Opinions on Mao's Cultural Revolution

[anti machine]

This bloody nearly decade-long persecution of idealogists whose opinions did not fall in line with the communist norm was, of course, a failed attempt to reeducate the masses. Although I believe re-education is a necessity, should terror be the means of such a process once the revolution has already been established?

Or, as the esteemed mathematician/philosoper/post-war communist Bertrand Russel proposes, can we use the institution of education to "breed" a new mindset in the socialist man?

[Vinny Rafarino]

This bloody nearly decade-long persecution of idealogists whose opinions did not fall in line with the communist norm was, of course, a failed attempt to reeducate the masses.

The failure was due to the constant placement of capitalist insurrectionists by the USA and it's band of "yes men" countries.

What "Idealogists" are you referring to?

[El Brujo]

Mao did not plan for the cultural revolution to be as violent as it allegedly was. He had specifically ordered for it to be a non-violent, educational revolution.

This site will be of interest to you: http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/wim/mythsofmao.html

[El Brujo]

Myths About Maoism

The Cultural Revolution-- "Mao perpetrated violence"

The Cultural Revolution is another popular target of the imperialists. Western analysis commonly attributes all violence that occurred between 1966-76 to Mao.


Although there were only a handful of Western observers in China during the Cultural Revolution, most Western observers are willing to attribute hundreds of thousands or millions of deaths to the Cultural Revolution. Usually there are no specifics, as there are few first-hand accounts by Westerners. No Westerner can claim a comprehensive study. While it is possible that there were millions of deaths during the Cultural Revolution, they were not ordered by Mao. Mao explicitly ordered that the Cultural Revolution be non-violent. Central Committee directives of the communist party stated that "When there is a debate, it should be conducted by reasoning, not by coercion or force."(8) Furthermore, the violence which occurred during civil war was largely the responsibility of factions opposed to Mao.



Mao's enemies in China were more realistic than the Western propagandists. They directly blamed Mao and his followers, the so-called Gang of Four, for a total of 34,000 executions or deaths caused by other means of repression during the ten years of the Cultural Revolution. If Mao's enemies are correct, should the 34,000 have been executed? MIM does not know the facts. Nor does anyone except Mao's imprisoned followers, Mao's high-ranking enemies in the party and the masses at large, who have not been asked in any systematic way by outside critics.



Mao, in the form of self-criticism, stated that there had been too many executions during the Cultural Revolution. In this writing, Mao expressed his philosophy, which is also MIM's. According the Mao, it may be justified to execute a murderer or someone who blows up a factory, however, in most cases, including all cases in the schools, government and army, Mao believed:" What harm is there in not executing people? Those amenable to labour reform should go and do labour reform, so that rubbish can be transformed into something useful. Besides, people's heads are not like leeks. When you cut them off, they will not grow again. If you cut off a head wrongly, there is no way of rectifying the mistake even if you want to."(9) If people calling themselves Maoists did not carry this philosophy out, MIM does not defend them. MIM does know for sure, and the statistics are available even in the United States for all to see, that Mao accomplished the most of any political leader this century and probably ever in history in reducing all kinds of violence combined.



Even many of Mao's own enemies who were purged (expelled) from the party survived. Deng Xiaoping, current leader of China [he died in 1997--mc5], survived being purged as the number two ranking revisionist and was sent to re-education camp. On June 3-4, 1989, Deng ordered the army to fire on hundreds of demonstrators in the Beijing rebellion. This violence is of course a small portion of the violence caused by capitalist restoration in China.



Mao and the Chinese Communist Party, with little outside help, brought about major changes in a developing country while carrying out a revolution and civil war. It is a mistake to hold the Chinese Communist Party, or particularly Mao, an individual, responsible for everything that occurred under their leadership. In the United States, a developed country which is not functioning in conditions anywhere near as difficult as those of the People's Republic of China (1949-1976), annually there are 20,000 murders, 75,000 deaths of Blacks because of systematic national oppression, the death of a worker from work-related causes every five minutes, and the death of a child every 50 minutes for lack of food or money.(10) Yet we almost never hear that the victims of capitalist violence were "killed" by presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton etc. as we are apt to hear with regard to famine deaths under Mao.



Intellectuals and education were repressed under Mao

Many Western people believe that Mao was against "real" education and "intellectuals" during the Cultural Revolution, and that schools were tools for "brain-washing" and "propaganda." These beliefs come from stories about the closing of universities in China, new requirements and regulations for textbooks and research, and new controls over what types of art and theater were to be encouraged or allowed. Some of this information was brought to Westerners by Chinese intellectuals who left China before or during the Cultural Revolution: they left because they believed their way of life and status was threatened by these changes.


Westerners define "real" education as that which resembles Western educational topics and agendas; i.e. studying history and literature from the point of view of the oppressors and imperialists, mathematics/science with the goal of research toward technological or medical advances that increase the wealth and power of the ruling classes, and studying to the point of expertise and academic status but without emphasis on practical experience or usefulness for the community.



Westerners perceive Chinese education under Mao as "propaganda," because it encourages values and goals which contradict the goals of capitalism. These values and goals taught in China during the Cultural Revolution were consistent with the building of socialism. Education in Western nations is not perceived as "propaganda" by those who, consciously or not, agree with the goals of capitalism/imperialism and patriarchy. Similarly, advertising for capitalist products, while recognized as very influential on people's opinions and actions, is not perceived as "brain-washing" by those who benefit from capitalism and have therefore decided to tolerate it.



Western perceptions of Maoist attitudes toward education, intellectuals and art were mostly based on information from Chinese who rejected socialism,or from foreigners who examined the events in China from an outsider's viewpoint.You can gain a more realistic picture of the educational revolution in China by reading books by authors who support what's best for the majority of the people, and who were closely involved in the changes going on. For example, William Hinton's Hundred Day War: The Cultural Revolution at Tsinghua University explains how socialism developed and old oppressive educational ideas were dismantled in the context of a famous institute of science and engineering:



"Students now spend as much time in the factories and on the construction sites of greater Peking as they do in classrooms and laboratories, and professors devote as much energy to developing liaison with the scores of factories and enterprises with which the university is allied as they do to lecturing and advising students. No longer will thousands of privileged young men and women withdraw into the leafy wonderland of Tsinghua to crack books until they are too old to laugh. No longer will they stuff their heads with mathematical formulas relating to the outmoded industrial practices of pre-war Europe and America, sweat through 'surprise attack' exams, and then emerge after years of isolation from production and political engagement unable to tell high-carbon steel from ordinary steel or a 'proletarian revolutionary' from a 'revisionist.'


"In primary school dead serious about reading books.
"In middle school read dead books seriously.
"In the university seriously read books to death!" (11)



Before his death, Mao said he wanted to be remembered only as a "teacher." Mao did not oppose education. He opposed Western-style education because of its use in creating and justifying the existence of self-interested classes that don't necessarily serve the public. Instead, education and intellectuals should only serve the public, and as part of this doctrine, Mao ordered the intellectuals to go live with the peasants to help the peasants, educate the peasants and learn from the peasants.



The majority of China's population was poor and illiterate and had very little access to basic needs, education or medical care. Regarding medical education, Mao said in 1965: "Medical education should be reformed.There's no need to read so many books. ... It will be enough to give three years to graduates from higher primary schools. They would then study and raise their standards mainly through practice. If this kind of doctor is sent down to the countryside, even if they haven't much talent, they would be better than quacks and witch doctors and the villages would be better able to afford to keep them. ... the way doctors are trained is only for the benefit of the cities. And yet in China over 500 million of our population are peasants."(12)



And in fact, one of many socialist programs developed was the barefoot doctors, who were peasants trained for a few months in basic medical care and then worked in their village to prevent disease and injury, improve sanitation,and treat common medical problems. (13)



The following was the order issued by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)Central Committee at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966:

"As regards scientists, technicians and ordinary members of working staffs, as long as they are patriotic, work energetically, are not against the party and socialism, and maintain no illicit relations with any foreign country, we should in the present movement continue to apply the policy of unity-criticism-unity." (14)



Vast improvements were made in the educational system in China. Old capitalist-based textbooks were put aside and new textbooks were used to teach the history and politics from the perspective of the majority of the people. For example, Fundamentals of Political Economy: a Popular Introductory Marxist Economics Text, was published in 1974 (Shanghai People's Press) and studied by schoolchildren. Also, the literacy rate in China increased dramatically.



Despite these major improvements, not all educational reforms were correct.There were people calling themselves "Maoists" who advocated attacking all intellectuals and 95% of the Communist Party members during the Cultural Revolution. Mao called these people "ultra-leftists," because they used socialist language and ideas to justify extreme actions without first trying to discuss and encourage these intellectuals to change their ways.(15)

[Vinny Rafarino]

Outstanding post.

I want to highlight this portion however...Simply because it's undebatable.

In the United States, a developed country which is not functioning in conditions anywhere near as difficult as those of the People's Republic of China (1949-1976), annually there are 20,000 murders, 75,000 deaths of Blacks because of systematic national oppression, the death of a worker from work-related causes every five minutes, and the death of a child every 50 minutes for lack of food or money.(10) Yet we almost never hear that the victims of capitalist violence were "killed" by presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton etc. as we are apt to hear with regard to famine deaths under Mao.

Again....Great fucking post comrade.

[Jesus Christ]

Mao can suck a nut
hes was just another Stalin
all about reform
reform, reform, reform
and Totalitarianism
Communist China my ass
hes was a murderer and liar
people like him didnt know shit about communism or socialism
except for Stalin who knew it was a good way to turn Totalitarian
Mao's only ability was opression

[Umoja]

The First Speech in "Malcolm X Speaks" has Malcolm bring up this point. He talks about why China is so succesful, and he attributes it to the fact that in their "community" they killed all the Uncle Toms. He said he was reading a Newsweek (or Time... or something) in jail, and saw a man with a gun to his head, and the person holding the gun was his daughter. Apparently it was justified since he was an Uncle Tom, that was his old NoI philosophy though, so take note of that.

Not that I actually agree with much of what Mao did, but I see the cultural revolution as something that got completely out of hand.

[anti machine]

"He had specifically ordered for it to be a non-violent, educational revolution."

I was under the impression that he announced, over radio, an any-means-necessary students-take-to-the-streets proclamation to remove insurgents.

Great post though, brujo.

Umoja-that's interesting about Malcolm X. My respect for the man continues to grow.

[redstar2000]

The "ultra-leftists" who put up wall posters saying that 95% of the cadre (members of the CPC) were "capitalist-roaders" were, of course, correct.

Now how do you suppose that happened...and why?

:cool:

(Edited by redstar2000 at 11:13 am on June 9, 2003)

[Cassius Clay]

Here's what I wrote in another thread a few weeks back.


Ultra-leftism at it's worst. Telling a bunch of kids to go around and smash up whoever they don't like has what to do with Communism? Then there's the other point of view, Mao betrayed the CPCR, it was he who shut down the Shanghai commune. While the people were rightly struggling to fight against revisionsim and the 'Capitalist roaders' Mao was making sure the PLA were loyal to him. The CPCR had many good ideals, it didn't go so well in practice never the less the good parts of it Mao stopped, he was scarred of example's like the Shanghai commune and shut it down. Also when he declared that all should be criticised he forgot to include himself, he became a virtual god, his word was final.

Anyway the PLP has some excellent stuff on this which I'm sure is more detailed than the above. Other criticisms of Mao. In 'Mao Tse Tung Thought a anti-Marxist Theory' (that may not be the correct title my minds gone blank) Enver Hoxha pointed out that in 1955 at the Party Congress it was declared 'U$ Imperialism was the number one enemy', in 1968 it was both 'Soviet Social Imperialism and U$ Imperialism' who were equally bad and by 1973 it was just 'Soviet-Social Imperialism'. While Vietnamese workers and peasants were dying Mao was making friends with their butchers Nixon and Kissenger. And what is all this 'Let 100 Flowers bloom, let 100 ideas compete'? It's signalling that we will allow Capitalist ideas not only in thought but in practice. Somehow a alliance of the National-Capitalist class and workers can build Communism in China.

On the plus side Maoism is progressive and it can't be denied that the majority of stuggle's going on in the world today are Maoist infulenced or outright Maoists. Mao together with Hoxha was the first to see through Khrushchev and how he was restoring Capitalism and he fought against it refusing to bow to Soviet Imperialism. The ideas of the CPCR were correct and honourable that it failed in practice merely means we have to study where it wen't wrong and it's mistakes. He liberated China from Feudalism and foriegn domination, if he had lived there's no way China would be like it is today.

Basically what I was saying was that in practice the CPCR evolved into ultra-leftism, the idea of gettting rid of the beuracrates, revisionists and others was wholly correct.

Another point Mao and Maoists today say that people like Hoxha are wrong to say that bourgesie wont exist in a party if the party is not revisionist and therefor a CPCR is needed to rid the party of these elements. But two points must be made, first look at China now it's as Capitalist as uncle Sam. Where the CPCR might of succedded Mao prevented it from and second of all who was it who allowed bourgesie ideas into the party in the first place?

[lostsoul]

i have been discussing this subject with some chinese friends for a while and have been thinking about this for like the past month.

At first i thought the culture revulation was bad, but soon relized it was nessary, chinese culture was very old fashion, they may have been working on modernizing the country but the people's minds were still in accient times.

The people whom i talk to that hate it, tend to hate it because their parents who were educated or had some power, were either yelled at(by red gaurd) or forced to work in the fields with the farmers and peasants.

But many of my chinese friends seem to think it was not that bad, as youth they all had to spend time in the fields working too and they said it made them physically stronger and taught them alot about how the peasants live and are.

Another good point they say about the culture revoluation was it showed the leaders that they can be touched. One major problem for mao was curruption with officals, and revolutionaries losing their values as soon as they succeed. This showed them, that the people are constantly watching them.

A guy once told mao he was scared of the culture revulation, and mao replied "if you didn't do anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear."

But maybe my sources are weird, i notice many young chinese hate the culture revoluation,(like people in their 20's), but i asked older people(around 40 year olds, whom in china were univerity professors and doctors and the older people seem to think it was better. Perhapes, because they saw Mao's policies in action and it benfited them.(they tell me without Mao's free educational system they would have not been able to go to school. Mao made sure that their was nothing holding the students back, china paid for their tution, housing, and gave them cash for food and daily things.)

so maybe my sources are bias, In books it says it was bad, but from whom i spoke too they said it wasn't as bad as the media tries to make it look like.

take care