STAGE IN THE CRISIS IN CHINA
By Livio Maitan
In recent weeks the political crisis in China underwent a new surge with more dramatic conflicts than in all the preceding phases. Towards the end of December and the first part of January, tengion reached a very high point not only at the level of the governing groups but also at the level of the masses, including the proletariat.
Let it be repeated once again -- it is difficult to express an exact judgment since too many elements are still lacking and most often it involves essential elements. It is true that the international press of all stripes provides abundant information day by day. But almost in its totality this information either has little foundation or . is obviously tendentious, fantasy being customarily combined with lack of sound criteria. This holds, it should be emphasized, for both the bourgeois sources and sources like Tass and Tanyug which are vying in a campaign of denigration, the objectives of which are absolutely clear. It goes without saying, moreover, that it is impossible to accept either the apologetic interpretations, according to which nothing more is involved in China than a revolutionary mass movement stimulated by the Mao leadership in order to defeat the bourgeoisie and the revisionists and assure the flowering of real proletarian democracy, or the interpretations which do not grasp that the movement, aside from the aims of the Mao-Lin Piao group and the bureaucratic operations at the top, has a tendency to develop its own dynamism, if only partially.
This being said, it is clear that during the past two months, the Mao-Lin Piao group did not succeed in breaking the multiple resistance to its orientation and methods of struggle. On the contrary, the essential element has been the appearance, in an ever clearer way of differentiation and a split within the group that has headed the cultural revolution since last summer.
We have now had some explicit indication (for example, in some of the speeches made by Mao's wife) that behind the very general cover of the cultural revolution very different thrusts have developed and even different groups have formed. Some of these groups have now been made the target of public denunciations; they are said to have intervened in an arbitrary and erroneous way and are said to be guilty of committing acts zof violence instead of defeating their enemies by convinqjng them through discussion. We do not know, of course, if this corresponds to the truth, but at least it is clear ythat differentiations have actually occurred at the top; and, let us repeat, ina public way. It is likely that three tendencies are emerging -- a tendency that hesitates to break with the "centrists," a tendency which, while not accepting an alliance with the latter, would like to moderate the attacks on the adversaries and limit, sarticularly when a certain point has been reached, the movement of the Red Guards; and a tendency that prefers to carry the struggle to the end, including by means of the harshest methods. The decline of Tao Chu was one of the most notable episodes of this new struggle, whatever may have been the positions he stood for.
To break the still remaining resistance and quite likely also to avoid being undercut by the others, the Mao-Lin Piao group decided to likewise involve the workers ‘and peasants in the mobilization for the cultural revolution. In line with this they utilized themes analogous to those tried out in mobilizing the Red Guard youth and they went so far in this as to advocate the formation of elective committees in the plants, the members of which are charged with keeping up production.
Aside from this appeal, Mao's plays were extremely risky and in fact on one hand the resistance, far from becoming weaker, increased still more and on the other a movement with its own dynamism became clearly discernible.
Thus in Shanghai, the biggest industrial city in China, for the first time since the founding of the People's Republic, sectors of the proletariat mobilized on a broad scale. The official reports themselves tell us that the workers downed their tools in many plants and paralyzed transportation on a considerable scale, while the longshoremen likewise organized strikes. People also occupied public buildings. Again it was ‘the official reports that spoke of workers demanding increases in wages and changes in conditions on the job and sought to send delegates to Peking and other cities. These delegations were actually created and undertook trips, wringing the material means for this, it seems, from those in charge of the city administration, the latter now being held responsible for this generosity.
According to the international press, both bourgeois and pro-Soviet, the explanation for these events is relatively simple -- the workers revolted against Mao and his line; his opponents succeeded in mobilizing them and temporarily assuring themselves
of control of Shanghai as well as certain other big cities.
As for the official: interpretation, it is not much different, even if the assessment is naturally just the reverse -- the partisans of the "black line," the advocates of. the restoration of capitalism under different masks, tricked and corrupted the workers, pushing them into a reactionary movenent against socialism.
It goes without saying that neither of these two interpretations can be accepted. ‘Let us disregard the argument about a "plot," which beldngs to a very old. tradition. Is it conceivable that some opponents were able to get organized in such a way as to be able to influence the very broad masses and turn some cities against the central power? This is completely absurd -- all the more so since the masses could not clearly see what is really at stake in the struggle, inasmuch as the polemic is still limited to. very general accusations, to slogans that have little that is concrete, to exhortations of a moral nature.
' At bottom it is precisely this character of the propaganda of the group in power since the beginning of the crisis, it is precisely the fact that the real direct aims of. the discussion and the conflict have never. been explicitly made precise for the. masses, that’contributed to making possible the most diverse and contradictory.reactions, everyone hiding a bit behind the very same slogans and everyone thinking of being able to actually conduct a just battle against: the hidden enemies in the party and state | apparatus, against the unavowed partisans of revisionism. ‘
Thus from the moment the mobilization of the workers was launched, in the climate which ‘the propaganda of the Mao group had created, sectors of the workers took. things seriously and began to move in the direction of demanding their rights and in the first place an improvement in their. standard of living. As they saw it, the enemies against which they had been asked to struggle were concretely those who had directed them ina bureaucratic way, refusing to recognize the justice.of their demands. In other words, the workers who began a strike or sent delegations to Peking did not have the idea of struggling against Mao and his:policies, but.on the contrary of mobilizing precisely in order to convert into reality what: the official propaganda had been tirelessly explaining to them. It is significant. that detachments of Red Guards, as the official journals themselves admit, also participated in the Shanghai movement.
‘What was the attitude of the leading group in Shanghai?
It is rather difficult to tell at present. What is clear is that it has been accused of having given way to the movement and particularly of having made economic concessions. But it is worth noting a point which in our opinion is essential -- the leadership of the city which is under fire today is the same one on which Mao based himself in November 1965 in beginning the struggle and one of the newspapers in the city, the staff of which has been changed, is precisely the one that published the article against the drama Hai Jui Dismissed from Office which marked the opening of hostilities. Could a more striking proof be found of the contradictory developments, unexpected by the main protagonists themselves, in this crisis shaking China?
As for the reaction of the central leading group, it is probable that this has been the subject of rather rough discussions and conflicts. In fact-the famous appeal to rectify the Shanghai organizations was published in that city January 5 but was not reproduced by the People's Daily until four days later (four days count a lot in such a critical situation). In addition, the note in the Shanghai Wen Hui Pao, commenting on the publication of the appeal in Peking gives the impression of a feeling of relief among people who, entertained fears about the | attitude that would be adopted at the center...
In any case, the rejoinder of the group in power was rather lengthy, going into various areas:
; (1) The leading group in Shanghai was attacked, essentially because it was incapable. of controlling the movement and had made concessions. It should be noted however that at the time this is being written -- January 18 -- it seems that the violent criticism did not entail any dismissals, which would indicate that the group still holds rather strong positions and holds some good trumps.
(2) The strike movement was denounced with the greatest vehemence, including open threats of reprisals against those who might persist. The accusers resorted to the technique known as the amalgam, not even hesitating to advance contradictory arguments (people were accused at one and the same time of maintaining that the cultural revolution would affect production and of having sabotaged production by suspending work). What is particularly significant is that in the appeal published January 5, the "trouble-
makers" are falsely presented as elements of the extreme left.
(4) An attempt was made to discredit the workers demands by accusing them of being "revisionist" and inspired by "economist" concepts. On this subject, the ideological propaganda against material stimulants revealed its dual bearing. When it is directed against the tendency of the bureaucrats or technocrats to assure themselves special incomes, it can have an objectively progressive content; but it acquires quite a different meaning when the aim is to contest the right of the workers to struggle to improve their standard of living through their own initiative, independently of the decisions of the bureaucratic rulers.
(4) Finally, a series of practical measures and instructions to eliminate or limit certain consequences of the unrecognized strike movement and the mobilizations was announced.
But at the same time, if certain reports are accurate, the Mao group is seeking to reestablish, if not a certain unity, certain liaisons at the top, including overtures to the centrist tendencies and even, perhaps, an attempt to reach an agreement with elements like Liu Shao-chi and Teng Hsiao-ping. Chou En-lai seems to be playing a major role, while Mao himself could accentuate a bonapartist game which could prove useful in the developing situation for the bureaucracy as a whole. There was also an attempt to reaffirm the authority of the Central Committee which on the one hand issued reminders of its right to decide questions of wages, while on the other indicating partial concessions to the strikers (nor should it be forgotten that even in the crucial days in Shanghai, the ruling group promised those who resumed orderly conduct not to take any measures against then). ;
In conclusion, the struggle of the tendencies at the top -- determined by multiple factors which we have analyzed:elsewhere -- ended in an attempt on an unprecedented scale on the part of one of the tendencies in the conflict to find support through mobilizing the masses, stimulating them through ideological themes capable of boomeranging. In fact the movement that has been unleashed has at least partly escaped control of those who engendered it. This has provoked very grave tension between the bureaucratic groups and the masses, including in the latest phase, the proletarian masses.
There is no doubt that these developments will cause the Mao group to think it over and new spectacular events could occur. In any case the solution of the crisis which opened fourteen months ago does not appear to be either easy or near.