Left Communism in China
Encyclopedia
In the People's Republic of China
since 1967, the terms "Ultra-Left
" and "left communist" refers to political theory and practice self-defined as further "left
" than that of the central Maoist leaders at the height of the GPCR ("Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution"). The terms are also used retroactively to describe some early 20th century Chinese anarchist orientations. As a slur, the Communist Party of China
(CPC) has used the term "ultra-left" more broadly to denounce any orientation it considers further "left" than the party line
. According to the latter usage, in 1978 the CPC Central Committee
denounced as "ultra-left" the line of Mao Zedong
from 1956 until his death in 1976. This article refers only to 1) the self-defined Ultra-Left of the GPCR, and 2) more recent theoretical trends drawing inspiration from the GPCR Ultra-Left, China's anarchist legacy, and international "left communist" traditions.
between the CPC
-PRC
party-state itself and the masses
of workers and "peasants" conceived as a single proletarian class
divorced from any meaningful control over production or distribution. Whereas the central Maoist line maintained that the masses controlled the means of production
through the Party
's mediation, the Ultra-Left argued that the objective interests of bureaucrats were structurally determined by the centralist state
-form in direct opposition to the objective interests of the masses, regardless of however "red
" a given bureaucrat's "thought" might be. Whereas the central Maoist leaders encouraged the masses to criticize reactionary
"ideas" and "habits
" among the alleged 5% of bad cadres, giving them a chance to "turn over a new leaf" after they had undergone "thought reform
," the Ultra-Left argued that "cultural revolution" had to give way to "political revolution" - "in which one class overthrows another class". The masses could achieve democratic control over production and distribution only through "a new political power of the Paris Commune
type." This meant that mass delegates subject to immediate recall and a universal salary would take over all the tasks necessary for organizing production and distribution, and all other bureaucratic posts would be abolished, including the military and police, which would give way to an armed citizenry. This revolution would necessarily involve general strike
s, mutinies
, weapons seizures, and, ultimately, the merging of the Chinese revolution with a global communist revolution.
When the central Maoist leaders launched the GPCR in the spring of 1966, they launched a campaign for students and academics to criticize "bourgeois" or otherwise "counter-revolutionary" ideas within China's "superstructural" apparatus. As the Central Committee
's 16 Points on the GPCR put it in August:
Although the 16 Points called on not only students but also "the masses of the workers, peasants, soldiers, revolutionary intellectuals, and revolutionary cadres" to carry out this struggle, and although it encouraged activists to "institute a system of general elections, like that of the Paris Commune, for electing members to the Cultural Revolutionary groups and committees and delegates to the Cultural Revolutionary congresses," this and other proof of the central Maoist leaders made clear that this was to be "wen (文)" struggle rather than a "wu (武)" struggle. The leaders used these terms to emphasize that "martial" (wu) or physical violence should be avoided in favor of "verbal" (wen) struggle (big-character poster
s, debates, rallies, etc.), but the distinction also corresponds to one that Ultra-Left rebels would later reject: the "revolution" was to be "cultural" rather than "political" or social
. The rationale was that China's economic structure or "base" had already completed its transition to socialist productive relations (Mao had announced this good news in 1956), so now the next logical step before full communization was to complete the superstructural transformation.
When, in late 1966, over a million workers in Shanghai extended their activism into a general strike
calling for improved salaries and democratic control over workplace management and city governance, Maoist worker representatives such as Wang Hongwen
criticized these demands as "economistic" violation of point 14 of the 16 Points: "embrace the revolution while stimulating production (抓革命，促生产)." With some police assistance, these representatives managed to silence the more radical rank-and-file demands and absorb their energy into the nominal "January Revolutionary Storm," which replaced the city government and Party Committee with a "Shanghai Commune
" ruled by Wang and Zhang Chunqiao
. Some intransigent rebels called for democratic control over the Commune, and even the abolition of all "heads." When Mao heard of this he told Zhang to transform the Commune into a "Revolutionary Committee
" in which mass representatives would share power with Army and Party representatives, and he recommended that this model of "power seizure" be propagated throughout China lest people get the wrong idea from Shanghai's invocation of the Paris Commune
. Thus marched the People's Liberation Army onto the stage of GPCR mass politics
, and thus began what the Ultra-Left would later call the "February Adverse Current."
It was out of this momentary radicalization of GPCR mass politics and its sudden suppression and redirection that the Ultra-Left currents were born, first independently within rebel groups scattered throughout China, then, by late 1967, in increasing dialogue until their suppression during the following years. The earliest record GPCR scholar Wang Shaoguang has found of something like an Ultra-Left position is an open letter from two high school students to Lin Biao
, published under the pseudonym "Yilin-Dixi" in November 1966. Whereas Lin had recently sought to curb Red Guard rebellion by interpreting Mao's "Bombard the Headquarters
" to mean "bombard a few capitalist roaders" as opposed to "bombard our proletarian headquarters," Yilin-Dixi argued that it was the so-called "proletarian headquarters" itself that had "become obsolete" and needed to be "reformed": "We must create a whole new state machinery to replace the old one" (3).
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
since 1967, the terms "Ultra-Left
Ultra leftism
The term ultra-leftism has two overlapping uses. It is used as a generally pejorative term for certain types of positions on the left that are seen as extreme or intransigent in particular ways...
" and "left communist" refers to political theory and practice self-defined as further "left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
" than that of the central Maoist leaders at the height of the GPCR ("Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution"). The terms are also used retroactively to describe some early 20th century Chinese anarchist orientations. As a slur, the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
(CPC) has used the term "ultra-left" more broadly to denounce any orientation it considers further "left" than the party line
Party line (politics)
In politics, the line or the party line is an idiom for a political party or social movement's canon agenda, as well as specific ideological elements specific to the organization's partisanship. The common phrase toeing the party line describes a person who speaks in a manner that conforms to his...
. According to the latter usage, in 1978 the CPC Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
denounced as "ultra-left" the line of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
from 1956 until his death in 1976. This article refers only to 1) the self-defined Ultra-Left of the GPCR, and 2) more recent theoretical trends drawing inspiration from the GPCR Ultra-Left, China's anarchist legacy, and international "left communist" traditions.
The GPCR Ultra-Left
"Ultra-Left" refers to those GPCR rebel positions that diverged from the central Maoist line by identifying an antagonistic contradictionAntagonistic contradiction
Antagonistic contradiction is the impossibility of compromise between different social classes. The term is most often applied in Maoist theory, which holds that differences between the two primary classes, the working class/proletariat and the bourgeoisie are so great that there is no way to...
between the CPC
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
-PRC
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
party-state itself and the masses
Hoi polloi
Hoi polloi , an expression meaning "the many", or in the strictest sense, "the majority" in Greek, is used in English to denote "the masses" or "the people", usually in a derogatory sense. Synonyms for "hoi polloi" include ".....
of workers and "peasants" conceived as a single proletarian class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
divorced from any meaningful control over production or distribution. Whereas the central Maoist line maintained that the masses controlled the means of production
Means of production
Means of production refers to physical, non-human inputs used in production—the factories, machines, and tools used to produce wealth — along with both infrastructural capital and natural capital. This includes the classical factors of production minus financial capital and minus human capital...
through the Party
Party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, or recreation. A party will typically feature food and beverages, and often music and dancing as well....
's mediation, the Ultra-Left argued that the objective interests of bureaucrats were structurally determined by the centralist state
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...
-form in direct opposition to the objective interests of the masses, regardless of however "red
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
" a given bureaucrat's "thought" might be. Whereas the central Maoist leaders encouraged the masses to criticize reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
"ideas" and "habits
Habit (psychology)
Habits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously. Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks...
" among the alleged 5% of bad cadres, giving them a chance to "turn over a new leaf" after they had undergone "thought reform
Thought reform
Thought reform can refer to:* Brainwashing, efforts aimed at instilling certain beliefs in people against their will.* Coercive persuasion comprises social influences capable of producing substantial behavior and attitude change through the use of coercive tactics and persuasion, via interpersonal...
," the Ultra-Left argued that "cultural revolution" had to give way to "political revolution" - "in which one class overthrows another class". The masses could achieve democratic control over production and distribution only through "a new political power of the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
type." This meant that mass delegates subject to immediate recall and a universal salary would take over all the tasks necessary for organizing production and distribution, and all other bureaucratic posts would be abolished, including the military and police, which would give way to an armed citizenry. This revolution would necessarily involve general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
s, mutinies
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
, weapons seizures, and, ultimately, the merging of the Chinese revolution with a global communist revolution.
When the central Maoist leaders launched the GPCR in the spring of 1966, they launched a campaign for students and academics to criticize "bourgeois" or otherwise "counter-revolutionary" ideas within China's "superstructural" apparatus. As the Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
's 16 Points on the GPCR put it in August:
- Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it is still trying to use the old ideas, culture, customs, habitsFour OldsThe Four Olds or the Four Old Things were Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. One of the stated goals of the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China was to bring an end to the Four Olds...
, practices, traditions, philosophies, and thinking of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds and endeavour to stage a comeback. The proletariatProletariatThe proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
must do the exact opposite: it must meet head-on every challenge of the bourgeoisie in the ideological field and use the new ideas, culture, customs and habits of the proletariat to change the mental outlook of the whole of society. At present, our objective is to struggle against and overthrow those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road, to criticize and repudiate the reactionaryReactionaryThe term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
bourgeois academic 'authorities' and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploitingExploitationThis article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
classes and to transform education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructureBase and superstructureIn Marxist theory, human society consists of two parts: the base and superstructure; the base comprehends the forces and relations of production — employer-employee work conditions, the technical division of labour, and property relations — into which people enter to produce the necessities and...
not in correspondence with the socialistSocialismSocialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
economic base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist system.
Although the 16 Points called on not only students but also "the masses of the workers, peasants, soldiers, revolutionary intellectuals, and revolutionary cadres" to carry out this struggle, and although it encouraged activists to "institute a system of general elections, like that of the Paris Commune, for electing members to the Cultural Revolutionary groups and committees and delegates to the Cultural Revolutionary congresses," this and other proof of the central Maoist leaders made clear that this was to be "wen (文)" struggle rather than a "wu (武)" struggle. The leaders used these terms to emphasize that "martial" (wu) or physical violence should be avoided in favor of "verbal" (wen) struggle (big-character poster
Big-character poster
Big-character posters are handwritten, wall-mounted posters using large-sized Chinese characters, used as a means of protest, propaganda, and popular communication. They have been used in China since imperial times, but became more common when literacy rates rose after the 1911 revolution...
s, debates, rallies, etc.), but the distinction also corresponds to one that Ultra-Left rebels would later reject: the "revolution" was to be "cultural" rather than "political" or social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
. The rationale was that China's economic structure or "base" had already completed its transition to socialist productive relations (Mao had announced this good news in 1956), so now the next logical step before full communization was to complete the superstructural transformation.
When, in late 1966, over a million workers in Shanghai extended their activism into a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
calling for improved salaries and democratic control over workplace management and city governance, Maoist worker representatives such as Wang Hongwen
Wang Hongwen
Wang Hongwen was the youngest member of the Gang of Four. At the pinnacle of his power he ranked third in the Communist Party's hierarchy. He was charged with counterrevolutionary activity in October 1976, and sent to prison.-Biography:Wang was born in a village outside of Changchun...
criticized these demands as "economistic" violation of point 14 of the 16 Points: "embrace the revolution while stimulating production (抓革命，促生产)." With some police assistance, these representatives managed to silence the more radical rank-and-file demands and absorb their energy into the nominal "January Revolutionary Storm," which replaced the city government and Party Committee with a "Shanghai Commune
Shanghai Commune
Shanghai Commune may mean:* Shanghai Commune of 1927, established through a workers movement organised by the Communist Party of China* Shanghai People's Commune, established during the Cultural Revolution...
" ruled by Wang and Zhang Chunqiao
Zhang Chunqiao
Zhang Chunqiao was a prominent Chinese political theorist, writer, and politician...
. Some intransigent rebels called for democratic control over the Commune, and even the abolition of all "heads." When Mao heard of this he told Zhang to transform the Commune into a "Revolutionary Committee
Revolutionary committee
Revolutionary committees or revkoms were Bolshevik-led organizations in Soviet Russia and in areas of its activities established to serve as provisional governments and temporary Soviet administrations in territories under the control of the Red Army in 1918-1920, during the Russian Civil War and...
" in which mass representatives would share power with Army and Party representatives, and he recommended that this model of "power seizure" be propagated throughout China lest people get the wrong idea from Shanghai's invocation of the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
. Thus marched the People's Liberation Army onto the stage of GPCR mass politics
Mass politics
Mass politics is a political order resting on the emergence of mass political parties.The emergence of mass politics generally associated with the rise of mass society coinciding with the Industrial Revolution in the West around the time of President Andrew Jackson...
, and thus began what the Ultra-Left would later call the "February Adverse Current."
It was out of this momentary radicalization of GPCR mass politics and its sudden suppression and redirection that the Ultra-Left currents were born, first independently within rebel groups scattered throughout China, then, by late 1967, in increasing dialogue until their suppression during the following years. The earliest record GPCR scholar Wang Shaoguang has found of something like an Ultra-Left position is an open letter from two high school students to Lin Biao
Lin Biao
Lin Biao was a major Chinese Communist military leader who was pivotal in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China...
, published under the pseudonym "Yilin-Dixi" in November 1966. Whereas Lin had recently sought to curb Red Guard rebellion by interpreting Mao's "Bombard the Headquarters
Bombard the Headquarters
Bombard The Headquarters – My Big-Character Poster was a short document written by Mao Zedong on August 5, 1966 during the 11th Plenary Session of the 8th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and published on the Communist Party's official newspaper People's Daily the same day.It is...
" to mean "bombard a few capitalist roaders" as opposed to "bombard our proletarian headquarters," Yilin-Dixi argued that it was the so-called "proletarian headquarters" itself that had "become obsolete" and needed to be "reformed": "We must create a whole new state machinery to replace the old one" (3).
Further reading
- The 70s Collective, ed. 1996. China: The Revolution is Dead, Long Live the Revolution. Montreal: Black Rose Books.
- Chen Erjin. 1984. Crossroads Socialism: An Unofficial Manifesto for Proletarian Democracy. Trans. Robin MunroRobin MunroRobin Munro is a British legal scholar, author, and human rights advocate. He received his PhD from the Department of Law, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London....
. London: Verso. - Mehnert, Klaus, ed. 1969. Peking and the New Left: At Home and Abroad. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Meisner, Maurice. 1999. Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic, Third Edition. New York: The Free Press.
- Perry, Elizabeth and Li Xun. 1997. Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution. Boulder: Westview Press.
- Wang Shaoguang. 1995. The Failure of Charisma: The Cultural Revolution in Wuhan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- 陈益南，《一个工人的“文革”》，2006年。
External links
- Communist Left on China
- "Whither China?" by Yang Xiguang of the Sheng Wu Lian (Hunan Proletarian Alliance)(full text of this and other Sheng Wu Lian documents translated in Mehnert, below.)
- "The rise and suppression of the 'ultra-left' in the Chinese cultural revolution" by Pete Brown
- "'New Trends of Thought' on the Cultural Revolution" by Wang Shaoguang
- "Rethinking 'Capitalist Restoration' in China" by Yiching Wu
- 宋永毅、孙大进编. 1997. 《文化大革命中的异端思潮》. 香港:田园书屋.:
- 《论新思潮》，四三派（ ?）著
- 《中国向何处去？》，省无联（杨曦光）著
- 《无产阶级文化大革命中各种派别的分析》，北决扬（ 杨 Xiulin）著
- 《特权论》（《论无产阶级民主革命》），陈泱潮（陈尔晋）著
- 《从阶级关系反思中国的“资本主义复辟”》，吴一庆著
- 《“文革”为什么结束？》，韩少功 (陈益南《一个工人的“文革”》的序言）