Re: Creating People-Centred Economics

["ÁÎ×Ó¹â HenryC.K.Liu ¹ù¤l¥ú" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Patrick, you have raised some very legitimate issues.

For reference on how China tried to deal with these issues, you may find Mao's
views of help:

ON THE QUESTION OF THE NATIONAL BOURGEOISIE AND THE ENLIGHTENED GENTRY[*]

 Mao Zedong                      March 1, 1948



        The Chinese revolution at the present stage is in its character a
revolution against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism waged by the
broad masses of the people under the leadership of the proletariat. By the broad
masses of the people is meant all those who are oppressed, injured or fettered
by imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, namely, workers, peasants,
soldiers, intellectuals, businessmen and other patriots, as clearly stated in
the Manifesto of the Chinese People's Liberation Army of October 1947.[1]  In
the manifesto "intellectuals" means all intellectuals who are persecuted and
fettered. "Businessmen" means all the national bourgeois who are persecuted and
fettered, that is, the middle and petty bourgeois. "Other patriots" refers
primarily to the enlightened gentry. The Chinese revolution at the present stage
is a revolution in which all these people form a united front against
imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism and in which the working people
are the main body. By working people are meant all those engaged in manual
labour (such as workers, peasants, handicraftsmen, etc.) as well as those
engaged in mental labour who are close to those engaged in manual labour and are
not exploiters but are exploited. The aim of the Chinese revolution at the
present stage is to overthrow the rule of imperialism, feudalism and
bureaucrat-capitalism and to establish a new-democratic republic of the broad
masses of the people with the working people as the main force; its aim is not
to abolish capitalism in general.

We should not abandon the enlightened gentry who co-operated with us in the past
and continue to co-operate with us at present, who approve of the struggle
against the United States and Chiang Kai-shek and who approve of the land
reform. Since they gave us considerable help in the hard times during and after
the War of Resistance Against Japan and did not obstruct or oppose the land
reform when we were carrying it out, we should continue the policy of uniting
with them. But uniting with them does not mean treating them as a force that
determines the character of the Chinese revolution.
    The forces that determine the character of a revolution are the chief
enemies on the one side and the chief revolutionaries on the other. At present
our chief enemies are imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, while
the main forces in our struggle against these enemies are the people engaged in
manual and mental labour, who make up 90 per cent of the country's population.
And this determines that our revolution at the present stage is a
new-democratic, a people's democratic revolution in character and is different
from a socialist revolution such as the October Revolution.

        The few right-wingers among the national bourgeoisie who attach
themselves to imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism and oppose the
people's democratic revolution are also enemies of the revolution, while the
left-wingers among the national bourgeoisie who attach themselves to the working
people and oppose the reactionaries are also revolutionaries, as are the few
enlightened gentry who have broken away from the feudal class. But the former
are not the main body of the enemy any more than the latter are the main body
among the revolutionaries; neither is a force that determines the character of
the revolution. The national bourgeoisie is a class which is politically very
weak and vacillating. But the majority of its members may either join the
people's democratic revolution or take a neutral stand, because they too are
persecuted and fettered by imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism.
They are part of the broad masses of the people but not the main body, nor are
they a force that determines the character of the revolution. However, because
they are important economically and may either join in the struggle against the
United States and  Chiang Kai-shek or remain neutral in that struggle, it is
possible and necessary for us to unite with them. Before the birth of the
Communist Party of China, the Kuomintang headed by Sun Yat-sen represented the
national bourgeoisie and acted as the leader of the Chinese revolution of that
time (a  non-thorough democratic revolution of the old type). But after the
Communist Party of China was born and demonstrated its ability, the Kuomintang
could no longer be the leader of the Chinese revolution (a new-democratic
revolution). The national bourgeoisie joined the 1924-27 revolutionary
movement[3] and during the years 1927-31 (before the September 18th Incident of
1931) quite a few of them sided with the reaction under Chiang Kai-shek. But one
must not on this account think that we should not have tried during that period
to win over the national bourgeoisie politically or to protect it economically,
or that our ultra-Left policy towards the national bourgeoisie was not
adventurist.
    On the contrary, in that period our policy should still have been to protect
the national bourgeoisie and win it over so as to enable us to concentrate our
efforts on fighting the chief enemies. In the period of the War of Resistance
the national bourgeoisie was a participant in the war, wavering between the
Kuomintang and the Communist Party. At the present stage the majority of the
national bourgeoisie has a growing hatred of the United States and Chiang
Kai-shek; its left-wingers attach themselves to the Communist Party and its
right-wingers to the Kuomintang, while its middle elements take a hesitant,
wait-and-see attitude between the two parties. These circumstances make it
necessary and possible for us to win over the majority of the national
bourgeoisie and isolate the minority. To achieve this aim, we should be prudent
in dealing with the economic position of this class and in principle should
adopt a blanket policy of protection. Otherwise we shall commit political
errors.

Full article:
http://www.cruzio.com/~marx2mao/Mao/QNB48.html

While unique Chinese conditions solicited Chinese solutions, there are
similarities between all developing countries of the world.
Mao understood four points clearly:
1) Revolutionary work will be protracted and revolutionaries have to be prepared
for long struggles.
2) During this protracted struggle, there will be many phases of the revolution
that would required changing strategies and tactic.  Adopting the end game
strategy prematurely is counter-revolutionary.
3) The nature of any revolution means that while the ideological core must be
unswerving, for the revolution to succeed, the movement must try to unite all
that can be united and translate the minority nature of ideological leadership
into massive, broad base support.
4) Separate the true enemy of the revolution from those the enemy forcibly
controls.  Conversely, never drive any segment of the population into the arms
of the enemy of the revolution.

Now conditions have changed since Mao's time. Global revolutionary forces,
instead of being on the offensive at the end of WWII, are now plainly on the
defensive, with a few residual socialist governments fighting rearguard action
against global neo-imperialism under US leadership.  Yet the signs of
self-destruction from market fundamentalism and neo-liberalism are beginning to
be visible and are opposed by many for all kinds of different reasons.  The end
result is that such opposition can be organized as a unified progressive force
that will help the revolution.  To the extend that Third World markets are
denied to neo-imperialism, it will hastens the demise of global capitalism and
imperialism.  That is why at this moment in time, fighting globalization is
progressive even though many forces within the coalition do not aim at fighting
capitalism per se.  When the head of the snake is cut off, the rest will die by
itself.

Henry


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