Translator’s note: “CONSENSUS OF THE LEFT-WING YOUTH AT RENREN.COM ” by Zheng Wei is one of the most presentative articles of Young China Association. The article has attracted a lot of debates since it had been published. However, the capitalism in China has been developing very rapidly in the most recent years, which appeals many serious theoritical and realistic problems in front of those who is caring about socialism and the fate of the working people. China’s revolution is also part of the world’s revolution, and it has recuited the socialists from all over the world. As such, I intendedly translated this Chinese article into English language for the comrades who have the need of this relative reference.
译者按： 郑伟所著的《人人网左派青年共识》一文是少年中国评论网站的最具代表性的文章之一。该文自发表以来，在青年左派群体中引起了不少争论。而近几年中国资本主义高歌猛进的发展，将文章中所讨论的诸多理论和现实问题，更加尖锐地摆在所有关心社会主义和劳动人民命运的人士面前。中国革命的问题，同时也是世界革命的问题。国际上也有不少社会主义者也在思考这些问题。鉴于此，我们特地翻译此文，供感兴趣的同志参考。
TRANSLATED BY XIAO CHEN (Member of the YCA Translation Team)
Editor’s note: Some of the left-wing friends are often suspicious of Young China over their empty and inscrutable political views. The reason why this is the case is based on two facts: On one hand, most of the comments are focused on theoretical rather than practical aspects; on the other hand, for a long time, there have been indeed no articles available for political issues on panorama views. This time when LU Yaoyao, the famous leftist Internet friend, put forward the idea to establish the Consensus of the Left-Wings, Comrades ZHENG Wei has made a key-note statement interpreting on the issue of focus that the current left-wings argue about. We believe that: on these major theoretical and practical issues, his articles are representing the comments of the juveniles of the Internet friends in the mainstreams; therefore we forwarded it in its full content, so that the revolutionary comrades can understand it in details. Of course, the consensus of the revolutionary left-wing in a full array will not be expected to be entirely established just by one article. However, we hope instead that further reflection and discussion shall be brought forth in this process so that a true unification can be achieved. The article in its full content is provided as follows:
By ZHENG Wei, the Author
**Original Chinese Article: **
人人网左派青年的共识
http://review.youngchina.org/archives/3235
Invited by Mr. LU Yaoyao, I have made a number of necessary theoretical justifications and amendments over the Consensus of the Left-Wing Youth (Draft for Discussion) at Renren.Com.
There are some left-wing comrades who gave me some kind of reminder over Mr. Lu’s standpoint on the issue of Bernsteinism, and I think it necessary to clarify a few points to this very issue: First of all, Bernsteinism by its reactionary nature is inextricably linked with the nationalism. However, Mr. LU expressed, in countless occasions, that he has drawn a clear line of demarcation from nationalism. Secondly, in the era of Bernstein, the European countries were under the unified leadership of Social Democratic Labor (Socialists and Labor) Parties, and the Second International or “the Socialist International, but today we have none of the above, nothing. Furthermore, Mr. LU has expressed his apologies for his hostility to the Leninism, voluntarily extending an olive branch in attempt to seek the reconciliation and consensus from the entire left-wings. Shouldn’t we take a negative attitude towards sectarianism or a mountain-stronghold mentality?
There is an obvious reality right in front of us: that many pan-left-wing youths did not see or do not wish to see the fact that even the Menshevists Russian, the right-wings of the second International, the anarchists, or the populist parties are thousands of times more progressive than the running dogs of Czar.
The voices from the left-wing seemingly are filled with some of key words, such as: transgenes, Traditional Chinese Medicine, freemasonries, and traitors, etc. In these words, there are repletion of conspiracy theories and judgments on morality. We hope that our voices can be made heard on the basis of the real science of social theory, and would like to have all of those left-wing youth who do not want their own youth to be wasted in the form of rhetoric to join the work with their valuable comments and criticisms.
We are acutely aware of the fact that contemporary China’s left-wing ideology of the is in chaos of an ideological confusion and worried about that this unprecedented chaos in ideology will eventually ruin the movement of China’s left-wing activists, resulting in the error of no return to the movement with its scale reached today by having paid great sacrifices and endless efforts. Realizing this, we firstly, in a spirit of openness, exchanged our views between us, reaching several simple points of the following consensus, and we have chosen to have the consensus to be announced, so as to accept criticism from all walks of life. If this helps generates a great deal of discussion, we will be able to meet our purpose; if we are successful in eliminating some of the apparently wrong thoughts among us, our work will become significantly meaningful.
There is a consensus that states as follows:
I. Current nature of China’s society is not socialism, but capitalism.
Due to 30 years of propaganda about the reform and openness to the outside world, the image of socialism is infinitely smeared, making it become the substitute for bureaucracy, authorities, rigidity; whilst the image of capitalism is favorably given a beautiful one with no limits, making it the substitute for democracy, freedom, and well-being. As a matter of fact, is this really the case? In the course of history, socialism used to be a perfect social system that people around the world were scrambling for, such as: democratic socialism, Arab Socialism, Islamic socialism, Christian Socialism… and so forth, all forms of ideologies using these words to have them decorated. The real history of capitalism is the one full of overtime workers and child labors on the assembly; the one with the cry of starving infants in contrast with the capitalists pouring out of the milk into the river; the one National Police and the capitalists’ security men shooting at the workers’ representatives on strike. All of this change happened after the 70s in the 20th century, with the world of capitalism gradually having built up a more moderate and sustainable system of exploitation. However, all of this is by no means a gift offered by bourgeois, but it is acquired by the threats casted with adopting repeated strikes combined with the unflagging Intifadas throughout the entire socialist camps. In general, it is the result of the hard struggles by the working class throughout the world.
By eliminating the perceived halo that has been given by the above concepts, we can seriously compare the concepts of the capitalism with that of the socialism.
Marx himself did not give a clear definition to capitalism, the concept, “capitalism”, in his new book, is often associated with the capitalist’s mode of production, capitalist society and capitalist production. In his Capital: Critique of Political Economy, he pointed out that motivating force of capitalism is that of production of surplus value, and his explanation to the capitalist’s production is that “the capitalist’s production is a social form of production, in this production, production process subject to capital, or in other words, this production is established on labor relations between the capital and employment, and that the relationship is a decisive, dominant of the means of production. “Stated in plain words, the purpose of capitalist production is to make profits, and if there is a disease that only the poor would suffer from and then capitalism will not probably have to produce the corresponding drugs to cure it.
This concept of Socialism in the works by Marx and Engels appears very vague, and most of the time the socialism was used by Marx and Engels as the synonymous for the communism. However, Marx in his Critique of the Gotha Program raised the definition of the first phase of communism in:
“What we are dealing with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society, which is thus in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the birth-marks of the old society from whose womb it emerges”. In this first phase of a “collective society based on the common ownership of the means of production” the key characteristic for Marx was that “individual labor no longer exists in an indirect fashion but directly as a component part of the total labor” under a conscious collective plan. Then “the individual producer receives back from society – after the deductions have been made – exactly what he gives to it … The same amount of labor that he has given to society in one form he receives back in another”.
Hence, equal right here is still in principle — bourgeois right, although principle and practice are no longer at loggerheads, while the exchange of equivalents in commodity exchange exists only on the average and not in the individual case. In spite of this advance, this equal right is still constantly stigmatized by a bourgeois limitation…
…This equal right is an unequal right for unequal labor. It recognizes no class differences, because everyone is only a worker like everyone else; but it tacitly recognizes unequal individual endowment, and thus productive capacity, as a natural privilege. It is, therefore, a right of inequality, in its content, like every right.”
And Lenin on that basis made a more detailed account of it. In order to clarify the false readings of what the people perceive the concept of the socialism, we have no choice but to quote his original words from The State and Revolution:
“This is a “defect”, says Marx, but it is unavoidable in the first phase of communism; for if we are not to indulge in utopianism, we must not think that having overthrown capitalism people will at once learn to work for society without any rules of law. Besides, the abolition of capitalism does not immediately create the economic prerequisites for such a change.
Now, there are no other rules than those of “bourgeois law”. To this extent, therefore, there still remains the need for a state, which, while safeguarding the common ownership of the means of production, would safeguard equality in labor and in the distribution of products.
The state withers away insofar as there are no longer any capitalists, any classes, and, consequently, no class can be suppressed.
But the state has not yet completely withered away, since the still remains the safeguarding of “bourgeois law”, which sanctifies actual inequality. For the state to wither away completely, complete communism is necessary.”
With this it shows that the real socialism, the first phase communism is characterized by: the public ownership of means of production, the distribution system based on the labor, no class, and national defense of bourgeois right.
In today’s China, the ownership of means of production, the national economy owned by public civilians, with its the name changed into state-owned economy, was stolen by the thieves of bureaucrats, who transformed them to profit-oriented capitalist enterprises; restructuring the state enterprises, having them casted into privatization by selling a lot of state-owned assets at very low prices, the beneficiaries are primarily those currently the leading cadres at all levels, such as: plant directors and managers; the so-called collective ownership of the economy, in the developed areas has lost its intention as “collective ownership by the working people”, to become a collective ownership by the capitalists to exploit laboring masses, and in this pattern, the principle means of production, in fact, are controlled in the hands of bureaucrats; the bourgeois in most private enterprises in fact are entirely dependent upon the bureaucrat-capitalists, such as all types of the coal mine owners; and the foreign investments today when the global finance grow closer, have all kinds of links with bureaucrat-capitalists. In terms of Distribution System, the distribution based on labor has already been replaced by the capital allocation as the mainstream. New Class has been divided, with the completion of the industrialization in the areas, such as: housing, medical care and education, etc, we have to ask: now is there industry making products not for profits? All the facts show that China’s society in nature is not socialism, but capitalism.
2.China has already entered the highest stage – the stage of imperialism.
Given by the rigid education, the image of imperialism is nothing but often the synonyms, such as: with heavy gunnery and gigantic warships, Fascist, aggression, the arms race, etc. In fact, this is the only the manifestations of military imperialism, and the aggression and expansion of capitalism is not equal to imperialism. In Opium War, the Britain did not go into imperialist stage either. Lenin in , proposed the famous judgment: “Imperialism is capitalism at the stage where it has developed to a point that the monopolist organization and rule of financial capital were established, the export of capital has its prominent significance, the international trust has started to divide the world and some of the biggest capitalist countries have carved up completely the world territory.” After capitalism has entered its monopoly stage, the competition within the market range has not existed, and the purchasing power of market was saturated, therefore it must expand to an extent that it has to scramble for the market with other imperialism in the form of military force. The imperialism is the capitalism at its monopoly stage.
In the early 20th century each established capitalist country was in the imperialism stage one after another, the First World War and Second World War are the products of imperialism logic. But in the gun fire of First World War was born in the human history the first Socialist Republic Soviet Union, and in the gun fire of Second World War was born the socialist camp that has occupied one-third of population and one-fourth of lands in the world, with the above facts it thus has verified Lenin’s judgment – “Imperialism is eve of social revolution of the proletariat “.
The imperialism is part of dialectical logic, in which it has consumed the energy of advanced capitalist countries, and at the same time it promoted the development of backward countries, eventually causing demise of capitalism for good. Lenin did not anticipate that his theory would be confirmed in this kind of manner: Capitalism camp was unified by the American imperialists, which firstly has solved the employment issue by adopting the Keynesism, and then internationally it implements the backwards flow of profits, allowing the little brothers to do the industry and to open up the domestic markets for its impact, practices the welfare systems internally, with a large amounts of funds used to improve the worker benefits, so as therefore to alleviate the class contradictions. Finally is the arms race, with the surplus productive forces used in the development of the science and technology, to induce the eruption of the third revolution in science and technology during the cold war. By applying capitalism in this pattern, it has expected with patience the China’s Reform and Opening-up, the drastic change in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of Soviet Union. Among them, the Reform and Opening-up of China, makes China, a country with the most latent industrial population in the world to join capitalism camp. In December, 1978 the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee convention, announced that the Reform and Opening-up started. In February, 1979 when Deng Xiaoping visited US, China offered the olive branch to the imperialism. In February to March of 1979 China declared the war of counterattacking Vietnamese in self-defense, China offered to the capitalism camp a big gift. In 1981 Reagan became the president, and the de-industrialization in the US started. Finally there exist presently China, the industrial workshop of the world and US, the debt king, in this interlude there were the drastic change in Eastern European and the disintegration of Soviet Union. Pitifully, regarding the world capital, the huge industrial population of China was sufficient, and this is why the lives in majority of people from the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries had reached the level of the late 1980s until first ten years of this century. With this returning to those opening words, the economic crisis in 2008 has exposed this kind of fact: With the US imperialism declining, the entire capitalist countries declined, with the French workers having a great strike, the disturbance between
British student and jobless, and Seizing the Wall Street Movement in US. However, in contrast with this, although China is also getting rotten day-by-day, it seemed rising overnight, in comparison with the established capitalist country decayed to the bones, having shown the strength of imperialism to the world: 4 trillion RMB bailouts and 1.5 trillion US dollars creditor’s rights.
More detailed economic data can be enumerated as well, and in the extent of monopoly, we can have a look at the monopoly degree of financial capital, taking only one case in the banking industry (thanks for the material that Marx and Lenin Maoism forum provided):
Based on the types of organizations, the properties in larger scales in order are respectively: Large commercial bank, the commercial bank in joint-stock and the small financial institution in rural areas. The properties in these three kinds of organizations account for the share of properties in the banking and financial institutions respectively are 50.9%, 15.0% and 11.0%.——
According to the annual report of various main banks in 2009, (mandatory banks, large commercial banks, joint stock system banks and commercial banks of important cities), the bureaucratic capital has the absolute holding power to 10 banks, such as: the National Development Bank and Import and Export Bank of China and Agricultural Development Bank, the commerce bank, the construction bank and Bank of China, the agricultural bank and China CITIC Bank, the Everbright Bank and Guangdong Development Bank, with its control of approximately 47.4 trillion properties, accounting for about 60% of the total assets in the banking industry.
The stockholder’s rights are quite scattered in banks as Communication Bank, the Merchant Banking, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, the Societe Bank, Hang Fung Bank And Bohai Bank, as well as the massive urban commercial banks, but the bureaucratic capital is a major stockholder, in fact having the holding power, with control of over 10 trillion properties, approximately accounting for 12.4% of the total assets in the banking industry.
The Postal Savings Bank, approximately accounting for 3.43%, belongs to the bureaucratic capital as well. Of the above three parts, the bureaucratic capitals have achieved 75%.
Moreover, there must inevitably exist some massive bureaucrat properties, in the properties of non-bank financial institutions, such as: Rural Commercial Bank, Rural Cooperative Bank and Rural Credit Cooperative, therefore the entire bureaucrat properties proportionally will achieve over 80%.
Only in some minority banks, such as: Ningbo Bank, Zhejiang Commerce Bank line and Minsheng Bank, the proportion of private capital is high, but insufficient in holding. Moreover the properties of these banks are only about 2 trillion, approximately accounting for 3%.
For Huaxia Bank, Development Bank in Shenzhen and Bank of Beijing, the first major stockholder is the foreign capital, but with the stocks not reaching over 20%, far from the degree of holding.
Therefore none of the domestic banks has been controlled by the foreign capital. But the properties of foreign banks are only 1.35 trillion, approximately accounting for about 1.7%, in very small proportion.
According to , the status of capitalist country from the industrial output value, the industrial data is as follows:
I. The basic industrial data:
1,Raw steel output: 627 million tons, with growth 9.3%, accounts for 44.3% of world ultimate output, exceeding the output of the 2th to 20th in total;
2.Steel output: 798 million tons, with 14.9% in growth
3.Cement output: 1.868 billion tons, with 15.53% in growth, accounts for 60% of world ultimate output;
4.Electrolytic aluminum output: 15.65 million tons, with 21.4% in growth, surpasses 65% of world ultimate output;
5.Refined copper production; 4.57 million tons, with 10.6% in growth, accounts for 24% of world ultimate output; plus imports of 4.29 million tons, consuming the amount equivalent to 8.8 million tons, surpassing 50% of world ultimate output;
6.Coal output: 3.24 billion tons, with 8.9% in growth, accounts for 45% of world ultimate output;
7.Crude oil output: 202 million tons, with 6.9% in growth; Plus imports 239 million tons, with growth of 17.4%; the quantity of apparent consumption amounting to 439 million tons;
8.Ethylene output: 14.189 million tons, with growth of 31.7%, the world second (with US the first); The equivalent consumption of 24 million tons, with self-sufficiency rate about 59%;
9.Chemical fertilizer output: 67.406 million tons, with growth of 5.6%, accounts for 35% of world ultimate output;
10.Plastic output: 55.5 million tons, with growth of 20.9%, accounts for 20% of world ultimate output;
11.Chemical fiber output: 30.9 million tons, with growth of 12.44%, accounts for 42.6% of world ultimate output;
12.Glass output: 630 million the weight box, with growth of 10.9%, surpasses 50% of world ultimate output.
II. The manufactured products data:
1.Automobile output: 18,264,700, with growth of 32.44%, accounts for 25% of world ultimate output; Sales volume of 18,061,900, with growth of 32.37%, surmounting the new car sales records of 17.5 million in US.
2.Ships output: Shipbuilding completion of 65.6 million deadweight tonnage, with growth of 54.6%, accounts for the world total quantity of 41.9%; with the newly sign-up order volume of 75.23 million deadweight tonnage, by growth of 290%, accounting for 48.5% of world total; with the order in hand volume reaching 192.915 million deadweight tonnage, accounting for 40.8% of world total quantity; And shipbuilding completion quantity and the order in hand volume in share of the world having the big promotion compared with 2009; The export breaks through 40 billion US dollars for the first time, with growth 42.07%.
3.Engineering machinery output: 59 billion US dollars, with growth of 20%, accounts for 43% of world ultimate output (the engineering machinery: Excavator, loader, bulldozer, hoist crane, pumpcrete machine, forklift, roller, etc.)
4.Computer output: 246 million, with growth of 35%, will account for 68% of world ultimate output, with the share increased by 8 points compared with 2009;
5.Color television output: 118 million, with growth of 19.5%, will account for 50% of world ultimate output, with the share increased by 2 points compared with 2009;
6.Refrigerator output: 73 million, with growth of 23%, will account for 65% of world ultimate output, with the share increased by 5 points compared with 2009;
7.Air conditioning facility output: 109 million, with growth of 35%, will account for 80% of world ultimate output, with the share increased by 10 points compared with 2009;
8.Cell phone output: 998 million, with growth of 61%, surpasses 70% of world ultimate output; with the share increased by 20 points compared with 2009;
9.Washing machine output: 61 million, with growth of 21%, will account for 44% of world ultimate output, with the share increased by 4 points compared with 2009;
10.Microwave oven output: 68 million, with growth of 12%, accounts for the world ultimate output 70%;
11.Digital camera output: 82 million, account for 65% of world ultimate output;
12.On-top TV digital boxes: 150 million, account for 73% of world ultimate output;
III. The infrastructure data:
1.Electric power: Increase of the installed capacity by 91.18 million kilowatts, the total power generating capacity is 962 million kilowatts (the US is 1 billion kilowatts), grows 10.07%;
2.Power Generation: 4.2065 trillion degrees, with growth of 13.2%, accounts for 22% of world total output of electrical energy, transcending US for the first time (with US in 2010 approximately 4.11 trillion degrees), leapt to first in the world;
The US sat for more than 100 years in this position, the power rate surpasses the US is the symbol of milestone;
3.Highways: increased 105,000 kilometers of new roads in use (high-speed including), the highway network totally 3.984 million kilometers; with highway 8258 kilometers increased, with the total course reaching 74,100 kilometers (with US 90,000 kilometers);
4.Railroads: Building up new lines reaching 4986 kilometers, with passenger lines as long as 1554 kilometers; Multiple tracks in production as long as 3747 kilometers; with 91,000 kilometers (next to the US) in operation, with high speed rail as long as 8358 kilometers.
5.Energy: The primary energy consumption is by 3.25 billion tons standard coal, with growth of 6%, transcending US for the first time, the first in the world, a symbol of milestone.
Ⅳ. The light industrial products and others:
1.Gauze output: 27.17 million tons, with growth of 17.5%, accounts for world share 46%;
2.Cloth output: 80 billion meters, grow by 6.2%
3.Gold production: 340.876 tons with growth of 8.57%, as the world first.
An Analysis based on the rate of increase on the output of gauze and cloth shows that China in the share of world textile will increase with certainty.
Due to the limitation by the length of this article, no detailed elaboration will be given on the issues, such as: China’s plans for setting up military bases overseas; Varyag aircraft carrier (Liaoning <16>, the first aircraft carrier commissioned into the People’s Liberation Army Navy –noted by the translator), and J-20 fighter aircrafts; and the export of commodities and capital to Latin American and African countries, as well as the significance of the great leap forward on building high speed rails, and so forth. In the early 21st century, an emerging capitalist country rose at the imperialism stage, which is what the historians of later generations will perhaps continue to refer to as what the Japanese demonstrators adopted their demonstration: Imperialism of China.
Finally also needs to clarify the beautification that some people give to the imperialism, namely the people in imperialist nations, will definitely obtain bonuses from the excess profits. In fact on the eve of WWI, whether in the British Empire that the sun never sets, or in the backward Russia Empire, the ordinary workers and peasants were always living in the extremely impoverished regions. The reason that the US imperialism introduced the welfare policy has been elaborated in the preamble. A netizen precisely summarized this phenomenon with a few words: Everyone can refer his country as his motherland, but only the ruler can call it my empire.
3.The biggest contradiction in Chinese society for 30 years is not the ethnic conflicts, but the class contradiction
Upon elaborating the above two consensus, the one about social contradiction was self-evident. Firstly, it was a class issue to have the Chinese Left wing is mingled with the nationalism, that was quite reasonably elaborated by SU Lami in his , but I relatively opposed the tendency of populist and counter-wisdom that was revealed in his article. We left wings indeed are not the pure proletarians, but the fact is that the humanist sympathetic for the poor minority groups, in conjunction with the revolutionary intellectuals practicing advanced theories, are consistently the vanguards that always manifest active roles in the materialistic history of mankind. Then this said issue is a historical one as well, that if it is elaborated from the historical point, the possible significance of our work could be let understood more intuitively.
In the 1980s, when there was a time of an unprecedented liberation of ideology, certainly except for the thought of being skeptical about the Reform and Openness, in fact in contrary to the thought that some people might have, in the early 80s almost nobody questioned about the Reform and Opening-up. The right wings and bureaucrats who got detained in the past were rehabilitated, and with the cancellation of in the factory, the plant manager responsibility system was promoted, and the authority of technical bureaucrats got also emphasized. The wrap of political domination during the Great Cultural Revolution was not in fashion any more, therefore instead there were the necessary material incentive – bonus and welfare-made the worker happy as well. Due to the promotion by the Central Government, some peasants in the manner of half believing and half doubting, separated their lands among them. It seemed that not many people cared about those rebellions in the Great Cultural Revolution who were currently made into the counter-revolutionaries. In 1989 China had the famous sensitive word movement, the root of which is the corruption combined with unfairness that was brought forth by both the uncontrollable inflation and the irrational two-track pricing system. The main slogan by then was that of the Counter-official Speculation and Anti-corruption, whilst the idea of democracy and freedom was mainly raised by the minority intellectuals. The well-known editorial in <people ‘s Daily> stated as: “What the whole nation, including the broad masses of young students hopes for are: the Reform and Opening-up; The reorganization governmental bodies; the development and reconstruction; the control of pricing system; the improvement of life; the anti-corruption; and the construction of democracy and legal system.” Therefore this incident actually symbolized a massive eruption of the typical class contradictions. Thereafter, the circle of thinkers got very much suppressed for several years, until the Southern Tour Speech they were gradually relaxed.
In the mid/late 90’s, the Internet started to emerge in China; the gap between the rich and the poor got deepened and widened with further development of Reform over the state-owned enterprises; the US provoked many incidents and Japan repeatedly worshipped the shrine. At this time Fenqing (meaning literally “angry youth”. It mainly refers to leftist Chinese youth who display a high level of Chinese nationalism … noted by the translator) online criticized the society being unfair, while complaining the country being weak. At that time you could also understand China in the , holding high the patriotic flag while exposing the social dark side as well, and those interested can search , for the editorial “A Monument of No Height” in view of the event of the American imperialists’ bombardment of our Embassy to Yugoslavia. Even so, the genuine principal domestic contradiction is still the class contradiction, rather than non-ethnic conflict. Even if in 1999 when the ethnic conflicts reached its most incisive moment, perhaps what the students could only remember were taking a walk before the gate to the American imperialists embassy; shouting slogans; and/or throwing stuff at it. However, around 2000, there seemed to be nobody willing to mention the struggle of counter-privatization for state-owned enterprises and the struggle of rural area refusing payment of taxes. Taking, for instance, the Northeast area as the old industrial base, from 1997, when the reform entered the time of Great Leap Forward, tens of millions of workers had waged the struggle against it, There was a novel by CAO Zhenglu, together with a movie by ZHANG Meng that told stories about that time. The issue of state-owned enterprise is a sensitive one, which therefore gradually emerged until reconsideration of it in recent years. However, three Rural Issues（or San Nong, refers to three issues relating to rural development in mainland China. Specifically, these issues are agriculture, rural areas and farmers… noted by the translator） were different ones. In 2004 before the agricultural tax gradually eliminated, there were hundreds of thousands of violence of anti-payment for taxes every year in Chinese rural areas, and there were also many scholars who rose to their fames by studying these issues, among whom are YU Jianrong who presently turns into a right wing, QIN Hui as middle-of-the-roaders (centrist), and WEN Tiejun as a left wing.
Entering a new century, China is in the imperialism stage, the left wing and right wing can realize the issue of popular resentment in the network. There was a group of reactionaries, the so-called left wing, and cook up the conspiracy theory, to offer a sacrifice to the banner of Mao Zedong from time to time, frequently labeling the people to hats such as: “guidance party” or “traitor to China”, in attempt to cover the class contradictions with the ethnic conflicts. However, not only the critique of their theory makes their viewpoints unable to stand firmly, but the iron-hard fact that European and American are declining will also tear them of their evildoer’s disguise gradually to pieces.
It is too conservative to state at this period of time that the biggest contradiction in the Chinese society for 30 years is not the ethnic conflicts, but the class contradiction. Mao Zedong at his older age proposed the judgment that the bourgeoisie is inside the Party. Even from the moment when the counter-right movement got magnified, the class contradictions perhaps had always been the principal contradiction of China. However no specific elaboration on this issue will be given here.
4.The Opposition of the Nationalism and Reversion of Nationalism Fashionable in Current Networks
The war which is coming
is not the first one. There were
other wars before it.
When the last one came to an end
there were conquerors and conquered.
Among the conquered the common people
Starved. Among the conquerors
the common people starved too.
《From a German War Primer》by Bertolt Brecht
Incautiously has been written a big topic to oneself. Seeing these two principles, I have some faint headaches. I perhaps need to write a full book to sufficiently cover this type of topics, if elaborated systematically. Moreover it involves most acute issue in the current polemics, and had I been carelessly to this issue, I would have been drowned in the flood of variety of hats, such as: a traitor to China, a guidance party, and so forth. What was good was that I had given some elaborations in the previous section over the nature of the society has carried on the elaboration of social nature because of front. On considerations of the fact that most of the readers are mainly the comrades from the left wing, I will omit many of those unnecessary arguments.
First let’s define the concept. Without special indication, this nationality and country are the synonyms, meaning a nation in English. The nationalism and statism are synonyms as well, meaning nationalism in English.
The Marxism believes that modern national (nation) is social community that was formed through a long-term stable economic collaboration, in which the people use the common language, live together in the foundation of the same common region. Accordingly, the said people will gradually form the same cultural psychology with a sense of belonging (national identity). As a social development section, a nationality has its own beginning and its ending, both of which are not never-changing natural products. Its birth depends on the preliminary rise of the capitalists’ productive relations – the new productive relations have accomplished the general regional markets as well as the crowd communities based on this (nationality); There should be a unification of its language, its education, its administration and its taxation system, that is required for a unified market, but the newborn Bourgeois are anticipating to have the national boundary defined and establish a standing army to protect itself to control of the resources and market. A Nation State and a patriotism both of which conform to the above request then arise at the historic moment.
The ruling functions of a nation-state – except for the protection (and plundering) resources and market, but also includes the taxation, the encouragement of the industry, the release of a single money, the guarantee of commercial credit and promotion of its national language (national language) and so on; These functions further consolidate and develop capitalist’s productive relations (i.e. the various preconditions for the existence of a nationality). The nature of production in a capitalist society, plays a key role in splitting inevitably a nationality into two parts with its benefits basic antagonism – the bourgeoisie (as well as its wealthy allies) that is “being acclaimed as emperor” and the working populace suffering from exploitation and oppression. The “minority” capitalists who not only occupy the materials of production, but also dominate the state apparatus and cultural circles, can exploit, bully and deceive the proletarian at maximum limit; although working populace (including petty bourgeoisie at lower level) form many of the constitutions of nationality, but it is always at the position of being dominated. The essence that the nation-state constructs itself above the class society (takes protecting ruler interests as the highest objective) has equally the organization instrument of violence, namely the so-called social class country (class state).
Based on the above elaboration, the concept of nationalism, along with the evolution of society, was divided into two parts.
One of the parts is metaphysically the nation-statism, in which the emphasized patriotism is essentially of difference from the three cardinal ethical relationships of the social order and the five constant virtues in the ancient Chin, which is completely a kidnapping of morality; in the aspect of
the culture, the monarchy and religion gradually faded out from the ideological realm, with the loyalty to monarchy and church having been replaced by the loyalty of country. Whether he is a scholarly official in the feudal China or a European feudalism knight, he is certain to die if the king/emperor orders he facebook (die). This seems to be quite silly nowadays, but in fact this king/emperor was replaced by the country. In Japan and Britain, the significance of monarchy regarding the symbolic significance of culture is much greater than the practical one. But in those countries that is lack of modernism, such as Libya, once the rebel forces win, they immediately offer a sacrifice to the flag of Islamism, and the basic reasons for this is that the people living for a long time in the clan and tribe, lacking of the basic perception f or the nation-state, have to depend upon the religion to strengthen the rule of new government. The revolution once having happened in China has swept monarchy and religion, but the legibility of ruler mainly was not established on the loyalty to the nation-state from all of the people, on a brand-new idea, namely socialist revolution, which is a type of ideology of eliminating the country rather than strengthening it. Once the vanguards of the Proletariat have chosen to finish own historic task, they have to use other legally constituted authority as an auxiliary measures, one of which is presently the emergence of New Confucianism. The right wing at the initiation of this century, shouted one of the slogans as that “Being a patriotic is not equal to loving his government”. Given the above elaboration, this slogan does not seem to be very powerful, because its creators have not yet discriminated clearly the material origin and the cultural origin on the concept of country.
Another part is the intimate emotion by its physical nature, which is social community that was formed through a long-term stable economic collaboration, in which the people use the common language, live together in the foundation of the same common region. Accordingly, the said people will gradually form the same cultural psychology with a sense of belonging (national identity). People are the total sum of social relations; whilst the society is also a community that is composed of people. The concept of country in a scope of society, in fact constitutes the total sum of the crowd in this society. However in the class society, the same cultural psychology and sense of belonging (national identity), shall exist in the same social class. Whether there is a cultural psychology and a sense of belonging across social class? Yes, it is in class society, for the fact that the ruling class’s comprehensive dictatorship in ideology, the ruled class had the brand mark of ruling class culture brought forth by the ruling class, of which the revolutionary intellectuals need to give at the critique and struggle in the realm of ideology. Just as Rosa Luxembourg said: “In class society, there does not exist a political phenomenon with the nationality as a unified society. In any domain of social life (whether it is on a hard real material basis, or for an exquisite and complex spiritual life), and it is impossible for both the ruling class and conscious proletariat to find the truly common language, therefore (on this premise) it is unlikely to constitute a flawlessly complete nationality.” What the proletariat most needs to guard against is that the bourgeoisie raise this simple natural emotion to undeniable loyalty to the country.
With a clarified discrimination on nationalism, it was quite easy to understand the reversion nationalism. The reversed nationalists, who constitute a small group of the intellectuals who are prone to the external culture, when the propaganda of their ruling class does not beat the propaganda of the foreign ruling class, have formed the cultural psychology and sense of belonging to the said foreign ruling class. As the chieftain Barher JIN from Circle A Party at renren.com once joked about: My group’s centrism is in contrast to the centrism of other groups, for example, reversion racism, reversion nationalism. This slave-typed status approval stems from the recognition of ancestors from other communities after a thorough collapse of their primary community. This is due to the underdevelopment in intelligence, that they are unable to possess criticalness sensation and transcendence to human subjectivity and wholism thought. These two communities attack each other every day, with the labels (hats) as Wu Fen (five cent American) Party from one community and Wu Mao (ten cents RMB) Party from the other flying all over the said communities, respectively showing the illusory morality and sensation of intelligence superiority. Did they realize there was no difference from the “June 9th Holy War”?
With the elaboration given above, we could possibly propose a brand-new patriotic view, in which the country is no longer getting into consolidation, but instead is withering away gradually, and the object of this patriotic view is not to love that imaginary or instilled community, but instead to love those class brothers and sisters having the similar cultural psychology and sense of belonging. This viewpoint can be further refined with a few words dozens of years ago: “Social class divides those who truly love each other”. Possibly there are some people having some sort of resistance to this Cultural Revolution-typed slogan, so we could put it like this that the patriotism is to love the ordinary people in this country.
5.In Analyzing History with Historical Materialism, Oppose Deifying and Demonizing History
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes in order to present this new scene in world history in time-honored disguise and borrowed language.” Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparteby Marx
The Chinese are lucky, who receive the education of Marxism since childhood. Meanwhile the Chinese are also sorrowful, because they are not taught its discussion process on the conclusion, the same time they are inculcated with the Marxism since childhood. Moreover, propaganda machinery also crudely put the labels such as: “the unique science”, “universal truth”, and “universally applicable” and so forth on the Marxism, so as to induce the repugnance of people by instinct, just as a proverb puts it: “Over applied makeup reveal the defects” that incisively has manifested the might of Dialectics.
The science can explain the world in the same manner as the theology can explain it as well. However the science can transform the world, whilst the theology cannot. Reason that the historical materialism is the science, is not because its conclusion can explain the history, but because in its discussion process, the human is not only the object of history, it is the main body of history as well; Compelled by the motivation for “reproduction” for the basic necessities of life until now, historical objectiveness of human is, was the same as the one of the animal; But subjectiveness of people was that the labor of the oppressed class make its own history, its struggle made the history flow, rather than the empty time pass. Men, though limited by the immediately current historic condition, can display their conscious activity in transformation of the future history; the historical materialism is a theory that can transform the world. Science also has a key characteristics, namely after the experiment directed by theoretical guidance, can also, according to the experimental result, make a revision to and supplement for the original theory. Based on that this significance, the historical materialism is a theory with its own inclusive that can transform the world, such a theory conforms to the definition of science.
We can take a look at the historical prospect at this time with the historical materialism.
In disadvantageous historic condition: 1. without a doubt, most people of this era must work for the individual reproduction. 2. At This era, the dictatorship strength of ruling class is unprecedentedly powerful, with its state apparatus armed to the teeth, from the state apparatus for suppression to the ones in ideology. 3. The ideological state apparatus is the one we must especially pay an intensive attention to; at this era it has become a trend of entertainment enjoyment at its extremes, and the predictions in < >by Aldus Huxley would probably come true.
The above reality that we have to face is one of the heaviest shackles when we dance in the historical arena; this era looks like the worst, whilst it is the best ever.
In advantageous historic condition: 1. this is an era when the productive forces are unprecedentedly developed, and the contradiction between productive forces and productive relations were in a very incisive situation. 2. This is an era when the industrial population accounts for the total population proportion at its maximum, being almost a leap particularly viewed in the recent Chinese history of dozens of years. 3. The Internet, its significance never being excessively estimated; if the Gutenberg’s printing method, the Renaissance and relations of bourgeois revolution are inseparable, the Internet will play a more important role in the history.
Then we also need to make a settlement for the wrong historic conception of current network, once the cognition of historical science is set up, the correct practice can be properly applied.
Firstly, the economical theory raised by Five Mao (ten cents RMB) Party, often comments with a view that: “The capitalism in China having not been sufficiently developed, needs to make up for a missed lesson” and “there are not adequate, at present, socialist productive forces by which to develop socialism, so only to the socialism with Chinese features. ” and “China that has not experienced capitalism, will inevitably end up in failure in practicing the socialism”. This is a typical example in which the revolutionary dialectics was replaced with the vulgar evolution and the eclectic sophistry. In this viewpoint, the humanities in the history that were not considered to have any kind of consciousness and activities, forever drift with the current as the objects of history, like animals. The surmountable “The Kafuding canyon”, is decided by the historical intrinsic logic, rather than the result of fatalism. However the option of “detouring”, a manifestation of multiple historical developments, is the biggest conscious activity of mankind as the historical subjective body in display. This viewpoint is one of the official theory cores, currently the most reactionary conception of history.
The Grass Mud Horse or (Cǎonímǎ草泥马in Mandarin) is a Chinese Internet meme widely used as a form of symbolic defiance of the widespread Internet censorship in China.
Next is the demonization and vulgarization of history between Caonima (The Grass Mud Horse or , is a Chinese Internet meme widely used as a form of symbolic defiance of the widespread Internet censorship in China) and Wumao. The common views are those like “thanks to the US forces pilots and thanks to the egg-fried rice” and “Great Cultural Revolution was initiated by Mao for the purpose of consolidating his authority ” and “Lenin died of the syphilis “and “The bold Chiang Kai-shek died of venereal disease”. In the eyes of the origin of this kind of opinions, the history is the one dominated by a few authorities who grasped the leadership, but not the product of class struggle. Just because in pursuit of this extremely idealist perception of elite history, they will love to talk about the hearsay of those authorities at upper-level. This kind of pieces, often illogic, not self consistent, is less harmful than the theory of the unique importance of economy. However, it dispelled the ideology enormously, making everybody, ending up with sharing with the laughing pieces so as to ignore the disaffection and the pursuit of progressive reality, and in this point it can be considered as vanguard in stabilizing society.
Finally, it is a historical idealism of deified history, that is often popular among the crowd with slightly higher intellectual level, with common features as praising of the first 30 year achievement as a flower, and depreciating the post-30 as the waste of bean curd, as well as the republican style (Minguo Fan Er) presented by CHEN Danqing and other well-known popular intellectuals. These people do not attempt to explain the history, instead to religionize and deificate history. In their perception, that the history is the one in some social class, they naturally think that the transform of history is not a result in the contrast of social class strength, and not an irresistible and inevitable trend as a result of all sorts of intriguing movements of social contradiction, but a consequence designed in secret by certain great people and extraordinary intriguers. Certainly it is easier to have this conception of history refuted. Those, who praised Mao’s era as a flower, actually cannot explain why a whole generation raised through indecipherable education, could restore the society easily into capitalism just by a palace coup, but to have seen the republican style (Minguo Fan Er) presented by CHEN Danqing, in front of the ironclad proof that millions of their folks starved to death everywhere, will perhaps make people feel disgusted.
The youth who are keen on talking about national affairs at Renren.com, mostly likely use “history” the biggest ever keyword. The Left wing youth in treating historical issues, who should have mastered theory, and conscientiously studied the historical materialism, can criticize various wrong conception of history effectively, and avoid creating some biased mistakes, so as to prevent from the happening of over makeup reversing effects.
6.The flag of democracy is the one that the left wing must insist on holding
While the confreres of R. N. S. (author of the preface to Witte’s Memorandum) haggle with the government over the rights of the authoritative Zemstvo, or over a constitution, we will struggle for the democratic republic. We will not forget, however, that if we want to push someone forward, we must continuously keep our hands on that someone’s shoulders. The party of the proletariat must learn to catch every liberal just at the moment when he is prepared to move forward an inch, and make him move forward a yard. If he is obdurate, we will go forward without him and over him.
Political Agitation and “The Class Point of View” by V.I. Lenin.
Nowadays there exists s strong anti-democratic mood in the left wing community. Should no analysis in- depth be given on this wrong trend of ideology, with its origin of this erroneous trend refuted in every aspect, an enormous ideological confusion will inevitably be created. The democracy was once the most important flag with which the Communist Parties in various countries seized a political power. In the theoretical and political struggle of the left-wing in future, it will also be hoisted repeatedly. But perhaps in this section, the difficult issue of how to jump out of the historical cycle can replied.
The democratic system of modern capitalist countries, originating in Ancient Greece, that inherited in the bourgeois revolution time, had not only reflected the political appeal of emerging bourgeoisie, similarly had also reflected, to a certain extent, the ones from ordinary citizens (petty bourgeoisie), as well as the general workers.
It is for sure that the bourgeois democracy indeed finally guides to injustice. Without the right to organize the trade union and political party, without the freedom to display a strike and take a walk,
and without the ability to establish a relatively independent organ of propaganda under the bureaucrat and despotic system, its struggle condition compared with that of the workers under the “false” bourgeois democracy in West Countries, will become many times more severe.
Different from that in the environment of the previous communist movement, today there are the state apparatus for suppression and ideology that can be found in almost every corner, with the bourgeois democracy being our “modern monarchy” – a midwife via whom a proletarian party is born, but the bourgeois democracy will also substantially promote the formation of the class consciousness of proletariat.
False idea 2: The people, who only need to have the current economic condition improved, do not require for the democratic rights.
This viewpoint on economism seemed to have been criticized thoroughly historically, but in recent years there had been signs that it would stir up some new turbulences.
The people, who were born not to care much about the politics, are actually not politically tempered under the political high pressure combined with the illiterate propaganda for a long time. A person who has not received proper education has little interests in reading, whilst a person who is not used to physical training would rather dwell more frequently at home. This explanation is based on materialism.
What has to be acknowledged is the fact that, the people are indeed easy to abandon some fundamental principles just for petty profits, has occurred innumerably in history, and perhaps is going to occur in the future as well. However this is not the reason that the people got discriminated for this, but the conscious comrades of the left wing instead need to understand the necessity of reiterating this principle repeatedly: Do not give up the right of being the eldest son just for a bowl of red bean soup.
False idea 3: With the wisdom of people not being opened up, practice of democracy might end up in misdemeanor.
It seems to be quite rational, but a logical error similar to the previous one was made.
In fact, the political wisdom of people, besides part of it acquired from the rigid theoretical initiation by intellectuals, more importantly, originates from the actual political struggles. The perception that the political wisdom that comes from the struggle, can instantly kill the doctrine in the book, is also what I answered to the question asked by GONG Zhiyu, namely that the left wing youth prefer quoting Marx’s and Lenin’s when writing articles. First they are the theoreticians, with their theoretical logic carried through from top to end, but more importantly, they are the leaders for struggle, with their political wisdom direct from the source in the entire proletariat. To be honest, actually I hope that I do not always quote the words of the former teachers (including Mao Zedong), a couple of hundreds of years ago, for the reason that there is a too big differences between these two eras. What a pity it is that, there has not risen a character who can be called as a teacher for dozens of year, but we must still need to be persistent in learning theories as thoroughly as possible widely, so as to find the mode in our era for breaking the pattern of stiffness, such as: understanding the importance of proletarian party, by reading both “What is to be done” by Lenin, and “Modern Prince’ by Antonio Gramsci.
False idea 4: The democracy is the plot that the Western reactionary forces attempting to overthrow the power of our people.
The incident of sesame seed cake in Lanzhou
Having refuted several false ideas, let’s choose a less-formal topic, in attempt to reply to the question of jumping of the historical cycle. What needs to be explicated is that: In pursuit of jumping out of the historical cycle, humanity has switched to a high-leveled evolution procedure, that has nothing to do with either the utopianism or Messianic principle, and the idea of finding an ultimate savior will guide people finally into the pessimism of the current world. As the left wing that truly understands the theory, we should get rid of the pointless arguments whether friendly or wickedly, but instead should try hard to discover the material basis of good and evil behavior, in order to transform this material basis. The first root from which historical restoration of bourgeoisie happened lies, in the disparate contrast of social class power. Taken the history of China for example: in the Great Cultural Revolution, the class working is not just adequate the quantity, but also insufficient on organizational union. The rebel factions basically are in the inferior aspect of the attacks, being beaten passively, among which February Suppression against Counter-Revolutionaries and the offensive violence afterwards were started by the bureaucratic group and the monarchists, and this serious imbalance on social class strengths resulted in the rapid defeat of a serial of movements after Mao’s death. The second root lies in the Ideological State Apparatuses, and besides Marx definition on the traditional state apparatuses, Althusser also put forward the concept of Ideological State Apparatuses that distinguishes the function in utilization of violence by repressive state apparatuses, from the function in the application of ideology by ideological state apparatuses. These organizations enlisted as follows are part of ideological state apparatuses: Religion, education, families, laws, politics, dissemination and culture. The Communist Party revolutions of various countries having broken to reconstruct the repressive state apparatuses, finally ended up in the bureaucrat worker country, which inevitably restored in capitalism, but the Great Cultural Revolution of China then proposed the demand for reconstructing the ideological state apparatus. To have the latter issue resolved, the democracy must be depended upon, allowing the working people to participate in the life of politics and culture; this is perhaps also the profound insight in the content of the talk between Mao Zedong and Huang Yanpei at Yan’an.
The democracy is not sacred, that cannot guarantee the final liberation of proletariat. The democracy just provides a better condition for this liberation. But the left wing should not, due to the limitation of bourgeoisie democracy, completely reject it, which theoretically is purely worth pursuing for. However the moment when the pure theory is emphasized, the needs of people cannot be merely neglected, in disregard of the reality that the despotic system is the biggest barrier of the current workers’ movement. Nowadays, facing the current situation of an anti-democracy, that is an indirect one, implemented respectively by officials behind the curtain, by Wumao in public, and by Caonima in a discriminating manner, then we, the left wing, should hold high this flag of democracy.
7.the current focus
Following analysis is mainly based on the works “‘Idealism’ and Inevitability of Socialism” by An Ox in the Nighttime, regarding “modern monarchy” for which a good thanks is to him for the part of inspirations.
The inborn practicality of Marxism, has determined the dominance of On Practice. The activists quoted Marx’s famous saying: “…every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programs….” Seemingly whether their action is of any significance, they can halt steadily commanding point of morality, but any accusation against activists, can seriously result in a political incorrectness. Lenin in his immortal work “What is to be done“, facing the condemnation from the mass, criticized this actionism, thinking that, it is inopportune to have it discussed, when the theory is in chaos and he further clearly proposed “Without the theory of revolution, there will be no movement for revolution”.
This judgment is of profound significance. Although Marx and Engels fought unceasingly with the wrong thinking of various non-proletariats, but they did not put forward a theory that elaborates clearly the relations between theories with movement. On the contrary, they had too higher an expectation for the class consciousness of people in struggle to think that the people will finally guide themselves to the correctness of theory. Lenin decidedly denied this spontaneous worship, thinking that” Thus, socialist consciousness is something introduced into the proletarian class struggle from without [von Aussen Hineingetragenes] and not something that arose within it spontaneously [urwüchsig]. Accordingly, the old Hainfeld programme quite rightly stated that the task of Social-Democracy is to imbue the proletariat (literally: saturate the proletariat) with the consciousness of its position and the consciousness of its task.”
Lenin, by his unprecedented theoretical courage, elaborated the significant secret in the historical materialism. Today when someone who criticized nationalism is labeled as Trotskyite, he was quite likely to be made as a Blanquist. The Leninism, who distinguished themselves from the Blanquism, lies in the fact that, in Lenin’s narrated history, the party was the conservator of struggle intelligence, but the people were the source of strength for social transformation, in which men’s independent and objective nature in history got unified. At this big era of transformation of human history, the political revolution has the so-called “truth” event of Badioux by nature. But the so-called truth is meant, by surmounting the possible space that some extant social already stipulates on restraint (constraints) conditions, to exert the motion that can create the new restrictive condition and new possible space. Obviously, truth is always born from the brain where political plans are being carried out. Machiavelli who the earliest indicated in his theory, that the one who writes the truth is a “Modern Prince” entrusted with the expectation by the people; But another Italian, Antonio Gramsci, then indicated that the new monarchy who can lead the proletariat liberation movement is –the proletarian party- that has a truthful significance.
Gramsci’s pondering over “Modern Prince” was centralized on the volume 「」 “Prison Notebooks”. When proposing that “Modern Prince” be the political party, followed with discussing the party’s condition for existence, he pointed out that for the party’s existence it must acquire the unions of three essential factors, which are he thinks “the ordinary normal persons- the most usual essential factor, “a chief or commander- main essential factor for relations” and “the middle essential factor, that unifies the first essential factor with second essential factor”. What Gramsci actually said in fact is: the ordinary working class, the leader of proletarian party, as well as the revolutionary intellectuals who associate with the above two elements. In these three essential factors, the working class, namely the first essential factor we usually talked about, was purely created due to the fact that it, under the function the contradictory movement of the productive forces and productive relations, underwent the attack of either centralized or scattered crisis by the capitalism combined with the class oppression. We must see that the first essential factor that indeed and the most directly has reflected the development of capitalism, constitutes, in a broad sense, the revolutionary main body, but have to acknowledge that they, in the revolutionary practice or the political plans, in a narrow sense, the significances that, not as a subjective body, but as an objective body. Regarding this, Gramsci mentioned that: “No doubt, with them, the party cannot exist, and similarly non-doubted, if party is ‘merely ‘comprised of them, the party cannot exist either. When they are guaranteed by someone in terms of concentration, organization and discipline, they will become the strength: If there is no such uniting strength, they will be dispersed into innumerable small parts, weakening each other, resulting in disappearance without a trace”, and “their contributions do not lie in their creative spirit or the spirit of being highly organized, but lie in their sense of discipline and faithfulness”. The scale production of capitalism has molded the working class with a sense of discipline, but the evil reality makes the ordinary working class inevitably maintain a faithful potential to the communism, a form of social trend for development. But they are not the most especial factor that constitutes the revolution.
To have understood this point, it is not difficult to understand the left wing comrades of their worship to leaders. But the appearance of leaders is not possibly as what you anticipate to happen, it can only be obtained by having them trained in the great storms of struggle, this cannot be the result of self proclaiming or a creation of a god. The essential factor that it deserves most for us to pursue only in this era is the revolutionary intellectual one, namely middle essential factor. In the above big section, the “Modern Prince” was elaborated for the key function in our left-wing movement, then the most importance of the key point, the function of the revolutionary intellectual, has been clearly highlighted.
There was much elaboration given on the importance between the function of democracy and the birth and growth of the “Modern Prince”. However, right now, the intellectuals are actually in enormously ideological chaos, meanwhile there are increasing numbers of people unceasingly intensifying this confusion/chaos by raising the “patriotism” and other the so-called political correctness. Being worried that it is likely that the reviving left-wing ideological trend in recent years be ruined in this confusion, we left wing youths on Renren.com were determined firstly to reach a basic agreement, and based on this mutual recognition, we can also further expand it, making it bigger, and simultaneously launch the controversy and critique with all forms of the erroneous trends. Only when the theoretical flag is sets up, can all sorts of false viewpoints can be thoroughly cleaned, and by then the revolutionary intellectuals will gather under the flag, but in the manner of smoothing over differences as it happened before, it could undoubtedly create bunches of motley crews.
So far, the issue of strategies in our movement has been quite clearly discussed. Just as, more than 100 years ago, the former teachers proclaimed in (or Manifesto of Communist Party in early version—noted by the translator): “The proletarians in the world, unite.” The conscientious individuals are still fragile, like a drop of water, which the Sun can easily evaporate. Only when the innumerable multi-drops of such water gather into the mighty current for the cause, can it have the strength to liberate the mankind.
