On the 60th anniversary of the revolution and founding of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国)

By 史蒂夫 奥托

The Chinese Revolution is one of the most important and positive events of the 20^th Century. It brought liberation to nearly a quarter of the world’s people and it has inspired Marxist revolutionaries in countries on all the major continents.

Its leader Mao Zedong (毛泽东) has left us some of the most important political and philosophy theories of the entire century. While there have been many important political writers and theoreticians of the 1900 and 1800s, Mao was able to put his theories into practice. Not every decision or campaign he made was successful. The Mao personality cult may have gone too far. But far more good has come from China’s Revolution than flaws. It not only improved the lives of more than a billion people, it helped inspire politicians, theoreticians and philosophers from all over the world.

I began reading Mao in the mid 1970s and I feel that his theories are to politics what Shakespeare is to literature. The 20^th Century produced many great Marxist writers and theoreticians, but Mao is like the grandfather of them all. His writings are basic and the perfect starting point for a learning Marxist.

As with the Paris Commune, China’s revolution marked a turning point in world history for those of us who believe in Marxist theory and the idea that history moves forward, however slow, and that change from one economic order to the next is a necessary part of human history. According to Marx, society goes from feudalism, to capitalism, to socialism and to Communism. The world has already seen capitalism replace feudalism in Europe and elsewhere, and in the 20^th century we began to see capitalism face its most serious challenge, from both the Soviet Union and China.

China is no longer Maoist, nor is it the inspirational beacon of socialist hope it was under Mao’s leadership. Yet it the PRC did not collapse as the Soviet Union did right before the turn of the century. China is still better off today than it would be under a bourgeois revolution.

The struggle for socialism continues today into the present century. In Nepal, India, and many other countries we are witnessing a renewal of the left. From the ashes of the stagnated Soviet Union, a wiser movement of revolutionaries are emerging. Even if it takes another century for a true socialist society to succeed, we know that capitalism will soon reach its limits and change can’t be held back.

Other source and view on the subject:

Kasama Project China’s Maoist Revolution: Living Laboratory of Socialist Liberation & Communist Goals