Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 13:59:30 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: Maoism


On Tue, 13 Feb 1996, Lisa Rogers wrote:

> Mao joined the Kuomingtang?  Temporarily allied with them, I guess
> you mean.  Some Chinese peasants claim that they were denounced and
> 

Louis: Stalin, through the Comintern, ordered the CCP to join the 
Kuomingtang in 1923. Mao not only supported this policy but attempted to 
justify it theoretically. In an article entitle "The Peking Coup d'Etat 
and the Merchants," Mao stated, "The present political problem in China 
is none other than the problem of the national revolution...The 
revolution is the problem of the people as a whole...Nevertheless, the 
merchants [bourgeoisie] are the ones who feel these sufferings most 
acutely and urgently."

Mao was elected to the Central Committee of the CCP at its Third Congress 
in June 1923 and given the post of organizational secretary, but he 
concentrated instead on building the KMT. He became secretary of the KMT 
propaganda section under Wang Ching-wei, and editor of the magazine 
Political Weekly. In these publications, Mao spoke in favor of the "Three 
People's Principles" of Sun Yat-Sen.

In March 1926, Chang Kai-shek expelled all the Communists from the KMT, 
including Mao, but this was not the end of Mao's adaption to the KMT. He 
moved to Hunan and began organizing peasants. In an article written at 
that time he called on the KMT to "correct all mistakes regarding the 
peasant movement." This is rather like asking Fujimoro to correct all 
mistakes regarding the Quechua people.

After leaving Hunan, Mao went to Wuhan, where he joined a land-reform 
committee led by the KMT. At no time did he advocate a class-struggle, 
revolutionary socialist perspective. He was, for all practical purposes, 
a KMT'er.

There is more to say about Mao and I plan to get it all out on the table 
over the next couple of months, piece by horrible piece.


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