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.