Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 18:31:19 +0100 (MET) Subject: M-G: UNITE! Info #61en: 4/7 Reply on Cultural Revolution UNITE! Info #61en: 4/7 Reply on Cultural Revolution [Posted: 01.02.98; this part goes to restricted (ex-)M-G mailing list on 02.02.98] In parts 2 and 3, I've elaborated on some points (in order to counter just some of the current big lies) concerning how IMO the Cultural Revolution should be assessed today, on which I gave my basic answer in part 1. So far I've been replying to your question 1, Rob. Your second question was, who whould I have wanted to "win" in what you called the "factional struggle" in China. My reply on this follows in this part. And later here I'm also including one portion of my reply to your third and last question, how about the events on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in 1989 (June 4th) and in 1976 (April 5th). That will be, rather briefly, on those in 1989. On those in 1976, I intend to go into details, as I already said, by bring- ing some longer passages from earlier postings. What took place then, in April 1976, was one important expression of the role that the reactionary 4-gang, whom some are still trying to pedd- le off as "the real revolutionaries", in reality played in the overthrow of socialism in China. This last and detailed reply by me will make up the contents of parts 5/7 - 7/7 of this Info. These will not go to (ex-)M-G but only to 'alt.society.revolution' and other newsgroups. 11. THE STRUGGLE IN THE CPC DURING THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION - A PART OF AND A REFLECTION OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE AS A WHOLE You wrote on 26.01, Rob: >I also want to ask Rolf, what he would have liked to see out of >the Cultural Revolution. In hind sight, we now know [no - RM] >that it was a Communist Party of China factional struggle, with >Mao playing Dengs group off against the Gang of Four, and vice >versa, but who did Rolf want to "win" this struggle. It was *not* "a CPC factional struggle", as the bourgeoisie says and you repeated. It was a struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. It was much bigger than "just" an inner-party struggle. Of course part of the fight *was* a struggle in the CPC. There were representatives of the bourgeoisie in that party, both openly-Rightist such, such as Liu Shaoqi and the likewise tar- geted Deng Xiaoping who later made self-criticism and served the proletariat again, relapsing once more in late 1975, and phony- "Leftist", such as Lin Biao, who from 1969 on was always men- tioned in the press as Mao Zedong's "closest comrade-in-arms" until he - *attempted a bourgeois coup* in 1971 and was killed in a plane crash while trying to escape to the Soviet social-im- perialists, and the 4-gang, severely criticized by Mao from 1974 on and finally defeated in October 1976 by his successor Hua Guofeng, who however shortly afterwards himself went against the proletariat and joined Deng to overthrow socialism in China. Those struggles in the party of the proletariat - while it still *was* the party of the proletariat - the CPC, were a *reflection of the class struggle* in the whole country (and of the interna- tional one too). Some leaders represented the interests of the proletariat, those of the overwhelming majority of all people (not only in China); they followed the correct, Marxist-Leninist line - to express the same thing in another way - and did so, in their cases, consistently, all the time: Mao, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De, to mention the most important. (They all died in 1976.) Those others I mentioned above had all during various periods represented the interests of the proletariat too, followed the correct line in words at least, and in actions to one extent or other, but eventually came to represent the interests of the bourgeoisie. Their respective wrong currents of course at one time or another appealed to various groups among the people, could "fool some of the people for some time" (to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln). But while the Cultural Revolution lasted, they lost out in the end. Then that revolution itself was defeated, i.e. the proletariat was - temporarily - defeated in China. How do I know this about who represented whose interests, you might ask. By checking out the facts, as gathered both from "of- ficial" Chinese sources and all other sources, on who said and did what and when, on what the masses did when and where, and checking how the different things tally or not with Marxism. Who did I want to "win" this struggle? The proletariat and the oppressed peoples and nations, of course. I'd have wanted the line represented by Mao, Zhou and Zhu to win, have wanted Hua Guofeng, for instance, to have upheld that line after October 1976 too. It's not first of all a matter of (leading) persons, but one of what line they follow. Mao did *not* "play off" Deng's group against the 4-gang and/or vice versa. At least, that was not the *main* thing in that "three-cornered struggle". Mao and the other genuine revolutio- naries *combated both* of these groups and the respective bour- geois currents they represented, which in their turn each com- bated both the proletariat, as represented by Mao etc, and also the other bourgeois group and current. In China, the proletariat, and the people as a whole, eventually got caught between two fires. The 4-gang's crimes served as pre- texts for Deng and Hua in their later attacks on Mao's line. It was a similar - though not quite the same - thing in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s: There was Trotsky's very bad, bourgeois current and group, which was defeated, but the wrong- doings of this hated group served as pretexts for certain se- rious bourgeois deviations in the (still socialist, though) rule under Stalin, i.a. a regime under which all criticism, also cor- rect such, tended to become branded as "Trotskyism". What Zhou Enlai said on this general question in his report to the CPC's 10th Congress in 1973 I've often quoted: "It is imperative to see that one [wrong] tendency covers another". Eventually, the two bad tendencies in China represented by Deng Xiaoping respectively by the 4-gang, fighting each other and above all fighting the proletariat, combined to overthrow so- cialism in that country, tearing apart, so to speak, those for- ces that tried to uphold Mao's proletarian revolutionary line. Of course they were both massively supported from abroad by the imperialists in the world. This struggle continues today, one could say, in the history- writing on that period in China, with the imperialists (them- selves, openly) lying in favour of the Deng Xiaoping group while their (main) phony"Marxist" ventriloquist dummies, the RIMitz and MIMitz - and tomorrow they'll create some OIMitzes, PIMitzes etc too - today all are lying in favour of the 4-gang. What's necessary for the revolution is the line of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong - including what was further developed by the (then) KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) in Germany also for a long period after Mao Zedong's death. That line needs to win. Armed with it, the pro- letariat and the oppressed peoples can overthrow imperialism. 12. ON THE MASSACRE AT TIANANMEN SQUARE (AND ABOVE ALL IN THE STREETS NEARBY) ON (03.06 AND) 04.06.1989 I wrote on this on 04.06.1996, and repeated one year later in my Info #36en, "Remember Tiananmen '89 and '76", i.a.: 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. ......... WHAT DID DENG SAY IN 1974? As for the revisionist traitor and present dictator Deng Xiao- ping {this was written in 1996 - RM}, 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... "If capitalism is restored in a big socialist country, it will inevitably become a superpower. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution..." {the rest of this quote was in part 1 here - RM} "If one day China should change her colour and turn into a su- perpower, if she too should play the tyrant in the world, and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and ex- ploitation, the people of the world should identify her as so- cial-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. [Continued in part 5/7] [For (ex-)M-G: This posting measured by me at 9.6 kB] --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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