Salute the 61st anniversary of the formation of the People’s Republic of China

Vanguard October 2010 p. 3

Australian communists are united in honouring the great victory of the struggle for the emancipation of the Chinese working class which culminated in the declaration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1st, 1949.

This victory could only be made possible by unity of the Chinese workers and peasants under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

The victory of the founding of the PRC blazed a trail for undeveloped semi-feudal colonies and semi-colonies to achieve independence and develop socialism. There were also important lessons for the whole world in regard to revolution by stages, united front work and serving the people.

Despite being a poor and backward country itself, the PRC made enormous sacrifices during its first three decades to practice proletarian internationalism, coming to the assistance of the Korean and Vietnamese peoples in their wars against US imperialism, maintaining ties with and supporting the Marxist-Leninist movements of peoples wanting revolution, providing practical and political assistance to nations seeking liberation from colonial and neo-colonial enslavement, and supporting countries pursuing independence from being enmeshed in the economic, diplomatic, military and cultural web of imperialism.

Under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong, the Chinese people were encouraged to learn from the triumph of revisionism and the subsequent restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union. Various attempts were made to conduct socialist education and to combat bureaucracy and corruption and to engender mass ideological understanding of the differences between socialism and capitalism and between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism.

Following the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, the Chinese Communist Party decided to embrace a series of reforms which weakened the all-round exercise of power by the Chinese proletariat and emboldened those wanting to embrace the capitalist road. In the circumstances where the Communist Party of China remains the leading party in China, and where there is still profession of Marxism as a guiding ideology, struggle continues to determine which will finally prove victorious, namely, the socialist road led by workers and peasants, or the capitalist road led by new bourgeois elements. It has to be said that to outside observers like ourselves, it would appear that the momentum is with the capitalist roaders.

In the current circumstances of China’s participation in the globalised capitalist economy, and of the continued playing out of fundamental contradictions and rivalries within that economy, China should be supported where its interests come into conflict with the major imperialist bloc headed by US imperialism, so long as those interests do not in their own turn violate the interests of the world proletariat. The promotion of friendship and understanding at the level of the Australian and Chinese peoples remains a task of great importance.

Just as important is the task of correctly responding as communists to the new situation that has emerged in respect of the export of Chinese capital to Australia, and China’s rush to secure Australian resources. China is now the second-largest source of foreign investment in Australia and Australia is the single largest destination for China capital exports.

Australians are genuinely grateful that Chinese demand for resources such as coal and steel has helped cushion us from the extremes of the world economic crisis. Nevertheless, a large proportion of Chinese investment here is in areas where there are sensitivities around environmental and ecological issues as well as indigenous land rights.

By acquiring ownership in Australian-based resource companies, Chinese capital is directly involved in the exploitation of the labour power of Australian workers, appropriating surplus value from them. This will inevitably carry potential for class struggle directed at Chinese interests.

Australian communists will examine these issues, first of all from the viewpoint of the Australian working class, and from the position of defending and extending Australian sovereignty. By the same token, they will encourage the Australian government and people to resist attempts to undermine Chinese sovereignty by secessionist elements in Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang. The policies initiated by Chairman Mao and the CCP were entirely correct in defining China’s territorial integrity and establishing the basis for its multicultural unity.

Australian communists and all friends of the Chinese people should oppose attempts to blacken the reputation of Mao Zedong and other leaders of the Chinese revolution and should popularise the Chinese Communist Party’s history of revolutionary struggle to end feudalism, imperialism and bureaucratic capitalism, and to lift these burdens from the backs of the Chinese people.

In China today there are examples of ugly social behaviour characteristic of capitalism together with examples of positive social behaviour characteristic of socialism. Instances of corruption and injustice are increasingly resulting in mass incidents in which the working people demand that the government and Party uphold their basic rights. The petitioning of government officials occurs despite attempts by some bureaucrats to intimidate people from utilising this avenue of complaint. Strikes and other forms of struggle are occurring as the working class places demands on state and private sector owners of the means of production.

Although the primary concern of Australian communists is with their tasks here in Australia, they rightly take an interest in international events from the perspective of proletarian internationalism.

We salute the 61st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China!