Mao

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Life

Context

• China in the 19th century
  • 80% agricultural population
  • Did not industrialize
  • Imperialism from the Japanese and British
  • Suffered during the opium wars
• Xinhai Revolution of 1911
  • replaced the 2132 year old dynasty for a republic
  • Caused political division
  • Communist revolution six years later

Mao

• life
  • Born to prosperous peasants in 1893
  • Studies to become a teacher
  • Engaged in the army during the revolution but did not see combat
  • 1921: Founding the Chinese Communist Party
  • 1917 CCP and Nationalist civil war begins
  • Civil War lasts for 22 years, guerilla war
  • 1949: CCP prevails and Mao becomes the head of state
  • 1958: Great leap forward
  • 1976: Death
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Philosophy

Dialectics

• Contradictions
  • Unity of the opposites (from Marx)
  • Contradiction makes the world evolve (from Hegel) even in a socialist society
• Contradictions against the enemy, is antagonistic
  • For Mao, the enemy was something that could unite the people
  • Anyone opposed the socialist revolution was the enemy
  • Only through dictatorship can it be handled, transforms the people
• Contradictions among the people it is non-antagonistic
  • Handled in a democratic matter of persuasion and (indoctrination) education
  • Called the regime the People’s democratic dictatorship
  • Classifies how to deal with these contradictions

Maoism

• Phases
  • China also in the feudal stage, hardly a proletariat or industrialization
  • Mao develops four elements that form foundation of Maoism
  • Marx believed in revolution; Mao used an evolution to take power between 1927 to 1949 by a drawn out conflict war of attrition
  • Marx believed socialism would take place in the cities among the proletariat; Moa began his revolution in the countryside, he surrounded the cities
  • Proletariat not the communist backbone like in Marxism, for Mao it was the peasants
  • After founding the PCR, develops the idea of the permanent revolution of transformation from the socialist phase to the communist phase
  • The great leap forward: economic revolution

• The great leap forward: economic revolution

  • Abolition of private property
  • Collectivized farming, millions of deaths
  • Farmers expected to produce enough to sponsor industrialization

• Cultural revolution

  • Need to fight off the bourgeoise
  • Destroy old culture, habits, customs and ideas
  • Main soldiers were the students, they were easily indoctrinated, all had the Red Book
  • Came after the professors
  • Students accused their parents of anti-communist sentiments or being influenced by bourgeoise
  • Moa had this cult of personality, students had more loyalty to him

• Rivalry

  • Contention between China and Russia, Leninism and Moaism
  • There was also political tension due to issues like the Korean War
  • Castro was a Leninist, he had a vanguard of revolutionaries and was trained in Russia
  • Cambodia was an agrarian extremist reform > everyone goes to the countryside
  • Cold War leads to a split between China and Russia

• USSR change

  • 1989: Lack of competitiveness, issues in ideology since the state did not wither away
  • Vanguard had created a new elite, a new bourgeoise
  • Gorbachev tries to modernize communism
  • Perestroika: Restructuring of the economy
  • Glasnost: transparency, openness, political change
  • His modernization plans opens pandora’s box of nationalism among its satellite states

• China

  • Change of economy but no political freedom or transparency
  • Opposite from the USSR: success in adapting economy but did not want to change politics
  • People will submit to the one party as long as living standards are not terrible
  • Rise of middle class typically leads to social revolution

• Socialism

  • Anti-capitalist and also saw its connection to imperialism
  • China had no proletariat, therefore was an agrarian population
  • Feudalism created class struggle
  • Capitalist countries could not become socialist outright, but the oppressed colonialized and exploited nations could

• Government

  • Centralized government
  • Control of agriculture
  • Should reflect views of the masses, with an exchange of ideas in a transitive way
  • State should decide the best action for the sake of the people in the long term
  • Great Leap Forward: Abolition of private ownership, with a five year plan of farming cooperatives
  • Leads to the starvation of between 20-40 million people in a span of four years
  • Lead to opposition

• Cultural revolution

  • Marxist’s permanent revolution
  • Mao saw a need to get rid of the former culture: the old customs, cultures, habits, and ideas
  • Intellectuals, teachers, parents, targeted by young people

Impact

Death and aftermath

• Reforms
  • Saw that communism was not practical and the regime would not last
  • Lead to a freer market, private ownership, but still controlled economy
  • Considered the founder of modern China
• Communism
  • Leads to a brand of agrarian communism like Lenin, popular in Cambodia and Cuba
  • Several revolutions in third world countries