China's last Maoist village commune

[Bankotsu]

China's last Maoist village


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStFovpAY54

Anybody fancy living in a maoist commune?

[Uppercut]

Wow, great find! I'd love to go there and visit these comrades and lend them some labor.

They appeared very happy and their commune looks to be in good shape, generally. This gives me an even better idea of what Mao's visions was. Again, thank you for the post, comrade! :D

[Klashnekov]

I'd love to visit it

[gorillafuck]

That was interesting.

Edit: How much of the labour is done by migrant workers and how are they treated in comparison with village residents?

[RedStarOverChina]

Nanjie has many inherent problems, and is by no means the model commune we here in the West would invision.


However, there's no denial that the people of Nanjie live a much more humane existence than the rest of CHina.

[Drace]

Nanjie has many inherent problems, and is by no means the model commune we here in the West would invision.

Can you elaborate please?

[RedStarOverChina]

The villager is heavily indebted, and rely heavily on the migrant workers from outside Nanjie.

Migrant workers are not treated nearly as good as residents of Nanjie (though still way better than they are treated elsewhere in China), so not all people are equal. Moreover, the village officials tend to very powerful, the head of the village has been accused of financial irregularities.

Though the village looks like an egalitarian paradise, the management looks more like a capitalist enterprise that simply treats the villagers better.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Can you elaborate please?
Let me take a swing at this. It has to employ migrant workers, it's in debt, and it's corrupt. There's a few reasons right there.

[Uppercut]

Moreover, the village officials tend to very powerful, the head of the village has been accused of financial irregularities.

Can't the villagers criticize or recall their officials?

[Dean]

Its like other welfare states that treat migrant workers as an exploitable resource. While the notion of a moneyless social character is indeed noble, it cannot be executed in such a way - with migrant labor being used in what are clearly capitalist enterprises. As the video shows, its not sustainable.

[ls]

Can't the villagers criticize or recall their officials?

Of course comrade, that's why he pointed out "it's run like a capitalist enterprise".. (:rolleyes:).

[Bud Struggle]

They better be careful that Disney doesn't take the idea make it an attraction at Disney World. :)

[Uppercut]

I still wish I could go and visit or live there for a short time. A series of communes like these is exactly what I want my ideal society to look like. Sure, it may have some problems, but problems are inevitable in any system.

I need to see if the people really are happy or not (they seem like they are).

[Bud Struggle]

I still wish I could go and visit or live there for a short time.

Well, you could always visit the EZLN in Mexico--not Maoists, of course, but it would be an interesting visit.

I keep wanting to go, but it seems to be pretty perilous for a Capitalist like myself.

[Havet]

Well, you could always visit the EZLN in Mexico--not Maoists, of course, but it would be an interesting visit.

I keep wanting to go, but it seems to be pretty perilous for a Capitalist like myself.

As long as you don't take a "Going Galt" badge i think you'll do okay :D

[Dimentio]

Well, you could always visit the EZLN in Mexico--not Maoists, of course, but it would be an interesting visit.

I keep wanting to go, but it seems to be pretty perilous for a Capitalist like myself.

I don't think the EZLN would mind that.

[Uppercut]

Maybe I could sometime visit in the far future. I still have college ahead of me and I'm desperately looking for a job.

I was thinking Cuba a few weeks ago, but it's a pain in the ass to get there (not to mention expensive). :(

[Nolan]

Maoist China was flawed, and this time capsule preserves and probably amplifies those flaws. Still, this is very interesting, and I wish the workers of Nanjie the best.

[red cat]

It is very unexpected that a "Maoist" commune will survive three decades after capitalist restoration. Such a commune would either be used as an economic model by Maoists to mobilize the masses and lead to the creation of more such communes, or it would be destroyed by the state machinery. It is next to impossible for a Maoist commune to survive in a static manner. I think we should obtain more information about this "Maoist commune".

[RedStarOverChina]

It is very unexpected that a "Maoist" commune will survive three decades after capitalist restoration. Such a commune would either be used as an economic model by Maoists to mobilize the masses and lead to the creation of more such communes, or it would be destroyed by the state machinery. It is next to impossible for a Maoist commune to survive in a static manner. I think we should obtain more information about this "Maoist commune".

You would be right if this was in Poland or Russia. But China's restoration of Capitalism is more subtle than that; it's not at all that clear-cut. For the most part, the ruling class wants to distance itself from the Maoist past---but they do not want to reject or destroy it completely because it would threaten their own legitimacy, since they too, claim to be heirs to Mao Zedong.

Maoists and other Leninists in China have defended Nanjie, basically saying all the bad stuff about about Nanjie is bourgeois fabrication.

I think there are, indeed, a lot of malicious untruths told about Nanjie in the Chinese media; and that people do, indeed, live more humanely and maybe even more fulfillingly; but attempts to recreate or preserve a part of the Maoist past in a Capitalist China will not suceed.

[Uppercut]

Maoist China was flawed, and this time capsule preserves and probably amplifies those flaws. Still, this is very interesting, and I wish the workers of Nanjie the best.

I wouldn't say the collectives were inherently flawed. The GFL was a failure, but there were multiple factors that led up to that.

[Nolan]

I wouldn't say the collectives were inherently flawed. The GFL was a failure, but there were multiple factors that led up to that.

Ok. Elaborate please.

[Uppercut]

Ok. Elaborate please.

The GFL was caused by a combination of beaurocratic competition and bad weather. Enterprise managers (both local and national) would send extremely high production quotas to the central planning ministry in order to increase their bonuses, prestige, reputation, etc.. This caused too many workers to be pulled from the fields, which led to low food production.
The backyard furnace idea was proposed by Deng Xiaoping (the capitalist roader). Mao even told the media to tone down the expectations for production, although he still took responsibility for the damage (he was the Chairman after all).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China

Nevertheless, the economy continued to grow during the Cultural Revolution.