Peasant Movement in Hunan

The next work in RT's chronological trek through the writings of Comrade Mao Zedong is his Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan. The investigation has some interesting information on how the organized peasant associations transformed a feudal China into a revolutionary one. RT considers the peasants' overthrowing of the political power of the county magistrates and his bailiffs particularly applicable to today's U$. Major economic and political interests drive the high rate of incarceration within the United States. Small, rural areas benefit economically from the growth and proliferation of prisons. The prisons bring jobs and revenue if they have surplus capacity to house inmates from other municipalities.

Non-whites are disproportionately represented in the prison populations. Prisoners are the only people in the U$ who aren't paid even the full value of their labor. Many are politically disenfranchised even when released as they lose their right to vote. Even the white nationalist liberals see the roots of the disenfranchisment system in racism. The injustice sytem itself, with its system of fines, probation fees, and repayment of court costs is a major revenue stream for local governments.

Comrade Mao saw the corruption of judges and other law enforcement authorities in China:

To get rich, the magistrate and his underlings used to rely entirely on collecting taxes and levies, procuring men and provisions for the armed forces, and extorting money in civil and criminal lawsuits by confounding right and wrong, the last being the most regular and reliable source of income. In the last few months, with the downfall of the local tyrants and evil gentry, all the legal pettifoggers have disappeared. What is more, the peasants' problems, big and small, are now all settled in the peasant associations at the various levels. Thus the county judicial assistant simply has nothing to do. The one in Hsianghsiang told me, "When there were no peasant associations, an average of sixty civil or criminal suits were brought to the county government each day; now it receives an average of only four or five a day." So it is that the purses of the magistrates and their underlings perforce remain empty.

RT sees the same kind of "confounding right and wrong" with wrong "being the most regular and reliable source of income" in the U$. Surely the future joint dictatorship of the proletariat of oppressed nations (JDPON) should have a similar approach to transforming the injustice system into a system of justice through adjudicating cases through the peasant's associations and eliminating the corrupt parasitic judges and law enforcement who ensure the continuance of capitalism through the systematic defense of private property.

In enumerating the fourteen benefits of the peasant movement, Comrade Mao includes overthrowing religious authorities and the masculine authorities of husbands. The prospect of a similar movement in the imperialist nations horrifies the labor aristocracy. Women in the imperialist nations receive lower pay than men in the same position and often rely on men for shelter and survival. Imagine brown-skinned people occupying and organizing the megachurches of the suburban U$ and using the technology in order to promote the benefit of all people over the enrichment over a parasitic minister. RT has difficulty imagining the labor aristocracy smashing its own theocratic superstitions.



Mao denounces Chiang Kai-shek and other reactionaries who on the one hand agitate for revolution to overthrow the imperialists yet fear when the peasant's revolution comes with all its anger and justice:

A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.