China’s Cultural Revolution
It has been argued that most of the crucial political and ideological battles of the Cultural Revolution were fought over the issue of the nature of social class structure in post-revolutionary China. What does the Cultural Revolution teach us about class structure and struggle under socialism?
The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution[1] was a political and ideological struggle spanning the decade from 1966-1976. More implicitly, it was a struggle spurned into motion by Mao Zedong to reinstitute his mass line and turn China back to the ‘Socialist Road.’ Mao urged the Chinese to undergo a ‘class struggle’ whereby those truly on the path to Communism would rise against the new bureaucracy who were implementing ideology inconsistent with the main tenets of Maoism. However, what ensued was catastrophic and referred to by Feng Jicai as “Ten Years of Madness.”[2] While the class structure of post-revolutionary Chinese society had effectively eradicated the feudal class structure, a new, elite bureaucratic class had emerged. Indeed, these new elite and the remnants of the old bourgeois class bore the brunt of the violent onslaught of Mao’s Red Guards during the CR. In this essay, I argue that class struggle, and struggle under socialism in the CR was paradoxical as “most radicals in the revolutionary campaign against revisionism were representatives not of the proletariat…but of the bourgeoisie itself.”[3] While many joined Mao in is his crusade for utilitarian reasons, many also joined seeking to revenge ill-treatment and denigration at the hands of the elite due to their ‘bad class backgrounds.’ Furthermore, this period demonstrates through the factional plight of the Red Guards and the persecution of party cadres and intelligentsia, that class struggle is not always initiated from unprivileged or discontented classes, but also from those aspiring to retain their new elitist position in society.
Zhou Enlai proclaimed the CR in 1964 to transform “all bourgeois, feudal
The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution[1] was a political and ideological struggle spanning the decade from 1966-1976. More implicitly, it was a struggle spurned into motion by Mao Zedong to reinstitute his mass line and turn China back to the ‘Socialist Road.’ Mao urged the Chinese to undergo a ‘class struggle’ whereby those truly on the path to Communism would rise against the new bureaucracy who were implementing ideology inconsistent with the main tenets of Maoism. However, what ensued was catastrophic and referred to by Feng Jicai as “Ten Years of Madness.”[2] While the class structure of post-revolutionary Chinese society had effectively eradicated the feudal class structure, a new, elite bureaucratic class had emerged. Indeed, these new elite and the remnants of the old bourgeois class bore the brunt of the violent onslaught of Mao’s Red Guards during the CR. In this essay, I argue that class struggle, and struggle under socialism in the CR was paradoxical as “most radicals in the revolutionary campaign against revisionism were representatives not of the proletariat…but of the bourgeoisie itself.”[3] While many joined Mao in is his crusade for utilitarian reasons, many also joined seeking to revenge ill-treatment and denigration at the hands of the elite due to their ‘bad class backgrounds.’ Furthermore, this period demonstrates through the factional plight of the Red Guards and the persecution of party cadres and intelligentsia, that class struggle is not always initiated from unprivileged or discontented classes, but also from those aspiring to retain their new elitist position in society.
Zhou Enlai proclaimed the CR in 1964 to transform “all bourgeois, feudal