Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Left Opposition In China

Here in the West, we don't get to hear much about the Left opposition inside China, or better yet, inside the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For all the MSM tells us, it may as well not even exist.

So this document, from an Old Guard CCP member who is a member of the Left Opposition in the party, is interesting. What do they want? What are their beefs with the present regime? I really don't have time to analyze this document now, so I will just throw it out there and let you all go at it.

His critique of the present regime is trenchant, though. This is a classic Marxist document full of typical Marxist language, though, so for those who can't handle such things, you might want to forgo reading it.

I'm not taking a position on the Left opposition in the party right now except to say that they raise some interesting critiques about the present day party. I'm curious about what sort of economic outcomes the Left's project would result in.

Recall that under Mao, China had economic manufacturing growth of 10% per year during the entire period, even in the Cultural Revolution. Agricultural production grew at 3% per year, and by the mid-70's, the perennial problem of hunger in China seemed to have been solved. Under Mao, life expectancy doubled from 32 to 65 in a record shortest period of time, breaking the record set by Stalin earlier.

These are some of the achievements of the Chinese revolutionaries under Mao. We all know the costs - the media never tires of telling us.


Translated from the website Hongqiwang.

Some Thoughts Regarding Our Future Revolution by a Revolutionary Old Guard

Wei Wei


After 30 years of Reform it is time for the real Communist Party to draw its conclusions.

Changes in the past 30 have meant that capitalism has basically been restored in China. The principal contradiction in our country is still the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, but the principal aspect of the contradiction has changed from the proletariat to the bourgeoisie. A new revolution is now facing the proletariat and the working masses.

The basis of the revolution before us is upholding the great banner of Mao Zedong's continuing revolution and carrying out the great socialist revolution against corruption, against selling out our country and against capitalist restoration.

The dictatorship of the proletariat no longer exists; therefore, our continuing revolution is no longer one being waged with the dictatorship of the proletariat. Instead, our continuing revolution is being waged against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The road ahead will be difficult and have many twists and turns.

Our revolution's main targets are the capitalist roaders and cliques of revisionist traitors within the Party who have seized the power from our Party. The revisionist groups are false communists who continue to hold onto the titles and stature of the Communist Party.

They have not thrown it away, because by inheriting the Party's title, they fool people and legitimize their rule. During the 17th Party Congress they held up the Thoughts of Deng Xiao-ping, Jiang Ze-ming, and Hu Jing-tao as an independent theories and uses them as guiding principles against Marxism, Leninism, and Mao Zedong thought.

The reason why they mentioned Marx, Lenin, and Mao in the Party Charter was because they feared that without using them as a cover they would lose their legitimacy, which would lead to their downfall. Therefore, they will continue to name and refer to Marx, Lenin, and Mao to use as cover until the end.

The targets of our revolution are the bureaucratic and comprador bourgeoisie this is the essence of their class nature. They have wildly sold out the interests of our country and our people, and recently started opening up the financial sector of our economy, thus handing over the economic lifeline of our nation to the foreigners.

What they have done is beyond what reasonable people can understand. Their behavior shows that their connection with foreign powers run so deep that their interests can no longer be separated. They have already moved their families and assets abroad. They have sold themselves and their country out completely to act as slaves of foreigners.

They launched large-scale privatization movements and sold off State owned enterprises. Through the recently passed "Asset Ownership" law they raised the salaries of those in charge of the remaining State enterprises to very high levels. This means that qualitative changes have taken place. In terms of national consciousness they cannot even match (Russia's) Vladimir Putin.

Putin has at least dared to stand up to the United States. These people have lost all national aspiration; the way they try to appease the foreigners is comparable to how the officials acted in the Qing dynasty.

The State apparatus is totally corrupt. After our revolution succeeds we can no longer use the old State apparatus. We have to completely smash the State apparatus just like Lenin said in the State and Revolution. However, we need to understand that there are still many un-corruptible and exemplary Communist Party members. They will be our main strength.

The proletariat or the working class is still the leading class of our revolution. Among them, migrant workers are new additions. Peasants and working intellectuals are still trusted allies of the working class. It has been proven from our social practice that the proletarian class has shown unshakable faith in socialism, because their fate is so closely connected to that of socialism.

A worker poet, Wang Xue-zhong, wrote a poem called "The State Enterprise - Our Mother." Who else could write a poem like that? Only workers have such affection toward socialist State enterprises.

The Communist Party that the revolutionary Left wants to rebuild is a genuine Marxist revolutionary Communist Party which engages in struggle. We need to declare that the real Communist Party is the one that follows Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought. We are fighting against revisionists and bureaucratic and comprador bourgeoisie cliques.

They are traitors who seized power from the Party and who have betrayed the revolutionary line of Marxism and Mao Ze-dong. They are false communists and are corrupted and qualitatively different from the real communists. This could lead to a problem.

The masses in our country have been protesting against the many injustices they face - if a sudden incident inflames the people, the anger of the masses could bring the demise of both the real and the false communists.

Such a danger exists, because the masses now regard the Communist Party as negative. However, what the masses want to destroy is the corrupted Communist Party, which has been selling out our country and is only interested in enriching itself. They do not want to destroy the Communist Party of Mao's era.

Therefore, in our propaganda to the masses we need to clearly distinguish the real Communist Party from the false Communist Party. We need to begin to use the terms "real" Communist Party and "false" Communist Party and explain the difference between them in our writings and talks. Otherwise the masses may try to destroy the real with the fake, like what had happened in Hungary.

If that moment arrived, it would be too late for us to try to explain. For example in the June 4th incident, the majority of students and masses were protesting against corruption, but the ultra right leader Fang Li-zhi used the masses and the protest ended in tragedy.

Our slogan should be: We are the real Communist Party which represents the suffering masses. We are not the false Communist Party which represents the corrupted bourgeoisie! What we want is socialism based on public ownership.

In the past, when we talked about returning to Mao's revolutionary line, some people misunderstood and thought that that we wanted to return to the past completely. We need to admit that in the past we were not able to fully realize the masses' right to supervision.

Our goal now is to rebuild a new and even better socialist country following the principles of the Paris Commune. We need to promote real socialist democracy at a high level. Only proletarian democracy is real democracy in the broadest sense.

People and the masses should have the right to practice management, supervision, and elections, and have the right to impeach. We need to reduce the wage differentials and to limit bourgeois rights. These are principles of the Paris Commune.

In terms of forming a united front, we need to understand that our society is made up of three main forces. The first is revisionists who have the political power, the second is the proletariat and revolutionary masses, and the third is the ultra Right, which organized the Xi-shan Conference 1.

Because the bureaucratic and comprador bourgeoisie have been selling off our country, some people on the Left may think that we should unite those on the Right to fight those in power. We need to distinguish who our worst enemies are.

The main difference between the revisionist clique and the ultra Right is the revisionists are still wearing the cloak of communism, and in doing so, sometimes write articles that on the surface sound correct.

However, if the ultra Right seizes power, they will ruthlessly and bloodily suppress the masses. Those big capitalists, such as Wang Zhao-jun, who attended the Xi Shan Conference, hate communists in their bones and they are anti-communist to the end.

The current regime let these people get rich first and then welcomed them into the Party. They thought that doing so would win their gratitude. But the fact is, these people are full of hatred toward the Communist Party and they are hastily trying to construct legal proceedings to get rid of it.

The ultra Right is these people's political representatives. In the future we will be fighting the ultra Right to gain power. We on the Left are the common enemy of both the revisionist clique and the ultra Right. Our united front slogans should be:

Unite everyone on the left under the banner of fighting against capitalist restoration.

We will communicate with each other to exchange our views and give mutual support and encouragement.

We will find common ground and not to be bogged by minor differences.

All patriots untie under the banner of fighting against those who sell out our country.

All people unite under the banner of fighting against corruption.

Currently there is a strong tendency for government officials to deceive people. They have the advantage of all of the power and run the propaganda machine. The media shows that they frequently visited miners' family when accidents happen shedding tears in the homes of workers and peasants.

Their acting has confused some young people. Acting is one thing but we need to pay attention to what they actually do. After the 17th Party Congress these people took another step toward the Right. They insisted on continuing the Reform and sold off the last few State owned enterprises.

They forced more lay-offs, cut more workers' tenure, and further forced those who used to be the masters of the enterprises into wage labor. They are now going into realm of "labor laws". What they are doing is the same as American politicians who send soldiers to fight in Iraq and then go to the war front holding platters of turkey to thank them.

They choose not to make public or mention or criticize anti-communist articles written by Xie Tao, a leading anti-communist. They invited Li Rui, an open anti-communist, anti-Maoist to the 17th Party Congress. They ignored four letters written by Wang Zhao-jun in Anhui Province challenging the Communist Party.

On the other hand they arrested Zhang Qian-fu and sent him to jail for memorializing Mao Zedong. They shut down many websites on the Left. Isn't it clear what they really represent? What they call liberated thinking is in fact abandoning the three principles: abandoning Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought; abandoning workers, peasants and the masses; and abandoning revolution.

On the other hand, what they are leaning on are: the private market economy, the selling off of our country and domestic and foreign bourgeoisie, and the corrupt State machine to carry their fascist dictatorship.

Some people say that old cadres are privileged among the proletariat, because they have benefited from Third Plenary of the 11th Party Congress. They have received higher wages and are enjoying a good life, satisfied with their good health and peaceful old age. This is also true of intellectuals and other white-collar workers; they are happy about the current situation and think it is better than the past. They are satisfied with the current regime.

It is true that the old cadres are being treated well. Their expenses are being paid, but they are also being isolated. They do not know how to use the internet and have trouble understanding the real situation in our country.

We should do more propaganda work with them. After all, they lived through the struggles of earlier revolutionary times. They still have the ability to tell right from wrong. The majority of them are firmly against corruption and against selling off our country.

We on the Left basically agree on the nature of the Reform. Within us there are still differences on what the correct tactics should be. What are the correct tactics that will lead us to victory?

The correct tactics have to follow the correct overall strategy. Strategy is a matter of principle. We cannot go against principle, but tactics can be applied with flexibility. Revolution does not negate struggles within the legal system. We on the Left should use every opportunity to fight the ultra Right in all battles.

For example, people such as Li Rui, Xie Tao, and Yuan Ruo-fei are shameless, poisonous traitors and spies. On the other hand we also need to firmly oppose the Reform. Some suggest that we should make use of Deng and what he said - but Deng was a devious cheater and the root of all problems. We should not quote what he said anymore, lest we further confuse the masses and lead them in the wrong direction.

We should, instead, expose and tear open the falseness and pretense of these cheaters. We should do this on the internet and anywhere we can express what we think and propagate our views in order to win over the masses and expand our battlefields. When we do our propaganda we should refuse to follow our opponents' lead and avoid arguing in the framework that they define and set forth.

Our Slogans: Because of the nature of our revolution, our slogans are clear and will create heart-felt excitement:

We raise high the banner of Mao Zedong's continuing revolution. We will carry forward the great socialist revolution against revisionism, selling out our country, and the restoration of capitalism. (See point 6 for coalition slogans.)

Of course we do not just shout slogans. We need to do a lot of difficult work. In the past Deng Zhong-xia dressed himself as a worker and went to workers' homes to visit and to wait. Eventually he organized the big strike in Hong Kong that shook the world and turned Hong Kong (Fragrant Harbor) into a Foul Harbor. Another example is the heroic strike led by Lin Xiang-qian.

The reason that the Left is weak and being ignored is because we have not connected with the proletarian class and the great masses. We still do not have strong leaders. A few years back when there was a group protest in Da-qing, workers demonstrated their extraordinary capabilities, organizing for an orderly occupy an office building in Da-qing.

The economic status of the proletarian class determines that they are revolutionary and the most radical class. In order to move forward, intellectuals must ally themselves with workers and peasants.

We are now under the fascist dictatorship. We are not allowed to speak up. We need democracy. Lenin said that there is no pure democracy, there is only class democracy. We do not want bourgeois democracy. Americans say, "We can curse out our President in the streets." However, when the American government sent troops to fight in Korea and Vietnam, to bomb Iraq and send Americans there to die, they had to obey!

What we want is democracy of the proletariat, the real democracy of the broad masses. The Communist Party is the vanguard of the proletariat and it must be supervised them. If the proletariat do not have the right to supervise and impeach Party representatives, then we are powerless when the Party Central Committee adopts revisionism.

Who says that whoever becomes the Party Secretary will have a higher level of understanding of Marxism? It is a joke to think whoever becomes the Party Secretary will also be a theoretician and can equal Chairman Mao! The position of Party Secretary is merely a job. The class as a whole needs to have power and political consciousness.

Only class can supervise the Party and manage the Party. Only when we reach that level of democracy the proletariat can control the Party and is the Party able to lead the proletariat. Then we will no longer be afraid of the Party's Central Committee becoming revisionist. This is our great historical lesson.

They posses the machine of dictatorship on all fronts the military, the political machine, the legal system and the media First they arrest you and give you a talking to (the lightest penalty), then they put you under surveillance We face many difficulties, and we need to again carry out revolution. This should be a ground up mass movement.

We will organize the working class to smash those in power. If we do not succeed the first time, there will be a second time and a third time. We need to do painstaking mass work. People want revolution; if they do not yet have the political consciousness, they will develop it. They will want revolution in the future, and we need to trust the masses.

Both the subjective and the objective conditions have not yet reached maturity, so we have to be careful and not become too anxious. We need to work underground and establish various kinds of study groups in many locations and hold discussion sessions and forums. We will create favorable conditions and work hard on mass work to raise the political consciousness of the masses.

There will be a day when the conditions reach maturity we can connect all the different segments in society and become a Party. Once the loose groups are organized, there is no force that can stop us.

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