RE: 1900 [restored]

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Henry,

Thanks for putting this out. Dr. Norman Bethune was a truly dedicated and
truly remarkable communist and doctor. He was once "surgeon to the stars"
and yet gave it all up to practice medicine for the poor (often his fee was
nothing or a chicken or some vegetables). He was a gifted artist, an
inventor (some of his instruments/techniques in thoraxic surgery are still
be used today and he put together the first mobile blood transfusion unit
during the Spanish Civil War).

In China he did over 100 operations per day while instructing Chinese
doctors and medics so they would no longer need him and could promote
self-reliance. He refused to leave the wounded even with the Japanese forces
very close and it was duirng the chaos and hurry of one of the many
operations that he cut himself and later contracted septacemia which took
his life. He also worked as a basic orderly washing patients and once said:
"There is no medical concept to difficult for an everyday person to learn;
there is no work too 'low' for a doctor to do."

If anyone has a copy of it, please post "Wounds" by Dr. Norman Bethune (I
lost my copy years ago) as it is truly inspiring. Norman Bethune joined the
Canadian Communist Party during the 1920s and openly advocated socialized
medicine as early as 1924 which got him extreme heat from the medical
establishment. He contracted TB working with the poorest of the poor and
checked into a sanitarium to die. While in the sanitarium he performed
experimental pneumo-thorax collapsing his own lungs one-by one to rest them
which saved his life.

The tribute by Chairman Mao was truly fitting and inspiring.

Jim Craven





-----Original Message-----
From: ÁÎ×Ó¹â Henry C.K.Liu ¹ù¤l¥ú [mailto:hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 2:01 PM
To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: 1900 [restored]



                     IN MEMORY OF NORMAN BETHUNE
                                             By
                                     Mao Zedong
December 21, 1939

Comrade Norman Bethune,[1] a member of the Communist Party of Canada, was
around
fifty when he was sent by the Communist Parties of Canada and the United
States
to China; he made light of travelling thousands of miles to help us in our
War
of Resistance Against Japan. He arrived in Yenan in the spring of last year,
went to work in the Wutai Mountains, and to our great sorrow
died a martyr at his post. What kind of spirit is this that makes a
foreigner
selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese people's liberation as his own? It
is
the spirit of internationalism, the spirit of communism, from which every
Chinese Communist must learn. Leninism teaches that the world revolution can
only succeed if the proletariat of the capitalist countries supports the
struggle for liberation of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples and if the
proletariat of
the colonies and semi-colonies supports that of the proletariat of the
capitalist
countries.[2] Comrade Bethune put this Leninist line into practice. We
Chinese
Communists must also follow this line in our practice. We must unite with
the
proletariat of all the capitalist countries, with the proletariat of Japan,
Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy and all other capitalist
countries,
for this is the only way to overthrow imperialism, to liberate our nation
and
people and to liberate the other nations and peoples of the world. This is
our
internationalism, the internationalism with which we oppose both narrow
nationalism and narrow
patriotism.

Comrade Bethune's spirit, his utter devotion to others without any thought
of
self, was shown in his great sense of responsibility in his work and his
great
warm-heartedness towards all comrades and the people. Every Communist must
learn
from him. There are not a few people who are irresponsible in their work,
preferring the light and shirking the heavy, passing the burdensome tasks on
to
others and choosing the easy ones for themselves. At every turn they think
of
themselves before others. When they make some small contribution, they swell
with pride and brag about it for fear that others will not know. They feel
no
warmth towards comrades and the people but are cold, indifferent and
apathetic.
In truth such people are not Communists, or at least cannot be counted as
devoted Communists. No one who returned from the front failed to express
admiration for Bethune whenever his name was mentioned, and none remained
unmoved by his spirit. In the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area, no soldier or
civilian was unmoved who had been treated by Dr. Bethune or had seen how he
worked. Every Communist must learn this true communist spirit from Comrade
Bethune.

Comrade Bethune was a doctor, the art of healing was his profession and he
was
constantly perfecting his skill, which stood very high in the Eighth Route
Army's medical service. His example is an excellent lesson for those people
who
wish to change their work the moment they see something different and for
those
who despise technical work as of no consequence or as promising no future.

Comrade Bethune and I met only once. Afterwards he wrote me many letters.
But I
was busy, and I wrote him only one letter and do not even know if he ever
received it. I am deeply grieved over his death. Now we are all
commemorating
him, which shows how profoundly his spirit inspires everyone. We must all
learn
the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can
be
very useful to the people. A man's ability may be great or small, but if he
has
this spirit, he is already noble-minded and pure, a man of moral integrity
and
above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people.

                                                   NOTES

1. The distinguished surgeon Norman Bethune was a member of the Canadian
Communist Party. In 1936 when the German and Italian fascist bandits invaded
Spain, he went to the front and worked for the anti-fascist Spanish people.
In
order to help the Chinese people in their War of Resistance Against Japan,
he
came to China at the head of a medical team and arrived in Yenan in the
spring
of 1938. Soon after he went to the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area. Imbued
with
ardent internationalism and the great communist spirit, he served the army
and
the people of the Liberated Areas for nearly two years. He contracted blood
poisoning while operating on wounded soldiers and died in Tanghsien, Hopei,
on
November 12, 1939

2. See J. V. Stalin, "The Foundations of Leninism", Problems of Leninism,
Eng.
ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1954, pp. 70-79.




Julio Fern¨¢ndez Baraibar wrote:

> Thank you Sam.
> I saw this film about Dr. Bethune. It was extraordinary, the film, the
> person Dr. Bethune and the interpretation of Sutherland. I didn't know
about
> his activities in favour of Chile. Really, it is wonderful to learn that
one
> has a new friend as him.
>
> Julio FB
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sam Pawlett <rsp@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 1:20 AM
> Subject: Re: 1900 [restored]
>
> >
> >
> > Julio Fern¨¢ndez Baraibar wrote:
> >
> > > I either knew that he [Donald Sutherland] was marxist. But I know,
> because I saw him in a TV
> > > interview some years ago that he admired Peron and Eva Peron. It
sounded
> so
> > > strange for me that an American (or canadian) would express some
> admiring
> > > judge about Peron and his regime that I thought Donald Sutherland was
> some
> > > kind of populist-fascist. I apologize.
> >
> > Sutherland narrated what is the best Marxist film on Unidad Popular
> > Chile (even better than the Battle of Chile). Its called "Spiral" by a
> > Chilean-Canadian. He and his wife organized and co-ordinated the
> > Canadian Chile solidarity efforts after 1973. He also played Norman
> > Bethune in the film of the same name about the Canadian CP doctor who
> > worked during the Spanish Civil War and was killed in action during the
> > Chinese Revolution. Bethune was given the highest state honors by Mao. I
> > guess everyone knows his other great roles in *MASH*, Fellini's
> > *Casanova* (another satire) etc.
> >
> > BTW, 1900 is available in truncated form in most decent video shops. The
> > restored version will be harder to find.
> >
> > Sam Pawlett
> >