MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
18 February 2025 – There is a report from Zambia of the
collapse of a tailings dam that held acidic waste from a copper mine.(1)
The collapse released millions of liters of waste containing
concentrated acid, dissolved solids and heavy metals into a stream
connected to the Kafue River in Zambia. China is the dominant player in
copper mining in Zambia. China uses the copper in smartphones and other
technology. The devastating consequences of this environmental
catastrophe include the widespread killing of aquatic life in the river,
contamination of water used for industrial and agricultural operations
as well as polluting the drinking water of some five million people in
Zambia. Chinese-owned copper mines have been accused of ignoring safety,
labor and other regulations in their imperialist pursuit of earth
minerals such as copper in Zambia. China is using classic imperialist
tactics such as the exporting of capital to secure minerals and other
resources by promoting development programs that put countries such as
Zambia in debt to them. Zambia is reportedly more than $4 billion in
debt to China. Zambians have already defaulted on payments in 2020 to
other nations as well. Clearly we have another case of Chinese state-run
corporations operating without regards to humyn life or the environment.
In conclusion, as a voice in the anti-imperialist movement I
encourage comrades to realize it is not just Amerikans or Europeans who
build their wealth and higher standards of civilization through the
manipulation of underdeveloped nations. We stand against all nations
that are imperialist! Nations we should be also speaking about in
ULK. Nations such as China, Russia and Iran. I mention Iran
because the spread of Islam is also a form of imperialism. Religion has
been the reason for uncounted billions of people who suffer mentally,
physically and even face death. Something that should be more deeply
explored in ULK articles.
Charlie of AIPS responds: Orko is right when ey says
that China is an imperialist country. We have no disagreements there.
Nor do we disagree with eir statement that we should “stand against all
nations that are imperialist”. So why do we focus on the imperialism of
the U.$. in our work? Because anti-imperialism is a question of
political line, while our political work is mediated by the strategies
and tactics we undertake. If you are not familiar with this terminology
from the MIM(Prisons)-ran study groups, let me rephrase.
Anti-imperialism is a fundamental stance that we require others to hold
if we are to collaborate with them. We will not waver on this point. But
as we move beyond the fundamentals, we must consider the particulars of
our unique political situation. We operate within the strongest
imperialist country that has ever existed in humyn hystory: the United
$tates. Our work can have no other aim, then, than to grow and
strengthen the existing Communist movement that resides within the
$tates. We must also acknowledge that one of the hallmarks of
“patriotic” attitudes in the U.$. is criticizing the imperialism of
other countries while defending the imperialism of the $tates. You can
observe this yourself in seeing how united Democrats and Republicans are
in denouncing countries such as China, Russia and Iran. As supporters of
the international Communist movement, we must distinguish ourselves and
our politics from the bourgeoisie and their lackeys. How is this
distinction to be made if we simply echo their points on foreign affairs
(though, admittedly, with more theoretical backing)?
On the note of religion, we must mention that religion, while
fundamentally idealist and antithetical to Marxism, has a dual
character. This is to say, religion can be used both for reactionary
ends as well as for revolutionary ends. Palestine is the perfect
encapsulation of this. The U.$.-backed Zionist entity termed “I$rael”
uses religious arguments to justify their brutal murder and oppression
of Palestinians. On the other side, revolutionary groups such as Hamas
are inextricably linked to religion through their Islamic beliefs. The
key is to consider the particularities of the situation at hand: Which
nations are involved? Which classes? Which side, if any, is
revolutionary at this time? Which groups are tied to religious
movements, and how are these movements connected to the previous
questions? To write off religion as a whole would be an error given the
reality that it can be wielded for revolutionary means.
This all being said, we heartily welcome the contributions in this
article from comrade Orko. It is well-worth noting that the logic of
capitalist-imperialist countries all over the world follow the same
general trends as outlined by V. I. Lenin in eir groundbreaking work
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. But so long as
our practice is confined to the borders of the U.$., that is where our
focus must lie.
MIM(Prisons) adds: As Charlie mentions, we use the term
imperialism to refer to the highest stage of capitalism as described by
Lenin. The forcible spread of Islam and Christianity hundreds of years
ago predated imperialism. And to use the history of Islam to call Iran
imperialist today makes no sense. During the invasion of Afghanistan by
the United $tates, pseudo-feminists made the same claim about the
Taliban being “imperialist”, therefore justifying the murder of Afghan
civilians (including wimmin), via their islamaphobia. Currently Iran and
China are primary targets of Amerikans threats. A war with either will
likely mean a global inter-imperialist war. This is not in the interests
of the international proletariat. Nor is it in the interests of
oppressed nations on occupied Turtle Island who will also face increased
attacks when Amerikan nationalism is stoked.
Notes: (1) “A river ‘died’ overnight in Zambia after an
acidic waste spill at a Chinese-owned mine” Associated Press, 15 March
2025.
Greetings Revolutionaries, activists, thugs, radical students, pimps,
hustlers, players, strippers, sex workers, and all the thoroughbred
Runaway Slaves in the First World; this is strictly addressed to the
First World Lumpen. Marxism has taught us how to operate and harness the
laws of the universe in the interests of those systematically locked out
of the production process, those who finance-monopoly capitalism
continue to dehumanize in its relentless, dogged, determined pursuit of
endless profits.
Fascism is the word of the current movement. Trump’s election
represents a certain heightening of contradictions. This is a sign of
the imperialists recognizing their need for that strong persyn to move
this space into its more authoritarian direction, into its more
authoritarian disposition.
We have to be vigilantly on the prowl for the emergence of fascism.
Social commentary should center primarily on building public opinion in
this direction. Even in its embryonic stages, fascism doesn’t miss out
on any opportunities to undermine the working-class revolution and smash
working class organizations; First World and Third World.
It is time to crack open the history books and practically apply the
dialectical-materialist analysis of history. There is nothing else at
the moment that warrants any more attention. Period. 2020, though a
moment, a flash point in social development, like I said previously in
some past article was not in any way contradictory to the U.$. empire;
nor was there any easing of tensions between law enforcement and those
of us trapped in the ghettos that pockmark this landscape.
In 2022, actual U.$. military expenditure exceeded $1.52 trillion –
more than twice the officially acknowledged level of $766 billion.
Overall military spending are not included in the empire’s “defense
budget” strategically. To estimate actual U.$. military spending,
dialectical materialist methodological approaches must be utilized. I
recommend publications like Monthly Review.
Nothing will be gained at the expense of the Third World because of
our lack of genuine effort to combat our First Worldist dispositions. We
in the ameriKKKan heartland must sit down and focus on studying fascism.
We most definitely have the leisure time because of the labor
aristocratic essence of the working class demographic in these parts.
The class of people in the First World who are excluded from the
productive process, by virtue of living in the First World, on average
receive more material benefits from imperialism than the global
proletariat. This is the First World lumpen. But the radical student
movement is now with us, thanks to the gunshots let off on 7 October
2023 in Palestine and its people’s struggle to free their land from
i$raeli and ameriKKKan aggression.
We have to have a completely scientific understanding of the concrete
reality of our situation. George Jackson once spoke of this. I believe
his classic work Blood In My Eye must be resurfaced and
consulted for the best, most in-depth theoretical analysis of the
current moment. Fascism and its historical significance was the point of
his whole philosophy on politics, and its extension, war.
George posited how corporate-fascism’s nature advanced world-wide
socialist consciousness after WW2. U.$. imperialism emerged after the
Western powers had already divided up most of the most important markets
in the world. The aftermath of WW2 left those same Western powers
severely weakened, the U.$. became head honcho.
Social development continues to march ahead towards its logical
conclusion – via stages of course. All the forces of reaction and
counterrevolution have localized themselves and continue to radiate
their oppressive energy in the now emerging ameriKKKan corporate-fascist
state. Despite the presence of political parties, corporate politics is
all that truly matters here. Corporate personhood command all state
power.
We hear about the corporate political maneuvering of entities like
Amazon, IBM, Facebook, Samsung, Apple, and many more. The modern chip
industry speaks to the authority large private corporations have over
state bodies. Just as steel a century ago was the essential commodity
for economic development, the chip is the 21st century repeat. Chips are
central to the technology pivotal to the present order. I say that to
say that possibly by 2030, China’s chip industry could rival Silicon
Valley’s influence; so this means something, the implications are beyond
disruption of U.$. tech firms and trade flows, we are talking about a
reset of the balance of military power.
Huawei has been at the center of all sorts of geopolitics in recent
years. I think it’s time USW comrades study Huawei, and learn what makes
this entity’s political maneuvering such a nightmare for Western
imperialists, and sidestep amerikkka’s “Russian threat” distraction with
the whole bogus fabricated Uhuru 3 persecution.
The African People’s Socialist Party are posing a very serious
question that all revolutionaries active at the moment should sit down
and reflect and ponder over: Did the FBI conspire with Russian
intelligence to frame up Black activists in the United $tates?
The Uhuru 3 free speech trial has positioned me as an historical
singularity, as that historical singularity who sees all angles, all
sides, who sees the furthest ahead and who more than anyone at the
moment understands the line of march the New Afrikan liberation movement
should be taking, as fascism continues to kick its boots at our doors in
the First World.
I will be waiting to hear your thoughts soon. In the meantime, all
efforts on our boycott campaign should center on Securus. No
opportunities to vilify Securus between December 6 and December 13
should be missed.
We agree with the author that the re-election of Trump indicates that
the imperialists are looking to reshape things. In 2019, we wrote about
how the absence of a real proletarian threat makes fascism unnecessary
and unlikely. The threat that has emerged since then is the Palestine
heightening it’s war of national liberation, which has forced all
parties involved in the region to make their positions clear. In
addition to this shakeup in the Middle East, there has been the Russian
invasion of Ukraine and its affects across Europe. What seems likely is
the imperialists are seeing cracks in the previous world order and signs
of economic crisis that require a shift in strategy.
Trump remains erratic in eir speeches, and we have no great
predictions for how this next term will go at this time. What is clear
is that the need to build a strong movement against imperialism and
fascism is now. There are opportunities on the horizon, and we hope you
will join us in preparing for them.
Notes: 1. MIM(Prisons), April 2019, “Fascism,
Imperialism, and Amerika in 2019”, Under Lock & Key 67. 2.
Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons), November 2016, The Strategic Significance of
Defining Fascism, Under Lock & Key 53.
There are 65 organizations who have signed on to the 2024 Prison Banned Books Week
campaign. What unites us is a belief that there is good in lifting
the restrictions on literature that U.$. prisoners have access to.
Without having asked all of the participants, we’d wager that we all
agree that by understanding the past and understanding the ideas of
others, that people can better understand our present and act on it in a
way that benefits humynity overall. There are certain ideas that we may
take from the Age of the Enlightenment that we all share.
Finding Truth in Books
Where many of the organizations in this campaign probably disagree
with us is in seeing that each piece of literature has a class character
to it. As part of our world view as Marxists, we recognize that, in a
class society, there is class character in everything humyns
create..
There is an adage that the truth is hidden in books. But as we’ve
discussed before, not all books
are true or based in materialist science.(1) In a sense, we go to
the library and read books to bury the lies within books and all around
us. We must understand different arguments and ways of thinking in order
to see their accuracy or fallacy.
Rather than think of the “marketplace of ideas” where a bunch of
people bring their individual thoughts to compete with others (the
individualist view), we see a war between two main class positions in
the realm of ideas (and elsewhere) – that of the bourgeoisie vs. that of
the proletariat. There is a reason why prisoners are the most restricted
readers in this country, and why New Afrikan, Indigenous and Chican@
literature are targeted as “Security Threat Group” material.
Cultural Revolution
If there is one phenomenon that defines Maoism, it is the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) in China (1966-1976) and the
lessons learned from it. But wait, didn’t they like burn books and
punish academics during the GPCR?
In essence, the GPCR was an unleashing of almost a billion people to
participate in the war between the proletarian and the bourgeois lines
in politics and production. Not only that, this was a people that were
more than 90% illiterate before the liberation of China by the Communist
Party in 1949.
“My conclusion… was that China had made greater progress in
liberating masses of people from illiteracy and bringing millions some
knowledge of scientific and industrial technique than any nation had
ever done in so short a time.
“…By 1960… about $2,600,000,000) was devoted to education and
science, or fifty percent more than the direct budgetary military
expenditure….
“In 1960 United States expenditure on education at all levels was
less than four percent of the national income, or slightly less than the
$18,000,000,000 Americans spent for alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
“In 1957 Premier Chou En-lai had estimated illiteracy over the whole
country at seventy percent. Mr Tsui said that by 1960 the percentage had
been reduced… to about sixty-six percent for the rural areas and
twenty-four percent in the cities.”(2)
By 1979, three years after the GPCR, illiteracy was down to 30%.(3)
Yet the GPCR is known in the United $tates for shutting down schools and
attacking professors. These things were central to the student struggles
on campuses across China. And in these struggles there were Red Guard
factions taking up different positions and political lines, fighting
against each other. Students were challenging the hierarchical roles in
the university and the traditional methods of study, without always
having the answers. There are even documented cases of Red Guards
burning religious books as a means of attacking reactionary ideas. But
this was not a coordinated effort by the state as is happening in
prisons and schools across the United $tates today, the so-called “land
of the free”. We can see parallels to the critiques of the Chinese
student movement in the United $tates today where “right to an
education” is being used to silence protests against U.$. arms being
used for a genocide in Palestine.
Interestingly, after praising Chinese literacy in the quote above,
Edgar Snow quotes a U.$. Library of Congress staffer stating that the
Chinese concept of education “is not distinguishable from
indoctrination, propaganda and agitation.”(2) This is where we would
again stress the class perspective, and how propaganda is in the eye of
the beholder:
“Westerners perceive Chinese education under Mao as”propaganda,”
because it encourages values and goals which contradict the goals of
capitalism. These values and goals taught in China during the Cultural
Revolution were consistent with the building of socialism. Education in
Western nations is not perceived as “propaganda” by those who,
consciously or not, agree with the goals of capitalism/imperialism and
patriarchy. Similarly, advertising for capitalist products, while
recognized as very influential on people’s opinions and actions, is not
perceived as “brain-washing” by those who benefit from capitalism and
have therefore decided to tolerate it.”(4)
The totalitarian control of corporations like Global Tel*Link, JPay,
and Securus over what prisoners read, write, listen to and communicate
with people outside is a good example of what our society accepts.
Allyn and Adele Ricket wrote about their experience as prisoners in
China for providing intelligence to the United $tates Government. This
is one of the best accounts of the Chinese socialist approach to
education/re-education. They were imprisoned during the early years of
the revolution and witnessed the change in approach, partially due to
changing conditions (the new government had been established and
prisoners were less rebellious) and partially due to lessons learned.
“By 1953… the authorities acknowledged that their former overemphasis on
suppression had been a mistake.”(5)
Their description of staff at their prison sounds unbelievable to a
U.$. prisoner:
“he always seemed to have time to listen to the troubles of one or
another of the prisoners or to do countless little things which showed
how serious he was in looking out for the welfare of his charges.”
At first Allyn Rickett thought this was a bit of a propaganda show,
but this incident changed eir mind:
“I looked through the crack in the palisade built around our cell
window to obstruct the view. There was Supervisor Shen patiently going
along the line turning every article of the prisoners’ clothing to make
certain they would be dry by the time we were to take them in after
supper.”(6)
Regarding censorship, the Ricketts also compare the news in China
over time and to the Amerikan press:
“Publication of news is determined by its usefulness in increasing
the people’s social consciousness and morality and furthering the
Communist Party’s program for the development of the country. Therefore
the content of the news is limited to what the authorities feel will
serve these ends.
“To our mind, no matter how sincere in their purpose the authorities
may be, in violating the principle of the right to know they are taking
a dangerous step. …One of the most encouraging recent developments in
China has been a liberalization of this concept of a controlled press.
[written in 1957]
“…Our experience in living in and reading the press of both countries
has led us to the conclusion that the Chinese today are still receiving
a clearer picture of what is happening here than the American people are
of what is taking place in China.”(7)
Ten years later the GPCR will begin and “big character posters” were
promoted as a way for the masses to express their grievances against
Party officials, or other issues they faced. The Chinese experiment in
socialism was unique in how it regularly attempted to open up mass
participation in ideological struggle and in organizing society as far
as could be tolerated without creating chaos. And even then there was
some chaos, which is what the GPCR is usually criticized for.
The press is a battleground for class struggle. In a condition where
all the books were bourgeois, the socialist government had a lot of work
to do to catch up. And this was done largely in face-to-face study
groups, whether on campuses, on farms or in prisons.
The ideas of the old system must be surpassed, but not erased. Marx
showed how different economic systems gave birth to subsequent systems,
and how the ideas evolved to reflect those new systems. This is all
important to the understanding of humyn history and to the development
and continued advancement of humyn knowledge.
The Taliban retook power in Afghanistan after the
U.$. retreat in August 2021.(1) In April 2022, the Taliban once
again instituted a ban on poppy cultivation, and by December 2023 they
had reduced production by 95%. Most global poppy cultivation now takes
place in unstable regions of Myanmar.(2) The Taliban banned opium
production with similar results in 2000, but when the United $tates
invaded Afghanistan in 2001, they saw to it that opium production was
restored and there were continued increases up until last year. As a
very poor country, poppy production is a significant cash crop for
Afghan farmers. Still the Taliban has been able to enforce the ban,
while working with farmers to grow alternative crops. The United $tates
says they spent $8 billion trying to eradicate poppy during their rule
over the country from 2001 to 2018.(2)
Afghanistan has been negotiating agricultural deals with China since
the Taliban regained power in 2021, and are scheduled to begin shipping
large exports of produce to China this month [December 2023].
Afghanistan has attended China’s recent Belt and Road Forum, with China
becoming Afghanistan’s second biggest trade partner after neighboring
Pakistan.(3) This growing export of raw materials has come with far
greater imports of products from social-imperialist China, that will
feed a relationship of unequal exchange leading to wealth transfer out
of Afghanistan. But in the short-term it is helping provide economic
options other than exporting opium to Europe, where Afghanistan had
provided 95% of the black market supply.(4)
While the United $tates invaded Afghanistan shortly after the 9/11
attacks, by 2003 they had begun a full-scale invasion of Iraq using 9/11
as a cover once again. Iraq had also had a culture and tradition that
made drug use relatively uncommon. This began to change since the
overthrow of the Ba’ath Party in 2003, with sharp increases in crystal
meth and the stimulant Captagon documented since 2017.(5) It’s also
interesting to note that besides U.$. oil interests, Amerikans were
concerned with the ruling Ba’ath Party’s support of certain militant
groups in Palestine.
Of course a better example of eliminating opium is China, where the
masses were the victims of British Opium War. The Taliban isn’t fighting
addiction so much as they are trying to shift agricultural production in
a way that is challenging the incomes of poor farmers. The Chinese
Communist Party (CPC) gives us a better model than the Taliban of how to
fight addiction by empowering the masses through socialism from
1949-1976. We wrote about this in Issue 59 on drugs:
“Richard Fortmann did a direct comparison of the United $tates in
1952 (which had 60,000 opioid addicts) and revolutionary China (which
started with millions in 1949).(9) Despite being the richest country in
the world, unscathed by the war, with an unparalleled health-care
system, addicts in the United $tates increased over the following two
decades. Whereas China, a horribly poor country coming out of decades of
civil war, with 100s of years of opium abuse plaguing its people, had
eliminated the problem by 1953.(9) Fortmann pointed to the politics
behind the Chinese success:
“If the average drug addiction expert in the United States were shown
a description of the treatment modalities used by the Chinese after 1949
in their anti-opium campaign, his/her probable response would be to say
that we are already doing these things in the United States, plus much
more. And s/he would be right.”(9)
“About one third of addicts went cold turkey after the revolution,
with the more standard detox treatment taking 12 days to complete. How
could they be so successful so fast? What the above comparison is
missing is what happened in China in the greater social context. The
Chinese were a people in the process of liberating themselves, and
becoming a new, socialist people. The struggle to give up opium was just
one aspect of a nationwide movement to destroy remnants of the
oppressive past. Meanwhile the people were being called on and
challenged in all sorts of new ways to engage in building the new
society.”(6)
Here we see the United $tates failing where socialist China
succeeded, using the exact same tools! These historical examples
demonstrate that the principal contradiction behind the drug epidemic is
found within the structure of society and not with specific treatment
techniques. China was also a divided, drug-ravaged population coming
into the war of liberation, proving how a new culture can be built and a
people can rise above addiction.
But wait, the Taliban and the CPC both had state power when they
eliminated drugs. True. And the people in state power in the United
$tates are not interested in empowering the people. Instead, they
continue to allow the free flow of drugs into even the most controlled
environments. On the road to state power, the CPC built dual power, by
developing liberated zones in China where they could begin to experiment
with the policies and practices of building socialism, including the
elimination of drug use.
U.$. prisons are very different conditions than the Chinese
countryside. And communists are far from state power in this country.
But comrades must use the materialist method to develop strategies for
building forms of dual power and transforming the culture of the
oppressed to fight drug addiction. The Revolutionary 12 Steps
that we published last year is one tool for that, but the real challenge
is putting programs into practice. We must build independent
institutions of the oppressed that combat addiction by empowering people
in a greater liberation struggle. It is the plague of hopelessness that
is truly killing us.
On 7 March 2023, China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang, in his first public appearance, delivered denouncements and warnings that “conflict and confrontation” with the United $tates is inevitable if the U.$. imperialists do not change their course.(1) Before becoming China’s new foreign minister, Qin Gang was an ambassador to the United $tates known for eir non-confrontational and diplomatic approaches to eir job.(2) This new public statement marks a clear shift in tone from the diplomatic and cautious reputation that Qin has built as eir time as ambassador. On the National People’s Congress in Beijing, Qin has said the following:
“If the United States does not hit the brakes, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation.”(3)
Alongside these comments, Qin has condemned the “Indo-Pacific Strategy” of the United $tates which ey claims is sparking discourse and a new cold war in Asia and seeks the containment of China as a country.
One day after, on 8 March 2023, U.$. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel made a response to Qin’s claims that China should not be surprised at all that Washington and its allies are deepening military ties in reaction to China’s aggression:
“You look at India, you look at the Philippines, you look at Australia, you look at the United States, Canada or Japan. They [China] have had in just the last three months a military or some type of confrontation with every country. And then they’re shocked that countries are taking their own steps for deterrence to protect themselves. What did they think they were going to do?”(4)
Emanuel responded to Qin’s claims that the Amerikans’ Indo-Pacific strategy is not in fact containment of China but a “deterrence” of China’s aggression in the previous months. In the past three months, Chinese ships harassed the Filipino navy;(5) conducted military drills near Taiwan and fired missiles (those missiles landed on Japan’s territorial waters);(6) and have had border skirmishes in the Himalayas with India.(7)
The Indo-Pacific Strategy of the U.$. imperialists
The Indo-Pacific strategy of the United $tates was a particular target of Foreign Minister Qin’s condemnations. The Indo-Pacific strategy is a political-economic program launched by the Biden administration which has highlighted the economic importance of the region of Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific. In the program, the U.$. imperialists also highlight the “aggressive forces” of the Indo-Pacific region – namely China and the DPRK – which the program claims furthers destabilization.(8)
“The United States is an Indo-Pacific power. The region, stretching from our Pacific coastline to the Indian Ocean, is home to more than half of the world’s people, nearly two-thirds of the world’s economy, and seven of the world’s largest militaries. More members of the U.S. military are based in the region than in any other outside the United States. It supports more than three million American jobs and is the source of nearly $900 billion in foreign direct investment in the United States. In the years ahead, as the region drives as much as two-thirds of global economic growth, its influence will only grow—as will its importance to the United States.” - The Indo-Pacific’s Promise (The Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States, February 2022). (9)
This pamphlet of the U.$. imperialists lays a clear plan for the shape of things to come. The question is whether the U.$. imperialism can defeat rising new star Chinese social-imperialism who is also looking to pierce their fangs into the region.
Qin Gang has made the claim that this strategy of the United $tates is the Southeast Asian version of the NATO; asserting China’s position parallel to that of the USSR and the countries of India, Japan, South Korea, and Australia as the NATO alliance which plays the part of Western Europe.
We see these particular trends among today’s big imperialist powers as incredibly worrying due to the similarities to the political-economic contradictions among the imperialist forces of the early twentieth century, which resulted in the first World War.
One difference/advantage that Amerikkka always will have over China or Russia is battle hardened experience. The Amerikkkan empire have been at war (against other imperialist powers during the two world wars and against colonies fighting for self-determination alike) for nearly all of the 20th century. While China and Russia have had some military conflicts with other nations during their post-socialist capitalist restoration era (namely in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe respectively) these little post-capitalist restoration wars are nowhere near the level of experience the United $tates have had against Nazi Germany, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Cracking down on Chechnyan “terrorist” cells in Eastern Europe by the Russian Armed Forces, or beating up revolting farmers/ethnic minorities on the countryside by the so-called “People’s Liberation Army” is a cakewalk compared to the genocidal wars Amerika waged throughout the 20th century.
Saber Rattlings in Taiwan
After Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-Wen met with U.$. house of representative speaker Kevin McCarthy, the so-called “People’s Liberation Army” of China began conducting military drills in Taiwan waters.
Taiwan’s modern history began with the losers of the civil war in China. The Kuomintang (the nationalist party - KMT) of China fled from the people’s wrath and the Communist Party of China (CPC), which had overthrown the KMT’s bourgeois dictatorship, replacing it with a proletarian one. The KMT fugitives have massacred the indigenous people of Taiwan, and began the nation building project sponsored by U.$. imperialism. For many years Taiwan actually held the legitimate position recognized by the international community as “real” China. With the restoration of capitalism in China, the KMT of Taiwan actually seeks to cozy up to the social-imperialist CCP and takes a “moderate” stance on Taiwan independence affirming that Taiwan is still Chinese while the Taiwanese nationalists of the pan-green alliance and the Democratic Progressive Party take a more harder stance on Taiwanese national identity.
After president Tsai Ing-Wen’s meeting with the U.$. imperialists in Los Angeles, China began a 3 day long military exercises on the doorsteps of Taiwan. With precision air strikes designed to intimidate the Taiwanese government, and a naval blockade, the so-called PLA have certainly flexed their muscles on the front. (10)
The official statement from the Chinese military reads as follows:
“The theater’s troops are ready to fight at all times and can fight at any time to resolutely smash any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference attempts.” (11)
On 10 April 2022, Taiwan detected 91 flights by Chinese bombers as well as multiple fighter jets. (12)
Capitalism-Imperialism Makes Inter-Imperialist Conflicts Inevitable
The Indo-Pacific strategy recognizes the economic importance that the region of Southeast Asia and the Pacific holds not only for the United $tates but also for the imperial core overall. China also recognizes this. Under capitalism, where labor in itself is a commodity, the cheap labor and the immense surplus value that the world imperialist system plunders from Southeast Asia is invaluable to China as a new rising imperialist power.
Qin Gang proclaimed warnings that the actions of the U.$. imperialists will cause a new cold war. We at MIM(Prisons) say that the social-imperialist forces of China and the United $tates are creating the precedence for a new world war as the nature of capitalism-imperialism makes it inevitable for the great imperialist powers to eventually battle over and reorganize their respective neo-colonial turfs/territories.(13)
If fascism arrives in the United $tates, then the communists and the revolutionaries will have their duties and work to do just like always. If inter-imperialist conflict breaks out and a new world war enters in our world, then we will have our duties and work to do to as well. The nihilism of impending crisis is common here in the belly of the beast. But Marxists recognize these developments as the inevitable playing out of the inherent contradictions of the capitalist system. Periods of great conflict are when qualitative transformations happen, and this is a good thing. It is our role to understand these changes so that we can move things in the interests of the world’s majority.
NOTES: 1. Nectar Gan, 8 March 2023, China’s new foreign minister warns of conflict with US, defends Russia ties, CNN. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. Brad Lendon, Marc Stewart, 8 March 2023, Exclusive: China’s ‘attacks’ unite region against Beijing, US ambassador to Japan says, CNN. 5. Brad Lendon, 13 February 2023 2022, Philippine Coast Guard says Chinese ship aimed laser at one of its vessels, CNN. 6. Brad Lendon, 4 August 2022, China fires missiles near Taiwan in live-fire drills as PLA encircles island, CNN. 7. Ibid. 8. The White House Washington, 24 September 2021, Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States. 9. Ibid. 10. Ben Blanchard Yimou Lee, 10 April 2023, China ends Taiwan drills after practicing blockades, precision strikes, Reuters. 11. Ibid. 12. Huizhong Wu, 10 April 2023, China military ‘ready to fight’ after drills near Taiwan, ABC. 13. Wiawimawo, February 2018, China’s Role in Increasing Inter-Imperialist Rivalries, Under Lock & Key No. 60.
For many months we’ve been hearing some grumblings from our readers about sky-rocketing commissary prices. Last issue we put out a call for more reports on this price inflation. But this inflation is not unique to prisons, and in recent weeks we’ve seen its impacts on the imperialists with a number of banks in the United $tates and Switzerland failing.
The cycles of boom and bust, which lead to instability, are inherent to capitalism and how it works. While the imperialists have adapted in many ways to keep things going, they can never solve these problems or prevent these cycles.
“since the prices of commissary has gone up due to inflation I think that all prisoners with jobs should be given pay rate raises to help with the new higher costs of living in the prison population. It is much harder to keep up with the financial strain. …I know that out in society whenever the cost of living goes up due to inflation so does our income and of course I am referring to low-income people – people on Social Security Income (SSI) or Social Security(SS) or struggling on Welfare. Well in prisons we don’t make anywhere near what is made on SSI or SS or even Welfare for that matter.”
"At the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis President Trump warned us against price gouging but that never stopped the jail system. The criminal injustice system put people in jail for stealing but then they turn around and steal from the same people they accuse of stealing. County jails are full of homeless people, drug addicts and indigent people who have limited means or no family or friend to help provide those means, yet the canteen prices for commissary are outrageous. These same products can be bought at the Dollar store.
"For example, items such as V05 shampoo, which you can purchase at the dollar store for $1.25, commissary price is $3.99. One ramen noodle can be purchased for $0.25 at the store, will cost you $1.19 in commissary. Also a 10 pack of SweetNLow costs $0.99. For generic denture glue it’s $7 in commissary compared to $1.25 at the Dollar store. The list goes on and on. Is that not price gouging?
“Prisoners are forced to accept it. They have no choice. They have to pay it or go without. Hygiene and medications they desperately need. My question to you – how do we change this and stop jails from stealing from prisoners?”
Price gouging or extortion is common in U.$. prisons where the state allows private companies to come in and prey on prisoners and their families with legally enforce monopoly pricing systems.
A comrade in New York responded to our call with some of the price increases seen there since July 2022.
item
July price
new price
syrup
$2.45
$2.75
cold cuts
$0.75
$0.85
chips
$1.02
$1.18
onions
$1.45
$1.85
graham crackers
$1.96
$2.33
Most price increases in New York seemed to be in the 10 to 20% range. As a member of the Incarcerated Individual Liaison Committee, this comrade wrote the Deputy Superintendent about the troubles they were having with getting items on the commissary list. They responded in September 2022,
“The commissary contract allows the vendor to bid items and the price is allowed to rise (or fall) based on the real world. They are not required to lose money. Our stocking situation reflects the real world supply chain issues and inflation.”
The comrade told us,
“the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has raised the commissary buy limit from $75.00 to $90.00 to compensate for the inflation and changes to the package from home/vendor program that was implemented last year (2022).”
Unlike in the free world, not only do prisoners face limits on how much they can earn but also on how much they can spend.
Inflation is Real
Above, the NYSDOCS refers to the “real world” as being the cause of the rising prices in commissary. The fact of the matter is that inflation rates in the United $tates have been higher than we’ve seen in many decades for everyone. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in December 2021 had increased 7% year-over-year, and in December 2022 it was 6.5%. That means over two years the inflation rate is around 15% for all consumer goods. In this context, the price increases in New York commissaries look pretty typical for the economy overall. That does not mean that this is inevitable, it is only inevitable in the type of economy we live in.
And it is only if we are slaves to the capitalist market forces that we must accept these price increases on necessities for some of the poorest people in this country. Even capitalist countries use subsidies to alter the market.
Socialist China had no inflation
The Communist Party of China seized state power in 1949 after over two decades of people’s war waged against the imperialists and their Chinese lackies among the comprador bourgeoisie and landlord classes. Immediately following liberation there were speculators
“still trying to manipulate prices and stirring up waves in the economy… who ignored the repeated warnings of the People’s Government, gold and silver prices kept soaring, pushing up all other prices. So on 10 June 1949 the Stock Exchange – that centre of crime located in downtown Shanghai – was ordered to close down and 238 leading speculators were arrested and indicted. The 1,800 gold and silver coin peddlers were released on the spot after being enjoined to lead a more honest life. At one stroke, the headquarters of speculation vanished forever from Shanghai.”(1)
Unfortunately that last statement proved untrue, as the Shanghai Stock Exchange was re-established on 26 November 1990, following over a decade of capitalist restoration in China.(2) This is why China has it’s own economic woes today. But for a quarter century, China had no inflation.
During the socialist period of 1949-1976, the Communist Party never resorted to bank-note issue as a solution for fiscal problems, relying on raising production and practicing economy instead.(3) This remained true through the Korean War and periods of famine in the 1950s.(4) During the Covid-19 lockdown period the capitalist economy suffered greatly because it cannot adapt to decreases in production. The solution in the imperialist countries was for central banks to print a lot of money and give it to the capitalists as well as their labor aristocracy, to keep consumption up and prevent economic collapse. The solution to the bank collapses in recent weeks has been similar, providing more liquidity from the U.$. Federal Reserve on loan to banks that can’t cover their balance sheets.
The communist approach in China was the opposite. Rather than putting as much money out into the world as needed, and encouraging banks to loan more than they have, the Communist Party forced banks to hold most of their currency, forced agencies to keep most of their money in the banks and prohibited securities, bonds, precious metal trade and foreign currency. Remember, mortgage-backed securities were at the center of the last recession in 2008. Today we are seeing a similar crisis in high-risk loans for automobiles in the United $tates that happened for home loans in 2008.
Bond prices are at the heart of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and others. Socialist China didn’t issue bonds, because they didn’t take on federal debt.
Prior to liberation, in 1935-37, the Chinese currency was pegged to the USD. As a result, when inflation spiked in the United $tates, that inflation was amplified in China. In ULK 79 we discussed the current inflation crisis in Ghana. Because Ghana does not control its currency and does not keep out foreign currency and speculators, their currency (the Cedi) is manipulated by the imperialists. This is true across the Third World, where inflation will continue to be felt much more harshly than it is for us here in the belly of the beast.
The other problem in countries like Ghana is the foreign debt. Inflation is playing a big role here, as the USD becomes more expensive compared to local currencies, larger and larger portions of the money supplies in exploited countries are going to pay the same interest rates on loans from the imperialists. Debt forgiveness in these countries needs to occur to protect the lives of millions threatened with starvation today.
According to the World Food Program, “An expected 345.2 million people [are] projected to be food insecure in 2023 – more than double the number in 2020.”(5) The recent increase in famine is mainly in the poorest, exploited countries, and triggered by a combination of inflation, war and climate change.
We know there is enough food in the world to feed everyone. The problem is capitalism cannot be efficient enough to distribute it to places where super-exploitation occurs. And super-exploitation is necessary to maintain profit rates. Without positive profit rates, capitalism grinds to a halt.
When socialist China had actual shortages in essentials, they would ration them instead of increasing prices and making the problem worse. Then they would focus on increasing production of those essentials (rather than decreasing production like the capitalists do when there’s no profits to be had).(6) Contrast this with prisoners (and everyone else) in the United $tates who are now paying higher prices for food and other essentials because the commissary is operated on the capitalist market. The anarchy of production under capitalism means we constantly have too much or too little of various goods as individuals decide what to produce based on their own profit interests. And this is particularly noticeable when the economy starts to slow down or shows volatility as it has been lately.
Socialist China focused on production to manage and drive the economy, whereas imperialist United $tates focuses on money supply to do so. In socialist China the banks were merely a tool to manage and allocate resources to manage production for the people’s needs.
Why Banks are failing
As mentioned above, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) had a big problem due to the value of its federal bonds dropping in value. They had bought the bonds when interest rates were much lower, so as the Fed continues to increase interest rates these old bonds drop in value. They cannot cash in the bonds until their term is due and they can only sell them at a loss. Some big players began pulling their money out of the bank, perhaps related to this knowledge. Soon SVB could not cover the deposits they owed people. The U.$. government has stepped in to cover it, and now the FDIC is covering infinite deposits if your bank fails, instead of the previous limit of $250,000. This is another sign of the willingness of the imperialists to throw newly printed cash at the problem.
One interesting point here is that federal bonds are a “safe” investment. SVB didn’t fail because of garbage mortgage-backed securities as happened in 2008. So the financial system is failing firms that play it safe this time around. In addition, according to the FDIC, SVB was not in the worst situation.(7) In other words, other banks in the United $tates have worse balance sheets than SVB and will fail if there is a run on their money. “The total unrealised losses sitting on the books of all banks is currently $620bn, or 2.7% of US GDP.”(7)
The biggest failure this year, at the time of this writing, was the 165 year-old bank Credit Suisse. Meanwhile the market is jittery around many large imperialist banks with stock prices seeing big dips and credit default swaps (CDS) spiking in price. CDSs going up means other institutions are not confident these banks can pay off their debts and are charging more to insure bonds from these banks. The differing interests of these major financial institutions are beginning to show on the markets as they bet against each other.
Conclusion
Prisoners are on some of the most fixed budgets of any population in this country. In order to get their basic needs related to nutrition, hygiene and outside contact, prisons need to increase pay rates and limits on how much money prisoners can spend and receive from the outside. In some states these reforms have already occurred, and this is in the interests of the commissary companies, which the prison systems want to keep satisfied.
The solution to the bigger economic contradictions playing out now is obviously replacing capitalism with socialism. The report from socialist China cited above succinctly explains why this is the case. Capitalism doesn’t just put profit over the need of people and life on this planet, capitalism actually requires profit to function. When profits dry up, as we’re seeing some evidence of right now, capitalism can’t produce what people need. Of course, we’re also seeing various forms of state intervention to ensure that this does not happen by providing more money and creating profitable situations using the central banks. But these contradictions continue to exist, and different interests are acting in anarchic ways, so that state intervention cannot always work as it does in a socialist economy.
[Arms & Empire(1980) by Richard Krooth is a MIM must read.
MIM(Prisons) just developed a study
guide to go along with this book. The below is the intro to the
study guide with some key quotes from the book.]
Introduction to the study
pack
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (originally named the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement) was founded at a time when
inter-imperialist conflict between the camp led by the United $tates and
that led by the social-imperialist USSR posed a threat to the world. In
one of the founding documents, written in 1983, comrades saw the
combination of liberation struggles in the Third World and this
inter-imperialist conflict as a hotbed for communist revolutions.(1)
MIM founders saw the success of communist revolution as an absolute
necessity to prevent a new inter-imperialist war, that would likely lead
to nuclear war. As such, they recognized that a revolutionary situation
could arise within the United $tates in a matter of years, despite
having a budding skepticism of the interests of most in our country in
communist revolution.
For most of MIM’s existence now we have not been in the situation
described above. By 1991 the “Cold War” was over with the dissolution of
the Soviet imperialist bloc. For a solid 3 decades we lived under a
“unipolar world”, where U.$. dominated organizations and alliances ruled
the world (NATO, World Bank, IMF, etc).
For many years now (in 2022) China has been the rising imperialist
power, mostly independent of the U.$.-dominated institutions, though
deeply integrated with the U.$. economically. As the contradictions
heighten in the U.$.-China economic system, they also heighten in the
capitalist system overall. The post-USSR era brought a sacking of the
wealth of the former Soviet states by cleptocratic capitalists. This
aligned with the capitalist development of China, and the return of
exploitative relations dominating over 1 billion people who became the
primary producers for consumers in the United $tates and around the
world. These processes of wealth extraction were the life-blood for
global capitalism for those 3 decades of inter-imperialist peace. But,
capitalism must keep expanding, and there is not much more room to
expand. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a series of collapses
in the international system of distribution that prioritized
profitability over resiliency.
Earlier this year, Russia invaded Ukraine, in what many fear is the
first hot war of what will be an escalating inter-imperialist war.
Though to date, it has not yet exceeded in scale the U.$./USSR conflicts
of the Cold War. It has brought with it massive trade barriers. The
Amerikans have rallied the world to isolate Russia with great success,
yet differences in interests have also arisen. This will force many
realignments in the coming months and years. The battle for markets,
using tariffs and embargoes and currency manipulations, will only
escalate. This makes Arms & Empire such a relevant read
today.
In 1997, MIM passed a resolution stating:
“For MIM’s purposes, World War III began immediately after World War
II ended in 1945. World War III continues today. It is a war between the
imperialists and the oppressed nations. By defining World War III as
post-World War II, MIM does not mean to say that imperialists did not
wage war on the oppressed nations prior to 1945, only that the post-1945
period has specific characteristics (such as: 1. the leading roles of
the U.S. and, for a time, the USSR and 2. the predominance of
neocolonialism) which separate this period from the pre-1945
periods.”(2)
We can say that world war is inherent to imperialism. As Lenin
defined it, imperialism is when the world has been completely divided up
by competing monopolist powers, making the export of finance capital the
dominant aspect of the economy, and finance capitalists become the
shapers of the world. This competition translates to economic and
military warfare, both of which result in large numbers of unnecessary
humyn deaths. Imperialism kills millions. When warfare between the
imperialists can be minimized for a period, the warfare is aimed
primarily at the oppressed nations who are resisting the imperialists
trying to control and exploit them.
On the eve of World War I, the revisionist Kautsky proposed a theory
of ultra-imperialism to supercede imperialism, where the imperialists
can ban together to manage the world internationally. Today, there are
many bad Marxists who unknowingly promote this metaphysical view of
world imperialism where the imperialist forces of NATO and the U.$. are
an invincible unbreakable force, and that the best thing the communists
can hope for is a counter-balance to U.$. hegemony while tailing other
independent imperialists such as Russia or China. While also unknowingly
parroting neo-Kautskyism, these revisionist Marxists also unite with the
bourgeois Liberals on the world view of a post-Soviet world. The
bourgeois liberals had their own theories of “the end of history” after
the collapse of the Soviet Union that envisioned the current order to
have proven itself as the stable state in which we would remain. In this
book, Richard Krooth concisely points out why these fantasies can never
come true. The internal contradictions of capitalism and imperialism,
brilliantly exposed by Marx and Lenin, translate to antagonistic
contradictions among the imperialists that cannot be resolved by
synthesis but only by one aspect of that contradiction overtaking the
other via warfare. This remains true despite brief periods of relative
peace between the imperialists that must also coincide with periods of
prosperity and great opportunity for the imperialists. And has MIM has
pointed out, even in times of prosperity, the different interests of the
labor aristocracy can damper the plans of imperialist unity.(3)
Today, the labor aristocracy is talking about their inability to
consume products not made by them in their movement to increased wages,
decreased worktimes, etc. However, they seem to be able to consume
products not made by them pretty well. Cars, phones, food, etc. are
mostly produced by the Third World proletariat, and the main gripe comes
with things they don’t own rather than things they don’t produce: rent
for example.
As we enter a period of heightened inter-imperialist conflict, we
echo the sentiments of MIM’s founders. We are not for war, but we
recognize that war by the proletariat to overthrow imperialism is
necessary to stop war. As military and economic warfare expands among
imperialists and between imperialists and the oppressed nations,
opportunities for successful revolutions to put the proletariat in state
power increases. This is the solution to war. We aim to destroy
imperialism, because imperialism is destroying the planet.
“For we will see that empire was systemic and competitive; that
competition and nationalism then powered the changeover from one system
of empire to another; that, consequently, the mercantile colonial system
was replaced by a system of free trade with the coming of industrialism;
that free trade was thereafter replaced by a return to colonial empires
with the rise of monopolization in the leading nations; that war between
the Powers resolved little in the fight for world domination; and that a
new growth of monopolies led to strengthened colonial spheres of
influence and renewed warfare.”
Explanation of the Great Depression (top of p.119):
“The U.S. had long since closed down free trade into America,
stopping Germany and other European countries from exporting to American
shores to pay their debts. This secured the U.S. dollar for a while,
making it the hardest currency in the world, pushing up its value
vis-a-vis other currencies, but also making it inaccessible to nations
that otherwise would have purchased from America. When other nations
could not obtain dollars by exports to the U.S., obviously they could
import nothing at all. And so U.S. exports tended to fall and had to be
replaced with bilateral trade agreements. Up went U.S. unemployment when
markets fell away and bilateral trade could not replace them. Then down
came the dollar, the U.S. devaluing in 1933 in an attempt to stimulate
the exports again. But, alas, it was too late. The depression was on,
production was down, America was spreading crisis to Europe!”
Lead up to WWII (p.129-30):
“Within European nations especially, the road to war was laid out in
stages – the first for counterrevolution, the second for capitalist
resurgence, and the third for crises and the rise of antagonistic
governments seeking to take what all others held in trade, investments,
colonies and profits. In the first period (1917-23) we can discern how
civilian bands of reactionaries had used force and violence against the
agrarian or socialist”revolutions”… The reactionaries demanded “law and
order,” eventually leading to “counter-revolutions.” Yet the incipient
fascist movements did not themselves assume government power, for the
marketplace was being re-established and did not require a fascistic
state.
“The second period (1924-29) had no use for a fascist government
either. The powers of capitalist production were expanding, the market
fetters were destroyed, and al the important nations save Great Britain
were on the economic upgrade. While the United States enjoyed legendary
prosperity and the Continent was doing almost as well, Hitler’s putsch
was a footnote in political economy. France evacuated the Ruhr, the
Reichsmark was restored by U.S. loans, the Dawes Plan took politics out
of reparations, Locarno was in the offing for peace, and Germany was
initiating seven fat years. The gold standard ruled from Moscow to
Lisbon by the close of 1926; buyers could now pay for their imports,
restoring the capitalist marketplace to its full capacity.
“Then came the Great Crash of 1929, the market economy turning down,
general economic crisis forcing nations to be sellers but not buyers in
the world. The continuing deadlock of market dealings demanded changes
in the political way in which economic solutions were planned. The
Italian trusts chose fascism as a way out of their economic malaise. The
German cartels demanded continental markets and colonies, not by
marketplace dealings - for they were shut out of the markets and
colonies of the other Powers - but by military conquest. Hitler, their
puppet, demanded no more than they asked, Germany taking the lead in
totalitarianizng Europe. And with Japan in the Asian wing, the Axis Pact
aligned fascist power over five continents.
“Thereby the material conditions of society – monopoly ownership,
overproduction, market struggle, political bankruptcy, and military
occupation – had ended the marketplace system. The monopolists and
cartelists needed fascism to build themselves strong for a military
confrontation which, they believed, would award them with more raw
materials, more markets, more profits and more power. The liberal
business interests, then opting for increasing national competitiveness,
also blocked any move towards allowing the social means of production to
provide for popular need, instead of their private profit. The fascists,
combining jingoism and planned speed-ups for the working population, now
displayed a tawdry alternative to the free marketplace. And the
monopolists then brought them into power in hopes that their
accumulation of private gain would continue undiminished. World War II
inexorably followed, not only because leaders willed it, but also
because the solutions to economic and political crises required it.”
The latest issue of ULK (#75) was very informative. The article
on Afghanistan was a good review of many of the issues.
One you did not mention and that is one of the reasons that China is
sending money is that of the mineral resources of the country.
About 8 years ago I had a teacher who applied to work as an analyst
for the CIA. As part of his application he did a report on Afghanistan.
He found out why the U.$. invaded the country. There are large deposits
of copper and lithium ore. The U.$. soldiers were to protect the Chinese
workers who were building the railway that would transport the ore into
China for processing.
Just like Spain, France, etc. in the 16th and 17th centuries, the
U.$. government was in another country to steal its natural
resources.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Certainly, natural resources
continue to be a major impetus for imperialist foreign policy and war.
The gas lines through the Caspian Sea were also a key concern in the
region at the time.
Your description of the roles of the Amerikans and Chinese in
Afghanistan is emblematic of the relationship between the two countries
ever since the capitalist roaders took over in China in 1976. Today
contradictions have heightened as Chinese capital has become more
developed and therefore needs to exert its interests independent of the
United $tates. Meanwhile the Amerikans have begun looking at bringing
production and supply chains of basic goods a little closer to home
after becoming dependent on the labor of Chinese proletarians. These
contradictions playing out demonstrate why inter-imperialist conflict is
the rule.
From Victory to Defeat: China’s Socialist Road
and Capitalist Reversal
by Pao-Yu Ching
Foreign Languages Press
2019
In a recent online debate between two random “Marxist-Leninists” and
two fascists, one of the self-described “Marxist-Leninists” stated that
every country in the last 100 years has been socialist. The fascists are
happy to parade such meaningless dribble as “Marxism” so that they can
make Marxism look bad. With Obama’s election, white nationalist fear
became expressed in many derogatory words, including “communism” and
“Marxism,” with no sense of irony that they were accusing the number one
enemy of the world’s people of being a communist.
What is common among “Marxists” in the First World is saying every
country is socialist that says it is and has some form of state
intervention in the economy. This superficial analysis has also helped
muddy the water of what socialism is. And it allows the fascists to say
that they share many of the goals and ideals of the self-described
Marxists. In particular they both look to China as a positive model of
how to run a country and they both think Amerikans and various First
World European nations are being victimized by the current world system.
The fact that many of these fascists have chauvinist anti-Chinese views
and wish war against the social-imperialist CPC is of no matter. For
MIM, the question of whether today’s China is socialist or
social-imperialist is a dividing line question.
To understand what socialism is, MIM has long recommended The
Chinese Road to Socialism by Wheelright and MacFarlane. For the
history of the coup that overthrew socialism in China MIM distributed
The Capitalist Roaders Are Still on The Capitalist Road. In
1986, MIM cadre Henry Park published “Postrevolutionary China and the
Soviet NEP” comparing state capitalism in the early days of the Russian
revolution to state capitalism after the coup in China. In 1988, Park
published “The Political Economy of Counterrevolution in China:
1976-88”, which tied all of these subjects together through a Maoist
framework and analyzes the failures of state capitalism in post-Maoist
China.
Pao-Yu Ching’s From Victory to Defeat serves as a more
up-to-date introduction to the topic of the differences between
socialism and capitalism in the last 100 years of Chinese history. It is
written as a sort of FAQ and provides a broad overview, while explaining
the key concepts that allow us to differentiate between the two economic
systems. As such, MIM(Prisons) recommends Pao-Yu Ching’s work as a solid
starting place when exploring this topic. The topic of “What is
socialism?” must be fully grasped by all communists.
It seems that Pao-Yu may disagree with the Maoist class analysis. In
eir introduction ey states, “Today the living conditions of the working
masses in imperialist countries have grown increasingly difficult.”(p.9)
Ey then alludes to rising prices, rising debt and precarious work, none
of which necessarily reflect worsening objective conditions. Without a
recognition that these populations are parasitic on the working classes,
this line leads to the politics of the fascists and social-fascist
“Marxist-Leninists” mentioned above. It is also relevant to the question
of revisionism in the formerly socialist countries who looked to emulate
the lifestyles of Amerikans. Since this point is not taken up in the
rest of the book we will not dwell on it here, but it remains the
biggest problem with this work.
What is Socialism?
Many of our readers and those who are interested in what we have to
say in general are still confused as to what socialism is for the
reasons mentioned above. Ultimately it is defined differently by
different people, and it is used politically rather than scientifically.
Pao-Yu outlines what the most advanced example of socialism looked like
quite nicely in eir short book, so we will just mention some key points
here to help clarify things.
Socializing industry first required that the state took control of
the means of production in the form of factories, supply lines, raw
materials, etc. This is where many stop with their definition of
socialism. Some other key things that Pao-Yu points out is that success
was no longer measured in the surplus produced but rather on
improvements in the production and overall running of the
enterprise.(p.20) This recognizes that some will be more profitable in a
capitalist sense, but that the nation benefits more when all enterprises
are improving, not just the profitable ones. Another key point is that
laborers were guaranteed a job that was paid by the state at a standard
rate.(p.28) This eliminated labor as a commodity that you must sell on
the open market. Commodities are at the heart of capitalism. Socialism
is the the transition away from commodities, starting with the most
important commodity of humyn labor.
The above only applied to a minority of the country, as the vast
majority of China was a peasant population. It is only in recent years
that the peasantry is now less than half the population. It is in the
countryside where the capitalist roaders and the Maoists disagreed the
most. Pao-Yu walks us through the different phases of the transition to
socialism and how the principal contradiction shifted in each phase. Ey
explains the contradiction amongst the countryside, where production was
not owned collectively by the whole population, and the cities where it
was. The disagreement with the capitalist roaders was a disagreement
over the principal contradiction at the time, which they thought was the
advanced social system (of socialism) with the backward productive
forces (of small scale farming by peasants). To resolve this
contradiction the capitalist roaders thought they must accelerate
production, industrialize agriculture, and feed the industrialized
cities with the surplus of that agricultural production. This focus on
production is one of the key defining lines of revisionism.
While Marx taught us that the productive forces are the economic base
that define humyn history and the superstructure, he also said the
contradiction with the relations of production is what leads to
revolutionary transformations of society. As Pao-Yu points out, learning
from Mao Zedong, during these revolutionary periods is when the
relations of production become primary, in order to unleash the
productive forces that have become stagnant under the previous mode of
production.(p.30) In other words peasants living under semi-feudalism in
China pre-liberation were not improving their conditions. They needed to
revolutionize how they related to each other, how they were organized,
specifically the class relations, in order to move towards a new mode of
production (socialism) that could meet their needs much better.
Therefore Mao focused on education, theory, class struggle, culture, the
people, instead of focusing on production, profitability, surplus, and
wage incentives, as the capitalist roaders did. The Maoist path took the
Chinese peasants through a gradual process of increasing
collectivization through communes, which was quickly dismantled after
the coup in 1976.
What is Democracy?
Another question those living in bourgeois democracies often ask is
how you can have democracy with only one party, where people are purged
for having the wrong political line? Pao-Yu makes the point well by
explaining that in established bourgeois democracies you can have many
parties and many candidates, because they all represent the same
class.(p.48) This is the case because these countries are stable in
their mode of production (capitalism). In the transition to a new
economic system the political struggle is between two classes. In the
case of capitalism transitioning to socialism, it is between the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat (and their class allies on each
side).
The bourgeoisie by definition is always competing amongst itself, so
it cannot have one party represent all of their interests, except in
extreme crises when fascism becomes viable. In the United $tates today,
the left-wing of the bourgeoisie are represented by the democrats while
the right-wing flock to the republicans. Even amongst these parties are
different bourgeois factions fighting amongst each other. The
proletariat however is united in it’s class interest, so there will be
no need for multiple proletarian parties. There are many books that
outline the components of socialist democracy where people select their
representatives at each level of administration, where free speech and
criticism are encouraged, where education is universal and free and
where everyone is involved in studying theory and practice to shape the
decisions that affect their day-to-day lives. It does not require having
multiple political parties to choose from as bourgeois democracies do in
their electoral farce.
What is China?
Pao-Yu covered China before, during, and after socialism so that the
reader can better understand the differences. As such the book is a good
introduction to the explanation of why China has not been on the
socialist road since 1976. Ey touches on the loss of the guaranteed job,
with the introduction of temporary workers, the ending of the right to
strike and free expression among the workers, the ability of managers to
start keeping the profits from the enterprises they oversee, the loss of
universal medical care, and the focus on production for other nations,
while importing the pollution of those consumer nations. Ey briefly
documents the struggles of the workers to maintain control of the
enterprises they once owned collectively. China is now a capitalist hell
hole for the majority objectively and it does not matter whether the CPC
has millions of cadre who believe the opposite subjectively.
The Global Economy
One point Pao-Yu makes that we have also stressed as being important,
is the role of the proletarianization of the Chinese masses in saving
global imperialism from crisis. When the imperialist economies were
facing economic crisis in the 1970s, one third of the world’s population
was not available to be exploited by the imperialist system. One of the
laws of capitalism is its need to always expand. When China went
capitalist, it opened up a vast population to exploitation and
super-exploitation for the imperialists. This labor was the source of
value that the imperialist system thrived off of by the mid 1980s until
just recently.
Interestingly, Pao-Yu says that almost 30% of the Chinese population
is petty bourgeoisie, owning (often multiple) investment properties and
traveling around the world.(p.111) In a previous article we explained
that we saw China
as a proletarian country still despite its imperialist activities.
We referred to Bromma’s
research that stated China’s “middle class” was 12-15% of the
population some years prior. It is interesting to hear that the
Chinese petty bourgeoisie has reached the same size in absolute numbers
as the Amerikan one. It would be interesting to compare the wealth of
these two groups, we presume the Amerikans remain wealthier. Of course,
China is still majority proletariat, while Amerika is almost completely
bourgeoisified, so the class interests of these nations overall remain
opposed to one another. But we will rarely hear the proletarian voices
from China until a new proletarian party rises there.
The housing market is one example of how China has emulated the
United $tates. Investing in properties has become an important way for
the new petty bourgeoisie in China to accumulate wealth without working.
Just last week, the Chinese investment firm Evergrande made headlines
when it became public knowledge that they would not be able to pay the
billions of dollars they owe. Evergrande has significant backing from
Amerikan finance capital, as is true for the Chinese economy in general.
Therefore the collapse of the Chinese housing market could have real
ripple effects in the global economy.
The fact that real estate investment firms exist in China, and that
they are defaulting on hundreds of billions of dollars owed, is really
all you need to know to see that the economy is oriented towards profit
and not people. Things like inflation and bubbles and stock markets and
speculation just didn’t exist during the Maoist era. The reintroduction
of these things for the last four decades destroyed the progress in
class struggle in China long ago.
Salutations MIM(Prisons), and appreciation for the book The Wind
Will not Subside about the years in revolutionary China. I wrote
specifically to donate these stamps and to comment on what I’ve rend so
far – because I’m not done with it.
Mao was a true paradox: simple yet complex, intellectual yet humble,
he know how to control by letting go, he was an obvious mystery. And he
was a Gangsta! I never knew hes wife and kids were tortured, raped and
killed. He never spoke on the personal motivations of his mission,
because he knew that his was just one story out of millions of similar
stories. Se he wasn’t special.
Politicians of today would’ve used that story to their advantage,
solely to get votes. And once ey got the votes, ey would then use that
power to do the same thing that was done to em. Ey would’ve exploited to
the fullest that tragedy. That was deep to me.
He also had the courage to go against traditional revolution
(Russia), and challenge the status quo by not being afraid to fail if
need be. Mao had the vision and intuition to understand that you don’t
hamper the youth’s growth by pounding into them what ey are doing wrong.
Ey will lose enthusiasm and ultimately give up.
About study groups. I have come to realize the less formal ey are,
the more successful ey are. If we tell youngsters that we are going to
start a “study group”, it reminds em too much of school. Although in
essence, that’s what it is, the title rubs em the wrong way. I pass
literature, books, ULKs around, then after ey’ve read them, I ask
questions, give input and feedback. It is a slow process, but it works.
I’m not perfect, and I am only one of many, but I have found the method
that works for me. Maybe it will help a comrade who is sincerely trying
to bring about change.
Salutations to all who labor in the name of communism
