Re: [Marxism] Chinese tourists visit Karl Marx's house

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> CB: I must admit that I'd like to go on an archaeology dig sometime. And it
> was interesting to visit the old city of Rome when I was a high school Latin
> student. However, if I was touring today, I don't think old Roman and
> Christian ruins would be number one on my list of attractions or "a worthy
> destination by any standard" , as R. Bernstein put it.
> :>)

One other thing about Chinese tourists and Marx. When Mark Jones, his wife
and I went to visit Marx's grave, the only other people we saw that day
visiting the site were Chinese. Despite all the "market socialism" nonsense
that has been drummed into them, there are still lots of Chinese who still
believe in communism. Speaking of that, check the archives of the DSP's
Links journal at: http://www.dsp.org.au/links/ for the no. 27: January to
April, 2005 issue. (This is the big problem with using frames, as the DSP
does. You don't have a direct link to the page.) There's an article by Eva
Cheng that references a document being circulated by CP party members that
starts as follows:

Our views and opinions of the current political landscape

A letter to General Secretary Hu [Jintao] from a group of veteran CCP
members, veteran cadres, veteran military personnel and intellectuals.
October 2004

Translated for Links with an introductory explanation by Eva Cheng.

CONTENTS

A great opportunity to adjust the line

Not a question of 'ruling capability' but a question of the line

Our opinion on what sort of adjustment is needed on certain issues

Notes


A great opportunity to adjust the line

Even though there have been gains economically in the past twenty-six years
of reforms and opening up,1 the price for these moves has been enormous,
and they also brought considerable problems. Many deepseated contradictions
emerged in society, and the party's authority plunged. To seriously resolve
these contradictions and restore the people's trust in the party, the
party's line of march needs to be adjusted profoundly. Previously, due to
various obstacles and interferences, you, respected leader, were
handicapped in bringing about the needed adjustments; it was hard to make
your impact felt. But now, after the fourth plenum of the sixteenth CCP
Central Committee [September 17-19, 2004], such interferences are largely
removed, so it's a time when you can shake things up.
Not a question of `ruling capability' but a question of the line

The fourth plenum of the sixteenth CC flagged the need to strengthen the
party's ruling capability. This, to a certain extent, reflects the party's
sense of crisis. As various complex and sharp contradictions unfold, and
social polarisation gets worse, the people, especially the workers and
peasants, i.e., the social base of the party, have their interests
seriously undermined. State enterprise workers have been downgraded from
being the masters of those enterprises to mere employees. Peasants, under
the dual burden of indiscriminate taxes and fees as well as market
competition, are heading towards ruin. The peasants turned city workers
don't even have assurances of their basic rights. The bureaucrats' and
capitalists' savage violation of the interests of the masses is a frequent
occurrence. The masses often can't afford to see the doctor, to access
education or to get a job, nor are they hopeful these problems will be
resolved. To the people, the party's credibility has taken a deep dive, and
the party's ruling position is in grave danger.

If there are problems, we have to reflect on them, but where are the
problems? What's wrong with the party's line? Why are the consequences so
serious? What is the nature of the problems? And how can these problems be
corrected to turn things around? These are issues that a party that is
responsive to its people should confront. Only by confronting these
problems head on and boldly admitting any mistakes can a proletarian party
demonstrate its strength. Only by openly admitting to the people its
mistakes and taking serious corrective steps can the party regain the
people's trust and strengthen its ruling capability in a fundamental way.
Conversely, if one approaches the question of ruling capability in an
abstract manner, or focuses on side issues rather than the basic line of
march, then few substantive results can be expected.

The problems of society aren't isolated, atomised or accidental, but are
interlinked and involve multiple dimensions. Behind these overwhelmingly
complicated appearances is the fact that the fundamental direction of our
reform has gone wrong. At issue is the question of the line of march, not
the so-called "problem of ruling capability". The approach of "treating the
head for headaches and treating the feet for sore feet" [i.e., short of a
holistic approach] has been proven by history to be a dead end, allowing
the problem to get increasingly out of hand. The essence lies in the line
of march, while a weakening of the party's ruling capability is merely the
appearance. Therefore, only by seeing through the appearance to focus on
the essence, and reflecting deeply on the question of the party's line and
fundamentally reorienting its direction, can we solve the problem at its
roots. Only in this manner can we really "strengthen its ruling
capability", achieve social stability and maintain the healthy and smooth
development of society.

What's wrong with the line? The problem lies in the party's implementation
of a revisionist line and its course to restore capitalism. In the name of
socialism, its representatives actually practise capitalism. They claim
they have Marxist lamb on offer at the front of the shop but are actually
marketing revisionist dog meat under the table. To put it more
transparently, their backsides are sitting on the wrong side; they are
siding with the capitalists, bureaucratic compradors and corrupt elements,
and fundamentally betraying the interests of the toiling masses of workers
and peasants. As a result, the capitalist class and their spokespeople are
getting more arrogant by the day while the position of the proletariat and
the toiling people deteriorates correspondingly. This has plunged countless
brothers and sisters into deep water and burning fire. They have eaten
bitterness twice. If the party doesn't pull back in time and rapidly fix
the problem, the death of both the party and the nation won't be far away!

Some policies introduced lately seem to be aiming for such an adjustment.
We welcome them. But they seem to be still miles away from the substantive
and powerful remedies that are required. Understandably, having had the
wrong line for a considerable period, reversing course won't be easy, and
fundamental readjustment can't be achieved overnight. It requires utter
persistence and heroic efforts like "the stupid old man who moved a
mountain"2 to overcome the numerous obstacles. A fierce struggle is
expected in order to solve the line problem, which is hard to achieve
without firm determination and boldness. But this is the only path to
really find a solution. Avoiding confronting this hard choice now is likely
to let the issue get out of hand, at which time regrets won't help.



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