Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 22:24:37 +0200 (MET DST)
From: rolf.martens-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Rolf Martens)
Subject: M-G: UNITE! Info #36en: Remember Tiananmen '89 and '76


UNITE! Info #36en: Remember Tiananmen '89 and '76
[Posted: 04.06.97]

Note / Anmerkung / Note / Nota / Anm=E4rkning:
On the UNITE! / VEREINIGT EUCH! / UNISSEZ-VOUS! /
=A1UNIOS! /  F=D6RENA ER! Info en/de/fr/es/se series:
See information on the last page / Siehe Information auf der
letzten Seite / Verrez information =E0 la derni=E8re page / Ver
informaci=F3n en la =FAltima p=E1gina / Se information p=E5 sista sidan.

[INTRO NOTE:

On the 8th anniversary of the infamous Tiananmen massacre
in 1989, I'm reposting, and now as part of the "UNITE Info"
series, something that I wrote and sent precisely a year ago.

Since then, the revisionist dictator mainly responsible for that
massacre, Deng Xiaoping, has died. The sentences below
addressed directly to him today may be taken as addressed to
his successor, Jiang Zemin.

In this posting, the bigger part however consists of a description
and an assessment of that earlier and likewise historical event on
Tianamen Square in central Beijing, China, the demonstrations
on 05.04.1976 and the suppression of those demonstrations. For
the Marxist-Leninists in particular, still today, this event IMO
contains some even more important lessons than the 1989 one.

Below, I've added some sub-titles to the original posting. - RM]


REMEMBER TIANANMEN 4.6.1989 AND ALSO 5.4.1976


1. A HEINOUS CRIME

The peoples of the world should remember the events at
Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, on 4 June 1989 and also
those on 5 April 1976. Both those days are symbols of the
resistance of the Chinese people against revisionist, phoney-
"Marxist" and in reality fascist forces and arch enemies of
socialism.

On 4 June 1989,  military forces of the Deng Xiaoping clique
massacred people who were protesting against its revisionist
oppression and demanding democratic rights and an end to the
enormous price rises after the re-establishment of capitalism in
China. This was a historical crime which very clearly exposed
the fascist character of that regime to the whole world.

Bourgeois propagandists all over the world have been saying
that this was repression by a "socialist" regime. It wasn't. Those
bourgeois propagandists themselves at that time had long been
applauding the overthrow of socialism in China in 1976-78 and
supporting the Deng Xiaoping revisionists' rule.

They all hated the successful socialism in China which was
guided by the correct Marxist-Leninist line of Mao Zedong and
which was a brilliant example to the great majority of people in
the world.


2. WHAT DID DENG SAY IN 1974?

As for the revisionist traitor and present dictator Deng Xiaoping,
the peoples of the world should remember something which he
himself said 22 years ago, when on 10 April 1974 he, as
representative of the then still socialist China, held a speech
before the U.N. General Assembly.

This happened to be an important speech. In it, Chairman Mao's
correct analysis of the world as then divided into three parts, or
three worlds, was presented publicly for the first time.

In this speech, the later traitor Deng Xiaoping among other
things also said (I quote from my posting "UNITE! Info #11en"
on  27.05.96, in which excerpts from a 1974 pamphlet published
by Foreign Languages Press, Peking, were reproduced:)

"If capitalism is restored in a big socialist country, it will
inevitably become a superpower. The Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution, which has been carried out in China in recent years,
and the campaign of criticizing Lin Piao and Confucius now under
way throughout China, are both aimed at preventing capitalist
restauration and ensuring that socialist China will never change
her colour but will always stand by the oppressed peoples and
oppressed nations."

"If one day China should change her colour and turn into a
superpower, if she too should play the tyrant in the world,
and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and
exploitation, the people of the world should identify her as
social-imperialism, expose it, oppose it and work together with
the Chinese people to overthrow it."

Well spoken, Mr. present dictator Deng! I hope that you're
reading these lines, or that some secretary of yours is. Here I
offer you some salt.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

and some pepper:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

and invite you to eat up that statement of yours 22 years ago. It
really was very good - whoever suggested that it be included in
that speech of yours. My own guess is that it was Chairman Mao.

He knew about the constantly existing danger of a capitalist
restauration. He and the other genuinely communist leaders in
China at that time were combating both that openly-Rightist
deviation which you somewhat later, from autumn 1975 on,
correctly were criticized for leading and also the contending
deviation which in reality also helped you in your efforts to
undermine socialism in China, that likewise bourgeois one of
the Gang of Four, which was camouflaged with a lot of
phoney"Left" demagoguery.


3. ZHOU ENLAI IN 1973 ON NECESSARY STRUGGLE
   ON TWO FRONTS

Only a few months before that speech of yours, Mr. Deng,
comrade Zhou Enlai had very correctly stated, in his report to
the important Tenth National Congress of the Communist Party of
China, in August 1973, on the work of the Central Committee, i.a.,
concerning the question of combating bourgeois tendencies in
the party:

"It is imperative to note that one tendency covers another. The
opposition to Chen Tu-Hsiu's Right opportunism which advocated
'all alliance, no struggle' covered Wang Ming's 'Left' opportunism
which advocated 'all struggle, no alliance'. The rectification of
Wang Ming's 'Left' deviation covered Wang Ming's Right deviation.
The struggle against Liu Shao-chi's revisionism covered Lin Piao's
revisionism." ( Documents of CPC 10th Congress, Peking Review
35-36/1973, p. 21)

Covering each other, in part also contending with each other, and
both being supported in several ways by the main international
reactionary forces at the time, US imperialism and Soviet social-
imperialism, those two reactionary tendencies and bourgeois
headquarters in China, yours and that of the Gand of Four, only
some 3-5 years later most unfortunately for the peoples in
the whole world succeeded in bringing about the overthrow of
socialism in China.

But, as once upon a time you pointed out yourself, Mr present
dictator Deng, you and your allies and your successors in the
long run will not get away with it. The peoples in the whole world
undoubtedly will take "your" wise advise of 22 years ago, expose
the revisionist regime in China, oppose it and work together with
the Chinese people to overthrow it. The bourgeois exploiters and
oppressors in China, and those in other countries too, for instance
here in Sweden, in reality have no future and undoubtedly,
although they on the surface today may appear to be quite strong,
their rule will be overthrown everywhere.


4. REMEMBER ALSO 05.04.1976

When remembering the reactionary suppression against the people
on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, 7 years ago, people and in
particular the proletarian revolutionary forces not only in China
itself but those in the whole world should, at the same time,
remember the suppression on the same square 20 years ago, in the
spring of 1976.

These events, those of 5 April 1976, were less bloody than that
of 4 June 1989. As far as is known here, they didn't cause any
deaths. But it's important to remember in the same context ,and
likewise to draw lessons from, those events, too, since they were
a case of suppression against the people by a regime that was,
at the time, still socialist, and which had until then never engaged
in such a thing but had only, in those cases where dictatorship
had to be exercized - and under socialism, it sometimes does
have to be exercized - had done this against the bourgeoisie
and their restoration attempts, never against the masses. But
that time, the socialist regime in China was temporarily swayed
by one of the reactionary groups, the Gang of Four.


5. A CASE OF WRONGFUL SUPPRESSION, AND OF
   DISINFORMATION, BY THE GOVERNMENT OF STILL-
   SOCIALIST CHINA

It was also the case that the events of 5 April 1976 were difficult
to understand for people abroad at the time, also for instance for
those who, like myself, were adherents of Mao Zedong's geuninely
internationalist proletarian revolutionary political line and thus
took great interest in developments in China and considered
themselves to be quite close friends and supporters of the people
in that country.

>From the Chinese government, this time incorrect information
was disseminated internationally, the 5 April '76 events being
described as "counterrevolutionary disturbances" by "adherents
of Deng Xiaoping's Right-deviationist line" which were "justly
suppressed". But obviously, as later became clear, this was a
falsification of what had actually taken place.


6. WHAT DID TAKE PLACE IN APRIL 1976?

At the Tiananmen on 05.04.76, there obviously were certain
actions by pro-Deng Xiaoping forces, too, trying to take
advantage of the then situation, but this was only a secondary
aspect of what took place. The main thing on that day was that
the people protested against their not being allowed to pay
tribute to the late Premier Zhou Enlai, who had passed away in
January 1976 but whose death the Gang of Four went all out to
prevent people from mourning, since Zhou Enlai had been a
genuine revolutionary, an important ally to Mao Zedong and a
feared adversary of the phoney"Left" Gang's.

The people in early April '76 had placed a great number of
wreaths on a monument on Tiananmen Square, on the occasion
of the Quangming Festival, to honour the late Premier Zhou, but
on the morning of 5 April, those wreaths were removed by
militia forces obviously acting on orders influenced by the Gang
of Four, under the circumstances that Chairman Mao at that time
was rather seriously ill and other leaders obviously not able
effectively to counter the Gang, whose actions also were covered
by their ostensibly supporting the then ongoing public campaign
to criticize Deng Xiaoping's renewed openly-Rightist bourgeois
deviationism.

The removal of the wreaths greatly angered the people, hundreds
of thousands of whom demonstrated on the Tiananmen and who,
when their just demands for the return of their tributes to Premier
Zhou were refused, also took such action as to set fire to a jeep
and a small building. But then all were called on by the radio
stations etc in reality controlled by the Gang of Four to leave the
square, and later, militia were used to force those who didn't obey
those calls off the square, in an action of reactionary suppression.


7. THE CONSEQUENCES DRAWN BY THE CC OF THE CPC

By a meeting two days later, on 07.04.76, of the Political Bureau
of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, two
decisions were made which were, in themselves, quite correct, as
seen from the standpoint of the great majority of people: Deng
Xiaoping was dismissed from all posts, and Hua Guofeng was
appointed First Vice-Chairman of the CC of the CPC. The latter
decision was a blow against the Gang of Four, who had wanted their
"higher-ranking" member Zhang Chunqiao to get that post.

But at the same time, that CPC Politbureau meeting - from which
Mao Zedong because of his illness was absent - obviously in two
respects was swayed by the Gang of Four: Firstly, also some
decisions on state matters were made, bypassing the People's
National Congress which, according to China's constitution, had
sole authority to decide on such matters, and secondly, the
people's demonstration and revolutionary protest actions on the
Tiananman were stated to have been a "counterrevolutionary"
incident which, in the main, obviously it was absolutely not.

Therefore, on this occasion, the CPC Political Bureau in certain
respects went against the people, which was a serious thing in
fact, indirectly favouring the Right deviationist line of Deng
Xiaoping too, since he got the "blame" for something that had in
fact been in the main correct.


8. THE 1976-1978 OVERTHROW OF SOCIALISM IN CHINA

In October 1976, a month after Mao Zedong's death, the Gang of
Four correctly were dealt a big blow by the forces of Hua
Guofeng, who foiled the Gang's coup attempt. But soon afterwards,
those forces, too, committed treason by teaming up with the
forces of Deng Xiaoping, utilizing the people's great anger
against the Gang and their jubilation at the victory over it,
and thus in the following two years, capitalism was completely
restored in China, whith those disastrous consequences which
have followed.

The people, and in particular the revolutionaries, in all
countries should draw important lessons both from the events of
4 June 1989 and also from those of 5 April 1976.

Rolf Martens

[So far the posting originally sent on 04.06.96.]

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