's aggression.

.................................

(Address supplied_

18 August 2024

 

Dear Mr Dutton

Could you please…


show…



a little more…



compassion…


 


to the non-combatant…



victims…



 

of Israeli aggression…



and genocide…



 

in the West Bank and Gaza…



and their families (or what’s left of them).



Thank you,

(name supplied)

73-year old 5th generation white Australian.


Thursday, May 09, 2024

Mao Zedong: My Thought is not a new stage, "but no one listens to me".

 

Critique and revision of the editorial article “Leninism, or social imperialism?” Criticisms and corrections of the draft submitted for review[1] (3 April 1970)

1

This article is well-written and has been read, and I am waiting to read another one. It seems to be enough to use this one, and it can be used by two newspapers and one magazine. I've deleted a few paragraphs of my words[2], which are useless and offensive to others. Don't write such words. I have said this a hundred times, but no one listens to me. I don't know why, so please ask the comrades of the Central Committee to look into it. I've kept a few paragraphs of useful words, but not all of them, as far as offensive words are concerned. Please take note of the above.

Mao Zedong

3 April 1970

Please rearrange the footnote numbers because a few paragraphs have been deleted.

2

But history has its twists and turns. Just as after the death of Engels there was the revisionism of Bernstein and Kautsky, so after the death of Stalin there was the revisionism of Khrushchev and Brezhnev.

Eleven years after Khrushchev came to power, a split occurred within revisionism, and Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev. It took him more than five years, but such a person is now presiding over the ‘commemoration’ in the USSR of the centenary of Lenin's birth.

3

The ‘Slavic empire’ of the old tsar has long since come to nothing. The tsarist rule itself was eliminated by the Great October Revolution led by Lenin in 1917, and the rule of the old tsar was over. In today's era of total collapse of imperialism, the new tsar's attempt to re-establish a bigger empire to dominate the whole world can only be a dream.

…………………..

(In the second footnote, there is a reference to Khrushchev’s “three-no-world”. In his Secret Speech to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, Nikita Khrushchev criticized the policies of Joseph Stalin. One of the key elements of his speech was the repudiation of Stalin's alleged personality cult. Khrushchev highlighted three main aspects, often referred to as the "three no's":

No to the cult of personality: Khrushchev condemned the alleged excessive glorification of Stalin's personality and his elevation to almost god-like status within the Soviet Union.

·       No to arbitrariness in decision-making: Khrushchev criticized Stalin's alleged autocratic style of leadership, which often led to arbitrary decisions and the suppression of dissenting voices within the party.

·        No to violations of socialist legality: Khrushchev criticized Stalin for numerous alleged human rights abuses, including purges, forced labor camps (Gulags), and executions carried out without due process, which violated socialist legal principles. – Translator)



[1] “Leninism or Social Imperialism?” was written to commemorate the centenary of Lenin's birth. The original title of the revised draft sent by Zhou Enlai and others to Mao Zedong for review on 1 April 1970 was “Leninism and Soviet Social Imperialism”, but when Mao Zedong reviewed it, he changed it to “Leninism or Social Imperialism?” The first part of this article is Mao Zedong's comments on the draft for review; the second part of this article is the two paragraphs he added to the draft for review; and the third part of this article is his revision of a paragraph in the draft for review. This article was later published by the editorial departments of the People's Daily, the Red Flag magazine, and the PLA Daily in the 22 April 1970 issue of the People's Daily, the PLA Daily, and the 1 May issue of the Red Flag magazine.

[2] On pages 1 and 2 of the draft submitted for review on 1 April 1970, Mao Zedong deleted the following passage: “Chairman Mao, the greatest Marxist-Leninist of our time and our great leader, pointed out: ’The doctrine of Leninism has developed Marxism. In what ways has it developed? Firstly, in its world view (that is, materialism and dialectics); secondly, in the theory of revolution, revolutionary tactics, the party, class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat, and many other issues. Lenin had the doctrine of the world view, the doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the doctrine of the construction of socialism. Lenin had seven years of practice in socialist construction, which Marx did not have.’‘’ On the second and third pages, the following four paragraphs were deleted: “For half a century, Comrade Mao Zedong, in leading China in the great struggle to complete the New Democratic Revolution, in leading China in the great struggle for socialist revolution and socialist construction, and in leading the contemporary international communist movement in its great struggle against imperialism, against modern revisionism, and against the reactionaries of all countries, has inherited, defended and developed Marxism-Leninism, raising it to a brand-new stage, that is, the stage of Mao Zedong Thought. Combining the universal truths of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the revolution, he inherited, defended and developed Marxism-Leninism, and raised Marxism-Leninism to a brand-new stage, that is, that of Mao Zedong Thought.” ‘’Mao Tse-tung Thought is the Marxism-Leninism of an era when imperialism is heading for total collapse and socialism is heading for worldwide victory.‘’ “Comrade Mao Tse-tung is the Lenin of our time.” ‘It is precisely because of the victories of the proletarian world revolution and the death struggle of imperialism that the struggle between contemporary Marxism-Leninism and revisionism is more intense than at any other time in history. At the very beginning of Khrushchev's revisionism, Chairman Mao, our great leader, had an insight into the serious danger of modern revisionism to the cause of the proletarian revolution. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao, together with the Party of Labour of Albania, headed by the great Marxist-Leninist Comrade Enver Hoxha, and true Marxist-Leninists all over the world, Chairman Mao has time and again repelled the counter-currents of modern revisionism and defended Marxism-Leninism. This is of extremely far-reaching historical significance to the cause of the world proletarian revolution and the liberation of the oppressed peoples.” On page 5, the following three paragraphs were deleted: “Comrade Mao Tse-tung also pointed out incisively: ’One word can raise a nation, while one word can destroy a nation. When Marx spoke of the dictatorship of the proletariat, he said that one word that could create a nation; when Khrushchev spoke of a three-no-world, a state of the whole people and a party of the whole people, he said one word could kill a nation.’’ “Comrade Mao Tse-tung is referring to a socialist state when he talks about the rise and fall of the state. There is socialism only when there is dictatorship of the proletariat; without dictatorship of the proletariat, there is no socialism.” “Comrade Mao Zedong comprehensively summed up the historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat, both positive and negative, and with genius and creativity applied materialistic dialectics to analyse the contradictions of socialist society, expose the laws of socialist society, found the doctrine of continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, and personally initiated and led China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which resolved the problems of consolidating the proletariat both theoretically and practically. He personally initiated and led the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, solving in theory and practice the most important contemporary problem of consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and preventing the restoration of capitalism. This is an epoch-making contribution to the cause of world proletarian revolution.”

 

Mao Zedong: Don't say my Thought "is a brand-new stage in the development of Marxism-Leninism"

 

Criticism of the draft communiqué of the 12th Plenary Session of the 8th Expanded Central Committee of the Communist Party of China[1]

(October 1968)

1

Issued for discussion by comrades in plenary.

2

This sentence is not to be used here.[2]

3

There is a slight modification.[3]

 

 

(Translated from Collected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol 50, pp 305-06)

 



[1] This Part 1 and 2 were written on the draft communiqué of the Twelfth Plenary Session of the Eighth Expanded Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which was submitted for review on 28 October 1968; this Part 3 was written on the draft communiqué submitted for review on 30 October. This communiqué was adopted by the Plenary on 31 October and published in the People's Daily on 2 November.

[2] In the draft communiqué submitted for examination on 28 October 1968, it was written: ‘The Plenum is of the opinion that the great victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has further proved that Mao Tse-tung's thought is a brand-new stage in the development of Marxism-Leninism, and that it has further proved the extremely far-reaching significance of Comrade Mao Tse-tung's doctrine of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. When Mao Zedong reviewed the draft communiqué, he deleted the sentence ‘further proves that Mao Zedong Thought is a brand-new stage in the development of Marxism-Leninism’ from the text and wrote this criticism. In addition, in this paragraph of the draft communiqué, it was stated that Mao Zedong Thought ‘is the only guiding ideology for all the work of the whole Party, the whole army and the whole country’, but Mao Zedong, when reviewing the draft communiqué, deleted the word ‘only’ from the text.

[3] Mao Zedong's amendments to the draft submitted for review on 30 October 1968 mainly consisted of deleting the following sentence: ‘The great popularity of Mao Tse-tung's thought among the masses of the country as a whole is a very great achievement of this Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.’

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Australian billionaires

 


It is a triumph

of free enterprise, surely,

that in 2024 our country is

lucky to have 159 billionaires

with a total wealth of $503 billion.

 

Australians all, let us rejoice:

 

The desperate-to-play soccer

seven-year old whose parents

cannot afford

soccer club fees;

the old woman who may as well

live in a shoe, cramping in the cold

of her car, her home – her rent now paid

in rego fees and petrol prices;

the farmer who wants a life

and cannot even think about

those who will have to scrape his

body parts from the tree into which

he so desperately drives;

those whose hopes and dreams

are sacrificed in dozens of types

of gambling; the tjilpi drawing circles

in the dust with his toes, while the mining

company rips at the treasures beneath his feet.

 

And I haven’t even

scratched the surface yet

of the hurt and despair…

 

But there are 159 billionaires

Who make us what we are

 

“Young and free”

 

The rich man in his castle

The poor man at his gate

There’s no greater love

Than feeling class hate.

 

23 April 2024


Friday, April 12, 2024

Mao Zedong: Disagreeing with the reference to Maoism.

 

不同意毛泽东主义的提法

1948815日)

吴玉章(1)同志,

未元电(2)悉。那样说是很不适当的。现在没有什么毛泽东主义,因此不能说毛泽东主义。不是什么“主要的要学毛泽东主义”,而是必须号召学生们学习马恩列斯的理论和中国革名的经验。这里所说的“中国革命的经验”是包括中国共产党人(毛泽东也是在内)根据马恩列斯理论所写的某些小册子及党中央各顶规定路线和政策的文件在内。另外,有些同志在刊物上将我的名字和马恩列斯并列,说成什么“马恩列斯毛”,也是错误的。你的说法和这后一种说法都是不合实际的,是无益 有害的,必定坚决反对这样说。

毛泽东

未删

(1)     吴玉章 (1878-1966), 四川容县人。当时任华北大学校长。

(2)     指吴玉章1948813日給周恩来的电报。 在电报中,吴玉章表示在华北大学成立典礼上提出“主要的要学毛泽东主义” “把毛泽东思想改成毛泽东主义“。 对这样的提法”是否妥当“,请周恩来”同主席和少奇同志商量后,赐以指示“。

 

Disagreeing with the reference to Maoism.

(August 15, 1948)

Comrade Wu Yuzhang, 1

We have just received your letter. That would be very inappropriate. There is no such thing as Maoism now, so you can't say Maoism. Instead of "mainly studying Maoism", students must be called upon to study the theories of the Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and the experience of the Chinese Revolution. The "experience of the Chinese Revolution" here includes certain pamphlets written by the Chinese Communists (including Mao Zedong) on the basis of the theories of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin as well as documents of the Central Committee of the Communist Party setting out its lines and policies. In addition, some comrades have wrongly juxtaposed my name with that of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin in their publications, saying something like "Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin-Mao". This is also wrong. Both your statement and this latter one are unrealistic, unhelpful and harmful, and must be strongly rejected.

Mao Zedong

Unabridged

(1)   Wu Yuzhang (1878-1966) was a native of Rongxian, Sichuan. At that time, he was the president of North China University.

(2)   (1) This refers to a telegram dated 13 August 1948 from Wu Yuchang to Zhou Enlai. In the telegram, Wu Yuzhang stated that at the inauguration ceremony of the North China University, he had proposed that "the main thing to be learnt is Maoism" and that "Mao Zedong Thought should be changed into Maoism". Zhou Enlai was asked to "discuss with the Chairman and Comrade Shaoqi and give instructions" as to whether such a proposal was "appropriate".

 

Translated from the Collected Works of Mao Zedong Vol 24 p.371 - 24-sm.pdf (bannedthought.net)

 

Sunday, December 31, 2023

The ineffectiveness of anti-corruption struggles in China

Corruption re-emerged in China in a big way after the restoration of capitalism and remains source of social dissatisfaction today. Here, the November 2023 edition of Struggle Monthly critiques the phenomenon and the Party’s hypocritical and self-serving “anti-corruption” campaigns – Trans.

 

Anti-corruption film in a fairy tale


Above: The fist of anti-corruption smashes the wall of 腐败 (means ‘rotten, corrupt’) while the vertical comment in red reads: 你说这个我都觉得好笑(‘I think it’s funny, a joke, when you say that’

Since the restoration of capitalism after 1976, the ideology of capitalism has also been restored.

It dares not give up Marxism-Leninism-Socialism directly, but can only distort vulgar Marxism-Leninism through various means. As a bureaucratic capitalist, it cannot go for the bourgeois form of democracy in the West, and Chairman Mao said that once revisionism came to power, it would be the worst kind of capitalism, and that if it engaged in the bourgeois liberalisation, the 89 Incident[1] would occur, so it had to bring back the feudal elements at the same time to serve as an ideological cohesion. The two together have carried out a counter-attack on the former socialist culture, which has continued to this day, and it is most obvious and reactionary in the cultural field. Popular literary works and film and television productions are nothing but the most shameless and naked deception of bureaucratic capitalism against the working people.

The Zhongxiu[2] authorities have a very clever way of disguising themselves. Take anti-corruption works as an example, how does Zhongxiu tell such stories? The villains and contradictions in such works are usually the corruption of a high-powered official at the local level, and the impact on the people is manifested in the emergence of triad-type bullies or unscrupulous businessmen who do harm to one side, for example, Zhao Lichun, Gao Yuliang, and Qi Tongwei in the name of the people are the former, and the latter are unscrupulous businessmen such as Zhao Ruilong and Gao Xiaoqin.

The positive characters are Sha Ruijin, a minister of the imperial police, and Hou Liangping, who has a background as a royal relative. The logic of this kind of story is to let the audience focus on how the positive side defeats the negative side step by step, and how the positive side highlights the righteousness of the spirit of anti-corruption. One of the key characters, and the one with the most sinister intentions, is Chen Yan, a veteran cadre with genuine communist consciousness, who is used to show that there is still hope within the party and that it is not completely corrupt. In the film and TV drama, Chen Yan sits up all night with the workers of the Dafeng factory in order to stop the demolition of the factory and prevent conflicts from intensifying, and the image of the communist as being deeply involved in the people's lives is built up, and the authorities are using this kind of rare example to prove that this Party, which has already deteriorated, is still good.

The vast majority of anti-corruption films and TV programmes follow this narrative logic, which is the most deceptive to the people, making them believe that the Party is really carrying out a self-revolution, but in fact it is just internal strife. In connection with the recently released film "I Am Originally a High Mountain", which is based on the story of Zhang Guimei, we can clearly see the sinister intention of Zhongxiu's cultural works under his reactionary ideology, which is to make the people be touched by those who really do something, so that they can spontaneously defend this capitalist, exploitative and cannibalistic social system. The "Zero Tolerance" and "Moving China" productions made by Zhongxiu are just window-dressing. Those who have really made a contribution to the people become idols under the propaganda of Zhongxiu, which ultimately serves to strengthen its rule.

Above: the anti-corruption politician has a sack on his back with the characters for ‘keeping a mistress’

The same applies to this kind of TV drama, which will try to portray a clean official who serves the people and is sent by the Central Authorities to rectify the local situation. Sha Ruijin and Hou Liangping in the Name of the People are such characters, but in essence, the appearance of these officials is just a manifestation of the state machinery to maintain its own functioning, with the aim of removing local corrupt officials who threaten the overall interests of the general public, and the general public will often be confused by the illusion of this kind of drama: the Central Committee of the Party is wise and mighty, and sends inspection teams to solve problems at the local level. Essentially, these problems are caused by the reform and opening up of capital. For example, a masked person breaks your leg. You don’t know who it is. Later, the person who broke your leg heals your leg. , you don’t know who is the person who broke your leg, but instead you are grateful to him, whether it is anti-corruption or poverty alleviation. This kind of vicious method is very deceptive to the people, but the lies will eventually be seen through.

For the bureaucratic bourgeoisie who truly hold power, the Discipline Inspection Commission is nothing more than a tool for political struggle. The real Zhao family will always be at large. Small fish and shrimps like Arctic Catfish[3] are no match for thieves like Deng Pufang. As part of the state apparatus, the Discipline Inspection Commission will also play a certain role in self-purification, but its role is very limited. This is not self-revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is useless to arrest and kill a group of corrupt officials. Under the dictatorship of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, Capitalism and private ownership will continue to produce corrupt officials. China's revision has long entered the law of historical cycles. Chairman Xi does not even have the courage to kill corruption, and talking about self-revolution is just a lie to deceive the people.

This kind of cultural work has given us a lot of food for thought today. When the class struggle and revolution stop on the road to socialist development, there will be a regression, and capitalism will gradually spread from the ideological to the political and economic spheres, as history after the Cultural Revolution has proved. The experience left to us by the Cultural Revolution is that after the establishment of a socialist regime, an ideological revolution must be carried out. After the temporary death of capitalism, the stench and filth it emits will still affect us. It will wait for an opportunity to dominate people's ideologies again, and in reality China completed its own restoration. The chaos and regression in China's ideological field today strongly prove this.

Above: both cartoons illustrate anti-corruption campaigners accepting bribes and accumulating wealth.







[1] The “89 Incident” refers to the June 4, 1989 crackdown.

[2] “Zhongxiu” is an abbreviation for “Chinese revisionism” and is used not only to indicate an ideological departure from Marxism, but the Party and the State that serve this departure.


[3] “Arctic Catfish” is the social media name of the granddaughter of Zhong Gengci, former director of the Freight Management Branch of Shenzhen Transportation Bureau. She outraged Chinese netizens by disparaging the common people ana flaunting her family’s wealth, which she claimed ran to a nine-figure sum. Some netizens found that the IP of "Arctic Catfish" shows the location as Australia. After a rather desultory examination of Zhong Genci’s situation by the Commission for Discipline Inspection, he was expelled from the Party in October 2023.

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Chairman Mao's advice to Colombian revolutionaries

 (Translator's Preface: This is taken from Vol 46 of Chairman Mao's Collected Works on the bannedthought website: Adobe Photoshop PDF (bannedthought.net) )

Some Experiences of Armed Struggle[1]

5 December 1963

1

Revolution is always about creating your own experience. In the past, none of us knew how to fight and we were not prepared to go to the mountains to fight as guerrillas. I was in the workers' and peasants' movement, and I was a primary school teacher by profession. But the enemy wanted to capture us and kill us, so we were forced to go to the mountains to fight. No matter how we fought or how we didn't, we never studied. We learned from Chiang Kai-shek and from the enemy and fought for ten years. Later, when the Japanese came in, we learned to fight with them again. I have fought in wars all my life, for 22 years in total. From not having the will to fight to having the will to fight, from not knowing how to fight to learning how to fight.

In armed struggle, we must learn to destroy the enemy. If you can't destroy a hundred of them, you have to destroy fifty of them. As long as their guns and bullets are surrendered, you will not lose money. If you just drive them away, and not destroy them, then it won't work. If we can cut off one finger, we will only have nine fingers left, and if we cut off one more finger, we will only have eight fingers left, and if we cut off one more finger, we will only have seven fingers left. In this way, the enemy will be afraid of us. It is possible to wipe out the enemy one by one and cut off the fingers one by one. This is basically the way to fight a war. To fight a war of annihilation, we have to choose the time and place.

Another point is that armed struggle requires base areas. Without a base area, you cannot even cut off a finger. First of all, we should fight the most loathsome ones, starting with the worst ones, that is, those in power. Those who do not have deep hatred for the peasants can be left untouched for the time being. We can also not distribute land immediately, but first reduce rents and interest rates. Once the base areas are established, we can establish power, peasant associations, youth and women's organisations, production co-operatives and militias. For quite some time, some comrades did not understand this issue and left after the fight, which is called rogueism. They ran around, ate all the pigs and chickens and then left.

2

Because cities are the strongholds of imperialist aggression, they are not easy to take over at once. Small towns might have been possible, but often the enemy forced us to withdraw even after we had arrived, and this was repeated many times. The main thing is to destroy the enemy's power, without which the place cannot be defended.

In addition, there must be a separate political and economic programme for the countryside, because it is impossible to be very specific in the general programme. Once a base area is established, rents and interest rates can be reduced, but land is not confiscated immediately. If the enemy was too strong to be destroyed at once, or if the guerrillas left, the enemy would kill people and the peasants would not dare to ask for the land. In Cuba, before the victory of the revolution, there was no land distribution in the base areas because they had only been fighting for three years. Our country was so big and the war was so long that we fought for 20 years, so during the war we carried out land reform. This was also after we had won some big battles and had a base of millions of people. You have to do it on a case-by-case basis, combining Marxism-Leninism with your situation.

You must mingle with the people, speak the same language and dress like them, so that they feel that you are a trusted friend. One shortcoming of urban intellectuals, and I myself am no different, is that I am not familiar with the situation in the countryside. At first the peasants did not trust us because they were oppressed by those who were rich. If we did not win the war, they did not trust us either. After we had won the war and treated them as equals, they trusted us.

3

 There is also the rule of self-reliance, supplemented by international aid. With international aid or without, we have to rely on ourselves. Like in ancient times, they had no foreign support for their armed struggle, and where did they get their weapons? They took them from the enemy. We fought the war with the enemy, we got our guns from the enemy, and we captured many of them and added them to our troops. The enemy's soldiers were trained to fight. Our soldiers were untrained, and if we took some captives, they would have fought. The base area was a school for training cadres. Many of our leaders, such as Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and many other marshals and generals, did not know how to fight at first, but learnt during the war.

In the past, there were no marshals, generals, colonels or lieutenants, but only commanders, military commanders, divisional commanders, regimental commanders, battalion commanders, company commanders, platoon commanders and squad commanders. Officers were the same as soldiers. But then there were many titles and better clothes than soldiers. I don't think that's good. It's better to be the same as a soldier. I don't live by the title of marshal or general. I am not a marshal or a general, but the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Party, and I should not live on that title. The masses do not care what kind of wealth you have, nor what clothes you wear, but only what policies you have. They don't care what party you are, whether it is the Communist Party or the Guomindang, but if the Communist Party's policies are wrong, they will still scold you. Where does knowledge come from? We are all very stupid. Knowledge comes from the masses. If we don't do research, we don't know anything. This is some of our experience.

 

 

 



[1] Sections 1 to 3 are part of Mao Zedong's conversation with a study delegation from the Colombian "Workers, Students and Peasants Movement".