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Mao Tse Tung

Five grounds that show why China is no longer Socialist, much less Communist

in Editorial

Up until today, and probably for more decades to come, China will continue to harp on having a system of an “advanced socialism with Chinese characteristics”. But even to ordinary tourists in China, what appears to mesmerize them is China’s speedy turn towards capitalism.

This great country, founded as a people’s republic under Mao Tse Tung 70 years ago, was a blazing icon for many of the world’s revolutionaries and proletariat, including those in the Philippines. China inspired millions as it initially transformed itself from a backward semi-feudal, semi-colonial toward a progressive and socialist country.

But in no time at all after Mao’s passing, revisionism struck its ugly chord; systematically it demolished socialism and restored capitalism. Now China is a fast-emerging imperialist power challenging the heretofore lone imperialist superpower, the United States, after the unravelling of the Soviet Union towards the end of the 1980s.

What has become of socialism then? It remained in China only “in words, not in deeds”. The Chinese “communist” leadership has become a master of duplicity, hiding behind socialist slogans, yet brazenly collaborating and colluding with capitalist powers while creating its own brand of monopoly capitalism.

The first thing the revisionists did a few years after Mao’s death was to thoroughly revile the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR), so much so that until now, few publications, especially in the culturally influential “West”, write about the GPCR without choice insults thrown in against it.

Were it not for the succeeding Chinese leadership’s duplicity and use of force against genuine communists, the peoples of the world would have seen how Mao’s theory of continuing revolution (as embodied in the GPCR) would have continued to make leaps and bounds in modernizing and developing not only China, but perhaps the rest of the world as well, along historically unprecedented socialist lines.

The GPCR was the Chinese communists’ endeavor to ensure that the proletariat and the people actually (not nominally) rule; that they actually own, manage, and equitably share in the nation’s production and wealth. The GPCR was designed as a national check against revisionism, against the return in various guises of parasitic exploitation by one social class of another class—be they called, in the “West” as capitalists or, in China as Party leaders and entrenched bureaucrats along with their relatives.

The continuing attack against the GPCR and the reign of duplicitous Chinese leadership represent, at once, the monumental possibility as well as the tragedy in the struggle of the world’s proletariat. Possibility because due to China’s socialist undertaking it was able to advance in so short a time. Tragedy because its advance was cut short much too soon even though Mao had emphasized early on that the revolution is a continuing one.

We all have seen, or are still reeling from, the parasitic and fatal course of imperialism. How much more hopeful and glorious our tomorrow would have been, if our revolutionary struggles continued while a truly communist party and a socialist China both remained standing tall. As things stand now, we owe it to ourselves and our future to correct the historical injustice to the GPCR, while we persevere in the revolutionary struggle to free ourselves from capitalist exploitation.

For many, capitalism or imperialism is so ubiquitous and easy to spot. But imperialism as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”? The peoples of the world have heard, or read about, the garbage spoken or written against communism. Let us not add to it by calling today’s China “communist.”

For any reader who may have been lost in, or confused by, China’s transition to capitalism, here are a few basic communist traits. Compare these traits to the real world of China today, and we can see clearly that the Chinese leadership is lying through its teeth about being communist:

1. At the core of socialism is social ownership of the means of production.

Most of the land and strategic industries were declared public property, administered by the State or by people’s collectives. But the revisionists have effected major reversals. They have dismantled collective land ownership along with collective cultivation and administration. They have broken up and emasculated the communes and turned over their former dominion as piecemeal responsibilities of individual families. The revisionist State has closed down or sold off many State enterprises. Privatization, liberalization, deregulation—all neoliberal policies— have been let loose to gain foothold in Chinese agriculture and industry.

2. Working class leadership is paramount in a socialist society.

Yet the Communist Party of China, which leads the State, has turned into a bourgeois-led party. Long before it allowed capitalists—newly-minted billionaires at that—to become party members, the party cadres themselves had become bureaucrat capitalists. They dip their hands into public funds, enjoy and dispense privileges, engage in crime and corruption. Membership in the Party has become for sale, with huge payouts especially among bureaucrat princelings and billionaires. These bureaucrats thrive in a state of monopoly capitalism.

3. Public services and social policies are for the common good.

These are given priority in a socialist society. Yet under revisionist leadership severe cutbacks have been imposed on wages, food, education, health, housing, etc. Urban migration has ballooned as the landless, the dispossessed and the jobless migrants from China’s vast countryside converge in the cities in quest for jobs. Productivity has been prioritized over welfare and job security. Even the “right to strike” has been stricken out of the constitution.

4. Socialist and revolutionary values reign supreme in culture.

But the memories of China’s socialist revolution as well as those of other countries have been viciously obliterated. There are surmounting efforts to revise and distort Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. The spirit of revolutionary solidarity and cooperation that previously reigned high has been downgraded.

5. It is socialism’s dictum to come to the aid of poor and oppressed nations and peoples towards national and social liberation.

But this is not the spirit by which China nowadays exports capital, grants aid, or lends to nations. Far from international solidarity, China has become one of the world’s biggest creditors and uses its power to amass profit and to influence and intervene in other nations’ internal affairs in furtherance of China’s imperialistic aims. It is increasingly becoming a major military power as well to protect and advance its imperialistic interests. It is expanding its influence and dominion in many parts of the world, competing more and more aggressively with other major powers for markets and territories.Though the proletariat in China and in the rest of the world have encountered this huge setback, the fact remains that, scientifically speaking, over the long haul “capitalism digs its own grave.” The capitalist/imperialist system’s inherent contradictions have been spurring recurrent crises that it cannot continue trying to avoid, to delay, or worse to downplay by mislabeling it.

These crises, which have been growing worse in each succeeding round, naturally breed resistance. Despite repression and censorship by China’s capitalist roaders, for instance, the masses continue to resist in the countryside as well as in the cities. In due time, Mao’s unfailing faith in the masses will ultimately prevail and turn the tide in favor of socialism. ###

#FightModernRevisionism

—–VISIT and FOLLOW
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Solving the Drug Problem (Part 3 of 3)

in Mainstream

The New People’s Army  fight vs Drugs

by Pat Gambao

Aware of the disastrous consequences on people, the society and the revolution, the revolutionary movement from its inception has been fighting the drug menace—long before Duterte started his own “drug war”.

The organs of political power in the guerrilla zones have impressed on the masses the dangers of addictive drugs. In conjunction with this, they helped the masses cope with the prevailing conditions that forced them to turn to drugs either for the money to beat the debilitating poverty or to escape from its reality. People were organized and they joined hands to increase production and income. They were initiated to meaningful activities. They were trained for tasks on health care and education to fill in the vacuum left in the far-flung barrios by the reactionary government. The youth were drawn to sports and cultural activities that challenge their vibrant energy and creativity.

Through political education the masses have been enlightened and have fully understood the root cause of their problems and the solution that is in their very hands. Their awakening has instilled in them a sense of purpose for being. With these the scourge of addictive drugs was eventually licked as they imbibed the revolutionary discipline.

In 2015 for example, the revolutionary youth movement, Kabataang Makabayan (KM, Patriotic Youth) in Central Luzon launched various activities in their respective barrios to draw the youth, as well as adults, away from marijuana and shabu. The KM conducted forums on the youth situation and how the decadent system has engendered the problems of drugs and criminality. It led meetings with the barrio youth to plan on productive activities with them. They formed a basketball league and held tournaments lasting for one and a half months. Some 50 youth participated in the tournaments initially. The number swelled later.

Simultaneous with these activities, the New People’s Army (NPA) in coordination with the Party branches issued series of warnings to pushers and users in the barrios of Central Luzon. The NPA, in coordination with the KM, widely disseminated the policy of the revolutionary movement and the people’s democratic government on the trafficking and use of drugs, be it in small or huge volume.

Meantime, drug traffickers, their activities, networks and laboratories in the guerrilla fronts of Panay were banned. The Coronacion Chiva “Waling-waling” Command of the NPA uprooted the marijuana plantations in Barangay Buloc, Tubungan town a few years back. Two years ago, a known drug dealer was arrested, disarmed and driven out of the NPA front after bringing in drugs in a town in Capiz. In April 2016, the Napoleon Tumagtang Command, also based in Panay Island, launched a campaign against illegal drugs in barangays surrounding the town of Tubungan. The drug production facilities of drug lord Edwin Odicta in the NPA area and the entry of the Richard Provendido’s drug syndicate in San Joaquin, Iloilo has been subject of NPA’s surveillance. Odicta was shot by an unidentified man on his way back home from Manila while Provendido was killed in a police operation.

In 2016, the revolutionary movement in Northern Samar investigated illegal drug trafficking that implicated high officials of the province.

In the Southern Mindanao Region, the NPA has launched tactical offensives to dismantle the network of operation of drug syndicates. A police chief here once said that criminality and drug addiction is practically absent in areas where the NPA is strong. In the Central Mindanao Region, the NPA burned marijuana plantations run by the killer paramilitary group Alamara.

Aware of the NPA’s fight against drugs, Duterte has once called on them to run after drug lords. However, seeing that the Duterte regime’s war on drugs is clearly anti-democratic and anti-people, having become a frenzied campaign of extrajudicial killings and vigilante murders perpetrated by the police and police-linked criminal syndicates, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) withdrew its support to the regime’s drug campaign.

The revolutionary movement recognizes that the drug plague is rooted in the basic problems confronting the Filipino people—the historic imperialist dominance perpetuating the feudal and bureaucrat capitalist conditions in the country. The NPA will continue its anti-drug campaign but will adhere to its policy of differentiating poor drug users and victims of drug abuse from the rabid perpetrators of the drug trade. The NPA will continue to intensify its campaign to arrest and disarm drug trade operators and protectors in its territory.

The revolutionary movement has its own criminal justice system and offenders are given due process as well as due punishment. Meanwhile poor drug victims will be rescued and rehabilitated through political education and meaningful activities.

SOLVING THE DRUG PROBLEM (Part 1 of 3):
Duterte’s Drug War: Via Body Count or the People’s Movement
SOLVING THE DRUG PROBLEM (Part 2 of 3):
China’s Experience Under Mao

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Solving the Drug Problem (Part 2 of 3)

in Mainstream

China’s Experience Under Mao

by Pat Gambao

In the years prior to the victory of the Chinese revolution led by Chairman Mao Zedong, China was mired in the quagmire of addictive drugs. Profiting immensely from the drug trade, foreign capitalists in cohort with the local ruling class dope the populace. Some 70 million Chinese, including children were hooked on drugs. Despondent about their miserable conditions, the poor found escape in the fleeting comfort of the illicit substance. The consequences were dismal and despicable. To finance their addiction, women resorted to prostitution, parents sold their children, money for food went to drugs.

Upon victory of the revolution, the new people’s republic launched a mass campaign against addictive drugs not by the power of the gun but through the people’s movement. Since the addicts among the poor were mere victims of a depraved system, they were not treated like common criminals nor human thrash but were helped to lick their addiction. The revolutionaries organized the masses in the communities to help educate and convince their neighbors and kin who were hooked into drugs to kick the bad habit. Community members burned drugs to emphasize their abhorrence of these. They also stopped the supplies of addictive drugs by busting drug trade networks. In support of the drug campaign, radios and newspapers carried news and stories on the ill effects of drugs and its detrimental impact to the development of the new socialist society. The revolutionaries relied on the organized masses from the cities to the countryside to end the manufacture, trafficking and their use.

Class distinction was made between the poor junkies, who were victims of the system, and the filthy rich drug dealers, who nurtured the system to their advantage. The poor victims needed help while the big drug dealers were considered enemies of the people. The victims trusted the new people’s republic that they had no fear in seeking help. They were rehabilitated and assisted in the withdrawal process. They were praised for their efforts to get clean from drug addiction. They were organized, re-educated and trained for meaningful jobs that the new socialist society provided. They police themselves through criticism and self-criticism. They were helped to restore their self-dignity. The new socialist society ensured the eradication of poverty that drove people into addiction and drug trade.

Small-time drug dealers who pledged to get out of and helped wipe out the drug trade were not considered enemies. The Mao government offered a one-time-only deal to buy out all the products of the small dealers and opium growers to be destroyed. Opium growers were requested to plant rice or wheat instead. Those who refused were arrested and put under surveillance or jailed for re-education.

Liberated from the drug scourge, they were encouraged to join the struggle against drugs and the building of the new socialist society.

Unrepentant big-time drug dealers who enriched themselves off the suffering of the people were classified as enemies of the people. They were sentenced to life imprisonment or execution depending on the gravity of the offense.
According to the New China News Agency (Xinhua) the drug problem In Northern China which had been liberated first was “fundamentally wiped out” by end of 1951. That of Southern China, where opium grew profusely, followed suit after about a year. For over 20 years thereafter, China had almost no drug addiction.

However, after the death of Mao in 1976 and the restoration of capitalism in China ushered in the resurgence of drug trade and addiction. In 2015, over 14 million Chinese were addicted to drugs, as related to Xinhua by the vice president of China’s National Narcotics Control Commission.#

SOLVING THE DRUG PROBLEM (Part 1 of 3):
Duterte’s Drug War: Via Body Count or the People’s Movement
SOLVING THE DRUG PROBLEM (Part 3 of 3):
The New People’s Army Fight vs Drugs

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