THE EFFECT OF MAO'S DEATH on China and the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] could be compared with the situation in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. On the most basic issues there are no principled differences between the two factions now competing for power as there was none between the Malenkov and Kruschevite factions called 'radical' and 'moderate' factions in the top layers of the CCP, there is absolute agreement on basic orientation and long-term strategy. Both factions resolutely support the theory of socialism in one country; both equate the dictatorship of the proletariat with Ever since the early 1930s when the Chinese Bolshevik-Leninists (or Left Opposition) were expelled from the party on the direct orders of Moscow, there have been no genuine internationalists in the highest levels of the CCP. This explains the narrow limits set to the political debate" within the party why not even the most "radical' faction can break out of the circle of nationalism, and why the "moderates' are incapable of proposing the replacement of bureaucratic rule with that of proletarian democThat is why, whichever faction wins out, it will be unable to achieve any Tong-term resolution of the existing contradictions in Chinese society. These contradictions boil down to the problem of how to build socialism - a social system which by its very nature requires an advanced degree of civilisation - within the borders of one country in which there are conditions of extreme poverty and backwardness.
Abandoned Having abandoned internationalism, and in this-wake the strategic orientation of linking socialist reconstruction in China to the world revolution, the leaders of the various factions in the CCP concentrate instead on how most effectively to manipulate workers and peasant - so that they produce consume less, and don't complain.
Neither the 'radicals' their 'egalitarianism' and their philosophy. of politics in command', nor the 'moderates' with their 'material incentives' and 'expertise', can fundamentally resolve the problems of building socialism in China.
The Chinese worker, peasant and student masses have been through the Hundred Flowers campaign of 1957, Great Leap and People's Commune Movement, NO ARMS RESISTANC NO AID - VICTIM after Stalin's death.
Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s, and many other movements and campaigns. They therefore know from their own experience that the promises of the CCP leaders are not to be taken at face value. As a result the masses' dissatisfaction with bureaucratic rule is growing apace.
During the middle period of the Cultural Revolution the broad masses rose up in a genuine struggle for their own interests. Subsequently they were cruelly suppressed and became extremely disillusioned and demoralised for a period of years. Recently, however, the mass struggle has once again erupted independently of any section Although in terms of method and policies there are many differences between the sothe dictatorship of the bureaucracy, and proletarian democracy with anarchism.
of the bureaucracy.
The most striking manifestation of the new mood was the struggle of the Hangchow workers and students in the early summer of 1975. According to the Resolution of the Central Committee CCP and the State Council on the Problems in Chekiang Province' of 4 July 1975, the strikers 'cut off water and electricity supplies, sabotaged communications, ambushed the army, attacked public security institutions (and) stole materials be- longing to the state'.
Clearly the events in Hangchow acquired the dimenstions of an armed insurrection. Even though the uprising HUA KUO-FENG was soon crushed by tens of thousands of troops, the wave of unrest has spread through much of China. riots in Tien-an-men Square in April of this year show that the hatred of the masses for the bureaucracy has not yet CHIANG CHING abated, but has positively grown in intensity and become increasingly politicised (it should be noted that wage demands were to the fore in the Hangchow disturbances).
In what way will Mao's death affect the mass struggle - will it weaken or strengthen it? Weaken In the short term, it will most probably weaken it. In the common interest of the ruling group taken as a whole, the two bureaucratic factions are bound to step up their attempts to deify the dead Mao. They will exploit the emotions which his death has aroused among the masses to give a new boost to the personality cult, and YAO WEN-YUAN use it to cloak their own bureaucratic rule with a mantle of sanctity just as Stalin, appealing to the backwardness of the Russian masses, skilfully manipulated the death of Lenin to take his power in the party absolute).
But the effects of the manoeuvre will be extremely transient. Indeed, another and opposite effect is equally if not more) likely: the changes occasioned in the leadership by Mao's death could well create an expectancy of change in the psychology of the Chinese masses. The effect of this will be to increase popular dissatisfaction and heighten the struggle.
Next week we will look at the implications of this.
'The man who ended internment.' That is how the liberal Irish Times described Merlyn Rees in a farewell assessment of the British politician WRO nas exercised British rule at Stormont Castle for the last 30 months. The paper wished to be generous to Rees by focussing on the one positive step taken by the Labour Government since its return in the general election of February 1974.
Rees leaves behind him a whole series of failed British solutions. The power-sharing executive fell in wake of the Loyalist stoppage. Constitutional Convention was never regarded as more than an expensive JOHN MAGEE reports from Belfast farce, giving the semblance of politwhile violence reigned CaTaCUVy supreme all around.
Yet Rees, ironically, is probably the British politician who came closest to achieving solution for Britain. Though on his appointment he pursued assiduously the policy of internment introduced by Brian Faulkner doubling ane number otemae internees in the first year, and extending it to include 15-year-old youths The came to recognise it as 'the greatest mistake made in Ireland's recent history'. In December 1975 he released the last of the remaining internees from Long Kesh.
The pundits of the media like to present Rees's decision to end internment as an esentially moral one, stemming from a strong revulsion at people being imprisoned without a fair trial'. The truth, however, that it was pragmatism, not morality which moved Rees. In trying to put all Republican militants behind the wire, the policy of internment only succeeded in multiplying the number of militants on the streets.
Interment Increased support for Republican tes stanice while making it difticult to present British imperialism as the friend of democracy in Northern Ireland. It was in an attempt to reverse this situation that Rees freed the internees.
Rees's policy was one which himself called 'depoliticisation'. Briefly stated, it was a policy of obscuring the real character of the anti-imperialist struggle and presenting it as a conspiracy of criminals.
The internees would always be seen as political hostages, so Rees let them out and turned his attention to gaining convictions in the courts. Much more thorough and 'democratic'. And if the non-jury courts where the accused have to prove their innocence won't work, well the internment powers are still on the statute book ready to be brought back into oPerauon when circumstances arr more favourable. MERLYN REES Rees's period as Secretary of State has always been marked by very slick propaganda pouring out from Stormont Castle. .Full page ads have told us that the IRA are 'gangsters', the Provisional leadership "Godfathers', the British Army 'peacekeepers', and the Royal Ulster Constabulary really 'community workers'.
This political offensive by Rees has RED WEEKLY been quite effective. Of course, in the days of the no-go areas, the street and the mass demonstrations, this sort of propaganda would immediately have been recognised as the crude bluff it is. The mass of people in the anti-Unionist districts were actively involved in the struggle, and knew damn well tha social workers didn't carry SLRs and Sterling sub-machine guns But in the most recent period, when the leadership of the ar:ti-imperialist struggle has relied almost entirely on a military campaign, the people have been left at home in front of the box with only the much less sophisticated resistance publications to counter the lies and slanders of the media. The peace movement launched in the last few weeks is an example of how this aspect of the struggle is being lost by the Republicans. Rees can take a lot of the credit for this arvance Britain.
He now goes to Whitehall as Home Secretary. And despite the fact that his period in the Six Counties has witnessed ever increased repression and more incursions into the limited rights available to the working class goes with a liberal reputation nees carefully nurtured by the British press. He is now centrally placed to introduce his own style of peacekeeping on the streets of Manchester and Birmingham. British workers should be on their guard.
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TUNTA ISOLATE
& OF THE KISSINGER. CHRIS DAVIES (Report)
ACHILE GHTS