Originally posted by viva le revolution+Sep 26 2005, 12:20 PM--> (viva le revolution @ Sep 26 2005, 12:20 PM)
[email protected] 26 2005, 02:31 PM
If the question is: did Mao personally believe in "Communism", then no one can really know. The only way we can really judge him is by asking a serious of questions, such as:
Which social forces did Mao and the CP represent?
Was China under Mao socialist?
The first one is quite simple. Mao's CP was an agent of Soviet foreign policy. They were the representatives of the Soviet ruling class (led by Stalin) in Asia. The Soviet ruling class was a counter-revolutionary Imperialist phenomenon. Therefore, what you get in China after the revolution is an almost verbatim reproduction of the Soviet Union. Incidentally, many people excuse Mao by saying "well, it's diffirent in China because it was peasant country" - which is rubbish. When the Bolsheviks led working class revolution in Russia, it was almost 95% peasant!
In China, you get all the worst aspects of the Soviet Union, but, unlike Stalin, Mao had no discernible workers' movement to crush. His China moved quite rapidly to State capitalism, and with it the socio-political aspects of Stalinism; the police state, perpetual paranoia, venal bureaucracies, famine, a pervertion of Marxist language and, of course, a even more disgusting personality cult than Stalin's.
Consequently, when Khrushchev makes his big speech attacking Stalin and Stalinism, Mao has to respond. His China is almost identical to Stalin's Soviet Union, so the growth of any coherent anti-systemic movement in the Soviet Union would automatically threaten his own power.
Therefore, he criticises the Soviet Union, inventing nonsense about revisionism and social fascism for an ideological cover. He also launches the Cultural revolution, which ensures, for the time being, that the Chinese will be in a sufficient state of terror for his personal rule to continue.
The break with the SU leaves China isolated, however. So, quite quickly, it tries to forge some sort of alliance with the Imperialist powers, as well as half-hearted attempts to link itself with similar peasant nationalist movement, such as Cuba.
Above all: BASTARD.
Well comrade, as a fellow marxist-leninist with slight maoist leanings let me attempt to reply to your assertions.
To discern whether Mao really personally beleived in communism is rather superflous, just take a look at his writings, Whether material reality is applicable here is a matter of debate, each country presents it's own problems. For eg, Guevara as minister of industry attemted to introduce heavy industry in Cuba with disastrous results, which ultimately had to be reversed.
Mao was against soviet influence in the chinese communist party since the beginning. That's why he sidelined the russian-educated 28B group. During the peroid os guerrilla warfare, he was at odds with the party top leadership who, influenced by soviet advisors insisted that the people's liberation army fight not protracted warfare, but positional warfare, i.e defend positions already taken, instead of the concept of the mobile army, which ultimately succeeded. Before dying, even Stalin admitted the mistaken position the soviet advisors took when attempting to guide the CCP.
An admiration of Stalin at that time is nothing extra-ordinary, Even Guevara expressed a deep sense of adoration and respect for Stalin. Fidel too lined Cuba with the soviet Union. Same it was with Mao.
Incidentaly, concerning Khruschev's big speech, i am sorry, was he revolutionary? 'cause i could have sworn....
Everybody could tell that Khrischev was revisionist, that's why even Guevara wanted Cuba to side with China. Now this was Cuba, on the other side of the world, i am sure that China, a neighbour of russia's could have seen it coming.
The cultural revolution, Mao did make a mistake, he hired young turks to carry it out. But given their youthful enthusiasm they went too far. This isn't new phenomena in China. During the Boxer rebellion in China, what started out as a protest campaign against foreign missionaries turned into a hunt for anything western. But nobody doubts the intention of that movement when it started.
An alliance with the imperialists? After just one visit by Nixon? Sure doesn't explain the west's backing of Taiwan throughout this peroid, nor the arms shipments to that island, nor does it explain the armament of south Korea, Wasn't China oin the side of the north? Not to forget Vietnam.
Peasant-nationalist movement? Just take a look at the health statistics of Cuba sweet heart and it's literacy level! For a guy that claims to be leninist tyou sure do have a negative attitude towards movements in the third world, which is what leninism is! Movements in the third world! I am sure the other 'leninists' smoking pot at your place would agree with you.
Above all: read a book! [/b]
I have to agree with what Viva said. Che himself visited both the Soviet union and China, finding China to be much more representative of a peoples struggle. I don't believe Mao represented any sort of elite class in anyway, in fact I do believe he sought to represent the people. Upon study of Mao's actions and all that he tried to accomplish, it is clear to me what he had in mind.
He did not believe in Stalinism, his "cultural revolution" cannot be thought of as indicitive of Stalinism in anyway. Stalinism implies a sort of police state ideal, where fear was used to erradicate Stalinist opposition. The cultural revolution mentality desired for people, all people to be vigilant of social deviences that would ultimately destroy such a delicate society. Rather than trying to impliment fear, Mao sought to educate. Of course you can debate whether or not it is just to Re-educate anyone in any extent, but in reality every human being needs to have a base belief system that is socially enlightened and imbued with tolerance (just not tolerance for exploitation).
One great thing I've heard of Mao and his cultural revolution:
He attempted to impliment a system in which the peasantry could report any general being far too luxurious in their lifestyle while being a representative of the people. In reality Mao had quite a lot of difficulty enforcing this, because how do you switch the loyalties of this mans soldiers?
In my opinion Mao honestly did try to transform China, but his means were limited. Many of the military men he could not root out betrayed his idea of China. I've also heard that toward the end of his life he tried to introduce someone as his replacement, but no generals would follow his command. Ultimately he had to give control to a man whom he believed had a 50/50 chance of either fucking up the nation, or keeping it on his track. We can easily see where this ended up.
As a man who greatly respects Che Guevara and his opinions, the fact that he touted China as the ideal communist movement rather than the Soviet Union meant a lot to me. This ideal made me do some research, from which it is quite apparent the differences between the two nations. Che spoke often of the luxurious lifestyles Soviet representatives lived, obviously in a very negative way. When he travelled to China he had nothing bad to say, and was quite proud of the struggle taking place there.
-JakeH-