By Harsh Thakor
Errors of
Mao
No doubt Chairman Mao
had weaknesses and arguably made serious errors. To me it is regrettable that
for such a prolonged period he let capitalist roaders to flourish within the
party, with figures like Liu Shao Chi still remaining head of state till 1965. I
am also critical of his appointing Lin Biao as his successor in 1969, who in
the end completely betrayed the Marxist line. Mao was unable to check the
excessive infiltration of the army during the Cultural Revolution, excesses on
artists and intellectuals by red guards, prevent dissolution of revolutionary
committees or build extensive revolutionary democracy in mass organisations or
public bodies. Mao’s permitting China to become part of United Nations in 1971,
remain silent on the toppling of Allende by Pinochet in Chile, re-instating
Deng Xiaoping into the party were a scar or blot on his political career. In
important ways Mao continued with Stalinist tradition. Mao did not explore the
realms that Marx forsake, like when dissolving the Shanghai commune and not
going beyond perceiving two-line struggle within the party as sufficient for
crystallizing revolutionary democracy. Arguably he was too harsh on the
revisionists. On the one hand Mao was unable to extricate China from the
Confucian paternalistic traditions which glorified an individual, while on the
other he was unable to generate sufficient revolutionary democracy from below.
I strongly believe that Mao was unable to curb factionalism in the party during
the Cultural Revolution. I critically respect the analysis made by
Ranganayakamma in frontier Autumn Number of 2005 on a huge personality cult
created on Mao, and his inability to curb it. In the same light I treat the
analysis of Scott Harrison in massline.info. Historians need to analyse the
formula which enabled the right to triumph or usurp power in China, shortly
after Mao's death. Analysis must also delve into how a serious movement on
Maoist lines has not germinated in China for over 4 decades.
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