Six Toyota manufacturing employees are now claiming that they wrote a memo to the company executives in 2006 regarding the employees' concerns about vehicle safety issues.
"We are concerned about the processes which are essential for producing safe cars, but that ultimately may be ignored, with production continued in the name of competition," the memo from the concerned workers stated.
In the five years leading up to the 2006 memo, Toyota recalled over 5 million cars worldwide. This lead to many people within the company to become concerned, especially since Toyota had cut overhead while increasing output at the same time.
The Toyota executives simply ignored the memo and the concerns of their workers.
"They completely ignored us," said 62-year-old assembly line worker Tadao Wakatsuki. "That's the Toyota way."
"We used to test every one of our cars for safety and quality," Watasuki, founder of the All Toyota Labor Union, said to the press. "Now we do maybe 60%. The old 100% is a thing of the past."
The Union founder also had this to say:
"Our responsibility as a labor union was to point out these problems that Toyota should have known about. People were overworked; some were committing suicide... Of course, Toyota did nothing, but looking back we see how important this was. We just told them what we saw."
If capitalism and competition are so great at making products of good quality, then why is Toyota intentionally lowering its quality? If capitalism treats workers so well, then why are there reports of Toyota workers committing suicide? I think it is fair to say that the capitalists have lied to us.
Karl Marx said that competition only makes it harder for a company to make a profit from selling its products. So they must cut back on costs (usually labor and quality costs) in order to increase profit by saving money. Toyota is cutting back on safety testing and its relationship with its workers in its drive for greater profits. This will only result in Toyota's destruction, unless they are bailed out by their friends in some government (who will use taxpayers' money, unfortunately).
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Obama Assimilated
Is Obama really a socialist? Or is he closer to John McCain and George Bush than you think? Is his health care plan really single payer? Check out this brief and entertaining video about Obama and maybe decide for yourself.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Why Maoism Works
Examples of working socialism
Under Mao their were favorable growth rates in the Chinese economy, and even the CIA acknowledged this. In less than four years, Maoist policies had turned small, private farms into cooperatives. This increased agricultural production. Then the People’s Communes were formed, and they more than doubled the food grain output. Poor and lower-middle peasants were big fans of these communes.
Industry became less lopsided and grew to meet the needs of Chinese national and military construction. Agriculture was mechanized rapidly also. By 1973, 90% of the counties in China had repair shops for agricultural machinery. Electricity consumption and tractor use increased. Land plowed by machines increased by 70 percent.
Chinese technology excelled and precision tools were built in China without outside help. China became the first country in the world to successfully synthesize insulin and build a working double internal water-cooling turbogenerator. China’s communications, transportation, commerce, banking, finance, cultural, and educational endeavors rapidly advanced. The cultural and educational level of the Chinese people increased too.
The Taching (Daqing) oil field, once an empty field of nothing, was set up in about three years. They didn’t have much equipment when doing it, but they established a first-class oil field. Construction on the oil field began in 1959. Under Mao, China was pretty much self-sufficient in oil products since 1963.
The Chinese currency was stabilized and more and more countries began to use it as a means of calculating prices in international accounting.
New values and ways of thinking and attitudes were forged. The Cultural Revolution changed the masses world outlook to a more united and socialist one. This crushes the old bourgeois lie of how people are naturally greedy.
Here is an unorthodox example (that has nothing to do with China). Canutillo was destroyed by the fighting going on in Mexico, then Pancho Villa took over Canutillo. He applied a collective system of work, and the town was repaired in less than three years. Three years was quick for back then. Canutillo became economically productive and self-sufficient in every respect. It had also acquired many conveniences that were modern at the time.
How Maoism Works and Leads to Communism
Workers and peasants democratically elect managers, and managers can be recalled by the workers. Managers also take part in labor. Government cadres take part in labor as well. This helps restrict bureaucracy, dogmatism, and bourgeois right. It also helps resolve worker-manager contradictions and helps eradicate the difference between mental and manual labor. Maoism also encourages criticism of bureaucrats and capitalist roaders in the Communist Party. An example is Mao Zedong’s “Bombard the Headquarters” comment and the big-character posters.
Strong, centralized leadership in economic planning must be combined with local initiatives. The central leadership must consult the local ones, and it must take into account local conditions. That is how it will come up with plans. The individual enterprises will have decentralized management, and will use state funds, based on what they need to do, to produce according to the state’s plan. Expectancies must not be set too high. Reasonable plans can often, but not always, be over-fulfilled. This will arouse the enthusiasm of the masses. The masses must discuss the lines of the plan, and mass movements must be launched.
“…trusts and factories have been founded on a self-supporting basis precisely in order that they themselves should be responsible…for their enterprises working without a deficit.” - Lenin
Private, small scale means of production (especially farms) are turned into cooperatives, then into communes. This will increase production. Due to the elimination of competition, enterprises better cooperate with each other. This better concentrates resources and manpower. It increases production, finishes projects and developments quicker, and can overcome weaknesses in the national economy. Through Marxist emulation in production, the ever increasing needs of the people are met and the level of technology is raised. Of course, the people could also request new technology be developed for whatever purposes.
Workers for agriculture are very important. The right number of agricultural workers must be secured before anything else. This is because agriculture produces a lot of food and raw materials for heavy and light industry. Maoism aims to mechanize agriculture in order to produce more and free up workers for other work, mainly expanding the other means of production. The mechanization of agriculture helps to eliminate the difference between urban and rural.
Industry must be distributed rationally in every area and the poorer areas better funded. To develop heavy industry, emphasis is put on expanding agriculture and light industry. Light industry and agriculture provide funds and markets for heavy industry and help make the development of heavy industry more stable. Light industry and agriculture also improve the livelihood of the people.
The state will regulate prices in money relations between agriculture and industry in order to restrict bourgeois right. The positive side of the law of value is used to set prices rationally and make plans based on actual conditions. The state must also improve production methods, lower production costs, and implement economic accounting. Democratic methods will be used to solve financial matters.
The production of value will be subordinate to the production of use value. This further restricts bourgeois right.
Unlike in capitalism, overproduction isn’t a problem because the consumption of the masses doesn’t go down. It steadily increases as national construction expands. This is because the socialist system creates jobs, to put it plainly. Production in the socialist state enterprise is not subject to fluctuations according to the level of prices and magnitude of profit. This is because the national plan decides how much to produce, and production plans are based on the growing needs of the people and state. Any losses are made up by planned subsidies. Only the amount of paper money needed for circulation will be printed.
Sources:
Maoist Economics and the Revolutionary Road to Communism: The Shanghai Textbook edited by Raymond Lotta
http://ojinaga.com/pinon/index2.html
Under Mao their were favorable growth rates in the Chinese economy, and even the CIA acknowledged this. In less than four years, Maoist policies had turned small, private farms into cooperatives. This increased agricultural production. Then the People’s Communes were formed, and they more than doubled the food grain output. Poor and lower-middle peasants were big fans of these communes.
Industry became less lopsided and grew to meet the needs of Chinese national and military construction. Agriculture was mechanized rapidly also. By 1973, 90% of the counties in China had repair shops for agricultural machinery. Electricity consumption and tractor use increased. Land plowed by machines increased by 70 percent.
Chinese technology excelled and precision tools were built in China without outside help. China became the first country in the world to successfully synthesize insulin and build a working double internal water-cooling turbogenerator. China’s communications, transportation, commerce, banking, finance, cultural, and educational endeavors rapidly advanced. The cultural and educational level of the Chinese people increased too.
The Taching (Daqing) oil field, once an empty field of nothing, was set up in about three years. They didn’t have much equipment when doing it, but they established a first-class oil field. Construction on the oil field began in 1959. Under Mao, China was pretty much self-sufficient in oil products since 1963.
The Chinese currency was stabilized and more and more countries began to use it as a means of calculating prices in international accounting.
New values and ways of thinking and attitudes were forged. The Cultural Revolution changed the masses world outlook to a more united and socialist one. This crushes the old bourgeois lie of how people are naturally greedy.
Here is an unorthodox example (that has nothing to do with China). Canutillo was destroyed by the fighting going on in Mexico, then Pancho Villa took over Canutillo. He applied a collective system of work, and the town was repaired in less than three years. Three years was quick for back then. Canutillo became economically productive and self-sufficient in every respect. It had also acquired many conveniences that were modern at the time.
How Maoism Works and Leads to Communism
Workers and peasants democratically elect managers, and managers can be recalled by the workers. Managers also take part in labor. Government cadres take part in labor as well. This helps restrict bureaucracy, dogmatism, and bourgeois right. It also helps resolve worker-manager contradictions and helps eradicate the difference between mental and manual labor. Maoism also encourages criticism of bureaucrats and capitalist roaders in the Communist Party. An example is Mao Zedong’s “Bombard the Headquarters” comment and the big-character posters.
Strong, centralized leadership in economic planning must be combined with local initiatives. The central leadership must consult the local ones, and it must take into account local conditions. That is how it will come up with plans. The individual enterprises will have decentralized management, and will use state funds, based on what they need to do, to produce according to the state’s plan. Expectancies must not be set too high. Reasonable plans can often, but not always, be over-fulfilled. This will arouse the enthusiasm of the masses. The masses must discuss the lines of the plan, and mass movements must be launched.
“…trusts and factories have been founded on a self-supporting basis precisely in order that they themselves should be responsible…for their enterprises working without a deficit.” - Lenin
Private, small scale means of production (especially farms) are turned into cooperatives, then into communes. This will increase production. Due to the elimination of competition, enterprises better cooperate with each other. This better concentrates resources and manpower. It increases production, finishes projects and developments quicker, and can overcome weaknesses in the national economy. Through Marxist emulation in production, the ever increasing needs of the people are met and the level of technology is raised. Of course, the people could also request new technology be developed for whatever purposes.
Workers for agriculture are very important. The right number of agricultural workers must be secured before anything else. This is because agriculture produces a lot of food and raw materials for heavy and light industry. Maoism aims to mechanize agriculture in order to produce more and free up workers for other work, mainly expanding the other means of production. The mechanization of agriculture helps to eliminate the difference between urban and rural.
Industry must be distributed rationally in every area and the poorer areas better funded. To develop heavy industry, emphasis is put on expanding agriculture and light industry. Light industry and agriculture provide funds and markets for heavy industry and help make the development of heavy industry more stable. Light industry and agriculture also improve the livelihood of the people.
The state will regulate prices in money relations between agriculture and industry in order to restrict bourgeois right. The positive side of the law of value is used to set prices rationally and make plans based on actual conditions. The state must also improve production methods, lower production costs, and implement economic accounting. Democratic methods will be used to solve financial matters.
The production of value will be subordinate to the production of use value. This further restricts bourgeois right.
Unlike in capitalism, overproduction isn’t a problem because the consumption of the masses doesn’t go down. It steadily increases as national construction expands. This is because the socialist system creates jobs, to put it plainly. Production in the socialist state enterprise is not subject to fluctuations according to the level of prices and magnitude of profit. This is because the national plan decides how much to produce, and production plans are based on the growing needs of the people and state. Any losses are made up by planned subsidies. Only the amount of paper money needed for circulation will be printed.
Sources:
Maoist Economics and the Revolutionary Road to Communism: The Shanghai Textbook edited by Raymond Lotta
http://ojinaga.com/pinon/index2.html
Review of The Private Life of Chairman Mao
A lot of the author's memoirs are nothing more than recycling of widely available information. Li’s memoirs are not based on his personal diaries as he claims, because he burned his own diaries during the Cultural Revolution.
It was the publisher of this book, Random House, that wanted to add all the bullshit about Mao’s sex life. They did this in order to sell more copies, and they didn’t care if what they said was historically inaccurate. An Open Letter was published in the Asian American Times and Straits Review in Taiwan. The signatories of the letter pointed out discrepancies between the English and Chinese version of this book. A statement against this book was signed by 150 people who worked with Mao.
Li claimed to be Mao’s physician since 1954. He presented no evidence to back this up. However, there is evidence that he was Mao’s physician since 1957. So he lied to his readers! Li also claims that he attended CCP Politburo meetings with Mao. This is also a lie. Li wasn’t authorized to attend such meetings. It was against the party rules.
People who worked with Mao and earned his trust all have some personal item from Mao. Li, however, does not! Li claims it was Deng who fought against Mao’s personality cult. In reality, Mao warned against personality cults, and Mao always rejected the term “Mao Zedong Thought”. Instead, he simply called it “Mao Zedong’s Instructions” or “Work by Mao”.
Li claims that Mao was a womanizer and slept with women under a big quilt, but he is lying. Mao didn’t use quilts when he moved to Beijing. When Li came face to face with a Chinese audience, he had to admit that he never caught Mao in bed with a woman he wasn’t married to.
The author claims that Mao wanted to shut down the clinics for top-ranking party members because he wanted to topple Liu Shaoqi, who had lung disease. In reality, Mao closed down the facilities after Liu’s lung disease was cured. Li says that Mao sent anyone he disliked to a gulag. This isn’t true. Mao simply sent people to the countryside to learn from the peasants and understand the average citizen's way of life.
Sources (books):
The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution by Mobo Gao
The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Li Zhi-Sui
It was the publisher of this book, Random House, that wanted to add all the bullshit about Mao’s sex life. They did this in order to sell more copies, and they didn’t care if what they said was historically inaccurate. An Open Letter was published in the Asian American Times and Straits Review in Taiwan. The signatories of the letter pointed out discrepancies between the English and Chinese version of this book. A statement against this book was signed by 150 people who worked with Mao.
Li claimed to be Mao’s physician since 1954. He presented no evidence to back this up. However, there is evidence that he was Mao’s physician since 1957. So he lied to his readers! Li also claims that he attended CCP Politburo meetings with Mao. This is also a lie. Li wasn’t authorized to attend such meetings. It was against the party rules.
People who worked with Mao and earned his trust all have some personal item from Mao. Li, however, does not! Li claims it was Deng who fought against Mao’s personality cult. In reality, Mao warned against personality cults, and Mao always rejected the term “Mao Zedong Thought”. Instead, he simply called it “Mao Zedong’s Instructions” or “Work by Mao”.
Li claims that Mao was a womanizer and slept with women under a big quilt, but he is lying. Mao didn’t use quilts when he moved to Beijing. When Li came face to face with a Chinese audience, he had to admit that he never caught Mao in bed with a woman he wasn’t married to.
The author claims that Mao wanted to shut down the clinics for top-ranking party members because he wanted to topple Liu Shaoqi, who had lung disease. In reality, Mao closed down the facilities after Liu’s lung disease was cured. Li says that Mao sent anyone he disliked to a gulag. This isn’t true. Mao simply sent people to the countryside to learn from the peasants and understand the average citizen's way of life.
Sources (books):
The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution by Mobo Gao
The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Li Zhi-Sui
Review of Mao the Unknown Story
James Heartfield has heavily attacked and criticized Mao the Unknown Story. Steve Tsang, an anti-Mao Oxford University historian calls the book a “distortion of history”. A Taiwanese publisher was contracted to publish the Chinese version of Mao The Unknown Story, but they decided not to when they realized the authors couldn’t back up their claims.
Chang and Halliday had the funds to interview anyone they wished for their book. Many of this book’s interviewees are irrelevant. For example, what would Lech Walesa or a Hungarian Prime Minister know about Mao Zedong? Most of the time Chang and Halliday don’t cite sources, and when they do it is only to demonize Mao. They often use quotations and sources out of context. They have done this with Gong Chu, a speech made by Mao, and a witness of the Luding Bridge battle. The authors fail to cite references properly and don’t say which source they used to make a claim. The authors commonly give a source for pieces of irrelevant information, and then make a substantial claim but don’t give a source. Jung Chang has a linguistics doctorate, but in this book she doesn’t properly convert the Chinese names into English spelling.
They make claims that are just plain stupid as well. They claimed that Mao drank plenty of milk each day, consumed a kilo of beef stew each day along with a whole chicken. Any idiot can tell that this is not humanly possible. Most human beings, including Mao, can’t eat that much. They also claim that the KMT let the communists escape on the Long March. Any historian can tell you that this isn’t true. When the authors were asked which source supported their idiotic claim, they were unable to answer because they were lying. Jung Chang also refused to give convincing replies to Jin Xiaoding’s 17 questions about this book. The authors claim to have interviewed the last surviving eyewitness of the battle at Luding Bridge. They claim the person said there was no battle there. When an investigation was done, reports confirmed that a battle took place and that Chang and Halliday were lying.
Chang and Halliday claim that 700,000 people died in Ruijin before the reds had complete control of mainland China. To back this claim up, they cite two sources for a population drop. Just because a population drops doesn’t mean people were killed by communists. Their sources fail to specify how many people left the area and how many people were killed by the KMT.
Chang and Halliday claim that Mao didn’t walk during the Long March, but was carried. They use Zhang Guotao’s memoirs as a reference. However, his memoirs were written after he left the communists and joined the Nationalists. So these memoirs are biased and most likely untruthful. Even Zhang himself claims Mao wasn’t carried all of the time.
Chang claims her home province was hit with famine. In her books Wild Swans and Mao: The Unknown Story, Chang fails to provide any eyewitness accounts of starvation in her home province. Halliday originally condemned the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and China, but now he agrees with Jung Chang that it was justified as a result of a Mao-Stalin conspiracy. Halliday is a walking contradiction whose politics have changed due to emotions, not logic.
They also claim to have interviewed Mao’s English teacher. When the teacher was contacted, she said she didn’t give them an interview.
Chang and Halliday say Mao was reckless with agriculture. In reality, Mao always urged caution in grain production and told people not to boast or to lie about false achievements in the production. During the Great Leap Forward, Mao warned the people to be cautious.
When scholars talk about death tolls for the Great Leap Forward, they are not sure how many actually died and how many weren’t even born yet. Their stats are based on inaccurate methods. Most of them don’t take into account the serious natural disasters that took place during that period. All GLF death toll estimates are inaccurate. Chang and Halliday, however, pick the highest estimates they can find.
Sources (books):
The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution by Mobo Gao
Mao the Unknown Story by Chang and Halliday
Chang and Halliday had the funds to interview anyone they wished for their book. Many of this book’s interviewees are irrelevant. For example, what would Lech Walesa or a Hungarian Prime Minister know about Mao Zedong? Most of the time Chang and Halliday don’t cite sources, and when they do it is only to demonize Mao. They often use quotations and sources out of context. They have done this with Gong Chu, a speech made by Mao, and a witness of the Luding Bridge battle. The authors fail to cite references properly and don’t say which source they used to make a claim. The authors commonly give a source for pieces of irrelevant information, and then make a substantial claim but don’t give a source. Jung Chang has a linguistics doctorate, but in this book she doesn’t properly convert the Chinese names into English spelling.
They make claims that are just plain stupid as well. They claimed that Mao drank plenty of milk each day, consumed a kilo of beef stew each day along with a whole chicken. Any idiot can tell that this is not humanly possible. Most human beings, including Mao, can’t eat that much. They also claim that the KMT let the communists escape on the Long March. Any historian can tell you that this isn’t true. When the authors were asked which source supported their idiotic claim, they were unable to answer because they were lying. Jung Chang also refused to give convincing replies to Jin Xiaoding’s 17 questions about this book. The authors claim to have interviewed the last surviving eyewitness of the battle at Luding Bridge. They claim the person said there was no battle there. When an investigation was done, reports confirmed that a battle took place and that Chang and Halliday were lying.
Chang and Halliday claim that 700,000 people died in Ruijin before the reds had complete control of mainland China. To back this claim up, they cite two sources for a population drop. Just because a population drops doesn’t mean people were killed by communists. Their sources fail to specify how many people left the area and how many people were killed by the KMT.
Chang and Halliday claim that Mao didn’t walk during the Long March, but was carried. They use Zhang Guotao’s memoirs as a reference. However, his memoirs were written after he left the communists and joined the Nationalists. So these memoirs are biased and most likely untruthful. Even Zhang himself claims Mao wasn’t carried all of the time.
Chang claims her home province was hit with famine. In her books Wild Swans and Mao: The Unknown Story, Chang fails to provide any eyewitness accounts of starvation in her home province. Halliday originally condemned the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and China, but now he agrees with Jung Chang that it was justified as a result of a Mao-Stalin conspiracy. Halliday is a walking contradiction whose politics have changed due to emotions, not logic.
They also claim to have interviewed Mao’s English teacher. When the teacher was contacted, she said she didn’t give them an interview.
Chang and Halliday say Mao was reckless with agriculture. In reality, Mao always urged caution in grain production and told people not to boast or to lie about false achievements in the production. During the Great Leap Forward, Mao warned the people to be cautious.
When scholars talk about death tolls for the Great Leap Forward, they are not sure how many actually died and how many weren’t even born yet. Their stats are based on inaccurate methods. Most of them don’t take into account the serious natural disasters that took place during that period. All GLF death toll estimates are inaccurate. Chang and Halliday, however, pick the highest estimates they can find.
Sources (books):
The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution by Mobo Gao
Mao the Unknown Story by Chang and Halliday
The Era of Mao
Modern Chinese scholars often claim to represent the Chinese people as a whole, but they really don’t. How the Chinese view the Mao era is often, but not always, dependant on the individual’s class. The Chinese scholars, being in the elite, naturally view it pretty negatively.
Mao and his comrades in the CCP are often accused of violence against people who disagreed with them. However, there was no official policy for violence. In 1966, the CCP approved a decree for the whole of China. It said that no school, mine, factory, administration, or any other unit could set up a makeshift court to persecute anyone. The official policy was “engage in struggle with words, not with physical attacks”. This was recorded in an official Cultural Revolution document called “The 16 Articles”. Mao is often accused of setting up the Red Guards. There were Red Guards, but there was no such singular group called the Red Guards.
It’s also claimed that official policy was to destroy traditional objects. Despite efforts by post-Mao Chinese authorities to denounce the Cultural Revolution, no evidence has been put forward to prove that physical destruction was officially sanctioned. The official policy was to protect cultural relics from destruction. In 1967, the CCP central committee issued a document called “Several Suggestions for the Protection of Cultural Relics and Books During the Cultural Revolution”. The number of archeological discoveries was high during this period, and preservation of the discoveries were effective. Mao also promoted the use of traditional Chinese medicine. It should also be pointed out that tension between conservation and destruction of traditions has existed in China for thousands of years.
It is often said that Chinese Red Guard were responsible for the destruction in Tibet. However, only a limited number of ethnic Chinese Red Guards reached Tibet. Most of the destruction was done by Rebels of Tibetan ethnic origin. Tibetan authorities often used the PLA to restrain such radical actions.
Many lower-class Tibetans responded to Mao in a positive way because he changed their lives with a revolutionary land reform and emancipation of slaves. They liked Mao because he respected the Dalai Lama, and had good political relations with him from 1950-59.
China is often accused of imperialism for taking control of Tibet, but we must differentiate between, for example, British Imperialism in India and Chinese “imperialism” in Tibet. First of all, there were areas of Tibet that were already part of Chinese provinces before the communist take over. Many Tibetans and Chinese lived in those areas for a long time. No major state recognized Tibet as independent during that time either. The Tibetan population has grown since it became part of China. Whether or not Tibet should be independent now, in the 21st Century, is a whole other story.
Under Mao, inflation was brought under control, the currency stabilized, and there was redistribution of large estates. Between 1950-60 the number of teachers in China rose from ½ million to 2½ million. The number of elementary school pupils rose to 100 million. The first 8 years of Mao saw more industrial output, development of roads, and development of railroads.
China’s economy was disrupted in 1967-8, but through the rest of the 1960’s and 70’s, it grew consistently. It had positive growth in agriculture and industry. The Cultural Revolution period had a rapid growth of rural industry. The US government acknowledged this in 1978. The average life expectancy for the Chinese rose from 35 years in 1949 to 63 in 1975. Mao set up the barefoot doctors, and set up better healthcare for the rural Chinese.
There was a lot of official, semi-official, and underground activity during those years. More than 10,000 different newspapers and pamphlets were published during the Cultural Revolution. Mao even read some of these publications. However, Western academics always use so called “Red Guard” publications to asses the Cultural Revolution.
During the Cultural Revolution years of 1972 to75, China had 4 national fine arts exhibitions with over 2,000 works selected from over 12,000 works of art recommended from all over China. The exhibits attracted 7.8 million people. Such a large audience was never seen before the Cultural Revolution. The number of cinemas, cultural clubs, public libraries, and museums increased between the years of 1965 and 1976.
During the Great Leap Forward, the idea of backyard furnaces was proposed. Mao was skeptical of them. They weren’t Mao’s idea, but rather Bo Yibo and Liu Shaoqi’s idea. It was Bo who said that China could catch up to the UK in two years. Mao didn’t say any of that and was always skeptical. He always wanted them to be cautious. Mao told the media to tone down publicity about unrealistic production targets. Deng Xiaoping said himself and other leaders were to blame for the GLF disasters, and Mao wasn’t entirely at fault. Deng was in charge of implementing the GLF policies and worked as a middle man between Mao and the local leaders who put the policies into practice. Deng and others are mainly at fault for the GLF disasters, not Mao.
Sources (books):
"The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution" by Mobo Gao
"China Since 1945" by Stewart Ross
Mao and his comrades in the CCP are often accused of violence against people who disagreed with them. However, there was no official policy for violence. In 1966, the CCP approved a decree for the whole of China. It said that no school, mine, factory, administration, or any other unit could set up a makeshift court to persecute anyone. The official policy was “engage in struggle with words, not with physical attacks”. This was recorded in an official Cultural Revolution document called “The 16 Articles”. Mao is often accused of setting up the Red Guards. There were Red Guards, but there was no such singular group called the Red Guards.
It’s also claimed that official policy was to destroy traditional objects. Despite efforts by post-Mao Chinese authorities to denounce the Cultural Revolution, no evidence has been put forward to prove that physical destruction was officially sanctioned. The official policy was to protect cultural relics from destruction. In 1967, the CCP central committee issued a document called “Several Suggestions for the Protection of Cultural Relics and Books During the Cultural Revolution”. The number of archeological discoveries was high during this period, and preservation of the discoveries were effective. Mao also promoted the use of traditional Chinese medicine. It should also be pointed out that tension between conservation and destruction of traditions has existed in China for thousands of years.
It is often said that Chinese Red Guard were responsible for the destruction in Tibet. However, only a limited number of ethnic Chinese Red Guards reached Tibet. Most of the destruction was done by Rebels of Tibetan ethnic origin. Tibetan authorities often used the PLA to restrain such radical actions.
Many lower-class Tibetans responded to Mao in a positive way because he changed their lives with a revolutionary land reform and emancipation of slaves. They liked Mao because he respected the Dalai Lama, and had good political relations with him from 1950-59.
China is often accused of imperialism for taking control of Tibet, but we must differentiate between, for example, British Imperialism in India and Chinese “imperialism” in Tibet. First of all, there were areas of Tibet that were already part of Chinese provinces before the communist take over. Many Tibetans and Chinese lived in those areas for a long time. No major state recognized Tibet as independent during that time either. The Tibetan population has grown since it became part of China. Whether or not Tibet should be independent now, in the 21st Century, is a whole other story.
Under Mao, inflation was brought under control, the currency stabilized, and there was redistribution of large estates. Between 1950-60 the number of teachers in China rose from ½ million to 2½ million. The number of elementary school pupils rose to 100 million. The first 8 years of Mao saw more industrial output, development of roads, and development of railroads.
China’s economy was disrupted in 1967-8, but through the rest of the 1960’s and 70’s, it grew consistently. It had positive growth in agriculture and industry. The Cultural Revolution period had a rapid growth of rural industry. The US government acknowledged this in 1978. The average life expectancy for the Chinese rose from 35 years in 1949 to 63 in 1975. Mao set up the barefoot doctors, and set up better healthcare for the rural Chinese.
There was a lot of official, semi-official, and underground activity during those years. More than 10,000 different newspapers and pamphlets were published during the Cultural Revolution. Mao even read some of these publications. However, Western academics always use so called “Red Guard” publications to asses the Cultural Revolution.
During the Cultural Revolution years of 1972 to75, China had 4 national fine arts exhibitions with over 2,000 works selected from over 12,000 works of art recommended from all over China. The exhibits attracted 7.8 million people. Such a large audience was never seen before the Cultural Revolution. The number of cinemas, cultural clubs, public libraries, and museums increased between the years of 1965 and 1976.
During the Great Leap Forward, the idea of backyard furnaces was proposed. Mao was skeptical of them. They weren’t Mao’s idea, but rather Bo Yibo and Liu Shaoqi’s idea. It was Bo who said that China could catch up to the UK in two years. Mao didn’t say any of that and was always skeptical. He always wanted them to be cautious. Mao told the media to tone down publicity about unrealistic production targets. Deng Xiaoping said himself and other leaders were to blame for the GLF disasters, and Mao wasn’t entirely at fault. Deng was in charge of implementing the GLF policies and worked as a middle man between Mao and the local leaders who put the policies into practice. Deng and others are mainly at fault for the GLF disasters, not Mao.
Sources (books):
"The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution" by Mobo Gao
"China Since 1945" by Stewart Ross
Capitalist Competition and Socialist Emulation
Holy egomaniacal, capitalist arguments Nick!
To the RedMobile!
OK, so Capitalists say that technology can’t be advanced without competition and profit motive, which are two of the things capitalism is all about. A few examples of things that weren’t invented through competition and profit motive include the spear, woodblock printing, gunpowder, and the AK-47. In 1971, during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese developed a special extraction method to isolate artemisinin. Those are only a few examples. Those things might sound old to you and I, but they were new advancements when they were first developed.
Let’s also not forget the open source movement for software. Open source has outperformed commercial, for-profit software in terms of server-software and has strongly challenged Microsoft in the realm of consumer software. A report by the Standish Group says that adoption of open source has caused a drop in the revenue of the for-profit software industry by about $60 billion per year!
Marx said that a capitalist gains from competition “more difficult conditions for the profitable employment of his capital.” So it’s not much they gain. Marxists tend to favor emulation over competition. Industrial emulation focuses on making a better product, not a profit. It is more significant in the development of productive forces.
In a talk with Stalin, Colonel Robins of the USA once said of Soviet emulation, “I have already sensed this in your factories where I have seen that socialist emulation has resulted in the creation of a new kind of ardour, a new sort of ambition that money could never buy, because the workers expect to get for their work something better and greater than money can procure.”
Another argument states that in a Marxist society, people could democratically request that new things be developed when needed. Through the examples I have listed earlier, technological advances don’t necessarily have to be democratically requested nor developed through competition.
Sources:
“The Battle for China’s Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution” by Mobo Gao
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/ch09.htm
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1933/05/13.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software
To the RedMobile!
OK, so Capitalists say that technology can’t be advanced without competition and profit motive, which are two of the things capitalism is all about. A few examples of things that weren’t invented through competition and profit motive include the spear, woodblock printing, gunpowder, and the AK-47. In 1971, during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese developed a special extraction method to isolate artemisinin. Those are only a few examples. Those things might sound old to you and I, but they were new advancements when they were first developed.
Let’s also not forget the open source movement for software. Open source has outperformed commercial, for-profit software in terms of server-software and has strongly challenged Microsoft in the realm of consumer software. A report by the Standish Group says that adoption of open source has caused a drop in the revenue of the for-profit software industry by about $60 billion per year!
Marx said that a capitalist gains from competition “more difficult conditions for the profitable employment of his capital.” So it’s not much they gain. Marxists tend to favor emulation over competition. Industrial emulation focuses on making a better product, not a profit. It is more significant in the development of productive forces.
In a talk with Stalin, Colonel Robins of the USA once said of Soviet emulation, “I have already sensed this in your factories where I have seen that socialist emulation has resulted in the creation of a new kind of ardour, a new sort of ambition that money could never buy, because the workers expect to get for their work something better and greater than money can procure.”
Another argument states that in a Marxist society, people could democratically request that new things be developed when needed. Through the examples I have listed earlier, technological advances don’t necessarily have to be democratically requested nor developed through competition.
Sources:
“The Battle for China’s Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution” by Mobo Gao
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/ch09.htm
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1933/05/13.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software
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