Zhang Shanguang and the struggle
for information freedom in China

by Ben Seattle

Today, Sunday December 27, labor activist Zhang Shanguang goes on trial in Huaihua city in Hunan province in China. According to the BBC, CNN and Reuters, Zhang was arrested in August after he tried to create an organization to help laid-off workers. Details are unclear but news reports suggest that Zhang may have given information to "Radio Free Asia" (the propaganda mouthpiece of US imperialism) about peasant protests directed against the increasing burden of taxation. Zhang, who spent seven years in prison in the wake of the repression following the Tiananmen Square massacre, could be given the death penalty.

The arrest and trial of Zhang Shanguang represents the interaction of several trends of development. China is in a period of transition between a highly centralized "command economy" and a more ordinary "free-market" capitalism. This transition is deeply affecting not only China's ruling class but also China's workers and peasants.

China's ruling class has traditionally been concentrated in the "Communist" Party of China. As the transition to free-market capitalism takes place, a section of the Chinese bourgeoisie is beginning to assert its right to operate independently of the ruling party and set up other parties which may offer it greater advantages.

China's workers and peasants are affected both positively and negatively by the transition to free-market capitalism. On the one hand, there appears to be an immense amount of economic development taking place in China. The standard of living of many (or most?) of the Chinese people has, for example, risen sharply in the last decade or so. And the industrial infrastructure (ie: power plants, modern factories, telecommunications and computers) is being created that will allow for future rapid advances in the conditions of life. On the other hand, the polarization of wealth in China is becoming more severe. The number of unemployed in China is probably around a hundred million and vast numbers of former peasants form something of a permanent underclass of migrating workers who go from city to city desperate for any kind of work. Official corruption is endemic and the culture in China is beginning to degenerate along the lines to be found in western bourgeois societies (ie: "to get rich is glorious", commodity fetishism, the cult of the individual, etc).

The opposition movements in China are likely both numerous and varied, although I have little information about them. The oppositional currents include those which are oriented along the lines of serving the needs of that section of the Chinese bourgeoisie which has grown impatient with the tutelage of the ruling party. These currents are cheered on and supported by western imperialism (and its mouthpiece media) which sees them as a vehicle for its future influence in China. Other oppositional currents in China are oriented toward serving the needs of sections of workers, peasants or students who are being disadvantaged or crushed by the economic "reforms" which serve some while flinging others into misery and destitution.

The Revolution in Communications

Nearly all of the oppositional movements will benefit from the revolution in communications which will impact China over the next several decades. It is currently estimated that 5 million people in China will have internet access by the year 2002. (This estimate represents a ten-fold increase over current estimates--but would still represent less than half of one percent of China's population.) Further rapid expansion of internet access in China will result from the relentless march of "Moore's Law"--which will bring communications devices that are far smaller, cheaper and easier to use than the present-day personal computers.

The future development of the communications revolution in China will help to make it inevitable that the oppositional movements which are oriented along bourgeois lines will succeed. The current monopoly of power enjoyed by the "communist" party will be broken and likely will be replaced by the rule of bourgeois parties more similar to those in the west.

But, in the long run, it is the workers and peasants in China who will benefit most from the revolution in communications. The political development (and differentiation along class lines) of the oppositional movements will be greatly accelerated by the revolution in communications and this will lead to the development of an independent movement of the working masses in China--and of genuinely revolutionary organizations that will learn to cooperate, sort out issues of decisive importance and, as the situation matures, act with a single will.

In the meantime, the corrupt "communist" party in China has no moral authority to arrest, imprison and mistreat anyone for oppositional political activity. The western imperialist media has its own reasons for supporting some activists in China (and ignoring others). All of these activists should be allowed to carry out their activity without fear of imprisonment or execution. As genuine democratic rights in China develop--they will ultimately be of greater benefit to those activists who are not tied to western imperialist interests. As the oppositional activity grows and develops over time--it will become more clear who does, and who does not, "serve the people".

The Challenge to Marxists

Finally, for those who consider themselves to be marxists: the activity of the Chinese government, in seeking to suppress all opposition, should strike a nerve. Nothing more blatantly exposes the bankruptcy and hypocrisy of "communist" theory--than theories of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" that seek to justify the persecution of activists in China today--or the brutal murder of hundreds of students in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The "dictatorship of the proletariat" is the theory of workers' rule and, as such, is the center of communist theory and the pivot of all genuine communist activity within bourgeois society. Nothing undermines this decisive concept as much as the bankrupt idea that, under workers' rule in a modern society, a "Ministry of Truth" will restrict the ability of workers to view or voice political opinions of their own chosing.

A real workers' state would not be so afraid of Zhang Shanguang that it would put him on trial and threaten his life in order to try to shut him up. If someone like Zhang Shanguang carried out political activity that _was_ mistaken or reflected the interests of foreign imperialist powers--a real workers' state would respond by mobilizing mass opinion to debate and criticize the mistakes involved. The current regime in China, on the contrary, is afraid of open debate and discussion. There is too much dirt and corruption and naked self-interest in action within the Chinese "communist" party.

All genuinely progressive people (whether or not they consider themselves to be marxist) must condemn the trial of Zhang Shanguang and demand that political activists in China have the right to put their views before the Chinese people. The result could not be worse than the present situation in China--where only a section of the bourgeoisie centered in the ruling party has the right to circulate its views.

The principle that information wants to be free to serve the working class will eventually triumph in China and serve the revolutionary movement there--as it will everyplace else on earth. Until the "communist" movement recognizes this fundamental truth--it will be the mouthpieces of western imperialism (where more than 99 percent of political news and culture is dominated by corporate interests) that will pose as the champions as free information.

Cargo Cult Leninism

Until the communist movement in the countries of bourgeois democracy breaks with denial on this question--it will be _harmless_ to bourgeois interests--and _not deserving_ of the respect and allegiance of millions of workers. The argument is often made by "Cargo Cult Leninists" that, under Lenin, the Bolsheviks suppressed their political opponents. This is, of course, completely true. But this course of action was taken because the Bolsheviks, at the time, were extremely weak and had good reasons to be afraid of the influence of opposing trends on a restive peasant population that was deeply unhappy and vulnerable to fraud, illusions and deceit.

But in pretending that the emergency measures necessary in the time of Lenin would be applicable to workers' rule in a modern society--our modern cargo cultists show themselves to be of the same mold as those inhabitants of the South Seas who, even today, believe they can call forth miraculous cargo when they invoke the magic phrase "Roger, over and out" on radios made of bamboo with antennas made of vines.

The simple truth is that the communist movement in the west has not made up its mind to fulfill its historic responsibilities. And until the communist movement takes up the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat in a _modern_ society in a _realistic_ way--in the light of the coming revolution in communications--it will never find a basis for genuine unity--it will never overcome the twin diseases of reformism and sectarianism--and it will not deserve to be taken seriously by either the bourgeoisie or the proletariat.

Ben Seattle
----//-// 27.Dec.98
www.Leninism.org

----------------
Further reading:
----------------

** The "D of P" and the principle
   that information wants to be free
   in Chapter 8 of "How to Build the
   Party of the Future" at:

   www.Leninism.org/pof/

** Richard Feynman's famous essay
   on "Cargo Cult Science" at:

   www.Leninism.org/stream/96/cargo_cult_science.htm

** Real Cargo Cults:

   www.altnews.com.au/cargocult/jonfrum/
   Jon Frum - an active cargo cult located on the
   island of Tanna, Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.

   or:

   www.youmag.com/u2/cc/start.html

 

 

 

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