First Published: The Worker for the Milwaukee Area and Wisconsin, Vol. 2, No. 2, November 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
With Mao gone, people ask can the revolution in China continue? Many people want to know, without Mao what guarantee is there that the revolution will go forward in China?
The answer is that there can’t be any absolute guarantee. Because even under socialism there is still the basis for capitalist forces to seize power from the working class and for capitalism to be, restored.
Our own rulers like to point to what they call “power struggles” in China to try to tell us that there’s no alternative to the way things are here. But the truth is that while there certainly are big struggles among top Party leaders in China, there are not “power struggles” between one group of crooks and another like Watergate. They are political struggles over opposite ways of doing things, over which direction things will go in China and which class of people will have the power.
Mao devoted his whole life to training the Chinese people in this struggle, so that political power would rest in their hands.
The struggles between classes continues even under socialism because every feature of society left over from capitalism is an obstacle to progress and a benefit for those who want to drag society back.
The old capitalists and the landlords are just about finished in China. The Chinese people had centuries of suffering under these old rulers and they are hated by all. But this doesn’t mean that the old system no longer has any backers or chance for a comeback.
The working class has not been able to change everything all at once. All l the backwardness of the old society has had to be cleared away step by step, including not only the old poverty and want, but also the force of old habits and ideas and the division of labor by which things were produced and organized in the old society. There are still important social divisions and inequalities – for example, between those who do manual work and those who do “mental” labor (administrators, intellectuals, etc.); between the workers and the peasants and the city and the countryside; and within the wage system.
These leftovers from capitalism, these differences that are the basis for the growth of inequalities and an exploiting class, can only be overcome gradually, as the political consciousness of the people, and as society’s wealth are expanded making it possible to increasingly raise the people’s livlihood and eventually to shape a society where the wealth produced by workers can be distributed according to peoples’ needs.
But as long as inequalities exist, there will be a basis for some “capitalist-roaders” to try to get as much power and wealth as they can. New capitalist forces, will fight like hell to increase the inequalities that benefit them, and to sabotage and overthrow socialism and bring back capitalism – with themselves on top.
This new capitalist class can’t strut around like the old one, because the old capitalists stink to the overwhelming majority of the people. These new capitalists have to pretend to be communists, in fact, in order to get ahead in China, because of the great respect and love the people have for Mao, they often pretend to be faithful followers of Mao.
Because the working class leads the running of society through its Communist Party, these new capitalist forces have to set up shop “where the action is” – inside the Party itself. This is why the struggle between socialism and capitalism is now centered within the Party itself.
This is exactly the class of people who seized power in the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s and changed that country from socialism to capitalism in a “socialist” disguise. This “socialist” disguise suits these people because, since they have little private property to defend they are all in favor of state ownership. But the key question of socialism is not whether or not the state runs things but whether or not the working class runs the state. The Capitalist roaders aim to use the state to enrich themselves instead of to develop society as a whole. To these people, revolution means clearing away the old exploiters and rulers – only to make room at the top for themselves.
Mao Tsetung’s greatest achievement was to sum up the experience of what had happened in the USSR and the struggle in China to find the way to overcome this problem. In the Cultural Revolution which took the form of huge mass struggles in the late sixties, and in many mass campaigns, Mao led the Party in guiding millions upon millions of workers and peasants in studying Marxism-Leninism, the science of waging revolution and becoming more and more politically conscious and active in discussing and deciding how things are to be run.
In this way the working people of China have taken many practical steps to move society forward. But each of these steps has met resistance from those who hope to use the old ways to feather their own nests. The more things change and move forward, the more desperate such people become. Very fierce and repeated struggles have broken out within the Party and China as a whole over what lines and policies to follow. The struggles reflect deep differences in the lines and policies of those who represent the interest of capitalism, and those who represent the interests of the working class.
For instance, there has been the struggle on how to run the factories – by a handful of managers who get the workers to produce by offering bonuses, incentives and piece-rates or whether the workers themselves can increasingly take part in the administration of the factories and run them for the advancement of society as a whole.
Above all, the capitalist roaders say that the way to build up China is to forget about politics and mass movements. To them, mass politics is “wasted” time – and disruption. They want to concentrate on production and to rely on experts. This line has come up again and again. Each time it is defeated, it takes a new and slicker form.
Mao always taught that the most important things was for the broad masses of working people themselves to struggle over and grasp the correct political line. Only in this way could they keep political power in their hands. If China were to follow the line that the working people are only good for slaving away for others, without taking part in – and taking command in – the political struggle, then socialist China’s gains would be 1 and the country would return to the society and all its miseries.
Mao pointed out that there would ha to be many more Cultural Revolutions and other mass political struggles like to keep the working class in power. The battle to transform society is very long and complex, and there is a great deal that needs changing step by step. But the goal is just as great as the struggle is hard. It is a struggle in which working class is leading the people toward the final elimination of all classes and class differences, towards communism. Only when there are no more classes will it then be impossible for some people to try to grab up everything themselves and twist the workers’ labor for their own private gain.
The long history of workers struggle China – before and after the winning socialism – is a wealth of experience. Continued workers struggle to keep control and make advances is the best guarantee of a bright future.