Lessons from Mao on China

The Bitter Sufferings of the Peasants of Kiangsu and Chekiang, and Their Movement of Resistance by Mao Zedong provides some important lessons for contemporary communists. The article deals with a student, Chou Shui-p'ing who organized farmers to demand lower rent from landlords. Before the farmers could totally organize, the landlords acted swiftly and executed Chou Shui-p'ing, leaving the farmers leaderless. The farmers were hungry for revenge and exacted it upon a police station and local powerful familieis.

Some landlords escaped and went to the city to report what had happened. Within days, soldiers and police arrived. According to Mao:

There was widespread propaganda about 'Violation of the Law' and 'Crimes', the farmers became fearful, and thus the movement was suppressed. The reason for the failure of this movement is that the masses did not fully organize themselves, and did not have leadership, so that the movement barely got started and then failed.

The farmer's movement collapsed on itself due a lack of leadership. Focoism has been a controversial wing of the revolutionary struggle in the imperialist nations, one which has proven disastrous in realizing any serious revolutionary gains. The capitalist forces aren't invincible, but we must consider what tactics best serve the current conditions. The Weather Underground undertook an armed struggle against the U$, but only saw its own demise and the dissolution of the militant anti-imperialist groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society.

A Note on our Archives

RT has edited some if its archives to remove sexist language and some sentiments that readers could misunderstand as not upholding the primary contradiction between oppressor and oppressed.

Chinese Classes

In Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society, Mao Zedong indicates the presence of five classes in China: the landlord and comprador class, the middle-bourgeois, the petty-bourgeois, the semi-proletariat, and the proletariat. Mao lists them from least revolutionary to most revolutionary and RT will follow the same format. The landlord and comprador class constitue a reactionary force with no stake in the revolution. The middle-brougeois represents a class with some revolutionary potential. They have a motivation in seeing the imperialists and warlords removed from power, but at the same time, they fear the revolution because their interests aren't aligned with the masses of the semi-proletariat and proletariat.

Mao further breaks down the petty-bourgeois into three different sections, those who have surplus money or grain, those who have enough money or grain, and those whose standard of living is declining. Each subsection of the class has varying levels of revolutionary interest, but Mao sees even the right wing of the petty-bougeois pushing for revolution if the tide of struggle favors othe communists.

The semi-proletariat consists of semi-owner peasants (they own some land, but must rent some to farm or sell labor power in order to survive), the poor peasants (who own no land and work for the landlords) ,the small handicraftsmen, the shop assistants and pedlars. In the proletariat, Mao points out the effect industrial strikes have had on winning improvements in material conditions for laborers. He also included the "rural proletariat" who have neither land nor means of production and must sell their labor power under savage conditions.

Apart from these five classes, Mao briefly engages the problematic lumpenproletariat, who according to their social position should have some interest in revolution and have some ability to struggle, but end up becoming a reactionary force. This seems to emerge from the lumpen's corrupt practices finding refuge under captialism. Mao advised: "they can become a revolutionary force if given proper guidance."

What's the application to classes within the imperialist nations, U$ in particular? The labor aristocracy falls within the "landlord and comprador" class so the majority of the U$ population constitutes a reactionary force. They are the enemies of the revolution and agents of the counter-revolution.

Tobacco in China

Tobacco played an important role in the early days of the Amerikkkan colonies, and Mao Zedong noted the presence of Amerikkkan and Briti$h merchants making cigarettes in China in 1923. He calls the Chinese government "the counting house of our foreign masters" and points out that when the foreign merchants ask the Chinese ministers to cut taxes, the ministers reply, "How low?"

With lower taxes, the price of cigarettes falls, and if more Chinese people can afford cigarettes, they will buy them. Addiction ensures loyalty. That means more money for the foreign companies operating in China.

Tobacco has remained a major industry in China. The nation accounts for roughly 30% of the world's tobacco consumption. According to a World Bank report on Chinese tobacco:

73% of tobacco revenues accrue to the state (49% in taxes, 24% in profits), 20% is absorbed in marketing and production, 7% goes to private business as profits and only about 0.1% of total revenues goes to the farmers.

A 7% net profit is a good profit margin for sustaining corporate growth. The World Bank also reports on the corrupt measures the government uses to keep tobacco production up:

farmers who refuse to grow tobacco have their other crops ripped out. Farmers who resist may be detained for awhile, have their livestock taken, or are fined, a widespread practice in the country.

RJR Nabisco, Altria Group, Rothman's and Universal Leaf Tobacco company have all entered into joint ventures with Chinese companies. The disparity between the corporate compensation and peasant compensation reveals the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party: the counting house of its foreign masters. Don't worry, Google has agreed to participate in the pig work of censoring anti-revisionist websites.

The Role of the Merchants in National Revolution

At first glance, Mao Zedong's The Role of Merchants in National Revolution might appear to represent an opportunism on Mao's part of turning his back on the proletariat and peasantry to advance the cause of the petit-bourgeois. Mao points out that the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and merchants actually had revolutionary capability. To communists in the imperialist nations, the notion seems impossible. U$ chambers of commerce and petit-bourgeois usually uphold the most reactionary line. The merchants of China, however, suffered under a "two-fold" oppression from the imperialists and militarists. He shows how the interests of merchants, foreign powers, and militarists were at odds over likin and customs duties. Mao sought a united front for revolution:

The only solution is to call upon the merchants, the workers, the peasants, the students, and the teachers of the whole country, as well as all the others who constitute our nation and who suffer under a common oppression, and to establish a closely knit united front. It is only then that this revolution will succeed.

Such a union in the U$ or imperialist nations would not be possible. The merchants, workers, students, and teachers in general have no interest in seeing a communist revolution succeed. RT cannot think of whom in the U$ would qualify as a peasant. A minority of students and teachers have advanced beyond the "democratic" sham elections and primogeniture.

Were the peasants of China more oppressed than the merchants? If they were, could that explain the greater militancy of the peasantry, which is where Mao ultimately saw the best conditions for revolution?

A Brief Survey of IRTR

The It's Right to Rebel forums provide a wealth of discussion between communists on many important questions.

Should leaders get material benefits? paid more?
Agreement seems to emerge on the reduction of pay for leaders as a measure for warding off corruption and restoration.

CIA funded scholarship

Can there be a two-line struggle in communism?
Servethe people says,

There was a two-line struggle in the CPC between Wang Ming's reactionary line and Comrade Mao's revolutionary line. That struggle happens one time. It leads to a resolution of the contradiction, and then the superior line emerges.

After that, there cannot be any more "two-line struggle" involving the inferior line. It has been proven inferior, so we simply reject it. Persyns who uphold the refuted line should leave the party and do their own thing. They should not expect to initiate a "two-line struggle" within the vanguard party, and the vanguard certainly shouldn't put up with that nonsense.

Consider the latest blowout between some Maoists and revisionists on Revleft forums. The revisionists limited the Maoists to the opposing ideologies forum because they're supposedly anti-worker. The revisionists hold to defining proletariat solely in terms of their relationship to the means of production. They fail to take into account the ways in which first world "proletariat" benefit from the exploitation of the third world proletariat and the fact that many of them also share in ownership of the means of production. Revleft certainly isn't interested in a two-line struggle.

Does a Maoist People's Army disarm?
Consider this question in relation to the current events in Nepal.

Should comrades have families?

Is mental health solely a clinical question or does it have a political aspect?

Death to Imperialists

Body of executed South Korean found
It turns out that the 23 kidnapped Koreans are Christian missionaries. Pat Robertson and other clerical fascists have seen the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan as a basis for evangelizing the middle east. As long as the imperialist forces insist on imposing an alien religion on the people of Afghanistan, their clerical forces will return in bodybags.

TSA warns of terrorist dry runs
RT considers terrorism the inevitable response to U$ aggression.

Little Eichmanns Win

Es ist Zeit für Reich! (It's time for Reich!)
Not surprisingly, the University Colorado board of regents voted 8-1 to fire Ward Churchill. Students present booed the decision, which is a major blow to academic freedom in the United $tates.

JDPON
Monkey Smashes Heaven posts some excerpts from the defunct It's Right to Rebel Forums on the form of the joint dictatorship of the proletariat of oppressed nations (JDPON). Included is the proposal to resettle a large portion of the U$ population in the third world. RT considers this a fascinating plan with a sound basis in communism. Marx emphasized the importance of redistributing the population more evenly between cities and rural areas, and I think the U$ diaspora follows from Marx's logic. Many posts from IRTR indicate such a plan might take decades to execute.

The one fact I have to contend with is the statement that, in general, Third World culture and politics are more advanced. Certainly, the Third World is leading the most advanced communist revolutions in the world, and an advanced culture might logically follow from the politics. Certain aspects of certain cultures are backward and reactionary, though. Communists will find the task of changing the culture of the U$ labor aristocracy very difficult. RT agrees with zamiel:

Focus on the young and let the older ones work until they die off. Why waste effort stamping out ingrained religious and bourgeoisie predispositions? You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

IEEPA Expansion: Capitalist Terrorism

On July 17, Bush promulgated an addition to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to block property of people who commit acts of violence that threaten the stability of Iraq and undermine attempts at political reform or promote economic reconstruction in Iraq. Some people believe the executive order will have a chilling effect on open dissent, which it will. Bush and Cheney didn't hesitate calling Democratic opponents as traitors giving aid and comfort to the enemy. More importantly, it seeks to pacify resistance to imperialism. The executive order hinges the requirement for prosecution on the comission of an act of violence. Resisting the violence of imperialist stormtroopers requires a violent response to send the message that the people of the world will not tolerate aggression. Most revisionists won't have a problem with the executive ordrer, because they'll think that as long as they don't engage in violence, they can continue to operate under the magnanimity of the imperialists.

The order delegates responsibility for prosecution to the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates. The executive order plainly violates the first amendment and further illustrates the monarchical nature of the presidency. The Democrats will benefit from those powers when the capitalists believe having one for president will improve their bottom line. They might yell about Bush rolling back civil liberties, but he'll never receive anything more than a slap on the wrist.

Feingold: Censure Bush

Senator Russ Feingold has sounded the call to censure President Bush for making misleading statements about Iraq, mishandling the war, and warrantless wiretaps. RT considers a censure of Bush as essentially meaningless, but we can't agree with Senator Reid that the Senate doesn't need a censure to show that Bush has been the worst President in history. The article points out that Feingold's past censure motions found essentially no support, and this supports the perception of Democrats as political weaklings. The Republicans don't waste a second in levelling partisan accusations against Democrats, so why are the Democrats so spineless in dealing with their adversaries? Speaker Pelosi doesn't have any interest in impeaching Bush. RT waits patiently for the start of the revolution in the imperialist nations, but until then, for god's sake, fight back!

Communism Underground

The Ward Churchill verdict could hold serious implications for the progress of scientific communism. If the University of Colorado board of regents succeeds in railroading him, the necessity of survival will drive the best communist scholarship underground. Reactionary University fossils will threaten the personal reputation and livelihood of people who openly undertake communist scholarship. The work will continue, inevitably, but the majority will take place underground. The thin veil of anonymity ensures a minimal amount of security. The importance of security culture pervades our movement. Even at the revisionist revleft forums, users are discouraged from posting personal photographs or too much personal information. People in the imperialist countries can easily and inadvertantly harm struggles elsewhere in the world. The Philippines, India, and Nepal openly massacre comrades, but there's also the covert assassinations and torture chambers for gathering intelligence.

Give Imperialism a Chance

With public support waning for the occupation of Iraq, the right wingers are insisting that the "surge" needs time to work. Give imperialism a chance. At least they're no longer claiming that the insurgency is in its last throes. Is the political leadership talking about ending the imperialist quagmire? Republican Senators John Warner and Dick Lugar are calling on the President to come up with a new strategy by October that includes a reduction in the number of troops. That way, troops can remain in Iraq indefinitely and the imperialists can continue the rape. The state controlled media calls this "breaking ranks with the President." We say revisionist political maneuvering to calm public anger at Republicans. As usual, the Democrats are powerless to overcome filibusters and presidential vetoes. The occupation continues.

MIM updates from prison struggles

Starvation in prison
When I brought it to the medical staff's attention, the response of the day was, I had to have AIDS or Hep C and be under 150 lbs to receive anything.


Trumped up gaing validation
More than enough time, as I'd spent 3 years in the county in single occupancy cells, a year and a half on Solano's level three facility I on lockdown and I've spent over six months now in Administrative Segregation (the hole), where I'm facing a "gang validation." As is well known, the State applies social Judo tactics, so to speak, in order to keep the masses off balance and misdirected. In these divide and conquer scenarios social organizations and movements for resisting oppression and exploitation, and in furtherance of equality, empowerment, and dignity, find their focus degenerated and misdirected towards other members of their own backgrounds.

This is nothing new, and we still don't make it difficult for them to do. These tactics have literally been perfected to a science: within the confines of the CDCR. The technical aspects of these tactics are ever evolving, seemingly made up as they go, as well as laid out in a long winded maze of words (which seem really to only be there for show or manipulation) in the California code of Regulations Title 15 and the Department Operations Manual.

Getting a kick out of sniveling
It's not uncommon to hear of prisoners alleging fear, intimidation and retaliation for filing grievances against those who have custody over them. Save for the particularly egregious cases of abuse, where prisoners have suffered obvious and "provable" physical or other injury, such complaints are often rebuffed by prison guard supervisors, the media and the public.

Prisoners who submit such complaints are often labeled trouble makers, rabble-rousers or snivelers. They are generally described and dismissed as disgruntled.

However, it may surprise some to find that officers can, and sometimes do, file more complaints and grievances than those they have charge over. Here in California, a former minion of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation gives a seldom seen view into the usually impenetrable world of the inner workings of prison personnel politics.

Musharraf's Assassination Inevitable

Unless Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf starts hiring mercenary guards from Blackwater or the U$ military, Pakistani Muslims soon will assassinate him thanks to the Lal Masjid massacre. Most people understand that Musharraf stormed the mosque at the bidding of his U$ masters. The Muslim press has roundly denounced him and his government as munafiqun (hypocrites), which is a loaded term from the Qur'an. The munafiqun were considered treacherous in the Qur'an because they publically professed Islam yet secretly plotted against Muhammad and the Muslims.

Musharraf tried to keep the press at bay to not reveal the brutality he wrought at Lal Masjid. While he might control the press briefly, the truth about such atrocities eventually comes out despite the best laid plans. Some claim that the recent assassination attempt was merely a crude attempt to justify the massacre, but it fails that purpose. Red Terror wishes the mujahiddeen luck in killing Pervez Musharraf, the most craven champion of U$ imperialism since the resignation of Tony Blair.

What's in a Name?

The precision of language in Marxist theory is a complicated problem, as activists dedicated to orthodoxy tend to consider analysis sloppy if it includes non-Marxist terminology as "middle class" or "upper class." Rather, we're supposed to refer to the classes as bourgeois, proletariat, and if necessary, petty bourgeois and lumpenproletariat. Activists dedicated to praxis consider such terminology as outdated and alienating to modern proletariat. The principles of rhetoric insist that the author or speaker tailor the language and message to her audience. Who exactly is our audience? The language we select will determine the kind of audience that ultimately consumes our messages.

The desire to be a good rhetorician would seem to necessitate siding with the praxis side of the argument of making the message accessible to the people who have any reason to hear the call to revolution and follow it. The complexity of capitalism in the United States makes the strict Marxist class categories slightly outdated, yet the relationship to the means of production remains a key aspect of class determination but not the sole criteria. Corporate executives sell their labor time as the grunts underneath them and often share ownership of the means of production. At times the shared ownership comes about through pension plans that invest in shares of the corporation or private investing of the general laborer. The labor aristrocracy of the U$ would seem to fall into the category of petty bourgeois at the lowest.

As far as I can discern, the theory of a labor aristocracy seeks to explain why despite a large disparity of wealth, mounting debt, and declining wages there remains a lack of class consciousness within the imperialist nations. A good number of people in the U$ realize that they import a large portion of their goods from third world sweatshops, so they have no interest in seeing a worldwide communist revolution as they could no longer enjoy their relatively affluant lifestyles. I believe the personal investment the wage laborers have in the imperialist system that exploits cheaper and oppressed labor prevent the formation of class conscioussness in the imperialist countries and necessitate the spark come from the third world. With the inevitable demographic changes and the browning of the U$ the white supremacists loathe so much, the potential for revolution in the U$ lies in the future as long as they remain marginalized. I won't be holding my breath.

In the end, I think I must cite Shakespeare's rhetorical question: "What's in a name?" Call the classes whatever you want to, but keep in mind the needs of your audience. If your intended audience can't understand your message, chances are, it won't pay attention. The question of audience is a perplexing one for communists in the imperialist countries as we wonder about the line of Maoist movements around the world and unsure of how primitive our own analysis and explanations are in comparison.

Google Trends

The Beatles vs. Jesus Christ

Nigger vs. African-American

Adolf Hitler vs. Jesus Christ

iPhone vs. shelter

Money vs. God

US Fails to Provide Proof in Case for War with Iran

Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner trotted out the cards with mugshots and captions that supposedly provide definitive proof of Iran's involvement in killing US soldiers in Iran. The case rings hollow like Colin Powell's vial of anthrax at the UN. The imperialists produce their so-called smoking guns that only turn out to be distortions designed to provide a justification to appropriate the wealth of other nations. If you think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are about protecting the American people from Muslim extremists, you're dead wrong. There are 500,000 dead Iraqis who would fail to see the death of even 3,200 people as justification for the murder of more than 100 times as many people. Nothing other than jingoism or other obfuscated hungers for wealth can value an American life greater than an Iraqi.

MI6 agent Hassan Butt comes out to further justify repression and torture of Mulsims around the world at the hands of UK forces. He states that terrorists love people who rightly criticize the parties responsible for terrorism: the capitalist power brokers in charge of Western political machines. Their evil hearts smiled whenever someone on the news blamed Tony Blair or George Bush for terrorism, he says. The author fails to state whether he received any financial assistance from the UK government while he infiltrated these alleged jihadi cells. He also fails to disclose how much he currently earns from exposing the dark ministrations of Islamists to the White Europeans he now loves so much. Material support couldn't have anything to do with that love, now could it?

British MI6 Agents Fail Mission to Suicide Bomb Airport

Two British intelligence agents were arrested after driving a Jeep Cherokee full of gasoline and nails into Glasgow airport on 7-1-2007. The agents failed in their mission as their superiors told them to die in the operation, lest the media discover that they were government agents. The British government instructed the men to yell Islamic slogans such as "Allahu Akhbar" (God is Greatest) in order to justify an upcoming campaign to arrest, torture, and murder Muslims across the United Kingdom. The British government also plans to step up imperialist spying and military campaigns around the world.

The United States regime admired the botched British false flag operation, stating that it planned to carry out fake terrorist attacks in order to expand its imperialist military campaign and murder more innocent people.

Red Terror Statement

Why Red Terror?

Traditionally, red is the color of communism. I don't see any point in mincing words about what the communist revolution will entail and what the bourgeois consider communists. In upholding the line of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, RT supports the proletariat reappropriating the property the capitalists and imperialists have stolen from them. The dictatorship of the proletariat will be terrorism to the capitalist who will seek through violent reaction to maintain his iron grip through lethal force.

Marxism-Leninism-Maoism

We are scientific communists. After a communist revolution in which the proletariat seize power, a new bourgeoisie from within the communists will seek to restore capitalism. Reactions restored capitalism to the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin and to China after the death of Mao and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four."

The Chinese Cultural Revolution was the most advanced practice of communism in history.

We further agree with Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) on the status of workers within imperialist countries:

As Marx, Engels and Lenin formulated and MIM has reiterated through materialist analysis, imperialism extracts super-profits from the Third World and in part uses this wealth to buy off whole populations of oppressor nation so-called workers. These so-called workers bought off by imperialism form a new petty-bourgeoisie called the labor aristocracy. These classes are not the principal vehicles to advance Maoism within those countries because their standards of living depend on imperialism. At this time, imperialist super-profits create this situation in Canada, Quebec, the United $tates, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Israel, Sweden and Denmark. (From MIM's Three Main Points)

Anonymity

RT operates anonymously principally because of lessons learned from Maoism. Agent provaceteurs frequently misrepresent biographical data about communists in order to discredit them, and we must expend much effort refuting such distortions. There are further security implications that require anonymity. Our own safety doesn't concern us much, but we don't want to unintentionally endanger comrades engaged in struggle throughout the world. In remaining as anonymous as possible, it makes it that much more difficult for capitalist militias to track communists down and murder them. Capitalist militias take the form of local, state, and federal law enforcement, covert intelligence agencies and state military, to name a few forms.