Revolutionvs.

Institution

leaders

led

Mao’s dialectics

Struggle of opposites

New struggle of oppositesResolution,

revolution, leap

Resolution, revolution, leap

Mao’s “permanent revolution”

Superstructure

Ideas, ideology, institutions

Social reproduction

Social forces of production

Relations of production

Means of production

Class struggle Revolution

New superstructure

New forces of production

Class struggle

The Great Leap Forward: causes

• Economic:– Land reform and social welfare had

stimulated economic growth– But inequality was beginning to

increase as well (Cf. Gabriel) http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/sgabriel/economics/china-essays/6.html#pagetop

The Great Leap Forward: causes

• Political:– Conflict between Left (Maoists) and Right

(Conservatives—Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, & Peng Zhen esp.) over High Tide

– Marx had pointed out contradiction between “town and country”

– Mao’s criticism of bureaucratism and elitism in Moscow and of “imitating” Soviets

The Great Leap Forward: causes

• Two lines now clear (Cf. Gabriel):– Stalinist Rightists, or “pragmatic

conservatives”– Maoist Left

The Great Leap Forward: causes

What is the central task of the revolution?

Egalitarianism & the new type of person

OrEconomic modernization first

The Great Leap Forward: the goal

Mass mobilization, decentralization, egalitarian

practice would stimulate production

(i.e., “reliance on the mass line as the basis for developing production” –

Corrigan, et.al., 1978)

The Great Leap Forward: methods

• People’s Communes• Small-scale local industry• Communal kitchens• Irrigation projects• Socialist Education• Sent-down cadres

People’s Communes: organization

• About 25,000 nationwide• 20,000-30,000 per commune• Ex., Gao village:

– Had two production teams– Part of Qinglin brigade (ten villages)– Next level Yinbaohu commune

People’s Communes:

uneven development• In Zengbu, “…a deliberate, conscious, and

effective effort to avoid reproducing the old lineage segments and the neighborhoods associated with them.” (Potter & Potter: 66)

• But, in Gao village: “…a more fundamental reason for the failure of the team to settle the accounts was the sense of clan obligation between villagers.” (Gao: 17)

People’s Communes: accounting

• Market system:– Owner distributes– Profit = revenue – costs– Wage/salary = labor time @ $ per hour– Marx: surplus value expropriated

• Commune system:– Production team distributes– Workpoints calculated per capita based on

• Strength (age and strength) = labor grade (difen)• Task rate

– “From each according to his ability, to each according to his work.”

People’s Communes: errors

• Backyard furnaces not productive– Wasted labor and resources– But not total failure: see

http://www.staff.hum.ku.dk/dbwagner/Fate/Fate.html

• “Blind orders from above”– Close planting system– Deep plowing– Idealistic quotas– Inflated reports

Great Leap Forward: outcomes

• Food shortages– Natural disaster played a huge part in this– Starvation probably overestimated by West

• Poor industrial performance– Soviet withdrawal – Weakened labor force– Poor quality iron and steel– Disorganization and mismanagement

Great Leap Forward: outcomes

Demoralization: “a legacy of bitterness and distrust between

the peasantry and the Communist Party.” (Meisner: 238)

The Great Proletarian Cultural

Revolution

Cultural Revolution: Causes

• Mao vs. bureaucrats:– charismatic vs. rational authority (Weberian

concepts)?– Deep antibureaucratic feelings (anarchist?)

• Masses vs. bureaucrats• Mass line• “First democracy, then centralism…” (256)

– Mao sees class struggle in socialism, possibility of bourgeois restoration; “new bourgeois elements” being produced—in the Party

Cultural Revolution: Causes

• Bureaucratic restoration– Revolution allowed “deep penetration” of

bureaucracy through party-state apparatus– Chinese bureaucratic tradition– Great Leap retreat re-strengthened

bureaucratic wing of Party leadership– Masses weak, demoralized, apolitical– “A return to order was the order of the

day…” (Meisner: 250)– Careerists, opportunists, specialists– Ranks and wage differentials

Cultural Revolution: events

• Production declines 1960-62– Both agriculture and industry– “abnormal mortalities”

• Policy adjustments – Led by Chen Yun, Deng Xiaoping, and Liu

Shaoqi– Private enterprise, markets

• “Reversing verdicts”– Symbolic cultural criticism of Great Leap– Changes in party ranks

Cultural Revolution: events

• 1961-62: Mao self-criticism• In PLA, Lin Biao takes strong left

stand– Study ideology (leads to Red Book)– People-centered (vs. weapon-

centered) strategy

• Jiang Qing begins to organize for revolution in arts

Cultural Revolution: events

• Mao resigns as head of state, remains Party Chairman

• Liu Shaoqi becomes head of state, Party Vice-Chairman

• Deng Xiaoping Party General Secretary

• Peng Zheng Deputy General Secretary, Beijing Party head

Cultural Revolution: events

• Production increases, ’62 and on• Tenth Plenum (1962)

– Pragmatists push success of reforms– Mao acknowledges import of

production, but admonishes: “Never forget class struggle.”

• The uneasy compromise:– Mao wants class struggle– Pragmatists control administration

Cultural Revolution: events

• Socialist Education Movement to fight revisionism: 1962-1965

• “foundered on bureaucratic resistance and popular apathy” (Meisner, 258)

• Mao frustrated to see Party transformed “from a revolutionary instrument into a conservative bureaucratic apparatus” (ibid)

Cultural Revolution: events

• The factions are aligned:– Mao, Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, Chen Boda, others

at lower levels like Yao Wenyuan– Liu Shaoqi, Peng Zhen, Luo Ruiqing, Deng

Xiaoping, many at mid-levels like Wu Han

• The contradictions:– Revolution vs. institutionalization– Class struggle vs. modernization– Transformation vs. bureaucracy– Proletariat vs. bourgeoisie?

But why a cultural revolution?

Why a cultural revolution?

• Conflict at several levels (Dietrich: 171)– Economic policy– Education– Culture

• Triggering event: Wu Han’s play, Hai Rui [viz. Peng Dehuai] Dismissed from office

Why a cultural revolution?

• Struggle over control of propaganda apparatus—why?

• The idealism and energy of youth—a student movement this time

• Students vs. “the representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the party.”

Bombard the Headquarters!

Cultural Revolution: web

sitesRethinking Cultural Revolution Culture: http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/conf/propaganda/

Chinese Cultural Revolution: http://nths.newtrier.k12.il.us/library/Teacher%20Assignments/culturalrevolution/culturalrevolution.htm

Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages: http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/crc.html

Marxist model of mode of

production (society)Superstructure

Ideas, ideology, institutions

Social reproduction

Social forces of production

Relations of production

Means of production

Class struggle Revolution

New forces of production

New superstructure

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences• Shake-up in central leadership:

– Peng Zhen purged, Maoists control media– Liu Shaoqui isolated as “number one capitalist-

roader”– Lin Biao now Mao’s “successor”

• “Civil war”? – Wuhan mutiny and other violent conflicts– By 1967 Mao begins to wonder– Criticizes Red Guards as “politically immature”

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences• Worker Mao Zedong Thought

Propaganda Teams• “three-in-one” revolutionary

committees– Radicals– Party cadres– PLA officers (effectively in control)

• After 1967, rejection of “ultra-leftism”

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences• Rejection of Soviet model:

– both Stalinist and “revisionist” – Tension with Soviet Union

• New models for development– Agriculture: Learn from Dazhai– Industry: Learn from Daqing– Education:

• Practice and production• No exams, no grades

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences• Prevention of capitalist

restoration?– By 1970s, pragmatism being

advocated:• Material incentives• Foreign trade• Self-sufficiency de-emphasized

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences• Broken power of bureaucrats?

– Deng Xiaoping in, out, in again, out again…; Zhou Enlai apparently in control

– Lin Biao’s strange fall, Chen Boda expelled; with them, the “Mao cult?”

– ’70s: rehabilitated bureaucrats quietly re-consolidating center, while GPCR rhetoric still being propagandized

– Remaining supporters and activists:• “radicals” (Jiang Qing’s Shanghai group)• Poor peasants• Insecure workers• Younger cadres

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences• End of “bourgeois” and “feudal” styles of

leadership?– Gao village experience not unusual: personal

grudges dressed in revolutionary rhetoric– “Party officials were better equipped than the

intellectuals to withstand the attack.” (Dietrich: 187)

• Knew the routine• Manipulated the process

– Reification of “class background” as ascriptive status (failure to break with lineage tradition)

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences (Gao)• What did the masses gain?

– Greater literacy, educational opportunities for the poor

– Production actually advanced in countryside– Greater cultural opportunities (including

sports– Decline in clan power (almost unintended

consequence)– New enterprises and irrigation projects– Greater integration of rural people and state

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences• What did the masses lose?

– Respect for, integration with the Party– Revolutionary idealism– Susceptibility to propaganda appeals– Ultimately: chance to develop

socialist consciousness?

Cultural Revolution:

Consequences• What did the party (bureaucrats)

learn?– Respect for manual labor, or don’t ever

make me do that again?– Respect for the toiling masses, or how

could you treat me that way?– Continue the revolution, or focus on

“modernization”?– Maintain firm control, and avoid chaos at

all costs

Cultural Revolution: A

Fitting End• Zhou dies• Deng instigates Tiananmen Incident,

gets purged again• Hua Guofeng—no Zhou, but effective

at playing the middle—emerges as leader

• Natural disasters• Mao dies

Cultural Revolution: The

Final Blow• Deng has built his connections in

PLA• With Mao gone, Deng and Hua

move: “Gang of Four” arrested• Reports of sporadic conflict around

the country, especially in Shanghai, but quelled fairly quickly

Summary: Maoist period

• Significant economic development• Foundation for industrial “takeoff”• Nationalism• Identification of positive changes with

Mao: “China has stood up!”• Burnout on political/ideological

campaigns?• Legacy of mass line/criticism-self-

criticism?