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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 6/29/19

Red Guards ain't all red: Who fought whom in China's Cultural Revolution? (5/8)

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Essentially, the Loyalist Faction Red Guards didn't know what they were getting into when they started the new CR, as they soon found themselves under attack.

Why the Cultural Revolution was totally different to China, from the Chinese perspective

Han relates in detail and in real-time how the CR came to Jimo County: who were the "rebel leaders", who were the criticized Party members, who fought back against the CR, and how it evolved from what could have been just another "anti-rightist campaign", like in 1957, or yet another of near-yearly "anti-corruption campaigns", into something wholly new a CR.

Let's start at the beginning:

"At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, the CCP had total control of Chinese political and economic life. "(the CCP) held the reins of power at each level."

But what Mao and his supporters wanted was to provoke was something which was previously banned as "anti-party thought" independent criticism of Party authorities. (Such criticism is widespread in Iran the critics have not succeeded in persuading Iranians to abandon their revolution, however.)

The democratic bonafides of the CR are further strengthened by the fact that those who openly criticized the government were not punished, but given power. That is a very rare phenomenon. But we are skipping ahead the first rare phenomenon is that poor rural people were given platforms to explain where their Party-led society had failed, and where the empowerment created by socialist revolution had not yet reached.

"It (the CR) differs from all the previous political campaigns because for the first time in the CCP's history it circumvented the local party bosses and stressed the principle of letting the masses empower themselves and educate themselves." (Han's emphasis)

This is the revolution within a socialist revolution provided by Maoism only installing a vanguard party is not enough to achieve on-the-ground, democratic socialism.

The first two months of the CR (June-July 1966) saw attacks on the "Four Olds" in essence, attacks on outdated, repressive and capitalist customs, cultures, habits, and ideas. This was led by the Loyalist Faction Red Guards, to be distinguished from the Rebel Faction Red Guards who came to power later .

"Of course, from the point of view of local party officials, campaigns to destroy the four olds and attack landlords, capitalists and political enemies were convenient ways to divert attention from themselves and protect themselves from attack." So in this way the first couple months of the CR was a really just a "pseudo-CR", because it was led by many of the corrupt cadres themselves.

But what stopped this "pseudo-CR" was the August 1966 Mao-faction drafted "16 Points", which boldly and correctly proclaimed as its headline: "A New Stage in the Socialist Revolution". The 16 points is briefly summarized here, but to recap: capitalism is essentially a negative societal habit, and if this habit is not broken wherever it is found within a socialist society then it will lead to the unwanted restoration of capitalism-imperialism. Thus, the CR requires vigorous refutation and discrediting of proven anti-socialist thought and influence.

Crucially, the 16 Points, ""made the distinction between the Communist party as an institution and party bosses as individuals in a definitive manner, and which stressed that the targets of the Cultural Revolution were the capitalist roaders inside the Party." (Han's emphasis)

"Capitalist roader" is, I feel, a rather inelegant but common English translation of this supremely important Maoist phrase. What it refers to is: a person who wants to get off the road of socialism and return to the road of capitalism-imperialism. It is not an effective translation because it lacks the necessary implication of betraying socialism's already-acquired advances. "Capitalist re-roader" would be better, but also inelegant. However, one of the beauties of socialist jargon is its refusal to be elegant at all!

What we can also do is to call the capitalist roaders something more accurate "anti-empowerment roaders". Or we could call them "king-roaders", for Muslim countries still oppressed by monarchies, and "CEO-roaders" for the Western republics suffering from bourgeois/West European/Liberal Democracy's promotion of neoliberal ideals.

Let's put the 16 Points in China's historical context:

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Ramin Mazaheri is currently covering the US elections. He is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, (more...)
 

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