Chinese anarchism

[Janus]

The origins of Chinese anarchism can be traced to the Chinese nationalist movement. During this period, many young Chinese wanted to leave behind traditional and dogmatic ideas which they believed were responsible for the problems that China was facing. Thus they began to examine more modern ideas in the hopes that they could find an answer to these problems.

Anarchism originally was more popular than Marxism and was seen as a social critique rather than a political weapon. Anarchists attacked Confucianism and the authoritarian social system which was based on it. Organization to seize power was not their line. As one can see, anarchism and Marxism were tools used for social critique because its message was directed against the backward society that existed. This occured due to the fact that China was nowhere near as industrialized as some of the European societies, thus using these two ideologies as political weapons was considered somewhat inappropriate.

The first Chinese anarchist organizations were established in Paris and Tokyo. This comes as no surprise since the work-study program was mainly directed towards these cities. It was there that the young and educated Chinese were introduced to radical thought. The Tokyo group based their ideology on a combination of anarchism and Taoism while the Parisian group rejected any type of traditional Chinese thought and was more European anarchist oriented. But both groups argued for equality and harmony thorugh a social transformation.

However, there were few anarchist or Marxist translations in Chinese at this time. Even in 1918, Li Dazhao himself was unsure of the ideology of the Bolsheviks. But through time, many of the original anarchist became Marxists as more leftist material was translated into Chinese after 1918.

Many of the early communists were very interested in anarchism but this interest faded with the failures of the May Fourth movement. Even Mao Zedong originally thought well of anarchist principles but became disillusioned with it.

Winter 1920-1921

Originally posted by Mao Zedong
There is a further point pertaining to my doubts about anarchism. My arguement pertains not merely to the impossibility of a society without power or organization. I should like to mention the difficulties in the way of the establishment of such a form of society and of its final attainment...For all the reasons just stated, my present viewpoint on absolute liberalism and anarchism is that these things are fine in theory, but not feasible in practice...
I have yet to see the Chinese version so I'm not sure about this English translation.

In summary, anarchism's attraction lay in its rejection of authority, which resonated with China's attempty (particularly that of the younger generation) to break free from the stifling conventions of traditional society and its vision of social change. It is a shame that these viewpoints were not developed more fully as Chinese translations of anarchist texts were simply not available.

[rebelworker]

As Ive mentioned before on other forums, anarchism untill the time of the rusian revolutio was much more popular worldwide than marxism, from China, Japan and Korea to Africa and Argentina. With the beleived "sucess" of the Bolshevik model many radicalls flocked to the newly foarming Communist parties. It wasnt till generations later that many began to realise that bolshevism didnt work afterall.

I hope that anarchist and marxist alike can learn from our mistakes. Missinformed ideas about anarchism being a western phenomenon, and overlooking the libertarian ideas that were originally so attractive to poeple struggling for liberation worldwide is a mistake. Just as anarchists who do not recognise the need for serrious organisation because ideas alone will not insure sucess.

More and more the histories of third world anarchism, long forgotten or intentionally destroyed, are being brought to the light. In particular the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation in south Africa is doing lots of research and compiling histories that will soon be released in a book.

[Janus]

With the beleived "sucess" of the Bolshevik model many radicalls flocked to the newly foarming Communist parties.
Yes. Though in China, the failure of the May Fourth movement also disillusioned many anarchists.

[WUOrevolt]

Originally posted by [email protected] 7 2006, 02:02 AM
More and more the histories of third world anarchism, long forgotten or intentionally destroyed, are being brought to the light. In particular the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation in south Africa is doing lots of research and compiling histories that will soon be released in a book.
Do you know of a place where I could buy books or find information on 3rd world Anarchists?

[Black Dagger]

Anarchist book stores? Seriously. I picked up a pamphlet on anarchism in Japan at my local anarcho-book store, have a look.

I found a copy of a pamphlet online as well:
http://www.libcom.org/hosted/af/ace/japan.html

Not the same one as the one i have, but it looks good.

Here's some links about anarchism in Africa:

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/africa.html
http://www.struggle.ws/africa.html
http://www.zabalaza.net/texts/african_anarchism/contents.htm
http://www.newformulation.org/3alston.htm

[UltraLeftGerry]

Anarchist book stores? Seriously. I picked up a pamphlet on anarchism in Japan at my local anarcho-book store, have a look.

I found a copy of a pamphlet online as well:
http://www.libcom.org/hosted/af/ace/japan.html

John Crump also has an excellent book on Japan entitled "The Origins of Socialist Thought in Japan." It focuses primarily on the anarchists, but there's other movements discussed as well. What is extremely interesting about Japan is that the anarchists were happy to use Marxist methods of critiquing society. Up until the Russian Revolution, Marxism and anarchism co-existed peacefully and was not nearly as sectarian as it was elsewhere. A lesson for us all. :D

[Morpheus]

Non-western Anarchisms (http://www.geocities.com/ringfingers/nonwesternweb.html) is also an interesting read.

[rebelworker]

The APOC (http://www.illegalvoices.org/home/)(Anarchist People Of Color) website has some good stuff. In particular the entire book "Cuban Anarchism" by Frank Hernandez. They Also have Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kamboa Ervin that is more US focused but i still very good.

Some books that you can get through AK Press (http://www.akpress.org/) include "African Anarchism" and the New book about Ricardo Flores Magon. he was a leader of the Mexican Revolution and Anarchist. The Sandinista Flag is Red and Black because Sandino was very influenced by the Mexican Anarchist Movement. The Magonistas are still active in southern mexico.

Checking out the Zabalaza (http://www.zabalaza.net/) South African Page is a must. Especially the Books section it has lots of good pamphlets online.

Also just looking at the Anarchism section on Broadleft.org (http://broadleft.org/anarchis.htm) will give you a list of most of the global anrchist movmnt.

This will get you started...

[Janus]

Would anyone like to comment on or discuss the topic itself? All my painstaking work has only spawned a discussion on resources and links :( .

[Scars]

Anarchism tends to appeal to peasants because a peasants life is marked by an utter lack of control- they have no control over the weather, they have no control over prices they'll get for their crops, seed prices etc (i.e. their entire livelihood), not to mention having landlords leaning on them and various capitalist institutions bleeding them dry. Plus as technology advances companies are modifying plants so they don't seed, that way you have to buy new seeds every year- another little kick in the teeth.

The only thing peasants do have control over is the use of their land- what to plant, how to plant, when to plant, how to till, when to harvest and so on, which is why peasants are so attached to the land they till- it's the only thing they have control over. So when people advocating Soviet style collectivisation come only telling them that they should have NO control what so ever, peasants generally aren't filled with enthusiasm.

Anarchism, on the other hand, is freedom curbed only when it that freedom produces injustice. This appeals to peasants for obvious reasons, they have freedom and control over their own lives without landlords, taxes, states etc and they live in a just society.

In China the question of how to approach the peasants was obviously at the top of the agenda. In teh 1930s the population of China was roughly 500 million people, around 400 million of them being peasants (going by Mao's estimates, which I assume are as correct as can be expected given the circumstances). In order to assure victory the support of the peasants had to be won, unlike in Russia where the urban population was large and strong enough to crush peasant resistance.

This seems to have veered into 'peasants and anarchism' as opposed to 'Chinese Anarchism', a topic that I also find fascinating. It should be noted that Chinese anarchism continued to influence mainstream Chinese politics right up until Mao's death. The Ultra-Leftist Maoists that sprung up and even became dominant in some parts of China (and who were often quite popular with the peasants) during the Cultural Revolution were most certianly influenced by the history of Anarchism in China, both in their identification of the contradiction between the party and the masses and their more general approach to building Communism (building a new society in the shell of the old). I'm fairly sure there will still be some small, most likely underground, Anarchist groups in China that continue the long legacy of Anarchism in China.

[Morpheus]

Originally posted by Janus+Apr 9 2006, 12:51 AM--> (Janus @ Apr 9 2006, 12:51 AM) Would anyone like to comment on or discuss the topic itself? All my painstaking work has only spawned a discussion on resources and links :( . [/b]
I think your work (the first post in this thread) is entirely accurate. There's little to say about it because it's so complete and correct.


"scars"
I'm fairly sure there will still be some small, most likely underground, Anarchist groups in China that continue the long legacy of Anarchism in China.

They definately exist. I recieved an e-mail from one of them about my website, and there have been occasional posts about them on a-infos.

[Janus]

Anarchism tends to appeal to peasants because a peasants life is marked by an utter lack of control
That's where religion comes in since peasants tend to be quite backwards. Anarchism had greater appeal to young Chinese students who were frustrated with the current, strict societal systems.


unlike in Russia where the urban population was large and strong enough to crush peasant resistance.
But this was after the Russian Revolution when the urban areas had developed further.


I'm fairly sure there will still be some small, most likely underground, Anarchist groups in China that continue the long legacy of Anarchism in China.
Yes, an anarchist organization helped to organize the Tian An Men protests and there are anarchist labor movements in China.


Originally posted by Morpheus
I think your work (the first post in this thread) is entirely accurate. There's little to say about it because it's so complete and correct.

Thanks. :) But any discussion concerning the topic is welcome.

[Scars]

<<That&#39;s where religion comes in since peasants tend to be quite backwards. Anarchism had greater appeal to young Chinese students who were frustrated with the current, strict societal systems.>>

However young Chinese students are useless if they cannont find support within the peasants. A city based movement is NOT a mass movement.

<<But this was after the Russian Revolution when the urban areas had developed further.>>

No, right from the start the Bolsheviks set about destroying the Socialist-Revolutionary Party which definately had majority support with the Peasants of the Russian Empire (which, more or less, was all conquered into the USSR bar the Baltic which was reclaimed later). Regardless of the merits of their programme in comparision to the Bolshevik platform (the TRUE Bolshevik platform, not the period where they gained support by promising watever people wanted when Welshing on it) the SR had far more support than the Bolsheviks, as shown in the only election after the October Revolution where the SR got somthing like 230 seats and the Bolsheviks got around 80. I can&#39;t remember exactly.

[Janus]

However young Chinese students are useless if they cannont find support within the peasants. A city based movement is NOT a mass movement.
How would Chinese peasants be attracted to anarchism? The normal peasant would never have heard of anarchism nor care about it. Their primary focus was on their crops and their land.


No, right from the start the Bolsheviks set about destroying the Socialist-Revolutionary Party which definately had majority support with the Peasants of the Russian Empire
The Bolsheviks also had the support of the peasants with their "Bread, Peace, and Land" campaign. I may have made a mistake in assuming that you were originally talking about the collectivization that went on under Stalin and the end of the kulak resistance.