Question about the cultural revolution in China?

[BIG BROTHER]

I was reading this book called "Today's ISMS(socialism, capitalism, facism, and communism" by Alan O. Ebenstein, William Ebestein, and Edwin Fogelman. During the section that talks about "communism" it talked about the cultural revolution, and how it turned all bad and "Mao got more than he wanted. The youths, organized into brigades of Red Guards, took over goverment agencies, terrorized cities..."

It also mentions how for example in collegue they didn't require admitions, there were no grades, etc Also erlier in the book it talks about the failure of the commune movement.

Could somebody enlight me about this?, explain me what happened and the succeces and failures of the cultural revolution and the commune movement.

[BanderaRoja]

In short, the Cultural Revolution was a period of extreme mass politicization. There was a power struggle between Mao and several other Chinese leaders, notably Deng and Liu Shaoqi. As a way of preventing the country from being taken over by pro-capitalist elements, Mao turned over power to the masses. Millions of students formed Red Brigades, and as you point out revolutionized the education system. Peasants formed communes, workers formed labor committees. In short, the governing of the country was taken over by revolutionary democracy.

The failures of the Cultural Revolution are that it did not stop the counter-revolutionary Deng from eventually taking power. While Mao was criticized by some "ultra-left", for the most part the Red Brigades and others at the heart of the movement did not criticize him. Obviously, in the end it did not successfully permanently revolutionize China.

However, it was a period of extreme mass radicalization where the workers, peasants and students were able to take control of government from the cadre to a certain extent. Thereby it serves as one of the closest examples of a society moving from socialism to communism. It also serves as a potential model for where a revolution should move after the initial success of establishing socialism is accomplished.

[RNK]

"Bombard the headquarters!" - Mao, urging the masses to attack the corrupt Communist Party and state structure.

I do not think Mao got "more than he bargained for". Information is sketchy at best, as most accounts of the period are either from the few Mao supporters who survived, the Dengists who took over, or western historians who usually completely fail to understand what occured.

In my opinion, the GPCR came after a series of events which dictated its necessity. During the 20s and 30s Mao had a few enemies in the CCP as well as the Comintern; Stalin himself, I believe, ordered that Mao be reigned in when his Army of Workers and Peasants, probably the strongest communist formation in the country at the time, refused to negotiate peace terms with the KMT and instead continued fighting their revolution. After a few power moves, and after much of the party was decimated by the KMT, Mao arose as naturally the most affluential leader with any support base, and popularity which took him right into Beijing and victory in 1949.

During the 1950s Mao and the CCP attempted to institute a radical industrialization plan to turn China into an industrial nation. The plan failed and Mao was immediately met with a lot of hostility from the party leadership. It's my opinion that throughout the 30s and 40s, elements of the old CCP, elements revolving close to Moscow and the Comintern, as well as oppurtunists who joined the Party in the 40s after realizing its success was inevitable, attempted to undermine Mao.

This came to a head during the 1960s as Mao became increasingly critical of certain aspects of the government. This eventually led to him calling for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which like BanderaRoja was a huge attempt at radicalizing society to the lengths necessary to even consider a classless society.

However, it was also to curb the growing hegemony of the CCP, who had ousted Mao by now and turned him into little more than a figurehead. "Bombard the headquarters!" became a rallying cry for the masses to rise up against the corrupt, beauraucraticalized government.

Some excesses occured, most likely unavoidably. By and large it was not a violent affair, most instances of "attack" were rather benign; students favoured throwing ink all over their teachers and faculty leaders. The Shanghai People's Commune was established, modelled on the Paris Commune. The PLA was mobilized and there's some reports of gunbattles taking place in rural areas.

Then something happened, and I'm not sure what. Mao, pretty much overnight, made a complete about-face, called on the masses to stop the GPCR, dismantled the Shangai Commune, and essentially embraced the position of the revisionist leadership. He spent his few remaining years essentially as a puppet, meeting with Nixon and supporting the party. Immediately after his death, all remnants of the leadership of the GPCR, and those close to Mao, were arrested, most executed, others remain in prison to this day.

I'm not exactly sure what caused Mao to do what he did. Was he manipulated or extorted in some way? Did his mental health deteriorate? It's incredibly hard to say; Mao's dead, his closest supporters were executed, and the only word we have to go on is that of the revisionist leadership who transformed China from socialism into viscious state-capitalism and student-killing imperialism.

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

interesting stuff chaps, I had always written of Mao as something of a Stalinist, but his actions in trying to start the Cultural Revolution show the hallmarks of a true communist, while his subsequent actions show him as little more than a puppet leader.

[BIG BROTHER]

so what could you guy say about the book states, that it became imposible for teachers to teach and for students to learn.

Also the book says that the peasants aparently weren't ready for the communes, since they gladly accepted the free food, but avoided the hard work.

[Digitalism]

...by Alan O. Ebenstein, William Ebestein, and Edwin Fogelman.

funny how the book was written by Jews, and we all know what they like.

[BIG BROTHER]

funny how the book was written by Jews, and we all know what they like.

oh I didn't know that! lol it explains a lot.

[BIG BROTHER]

anybody wants to add anything?