This book is a comprehensive analysis of the revolutionary history of China, from the early 20th century to the present era of crisis, aided by a wealth of research which cuts across the many historical distortions both of bourgeois academia and of the Chinese Communist Party.
This book answers the questions:
- What was the class composition and class nature of the Chinese Communist Party when it took power in 1949?
- What forces pushed the Mao regime, despite its explicitly class-collaborationist strategy, to take measures which were objectively socialist and to establish the Chinese workers’ state?
- The Chinese Revolution was a practical test of both Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution and Mao’s theory of uninterrupted revolution by stages. Which theory matched reality?
- The degeneration of the Chinese People’s Republic to capitalism has been a second rigorous practical test of Trotsky’s analyses. Has his prognosis that without a political revolution to overthrow the regime, a Stalinist bureaucratic state would return to capitalism, been proved correct?
The author also argues that the policies adopted by the Chinese Communist party towards women were a direct measure of its revolutionary commitment. Throughout the book, how the activities of the CCP impinged upon the mass of Chinese women is used as a measure of its socialist credentials. This book also describes how the return to capitalism has meant that many of the gains made by Chinese women have been, and are being, taken away.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
1. The First Chinese Revolution: Early Years of the Chinese Communist Party
1.2 Conditions for the Chinese Peasants
1.3 Industrial Development in China
1.4 The First Chinese Revolution: Sun Yat-sen and Nationalism
1.5 The Communist International 1919-1923
Chapter 2
2. The Communist International, the Kuomintang and the CCP
2.2 The Communist International and Sun Yat-sen
Chapter 3
3. Stalin Sets the Pattern for the Chinese Revolution
3.2 Russia after the October Revolution
3.4 Stalinism and Egalitarianism
3.6 Stalin, Mao, and Theoretical Innovations
3.7 Chinese Students in Moscow 1923–1929
Chapter 4
4. The Rise of the Second Chinese Revolution
4.2 Chiang Kai-shek’s First Coup: 20 March 1926
4.3 The Northern Expedition: from Guangdong to Shanghai
4.4 Peasants and Workers Self-Mobilise
Chapter 5
5. The Defeat of the Second Chinese Revolution
5.2 Chiang Prepares his Second Coup
Chapter 6
6. From the Canton “Commune” to the Jiangxi “Soviet”
6.3 The Canton Uprising and its Aftermath
6.4 The 6th Congress of the CCP
6.7 Wang Ming and the 28 Bolsheviks
Chapter 7
7. From the Jiangxi “Soviet” to Yenan
7.3 Women’s Liberation and the Jiangxi Soviet
7.5 The KMT Bandit Extermination Campaigns
7.6 The Tsunyi Conference and the Long March
7.7 The Red Army Arrives in Yenan
Chapter 8
8. Yenan, the Second United Front, and the War against Japan
8.6 Yenan, the CCP and “Wild Lillies”
Chapter 9
9. The Final Collapse of the KMT: the CCP Assumes Power
9.2 Mao Becomes Supreme Leader
9.3 Mao Attempts Compromise with Chiang
9.4 Chiang Breaks off Negotiations
9.6 The PLA Cruises to Victory
Chapter 10
10.3 The New Democracy and Industry
10.4 The New Democracy and Women
10.5 “Under the leadership of the proletariat”?
Chapter 11
11. The Unexpectedly Short Life of the New Democracy
11.2 The First Stage of the New Democratic Regime (1949-51)
11.4 The Three-Antis and Five-Antis Campaigns (1951-54)
11.5 The End of the New Democracy
11.6 Can the Petty-Bourgeois be Revolutionary?
Chapter 12
12. Establishing the Chinese Workers’ State
12.2 First Five Year Plan (1953-57)
12.3 The New Democracy – a Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Government?
12.4 Proletarian Peasantry and Revolutionary Stalinism?
Chapter 13
13. China under Mao: The Great Leap Forward
13.2 Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom
13.3 The Great Leap Forward and the People’s Communes 1958-1962
13.4 Lushan Conference and the 1959 Campaign against Rightist Opportunism
13.5 Working, Living, and Dying on the Communes
Chapter 14
14. China under Mao: The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
14.2 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
14.3 The Shanghai People’s Commune
Chapter 15
15. China Marches Back to Capitalism
15.6 “Socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics”
15.7 Integration into the World Economy
15.8 China Now World’s Second Largest Economic Power
15.9 The Chinese Communist Party and Chinese Capitalism
Chapter 16
16. A New Chinese Working Class
16.2 The Making of a New Working Class
16.3 Distinctive Features of the Chinese Proletariat
16.6 The 2015 Labour Regulations
16.7 The Growth of Inequality: Woman After the “Reforms”
Chapter 17
17.3 Women Lead and Students Join In
17.4 Overproduction and Recession
17.5 Revolution and the Question of Leadership
Chapter 18
18. Uninterrupted Revolution or Permanent Revolution?
18.2 New Democracy – a Necessary Stage?
18.3 Mao and Uninterrupted Revolution
18.5 Capitalist Restoration and Permanent Revolution