The End of Deng Xiaoping:

Enemy of the People

.
Revolutionary Worker #896, March 2, 1997

On February 19 Deng Xiaoping died. Now the U.S. government and other top
imperialists of the world are hailing him as the "greatest Chinese leader of the 20th
Century." But how should the people of the world remember him?

From the standpoint of advancing society and bringing about the liberation of
humanity, Deng Xiaoping was one of the biggest traitors and criminals in history.

He took part in the Maoist revolution which liberated China in 1949. But he became
the enemy of Mao and revolution.

Now, the U.S. ruling class is fondly remembering Deng as the man who "saved"
China from communism. But the truth is, Deng helped deliver China back into the
clutches of imperialism. And for this he is hated the world over by revolutionaries and
others who dream of and are fighting for a better world.

Deng was part of a new bourgeois class that arose right inside the Chinese
Communist Party. He was a phony communist. And in 1989, when people
demonstrated against his government in Tiananmen Square, he was behind the
bloody massacre that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of students and workers.

*****

Before liberation, China was a war-torn and ravaged country. Hundreds of millions of
peasants lived in utter poverty. Colonial powers carved up and exploited China.
People sold their children to survive. Every day, starvation delivered death in the
countryside. And tens of millions were addicted and enslaved by a massive drug
trade.

The revolution led by Mao Tsetung changed all this. Foreign imperialist powers were
kicked out. The reactionary Kuomintang government was overthrown. And power was
put in the hands of the working class. For over 25 years, Mao led the Chinese people
to build a whole new society-- a socialist society where the masses of people
consciously worked to get rid of class society and all forms of oppression and
inequality.

From 1966 until his death in 1976, Mao led the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
This "revolution within the revolution" mobilized millions of peasants and workers to
transform and liberate every sphere of society-- from factories and farms to schools
and culture.

This unprecedented revolution was aimed at leaders right inside the Chinese
Communist Party who wanted to build a capitalist, not socialist China. This was a
revolution which for 10 years prevented people like Deng from seizing power as Mao
led the masses to expose and defeat the "capitalist roaders." And through this
decade of fierce class struggle, millions of workers and peasants were drawn into
running and transforming society and changing themselves in the process.

But Mao's death in 1976 forced things to a decisive showdown. Deng Xiaoping and
other capitalist roaders led a reactionary coup d'etat against the top leaders in the
party who were Mao's supporters--the so-called "Gang of Four" which included
Chiang Ching and Chang Chun-chiao. Socialism was overthrown and one-quarter of
the earth's population was thrown back on the road to capitalist exploitation and
misery.

At the time, many people didn't recognize the real significance of these events. When
Deng's class came to power, they didn't say, "now we are reversing the revolution,
now we are bringing back capitalism." They continued to wave the red flag. At first,
they didn't dare denounce Mao. And they called themselves "communists." But these
sell-outs were phony communists, who opposed everything Mao had lived and died
for.

Deng vs. Mao

In fact, Deng Xiaoping was a long-time enemy of Mao and proletarian revolution.

In 1966, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Liu Shaoxi was the top
government leader targeted as one of the "handful of people in the Party taking the
capitalist road." And Deng Xiaoping was closely associated with Liu and his ideas at
this time.

In 1967 Red Guard youth, unleashed by Mao, demonstrated in the streets and held
struggle meetings against party leaders who advocated capitalism. Liu was named
"China's number one capitalist roader" and Deng was called the "number two
capitalist roader."

Deng was taken from his official residence and put under house arrest. In 1968 the
Central Committee of the Party declared Liu Shaoxi a "renegade, hidden traitor and
scab" and expelled him from the party. And in this same Central Committee meeting,
Deng Xiaoping was also exposed as a capitalist roader, stripped of his party and
government posts, but allowed to keep his party membership. In 1969 Deng was sent
to the countryside in Jiangxi where he lived for three years doing manual labor.

Meanwhile the Cultural Revolution continued and spread, drawing millions of people
throughout China into mass debate and struggle. Inside the party, things sharpened
between Mao and his revolutionary supporters, on the one hand, and the revisionist
capitalist roaders on the other. In 1972, military leader and Vice Chairman of the
Party, Lin Piao was exposed and put down as the leader of a revisionist
headquarters. At the same time another center of opposition to Mao was developing
in the Party, which was increasingly supported by Premier Zhou En-lai.

Zhou became a behind-the-scenes opponent of Mao and in 1973 he was

instrumental in bringing Deng Xiaoping back to Beijing to resume work in the party as
a vice-premier. This gave Deng new freedom to organize and strengthen a center of
opposition to Mao in the Party and push for capitalist economic policies.

By 1975 Deng and other revisionists were openly advocating an overall program
which was clearly opposed to Mao and the Cultural Revolution. They called for
economic modernization, on the basis of putting profits and experts in command.
They wanted to expand foreign trade and even forms of foreign investment. They
wanted a full-scale alliance with the western imperialist powers. And they called for
an end to the Cultural Revolution--saying that political struggles were "disrupting" and
weakening the national economy and defense.

Mao was not opposed to modernization. But he did oppose Deng's view that "white
cat, black cat-- it doesn't matter as long as it catches mice"-- which was a blatant call
for capitalist policies.

The Cultural Revolution unleashed mass movements to increase production, raise

the technical level of workers and peasants, and revolutionize the relationships in
production. This process led to a radically different kind of economy--breaking down
wage differences and the gap between mental and manual labor, having workers
participate in management, putting managers to work, and spreading industry to the
countryside. And it inevitably led to some dislocations and problems. But Mao argued
that the success of the revolution could not be gauged according to immediate
economic results. What was important was that the masses were increasingly
mastering the economy and building a new society. And this provided the basis for
achieving self-sustaining and balanced socialist--not capitalist--economic growth.

In 1975 Mao launched a campaign to "Study the Theory of the Dictatorship of the
Proletariat and Combat and Prevent Revisionism." He warned against the danger of
capitalist restoration saying, "If people like Lin Piao come to power, it will be quite
easy for them to rig up the capitalist system." He was clearly speaking of people like
Deng Xiaoping.

Soon after this, Deng went on a major offensive against Mao. He organized a whole
series of conferences in major industries and economic sectors around the country
where revolutionaries were demoted and capitalist policies were promoted. He also
supervised the writing of three party documents which aimed to put China's economy
on a whole different course. These papers, which later became known as the "Three
Poisonous Weeds," clearly advocated capitalist development: increased technology
from abroad, material incentives in industry and agriculture, the reimposition of highly
centralized management and strict rules and regulations to push workers harder. One
of these reports, on science, advocated reliance on professionalism and expertise.
This was a direct counter to revolutionary innovations implemented during the
Cultural Revolution like sending students to the countryside to live and work with the
peasants and "open-door research" that linked scientific experiment to the struggle
and lives of the masses.

In January 1976, Zhou En-lai died and Mao launched an all-out campaign to criticize
revisionism. Deng's views on the economy, education, scientific experiment,
technology, culture, and foreign relations, were subjected to thorough analysis.
Millions of people debated and discussed the ideas in Deng's "Three Poisonous
Weeds." And workers and peasants wrote articles criticizing the capitalist road.

In April the revisionists organized a rally

of over 100,000 in Tiananmen Square to honor Zhou En-lai. In fact, it was directed
against Mao and his revolutionary supporters, the "Gang of Four." In response, Deng
was stripped of his party and government posts and Mao launched a nationwide
campaign to "Criticize Deng Xiaoping and Beat Back the Right Deviationist Wind."

While the capitalist roaders plotted how to seize power, Mao fought his way--
unfolding a mass movement so that the masses could grasp the difference between
the capitalist road and the socialist road. He fought to continue to mobilize the
masses to prevent an actual capitalist takeover. But time was running out.
On September 9, Mao died and the capitalist roaders took this as their signal to make
an all-out bid for power. Deng played a powerful behind-the-scenes role, while a less-
exposed figure, Hua Guofeng, was brought forward to be "Mao's successor."

On October 6, 1976, the revisionists staged a military coup and arrested the "Gang of
Four." On this day, the era of Mao and the rule of the proletariat came to an end in
China.

From Bourgeois Democrat

to Capitalist Roader

When Mao led the Chinese people to seize power in 1949, China faced two possible
roads to the future. By overthrowing imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-
capitalism, the Chinese revolution had laid the basis for building socialism. But
liberating China from imperialist domination had also opened the door for capitalism.

In this historical situation Deng Xiaoping represented a social phenomenon of

revolutions in the Third Word, which Mao described as "bourgeois democrats turning
into capitalist roaders."

Mao said, "After the democratic revolution the workers and the poor and middle and
lower-middle peasants did not stand still, they want revolution. On the other hand, a
number of Party members do not want to go forward; some have moved backward
and opposed the revolution. Why? Because they have become high officials and
want to protect the interests of the high officials."

Here Mao was talking about people who joined the revolution at one stage but whose
thinking and ideology didn't advance with its further development. It wasn't that these
people were bad from the beginning or that some of them had not made important
contributions to the revolution. But many of them got "stuck" in the bourgeois
democratic stage of the revolution--when the issue was driving out the imperialists
and overthrowing the domestic reactionaries, especially the feudal landlord class.

Once socialist rule was established, many of these veteran cadre resisted developing
the revolution further. They didn't see the revolution as part of a historic process to do
away with all oppression. They didn't see socialism as a transition toward a
communist world--where classes and class society are eliminated. For them the goal
didn't go beyond building an independent, modern nation-state. And so, as the
dividing line became taking China down the socialist or capitalist road, these
bourgeois democrats became capitalist roaders.

Contradictions Under Socialism

The rise of people like Deng Xiaoping--and the emergence of a new bourgeoisie right
inside the communist party--reflects the contradictory nature of socialism.

The Chairman of the RCP, Bob Avakian put it this way: "The old regime has been
overthrown, but how, while destroying the old world, do you construct the new--in
other words, how to actually carry out economic construction and do it in such a way
as to keep to the socialist road, developing the new economic and social relations
and the ideology, culture (and so on) to serve them. This was a particularly acute
problem in China, given the backwardness of the economy, the whole legacy of
imperialist domination combined with feudal stagnation and the necessity of passing
through the democratic stage of the revolution and then going over, immediately upon
victory in this stage, to the socialist revolution."
In socialist China the contradictions between mental and manual labor, between town
and country, and between workers and peasants was very sharp. And in a socialist
economy there is still the use of money, differences in wages and other economic
relations that need to be gotten rid of. All these inequalities and differences provided
the material basis for a new bourgeois class to emerge.

Mao understood these differences could not be eliminated overnight and had to be
constantly restricted and overcome step-by-step. But capitalist roaders like Deng
Xiaoping wanted to preserve and widen these differences.

Through the Cultural Revolution Mao developed a basic method for dealing with a
world historic question that faces the masse of people and the world revolution: Once
the proletariat seizes power, how to develop the revolution and deal with the
inequalities left over from the old society.

For example, Mao understood that as long as there are some people who are mainly
engaged in in administrative and intellectual labor as opposed to working with their
hands, there will be a tendency among these people to demand privileges, to pursue
a life of fame and glory.

Mao developed an approach to this problem by implementing new innovations which

combined mental and manual labor. For example, during the Cultural Revolution,
people who mainly did intellectual work were sent to take part in manual labor
alongside peasants and workers. And masses were encouraged to increasingly take
on intellectual and administrative tasks.

Bob Avakian explained, "There was a certain need to rely on intellectuals, technically
train `experts,' even people with experience in management--all of whom had been
trained in the old society and according to its ideology and methods and who enjoyed
a great deal of privilege over the mass of working people....Mao recognized the
necessity of uniting with and utilizing many intellectuals, but he also insisted that they
must be remolded in their thinking and must take part in productive labor and political
struggle together with the masses."

The Bourgeoisie Inside the Party

The rise of people like Deng Xiaoping also revealed something that had not been
understood before the time of Mao--that under socialism, a new bourgeois class
arises and is headquartered right inside the Communist Party.

Not until Mao was it understood that antagonistic classes exist under socialism and
that the era of socialism would be punctuated by sharp struggle and showdowns to
determine which class holds state power. And one of Mao's theoretical discoveries
was the understanding that the continuing inequalities in socialist society give rise to
new privileged forces and a new bourgeois class-- whose core is right inside the
party.

Why is this? Because the masses need a revolutionary vanguard party to lead the
class struggle to change society. And under socialism, the party is the leading
political institution in society and the main directing force of the economy. But exactly
because of this, those in high positions of leadership who push a capitalist line are
strategically placed to restructure economic and social institutions in a capitalist
direction.

Mao developed the Cultural Revolution to deal with exactly this problem, by
mobilizing the broad masses to expose, denounce, and overthrow capitalist roaders
in the party.
Some people say, why didn't Mao just get rid of people like Deng Xiaoping? But Mao
knew this wouldn't have solved the problem. He knew that if the masses don't learn to
distinguish between the capitalist and socialist road, then you can knock off all the
revisionists you want, but new ones will simply take their place, and nothing will have
changed.

Mao said that the task of the GPCR was to overthrow the capitalist roaders. But the
goal was to solve the problem of world outlook and eradicate revisionism.

The mass movements and mass debates of the GPCR were important exactly
because they enabled the masses to grasp the critical issues at stake, especially the
need to transform and master all aspects of society. The masses had to understand
that they were the motive force in the whole revolutionary process, including
supervising the party and preventing a return to capitalism. And through such political
struggles and transformations, that the masses in their millions can become ever
more conscious and ever more in control of society.

*****

The imperialists try to say that the rise of Deng in China shows the superiority of the
capitalist system and the "death of communism." But just ask the masses of Chinese
people today, who are experiencing increasing misery, inequality and oppression,
about the nightmare of capitalist society.

After the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, the Committee of the Revolutionary

Internationalist Movement released a statement which spoke about Deng's
treacherous role in history:

"The revisionists and capitalist roaders within the communist party, headed by
renegade Deng Xiaoping, twice toppled by Mao himself, and the likes of Hua Guo-
feng, Hu Yao-bang and Zhao Ziyang, usurped state power in China. They set about
destroying the socialist economy and socialist relations of production and establishing
a system of private ownership with profit in command. Their motto was `To get rich is
glorious'; their highest goal was the pursuit of self-interest. They carried out a rapid,
all-round restoration of capitalism and subjugation of the economy to imperialist
finance capital and its market system, especially to the Western imperialists led by
the U.S....All of the social injustices the masses are protesting against--the dramatic
rise in unemployment, sharp price increases, lack of housing, and the massive
corruption of Deng's government--are the inevitable outcome of the restoration of
capitalism in China. And the criminal butchery by the ruling class there is just an
extension of the horrors, violence, and suffering that the imperialist system brings
down upon the majority of people all over the globe."

The imperialists are loudly praising Deng because he brought China back into the
world of free market capitalism. But the people of the world must deliver another
verdict on the life of Deng Xiaoping and his traitorous role in history. And the best way
we can do this is by upholding the bright red banner of Mao and working tirelessly to
bring about the day when the masses of people worldwide can be rid of the capitalist
system and go on to build a whole new world.

This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online

http://www.mcs.net/~rwor
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497
(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.)