No to US intervention in Syria!

After a gas attack in Damascus ( Syria ), the US imperialists are thinking about joining the Syrian civil war on the side of the Syrian rebels. Yet most Americans oppose supporting this sectarian civil war, which is now 2 years, 5 months, 1 week and 6 days old. Unlike Libya, there is little to gain in Syria for US capitalism. A western intervention in Syria was not seen as profitable by the ruling class of the USA and Europe. Also the Syrian government is supported by Russia and Iran. Unlike the former Libyan Jamahiriya, the Syrian government still has powerful foreign friends! 

2,5 million Syrians have fled the Arab Republic of Syria since the uprising against dictator Bashar Al-Assad began. 100.000 people have been killed in this sectarian conflict between the Alawite tribe ( Shia Muslims ) led Syrian government and rebels who are Sunni Muslims. Since the 70's, the Alawite tribe is ruling Syria, a nation populated with mostly Sunni Muslims. Bashar Al-Assad is the second president under the authoritarian secular Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez Al-Assad ruled the nation from 1971 till his death in the year 2000. Bashar Al-Assad succeeded his father as president! 


An Islamic uprising between 1979 and 1982 killed 5.000 people in the cities of Damascus, Hama, Aleppo, Palmyra and Jisr ash-Shugur. The government lost 1.500 soldiers in this three year uprising. In a way the 1979/1982 conflict between the Alawite led Syrian government and Sunni Islamists planted the seeds for today conflict! 


Today in the year 2013, the Syrian revolution is not pure Islamic. Although the western media and the Syrian state-media portray the rebels as supporters of Al-Qaeda, most Syrian rebels are not radical Islamic. The Free Syrian Army still has 80.000 troops and most of them are secular in nature. Islamic rebels like the Al-Nusra Front ( Al-Qaeda in Syria ) operate with 10.000 troops and the Syrian Islamic Liberation Army is armed with 30.000 tot 40.000 rebels!


Revolutionary socialists support those Syrians who oppose both the dictatorship of the Ba'ath Party and the Islamic rebels. Syrian workers cannot trust the so called ''National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces'' who operate out of Turkey. Workers must not trust the rebel leadership, who like the former National Transitional Council of Libya, are not able to bring stability. That is why the revolutionary socialists support the local committees established by the people. These people's committees must lead the struggle against Bashar Al-Assad and those Islamists who want to create a theocracy in Syria!


There are elements of the ( Stalinist ) revolutionary left, who support the Syrian government. They do this because they claim that the rebels are all counterrevolutionary in nature. This is only partly true. There are Islamic rebels who fight for a theocracy. But the majority of rebels only want a free Syria. But the ( Stalinist ) revolutionary left, think that Al-Assad is a good secular leader, who will defend Syria against western imperialism. It was Bashar Al-Assad who embraced capitalism after his fathers death. He started massive privatizations after the year 2000. Poverty rose because of the right-wing market reforms. Only the Alawite tribe and the new capitalist class enjoyed the fruits of capitalism! 


The US government will claim they want to save the Syrian people, if they choose to intervene in the civil war. But this is another lie. America waited two years and allowed 100.000 people to die because US imperialism never wanted anything from Syria, this is why they did not intervene. We revolutionary socialists don't want them in Syria or anywhere else. US imperialism serves the interests of the ruling class, and not that of the ordinary people of the world. We see in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya what consequences a US invasion has for a nation. The State of Libya is still in chaos, tribal rivalries and milita's are preventing stability. US imperialism favors a capitalist economy to be build. Since they supported the Libyan rebels in removing Gaddafi in 2011, the Libyan politicians now feel they must repay the USA for their ''service'', by building a capitalist state. US imperialists demanded the same thing in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq commercial billboards are polluting the street-view, also the Iraqi oil is now exploited by major US and British oil capitalists!


That we oppose western intervention in Syria does not mean we support Bashar Al-Assad. We blame him for the killings and the civil war. He ordered the Syrian Armed Forces to shoot at demonstrators, he and his government are the true criminals. Most people who were killed in these two years, died at the hands of government troops. Many also died during the bombings of the Syrian Air Force on rebel held towns. This angered so many Syrians, that the Islamic fundamentalists were able to recruit many young people. Human rights groups have confirmed that most civilians died at the hands of government soldiers. Syrian soldiers from the SAF raped and tortured all who stand up against Bashar Al-Assad!


But the Syrian rebels are not innocent. They too have killed and murdered many Syrians. Most of their killings are of sectarian nature. Members of the Alawite tribe fear the Islamic fundamentalists so much, they desperate support Bashar Al-Assad. Many Christians and other minorities support the dictator out of fear for the Islamic rebels too. Islamic rebels call themselves the Mujaheddin, this means ''people doing jihad''. The most famous ''people doing jihad''' were the Afghan Mujaheddin, who thanks to American money and weapons destroyed the secular Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992. They forced Islamic theocratic morality on the Afghans, a morality that is still enforced in today's Islamic Republic of Afghanistan!


The Arab Republic of Syria stands on a crossroad. Bashar Al-Assad is using his secular mask and the fear of Islamism as a cloak to hide his crimes. Many ( Stalinist ) revolutionary leftists have fallen for this trap. Because Al-Assad has Islamic friends. People who also want to build an Islamic Caliphate. These people are found in the Shia Islamic circles. Like the Islamic Republic of Iran or the Party of God in Lebanon. The Party of God has ordered its militia's to fight for Bashar Al-Assad. Iran also ordered their Revolutionary Guard to aid the supposed ''enemy of Islamism ' as the Syrian government claims to be. This civil war is pure sectarian and workers must not support it! 

Revolutionary socialists say:

  • No to imperialist intervention! The withdrawal of all foreign forces from Syria and the region
  • Against all oppression, the people must democratically decide their own fate
  • For the building of united, non-sectarian defence committees to defend workers, the poor and others against sectarian attacks from all sides
  • Prepare a movement to fight for a government of representatives of workers and the poor
  • For a revolutionary constituent assembly in Syria
  • The implementation of the national and democratic rights of the masses, with the recognition of the right of the Kurdish people to self-determination including, if they so wish, the right to their own state
  • Independent trade unions and the building of mass workers’ parties with a programme of land to the masses and the factories to the workers, implemented through a programme for a socialist democratic planned economy
  • A democratic socialist confederation of the Middle East and North Africa


This is what US imperialism really wants for Syrian workers!

Savas Matsas, Greek revolutionary socialist on trial

The Hellenic Republic has ordered a trial against Savas Matsas , a revolutionary socialist and general secretary of the Revolutionary Workers Party ( EEK ). But the Greek state was not the one who wanted him trialed. The order for a trial came from the fascist party Golden Dawn. This Nazi party got 18 seats in the Greek parliament after the 2012 elections. Now the Golden Dawn wants to use the justice system to silence their political enemies!

The Golden Dawn is ultra-nationalist and extreme right-wing. They claim not to be fascist, but we revolutionary socialists know better. The Golden Dawn hates none-Greeks, especially the Albanians in Greece are targeted by the party as ''criminals''. The true criminals however are not the Albanians, but the violent members of the Golden Dawn. Attacks on immigrants and leftists has increased since the party got parliamentary seats!

Meanwhile the capitalist rulers of Greece are creating more poverty, on orders of the European Union. The conservatives of New Democracy and the pseudo ''social'' democrats of the Pan-Hellenic ''Socialist'' Movement, are responsible for the rise of the Golden Dawn. Like in Germany before 1933, the ruling social democrats and their conservative allies created the ideal atmosphere for the Nazi's to work under. Social democratic betrayal and Stalinist degeneration, meant that Adolf Hitler and his storm-troopers took power in 1933!

Savas Matsas and the Revolutionary Workers Party stand up against the violence spread by the Golden Dawn and the Greek Police. Because in the Hellenic Republic many police officers have sympathies for the fascist ideology. This is a remnant from the military junta era. The Golden Dawn was created by pro-military junta supporters back then. Some police officers remain committed to right-wing believes. 

When you have problems with immigrants, you don't call the police they say in Athens. You call the Golden Dawn, who will ''solve'' your problems with the immigrants. Police officers sometimes give you Golden Dawn phone-numbers. We revolutionary socialists known how brutal and violent the fascists in Greece attack immigrants. That the Greek state and the police allow the Golden Dawn to patrol the streets, show how weak the government of the Hellenic Republic truly is!

Savas Matsas is born to Jewish parents and this is why the Golden Dawn wants him jailed. The Greek fascists hate Jews, just as much as they hate immigrants, socialists, communists,  antifascists and all who oppose their racism!

Matsas released a statement about his upcoming trial:

''As you know, the Nazi Golden Dawn in Greece has started a legal action against the EEK and myself, its general secretary.

I am accused of “defamation”, “instigation of violence” and “disruption of the civil peace”.
At the same time, the Nazis have intensified their non-stop, vicious, anti-Semitic and anti-communist campaign accusing me of being “the instrument of a world Jewish conspiracy to foment civil war, so as to impose a Judeo-Bolshevik regime in Greece”.

The Greek state has endorsed this action by Golden Dawn by bringing charges against myself, together with the former dean of the National Technical University of Athens, Mr Constantine Moutzouris (accused of permitting the operation of the alternative website, Athens Indymedia, from within the university).

The trial will begin on September 3 2013. Already about 2,000 signatures of solidarity have been collected internationally and nationally, and more are coming in every day. Many political and trade union organisations in Greece and internationally have expressed their solidarity. On August 29, a press conference will be held in the headquarters of the Union of Journalists in Athens. We want to set out our case, as well as reporting on the solidarity we have received''.

All revolutionary socialists and anti-fascists must support Savas Matsas against the Greek state. The Golden Dawn is the enemy of democracy, human rights and all who opposed racial hated and nationalism. Greek leftists must unite in a coalition on a socialist program. We must stop the sectarian divisions and unite for genuine democratic socialism and for workers rule in the Hellenic Republic!

Savas Matsas, about to be trialed 
on orders of the Golden Dawn

Thomas Sankara (1949-1987)

Today Africa is ruled by capitalist leaders, corrupt to the core and mostly undemocratic in nature. Many African nations remain poor, although Africa is one the richest continent of the planet. Burkina Faso is one of the poorest African nations. A landlocked nation, it is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north; Niger to the east; Benin to the south east; Togo and Ghana to the south; and Ivory Coast to the south west. The name Burkina Faso was giving by a revolutionary leader, the African Che Guevara: Thomas Sankara! 

Sankara was born in 1949, in a Roman Catholic family. He attended primary school in Gaoua and high school in Bobo-Dioulasso, the country's second city. Thomas father had fought for the French during world war two and was captured by the Germans. When Thomas was born, his father and mother wanted him to become a Catholic priest. Fittingly for a country with a large Muslim population, he was also familiar with the Islamic Koran! 


After basic military training at his secondary school, Thomas Sankara joined the Army of Upper Volta in 1966. The Republic of Upper Volta became independent of France in 1960. Between 1960 and 1983, Upper Volta had a mixture of military and civilian governments. All claimed to be African nationalist and populist, but in reality they did nothing to help the poor and the working class. Thomas Sankara became a revolutionary when he began to read the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. For Sankara its was Marxist socialism in which he saw his future!


Most African nations became ''socialist'' after their independence. Nations like Tanzania tried to build an African style socialism. But like Russian stalinism, this African-socialism was plagued with the same bureaucratic inefficiency. Workers were not giving a voice and were told what to do. The African-socialists believed in a top down socialism, which proofed not to work. Unfortunate Thomas Sankara would make the same mistakes as other African revolutionaries! 


Sankara was appointed Secretary of State for Information in a military government in September 1981, journeying to his first cabinet meeting on a bicycle, but he resigned on April 21, 1982 in opposition to what he saw as the regime's anti-labour drift, declaring "Misfortune to those who gag the people!". In 1983 a group of soldiers around Blaise Compaoré, organized a second military coup and made Thomas Sankara, president of the Republic of Upper Volta!


At the age of 33, Thomas Sankara was among the youngest head of states in Africa. He saw his presidency as a change to bring social justice to his poor nation. As president he changed the name of the nation to Burkina Faso and the ideology of his revolution was defined by Sankara as anti-imperialist in a speech on 2 October 1983. His policy was oriented toward fighting corruption, promoting reforestation, averting famine, and making education and health real priorities!


Accompanying his personal charisma, Sankara had an array of original initiatives that contributed to his popularity and brought some international media attention to the Burkinabé revolution:



  • He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers.
  • He reduced the salaries of well-off public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets.
  • He redistributed land from the feudal landlords to the peasants. Wheat production increased from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient.
  • He opposed foreign aid, saying that "he who feeds you, controls you''
  • He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance.
  • He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting.
  • In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).
  • He forced well-off civil servants to pay one month's salary to public projects.
  • He refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabes.
  • As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer.
Unlike many other African ''socialist'' leaders. Sankara was very moderate and his life style was not that of a typical military president. His life style was far more closer to that of a genuine socialist leader.
  • A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard.
  • He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen.
  • He was known for jogging unaccompanied through Ouagadougou in his track suit and posing in his tailored military fatigues, with his mother-of-pearl pistol.
  • When asked why he didn't want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, Sankara replied "There are seven million Thomas Sankaras."
  • An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself.
Western imperialism was not happy with this revolutionary leader. Soon the imperialists would use the mistakes of Thomas Sankara against him. But Sankara was not to be stopped. Burkina Faso left the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Sankara said that these organisations were capitalist in nature and not helping Africa. As a internationalist, he also supported other Africans who struggled against capitalism and imperialism!

A close ally of Burkina Faso  was the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Muammar Gaddafi supported the young Sankara. Also Gaddafi claimed that Burkina Faso could become the second Jamahiriyan nation after Libya!

But Thomas Sankara made one big mistake. Like many revolutionaries he did not trusted independent working class action. He did not believed in workers self-management and socialism from below. Like Fidel Castro, Thomas Sankara created committees to defend his revolution. He wanted these committees to be the voice of the people and his revolution. But soon the committees became a police force of the government. Just like the committees of the Cuban revolution, the committees of Sankara became authoritarian and started to arrest people who were critical of the military ''revolutionary'' government!

Soon the left-wing of Burkina Faso no longer supported the military government of Sankara. Many trade unionists believed that Burkina Faso was turning into a dictatorship like Cuba. Blaise Compaoré and the old guard saw that the nation was turning against Thomas Sankara. Compaoré and France made a deal to dispose Sankara and to end his ''socialist'' revolution. On October 15, 1987 the counter revolution began!

Twelve armed officers under Blaise Compaoré leadership entered the presidential palace. They murdered Thomas Sankara and claimed it was an accident. Deterioration in relations with neighbouring countries was one of the reasons given for the counter-revolutionary coup. Blaise Compaoré said that Sankara jeopardised foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast. Like Ernesto Che Guevara, Thomas Sankara was executed by supporters of western imperialism. Blaise Compaoré became the new president of Burkina Faso. He made peace with capitalism and rejoined the IMF and the World Bank. Soon all revolutionary principals of Thomas Sankara were reversed! 

By 1991 most socialist principals of Sankara were gone, replaced by the law of greed and exploitation. Blaise Compaoré created a multi-party state, but made sure he would win every election. Today in the year 2013, Blaise Compaoré is still president of Burkina Faso. The socialist emblem of the nation ( created by Thomas Sankara ) was replaced by the old emblem of Upper Volta in 1997. Only the flag and name of the nation are a reminder of Thomas Sankara, the African Che Guevara, murdered for his socialist believes! 

France and capitalism knew how to play on the mistakes of Sankara. We revolutionary socialists know that you cannot build socialism top down. Like Fidel Castro, Thomas Sankara tried to do just that. In the end his revolution turned dictatorial, the mighty trade unions turned against him and so did the left-wing. Thomas Sankara was then murdered by his own officers. His revolution lasted only four years. Today Burkina Faso is a typical African nation, corrupt and poor. Mercedes are again government cars, the capitalists exploit workers and income inequality is high!

A week before he was murdered, Sankara said ''While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas''. We revolutionary socialists agree with him on that. Blaise Compaoré may have murdered him, but his socialist ideals will never die. For genuine socialism to work, you need massive class conscious. Workers of Africa must understand what capitalism is and how socialism can work. This is the task for revolutionary socialists in Africa and around the world!


Thomas Sankara, HERO of Africa!

The disastrous land reforms: Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea

Stalinist nations ( called Communist nations by the capitalist media ) are famous for their abuse of power, bureaucratic rule and mismanagement of their economy. Anticommunists also love to spread the lie that communism as an ideology is responsible for the death of 150 million people. Most victims of these regimes died during the major land reforms that the ruling communist parties enforced. In this series of documents we tell about the Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese and Khmer land reforms. The USSR, People's Republic of China, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ( North Vietnam ) and Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea showed no tolerance or sympathy for supposed ''class enemies''. Millions died because of these disastrous land reforms!

Land reforms in Stalinist nations have led to famine and death. In the USSR and China more then 150 million people died because of hunger, slave work and executions. Stalin's land reforms between 1929 and 1932 caused the death of 8 million workers and peasants in Ukraine. Mao's reforms led to the death of 25 million peasants during the Great Leap Forward. Most victims of ''communism'' as the capitalist media love to spread, died because of hunger. Stalinist inefficiency and brutality have indeed led to death and suffering. But there is one nation that lost 1/3 of its population thanks to land reforms! 


Cambodia was part of Indochina since 1887. The French colonialists ruled with iron fist. Jailing all who stood up to their dictatorial colonialist regime. In 1925 a boy was born that would forever be linked to the world mass-murders. Saloth Sar was born into a fishing family in Prek Sbauv. Farther Pen Saloth was a rice farmer who owned 12 hectares of land and several buffaloes and the family was considered moderately wealthy by the day's standards. 


In 1935 Saloth Sar left his town to attend the École Miche, a Catholic school in Phnom Penh. He lived with his cousin, a woman called Meak, a member of the Royal Ballet. Sar's cousin was close to the king of Cambodia, who under French rule was still allowed to live in his palace in Phnom Penh. The young Saloth Sar visited the Royal Palace many times when he was a boy. He qualified for a scholarship for technical studies in France and studied radio electronics at the EFR in Paris from 1949 to 1953!


When he was 26 years old, Saloth Sar joined a secret communist group called the Marxist Circle. They controlled the Khmer Student's Association and soon Sar joined the French Communist Party like most young Khmer nationalists. Because of his poor academic record he was considered a true proletarian because of his poor peasant background. Saloth Sar developed a deep hatred for the intellectuals of the world, a view that was supported by the Stalinist; French Communist Party!


Cambodia became an independent kingdom in 1954. The nation was to become a constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. But the ruling class and the landlords of Cambodia did not wanted a fair democratic system. The elections were not fair and massive fraud was committed by those in power to elect their supporters. Leftist Cambodians started to rebel, only to be arrested and tortured by the monarchist police!


Saltoh Sar returned to Cambodia, he became a contact person for the above-ground leftist parties and the underground communist movement. By 1962 he married and became a teacher at a private school. The underground communist movement was controlled by pro-Vietnamese Khmer and Saloth Sar opposed that. His Khmer nationalism also led him to hate the Vietnamese, who controlled the Indochinese anti-colonialist movement. So he and his supporters took control over the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party and changed its name to Workers Party of Kampuchea!


The new Workers Party of Kampuchea ( WPK ) broke with marxism and moved to dogmatic maoism. They declared that poor peasants were the true working class. Intellectuals, capitalists and wealthy farmers were called the greatest class enemies of the WPK. Beside maoism, the party also became Khmer nationalist. Saloth Sar spread the idea of a great Khmer Empire under his leadership. But only a few members of the party knew that he was party leader. Most members of the WPK wound not knew who was their leader until 1977!


By the summer of 1968, Saloth Sar began transitioning from a party leader working with a collective leadership, into the absolute leader of the Khmer nationalist movement. Where before he had shared communal quarters with other leaders, he now had his own compound with a personal staff and guards. Outsiders were no longer allowed to approach him. Rather, people were summoned into his presence by his staff. Saloh Sar also changed the name of the WPK to Communist Party of Kampuchea!


A year later he ordered his Red Khmer to change their propaganda tactics. Until then the CPK was making active propaganda against the ruling king. Now Saloth Sar wanted the propaganda to stop attacking the monarch. This was done to gain support from the nationalist monarchists, because the Red Khmer was not all that strong. In 1970 they only had 200 active members, but their information network was very widely spread across many villages!


The Kingdom of Cambodia was transformed into the Khmer Republic by 1970. This angered many monarchists who became opponents of the new Republican regime. Saloth Sar's propaganda was no longer anti-monarchist and therefore more acceptable for parts of the ruling class. Since 1970 the Red Khmer were growing by each year. Most members of the CPK were peasants who hoped for an agrarian socialist Cambodia!


As a Khmer nationalist party, the CPK promoted Khmer culture and traditions. Minorities like Vietnamese, the Chams and Chinese were discriminated against. They were forced to speak Khmer and to dress as Khmer. The land reforms in the era's under Red Khmer control led to brutal killings of landlords and former members of the ruling class. The Red Khmer also used forced labour to produce rubber!


In September 1974, Sar gathered the central committee of the party together. As the military campaign was moving toward a conclusion, Saloth decided to move the party toward implementing a socialist transformation of the country in the form of a series of decisions. The first being to evacuate the main cities, moving the population to the countryside. The second dictated they would cease to put money in circulation and quickly phase it out. The final decision was that the party would accept Sar's first major purge. In 1974, Saloth had purged a top party official named Prasith. Prasith was taken out into a forest and shot without any chance to defend himself. His death was followed by a purge of cadres who, like Prasith, were ethnically Thai, another proof that Saloth Sar wanted to destroy all none-Khmer leaders of the CPK!


The Khmer Republic collapsed together with the Kingdom of Laos and the Republic of Vietnam. Red Khmer forces took Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975. They restored the monarchy only to keep the world beliving that the Kingdom of Cambodia would return. Meanwhile Saloth Sar was building his new society, he called it Democratic Kampuchea. It was then that Saloth Sar changed his name. He became Pol Pot, a name he took from the French; Politique potentielle!


Norodom Sihanouk became puppet king under Pol Pot for a year. Nobody knew what would happen. The Kingdom of Cambodia seemed to have returned under this mysterious Pol Pot who nobody knew. The Red Khmer forced western journalists out of the country and closed the borders. In January 1976, Democratic Kampuchea replaced the Kingdom of Cambodia. The flag of the Red Khmer became the state banner. The puppet king was put under house arrest and Pol Pot became general secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. But he did not became head of state, Khieu Samphan was selected to be the face of the government!


In reality it was Pol Pot who controlled Khieu Samphan. The new peasant state was to be purged of all intellectuals, capitalists, rich farmers and urban workers. All people in Cambodia were to become farmers in gigantic collective farms, run as concentration-camps by the cruel Red Khmer forces. 


The Communist Party of Kampuchea remained clandestine and very closed. Even in 1976 nobody knew who or what political group was in power. People knew the new leaders only by the French name; Khmer Rouge or Red Khmer. Pol Pot told the public that Angkar was the ruling force in the nation. All power laid in the hands of Angkar, the communist party under this strange name. The Red Khmer wasted no time. More then three million urban workers were told to move to the farmlands and become farmer. Cambodia had a population of 8 million people, but Pol Pot only needed three million for his Khmer peasant utopia to be build. That is why he did not mind that many people died! 


Like in all Stalinist/Maoist based dictatorships, the supporters of the ruling party had a better way of life. It is guessed that 2,5 million people in Cambodia, supported the Angkar ( CPK ) and were giving special privileges, like enough food and better housing. Soldiers from the army were always giving better treatment then ordinary peasants. Although they wanted nothing to do with the nepotist ways of the old ruling class, some members at the top of Angkar's hierarchy were practicing nepotism. Pol Pot's wife, Khieu Ponnary, was head of the Association of Democratic Khmer Women and her younger sister, Khieu Thirith, served as minister of social action. These two women were considered among the half-dozen most powerful personalities in Democratic Kampuchea. Son Sen's wife, Yun Yat, served as minister for culture, education and learning!


Pol Pot hated all intellectuals, like teachers, doctors, philosophers and people who use their minds. The uneducated peasant was the jewel of Democratic Kampuchea. So thousands of teachers were executed. Western medicine was banned, only traditional medicine was allowed. Many Cambodians died from deceases so easily cured. The regime's most cruel and violent executioners were young teens. Boys and girls were raised to spy on adults and to punish them if they spoke out against Angkar. Children even executed their own parents. The youth of Democratic Kampuchea was brainwashed like the Hitler Youth and Mao's Red Guards. Pol Pot trusted the youth to be his most loyal supporters. Indeed, most teens would support him their whole lives. Many choose to remain at his side, even after the Vietnamese invasion of 1978!


Huge collective farms were created by the Red Khmer. People became numbers and lost their individuality. Live on these collective farms were hard and brutal. Many would die due to over work and executions if production was not high enough. Many died in the rice-fields of Cambodia, these fields would later be called ''Killer-fields''. The Red Khmer killed so many that their corpses were everywhere to see. It is believed that between one and three million Cambodians died between April 1975 and January 1979. 


Security Prison 21 was a famous torture prison. Created in a former high school, 12,273 people were tortured and executed by the Red Khmer here. Many of its victims were children who did not wanted to betray their parents to Angkar. Many were tortured with the same brutality as adults were. Before they were executed, a picture was taken of them for the archives! 


In 1977, Pol Pot decided to show the world who was leading Democratic Kampuchea. He told the Khmer people that Angkar was the Communist Party of Kampuchea and that Pol Pot was Saloth Sar. Now the world knew who ruled Cambodia. But the Stalinist; Socialist Republic of Vietnam was not happy. Since 1975, Red Khmer forces were attacking Vietnamese villages. Vietnam attacked the Red Khmer but never invaded Cambodia. But as the attacks went on so did Hanoi's patience with Pol Pot. Internationally Democratic Kampuchea was supported by the People's Republic of China, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was supported by the Soviet-Union. Both China and the USSR were cold war enemies and hated each other. Vietnam and Cambodia stood against each other in this conflict between two Stalinist ideologies.    


After more skirmishes with Red Khmer forces, Vietnam decided to invade Cambodia. This happen in December 1978. After two weeks of fighting the army of Democratic Kampuchea was defeated. Pol Pot had purged the army of officers and many soldiers were killed too by the Red Khmer between 1975 and 1979. The 68.000 men of the army could not stand against the veteran Vietnamese soldiers, who were very experienced after fighting the Americans and South Vietnamese!


Pol Pot and his CPK fled into the jungle. Khmer supporters of Hanoi established the People's Republic of Kampuchea. In 1981 they created the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party. This reformed Stalinist party is still in power as of 2013. But there have been major changes to Cambodia since the removal of Pol Pot. 


The international community refused to recognize the People's Republic of Kampuchea. Western nations like the USA and Great Britain supported Pol Pot's government. Until 1991 the flag of Democratic Kampuchea flew at the UN building. The People's Republic of Kampuchea was isolated and only supported by Vietnam and the Soviet-Union. In 1989 the nation was renamed into State of Cambodia, but that did not brought any recognition. So after the collapse of stalinism and the USSR, the reformed stalinists surrendered to capitalism. The Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party became the Cambodian People's Party!


Pol Pot also changed. He abandoned his radical maoist principals and changed the name of his Communist Party of Kampuchea into the Party of Democratic Kampuchea. Pol Pot also made alliances with monarchist anti-Vietnamese nationalists. For ten years he fought against the Vietnamese and their Khmer allies. In 1991 the monarchists supported the UN plan for peace. The Red Khmer refused to allow UN control over Cambodia in order to clear the way for free elections!


In 1993 the Kingdom of Cambodia was restored. The monarchists and the new ''socialists'' of the Cambodian People's Party again created an monarchy in Cambodia. But the king was to have no political power, he is only a figurehead. As the former stalinists controlled the media they were able to win the elections. In 1995 the Cambodian People's Party started with massive privatizations, the market became the new god. Corruption and inequality rose very sharp in the next 15 years. Today Cambodia is a capitalist paradise for western businesses. Khmer workers are even more cheaper then Chinese workers or Vietnamese workers. Profits are high for the new ruling class, who pay politicians good money for low taxes and business friendly atmosphere. Trade unions are now free but face harassment and intimidation by government supported criminals. Also most workers do not join a union because their capitalist bosses forbid them to join!


Pol Pot died in 1998. With his death the Red Khmer and the Party of Democratic Kampuchea also disappeared. The Kingdom of Cambodia is trying to put the former Red Khmer leaders on trail. But because of corruption and government inefficiency nobody has yet been sentenced. Most former Red Khmer leaders are now old and will die in the next five to ten years. If Cambodia wants some justice, they must act fast!





The skulls of many victims remain 
A grim reminder of the criminal Pol Pot regime!

The disastrous land reforms: Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnam

Stalinist nations ( called Communist nations by the capitalist media ) are famous for their abuse of power, bureaucratic rule and mismanagement of their economy. Anticommunists also love to spread the lie that communism as an ideology is responsible for the death of 150 million people. Most victims of these regimes died during the major land reforms that the ruling communist parties enforced. In this series of documents we tell about the Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese and Khmer land reforms. The USSR, People's Republic of China, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ( North Vietnam ) and Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea showed no tolerance or sympathy for supposed ''class enemies''. Millions died because of these disastrous land reforms!

In 1945 the Empire of Japan was defeated. Japanese forces surrendered to the western allied forces. This meant that Indochina was returned to their former colonial masters. France was the ruler of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia since 1887. French Indochina was a colony of France and like all other colonies of western imperialism, they were forced to bow to the white Europeans. But in 1941 a resistance group was created. The League for the Independence of Vietnam was a nationalist group led by the charismatic Ho Chi Minh!

Born Nguyễn Sinh Cung, Ho Chi Minh was a revolutionary nationalist. He joined the French Section of the Workers International as the socialists were the one who demanded political rights for the Vietnamese people. While he was in France he went by the name Nguyễn Ái Quốc (“Nguyễn the Patriot”). In 1920 he voted for the Third International and became a founding member of the French Communist Party. Nguyễn Ái Quốc took a seat in the party's colonial committee and tried to win the French over to his side. But the French people were brainwashed with colonialism and love for France colonies. So he focused more on Vietnamese nationalism!

By 1923 he went to Moscow to work for the Communist International ( Comintern ). Nguyễn Ái Quốc also started to work with Chinese communists. It is said that he betrayed his rival Phan Bội Châu to the French colonial government for 100.000 piastre de commerce ( currency of Indochina ). A source states that Nguyễn later claimed he did it because he expected Chau's trial to stir up anti-French resentment, and because he needed the money to establish a communist organization! 

In the 30's Nguyễn Ái Quốc worked mostly in Asia for the Comintern. Like most communists he supported Joseph Stalin and his ''socialism in one nation''. This ideology matched his revolutionary nationalism. By 1938 he worked with the Chinese Red Army for three years, until he returned to Vietnam in 1941. By then Nguyễn Ái Quốc called himself Ho Chi Minh and he was the absolute leader of the League for the Independence of Vietnam ( Viet Minh ). 

Between 1941 and 1945, the Viet Minh were fighting against both the Vichy French colonial regime and the imperial Japanese. 500.000 troops were under Ho Chi Minh's command by 1944, also 4.000 Khmer troops fought alongside the Vietnamese. But the relations with the Cambodians ( Khmer ) were that all that warm. Most Khmer Viet Minh had little love for the Vietnamese who dominated the struggle against France and Japan. This is the result of ancient ethnic hated between the Khmer people and the Vietnamese people!

After the Japanese left Indochina the French returned. Ho Chi Minh was the one who asked them to return. He said that he rather would have French colonialists then Chinese in his nation. Vietnamese people have no love for China, so when 200.000 nationalist Chinese entered Indochina to disarm the Japanese, Ho Chi Minh asked the French to return. The Viet Minh hoped that they could negotiate, but France wanted their colony back and did not cared about the Vietnamese call for independence! 

In 1946 fighting broke out between French colonial forces and the Viet Minh. The first Indochinese war lasted until 1954. One the colonialist side were the French, supported by the anticommunist USA. The French created puppet states in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The French Union was an attempt to build three puppet nations under dominion of France. On the revolutionary side the Viet Minh in Vietnam, the Pathet Lao in Laos and the Khmer Issarak in Cambodia!

Between 175.000 and 500.000 Viet Minh soldiers died between 1946 and 1954. The French colonial forces lost 75,581 men. Around 200.000 civilians died during the fighting. It was during this first Indochinese war, that the stalinists around Ho Chi Minh removed any leftist opposition to their revolutionary Stalinist agenda. The International Communist League in Vietnam was the main opponent of the stalinists. This group led by Ta Thu Thau was created in 1932 as the October Group and did not joined the Popular Front led by the Communist Party of Vietnam. The International Communist League opposed the return of the French colonialists in 1946. Ta Thu Thau called Ho Chi Minh a traitor when he allowed French forces back into Indochina. The Vietnamese stalinists feared that workers and peasants would listen to Ta Thu Thau. So they arrested and murdered him along with all anti-Stalinist leftists in North Vietnam!

After 8 years of fighting and the defeat of French forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, France wanted to talk about a cease fire. Ho Chi Minh and his fores agreed and the Geneva Conference of 1954 ended the First Indochina War. It was decided that Indochina was split into four nations. A Kingdom of Laos, a Kingdom of Cambodia, a South Vietnam and a Viet Minh controlled North Vietnam. Many Vietnamese nationalists opposed the therms of the Geneva Conference. They were furious when Ho Chi Minh agreed with the separation of Vietnam!

North Vietnam became the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Its capital was Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh became its first president. Under the Geneva Agreement all anticommunists were allowed to leave North Vietnam, also all supporters of Ho Chi Minh were allowed to travel to the north. The anticommunist propaganda machine started its work. The Americans were instrumental in spreading anticommunist lies and fear among the North Vietnamese population. Most catholic Vietnamese left the north, fearing the atheist principals of the Workers Party of Vietnam. 

Almost 1.000.000 Vietnamese left the north to settle in South Vietnam. A huge propaganda victory for the anticommunists who said that many more Vietnamese wanted to leave but were stopped by the Viet Minh. That is partly true, the Vietn Minh did indeed stopped more from leaving. 52.000 Vietnamese left South Vietnam to join Ho Chi Minh. But their numbers were nothing compared to the one million who fled the north. The stalinists renamed their communist party into Workers Party of Vietnam and created a single party state. They started with disastrous land reforms!

Unlike Russia and China there was never a massive famine that killed millions. North Vietnam never suffered from hunger. Most victims of the land reforms were wealthy farmers and rich peasants. The stalinists called them ''land lords'' or địa chủ in Vietnamese. People from the middle class and upper class were denounced as class enemies. Also those who worked for the French were called ''traitors''. Massive arrested started with executions followed. We know that 100.000 wealthy landlords, members of the bourgeoisie and anticommunists were murdered between 1954 and 1960!

The Workers Party of Vietnam wanted all people affiliated with capitalism and colonialism  gone. Families suspected of belonging to the former ruling class were isolated and many starved to death. Innocent children were harassed and intimidated too, only because their parents belonged to the ruling class. Later it was found out that 71% of all executions were not justified. More then 120.000 people were wrongfully accused by the North Vietnamese government under Ho Chi Minh. We revolutionary socialists supported the expropriation of land, but not the intimidation's and executions of the former landlords!

Some even say that more people were executed. Former Viet Minh official Hoang Van Chi wrote that as many as 500,000 people may have died as a result of the policies of the North Vietnamese government. This war perfect propaganda for the capitalist Republic of Vietnam, created by the French in south Vietnam. The anticommunist Republic of Vietnam was first supported by the French, but most support would come from the USA. Ngô Đình Diệm was the only civilian president of South Vietnam. He never wanted democracy as that could bring leftist nationalists to power. Ngô Đình Diệm was a typical corrupt right-wing leader. As a member of the ruling class and the Roman Catholic Church, he was able to gain massive support from Catholics in the USA!

Ho Chi Minh was not a Maoist, but he used some methods used by Mao in China. In the PRC the government lured political opponents out on the streets during the Hundred Flowers Campaign. Mao Zedong said he would allow the Chinese to criticize him, so during the Hundred Flowers Campaign, many intellectuals in China made sharp criticism of the totalitarian government. Mao was shocked by all the criticism and ordered the arrest of almost all intellectuals. In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh did the same thing!

It began with the Nhân Văn paper and the Giai Phẩm periodical. These two papers became very critical of the North Vietnamese government. The Nhân Văn paper demanded political freedom and democracy. They also wrote that the Workers Party of Vietnam had violated the constitution of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh's government closed down the papers and arrested its editors. With the arrest of the last two independent newspapers, all media outlets in North Vietnam were under state control! 

When doi moi was introduced in 1986, the communist party rehabilitated many former editors of the Nhân Văn and Giai Phẩm. The reforms after 1986 gave more individual freedoms to newspapers and media outlets. But even in today's pseudo Socialist Republic of Vietnam, there is no political freedom. Vietnamese who oppose today's Communist Party of Vietnam are arrested and jailed. We revolutionary socialists condemn the murder of landlords, members of the bourgeoisie and anticommunists. No government has the right to execute anybody. Ho Chi Minh's government was not socialist, but deformed and brutal Stalinist. 

Although Ho Chi Minh was president of North Vietnam, his influence in the Workers Party of Vietnam dropped substantially. After 1954 he lost power to the more radical party members. Although he supported the purges and brutal land reforms, Ho Chi Minh was not like Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, his life style was very moderate compared to other Stalinist leaders. He refused to live in the presidential palace in Hanoi, he build a traditional Vietnamese house were he lived until his death. The old leader of North Vietnam became weaker as of 1969. At the age of 79, he died in September 1969 in Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh was never an absolute leader like Stalin or Mao. But he was a Stalinist and no supporter of genuine socialism. His anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism were based on marxism, but like all stalinists; Ho Chi Minh never trusted independent working class action!

Today Vietnam is not like the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The state that Ho Chi Minh created and led until his death was totalitarian, dogmatic and in some way criminal. A deformed workers state according to trotskyists or a a bureaucratic collectivist nation according to others revolutionary socialists. Ironically today's Socialist Republic of Vietnam is more like the Republic of Vietnam of Ngô Đình Diệm. South Vietnam was a capitalist dictatorship, much like today's state-capitalist Vietnam. The Republic of Vietnam got a military government in 1963 and remained military controlled until its collapse in April 1975!  

Many Vietnamese choose to leave Vietnam after 1975. Many people from the south knew of the stories spread by the anticommunists about the killings in the north. Most who fled ended up in the USA were they remain very anticommunist. They don't see the difference between Ho Chi Minh's stalinism and genuine communism. The anticommunist Vietnamese still use the flag of South Vietnam and claim their banner stands for democracy and liberty. To support these Vietnamese, the government of the USA has called the flag of the former Republic of Vietnam, the Heritage and Freedom Flag. We revolutionary socialists think that is so hypocrite when we look at the nature of South Vietnam. A corrupt capitalist state between 1954 and 1963, then a military dictatorship until 1975. South Vietnam was responsible for the death of at least 90.000 people!

Socialism was never established in Vietnam. What Ho Chi Minh created was not what Marx and Lenin wanted. There were no democratic workers councils, no rule of the proletariat. The communist party ruled and all workers and peasants who criticized that were denounced as ''counterrevolutionaries''. Revolutionary socialists opposed Ho Chi Minh. Because of that we were not loved by western leftists, who supported North Vietnam uncritical during the Second Indochina War, known as the Vietnam War. Stalinist Vietnam could never become socialist and by 1986, they dropped their revolutionary dogma for pragmatic state-capitalism like China did. Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam is capitalist again. Would he support it?



A former landlord is intimidated and bullied
 by Vietnamese peasants!
71% of them were wrongfully accused!

The disastrous land reforms: Mao's China

Stalinist nations ( called Communist nations by the capitalist media ) are famous for their abuse of power, bureaucratic rule and mismanagement of their economy. Anticommunists also love to spread the lie that communism as an ideology is responsible for the death of 150 million people. Most victims of these regimes died during the major land reforms that the ruling communist parties enforced. In this series of documents we tell about the Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese and Khmer land reforms. The USSR, People's Republic of China, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ( North Vietnam ) and Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea showed no tolerance or sympathy for supposed ''class enemies''. Millions died because of these disastrous land reforms!

The People's Republic of China is today a world super-power. A state-capitalist nation ruled by the Chinese ''Communist'' Party. China has turned from dogmatic maoism to pragmatic state-capitalism. It all started in 1983, when Deng Xiaoping told the world that China was open its labour market to foreign capitalists. Special economic zones were created were foreign businesses could do ''business'' with the Chinese. The experiments with capitalism were a huge success as China's GDP rose. Capitalists around the world praised Deng Xiaoping for his reforms! 

China was cut from the capitalist world for 34 years. After the victory of Mao Zedong in the Chinese civil war, China closed itself. Unlike the early USSR, there was no political struggle in China in the Chinese Communist Party. Mao Zedong had removed his opponents from the party years ago. In 1931, he became chairman of the short-lived Chinese Soviet Republic. After six years this republic collapsed as nationalist forces of Chiang-Kai-Shek, forced the Chinese Red Army to flee!

Mao Zedong and 86.000 Red Army soldiers marched 12.500 km, only 7.000 soldiers would survive the journey. After the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, both the nationalists and the communists worked together to fight the imperialist Japanese. The alliance stood for 8 years. When Japan was defeated in August 1945, the fighting resumed. This time the Chinese Red Army was stronger. Renamed People's Liberation Army ( PLA ) and with support from the poor peasants, the PLA destroyed the nationalist army. The government of the Republic of China fled to Taiwan as Mao Zedong entered Beijing!

Millions of Chinese peasants were very happy with the victory of Mao. But the ruling class of China was in a state of panic. Almost two million supporters of the nationalist government fled with dictator Chiang-Kai-Shek to Taiwan. The USA did not recognized the new PRC and kept supporting Shek until president Nixon visited Mao Zedong in 1972. With formal relations restored in the 70's, the PRC took over the ROC's seat in the United Nations. The Republic of China on Taiwan became isolated and was no longer recognized as China!

On the mainland the maoists took power. Millions of poor peasants were promised land, while the rich farmers were expropriated. Wealthy farmers were arrested and humiliated by poor peasants and member of the CCP. Feudalism was destroyed in a matter of months, the old system was replaced by a seemingly class less society. In 1951 and 1952, Mao began with his Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns. He wanted to get rid of corruption and capitalism. His main enemies were the owners of the economy, small capitalists and very rich capitalists!

In the major cities 20.000 party members and 6.000 trained workers began to intimidate their capitalist masters. The party wanted to show the Chinese how the capitalists worked. They also intimidate business people and created an atmosphere of fear. These mobs would assault innocent Chinese pure on their class position. Shop-owners and wealthy Chinese were often victim of bullying, harassment and intimidation!

By 1955 the economy was nationalized and the means of production were put under government ownership. Like in the Soviet-Union, there was no democratic participation of workers and peasants. All decisions were made by the totalitarian state. A state that demanded total obedience from the working class. This is called a deformed workers state by some revolutionary socialists who follow Leon Trotsky's analyse of Stalinist nations! 

Unlike in the Soviet-Union, the poor peasants had high hopes for the collectivization of the economy. China was divided and mostly lawless and corrupt since the collapse of the Chinese Empire in 1911. The poor peasants were slaves to a feudal system were the wealthy ruled over the poor. Mao Zedong promised to destroy feudalism and to give power to the poor. So many were enthusiastic about the supposed ''socialist'' transformation of their society!

Internationally most anticommunists believed that Mao would be a Soviet puppet. But he and Stalin were not friends. The old Joseph Stalin did not liked Mao as he distrusted all communists who were not under his direct control. Mao Zedong was not under Stalin's control, that made the two leaders not close friends. After Mao's first visit to Moscow he wanted to show Stalin that China was something. But the old dictator had little regards for China. The USSR was industrialized by 1950, while China was still a peasant nation!

Mao viewed Stalin as a rival and ordered the industrialization of China. With Soviet aid he wanted to build a modern nation. Thousands of Chinese students went to study in Moscow and learned things they never knew. All blueprints for modern buildings and factories were of Soviet design as China had very little industry! 

The great land reforms did not started until after 1956. It all began when Nikita Khrushchev told his famous anti-Stalin speech. Mao Zedong was shocked like many other stalinists in the world. The Chinese dictator refused to accept a reformed version of stalinism. Mao remained dogmatic and revolutionary  He also opposed friendly relations with the western world. The Sino-Soviet split was the beginning of China's own road towards socialism as Mao called it!

In 1958 the Great Leap Forward began. The Chinese Communist Party wanted to surpass British steel production by 1968. So Mao Zedong ordered all Chinese towns to be reorganized as massive collective farms. Steel was needed, so millions of peasants were told to produce steel. Rather than build steel mills, small "backyard furnaces" would be used. The results were dramatic. The steel produced was worthless and unusable. Normal market mechanisms were disrupted, agricultural production fell behind, and people exhausted themselves producing shoddy, unsalable goods. Because of the reliance on the government providing and distributing food and resources and their rapid depletion due to poor planning, starvation appeared even in fertile agricultural areas!

Mao's Great Leap Forward led to a famine that killed 25 million peasants. By 1960 it was obvious that China was in a state of crisis. Mao lost a great amount of support as leading party bureaucrats started to complain about the Great Leap Forward. A critic of Mao Zedong was defense minister; Peng Dehuai. He was not a Maoist but rather a reformed Stalinist. Peng supported the Soviets and opposed the revolutionary dogma spread by Mao. It was Peng who as minister of defense, opposed the original rank-less PLA. Under his administration the army was again ranked. When Peng visited the peasants in the country, he was shocked by the results of the Great Leap Forwards. He attacked Mao Zedong head on and made him responsible for the famine that killed so many. The CCP was in shock that Peng Dehuai dared to attack their chairman. So the defense minister was removed from office and denounced as a ''rightist counterrevolutionary''. Peng Dehuai was also intimidated during Mao next crazy experiment: the cultural revolution!

25 million peasants died because of the disastrous Great Leap Forward. China's economy was in ruins, but Mao did not accepted personal responsibility. Yet his Great Leap Forward was a huge mistake and the party choose to put their chairman on the side lines. Mao spend the next 6 years in semi-retirement, while the party leadership choose to end the communal farms. Peasants were allowed to keep a part of their grain to sell on markets. In 1963 the People's Republic of China was attacked by the Republic of China, who landed on the mainland. Twenty towns were captured by the anticommunist nationalists before the PLA was able to drive them out. It was huge embarrassment for the maoists, that the nationalists were able to capture twenty towns!

Two years later Mao Zedong started on his come back. He first made his wife minister of culture. Jiang Qing was Mao's last wife since 1938. A dogmatic Maoist she purged the Chinese culture of its old traditions. Mao Zedong told his wife to purging art and literature of feudal and bourgeois themes, all things in China that were related to revolutionary activities were called ''feudal and bourgeois themes''. In the party chairman Mao said that right-wing forced were trying to take power. He pointed at reformists like Deng Xiaoping who would indeed restore capitalism. Mao Zedong and his wife started what they called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution!

For the first and only time in human history, did a government used to people to attack a another part of the government. Mao rallied millions of teenagers and students to his side. He brainwashed them with intolerance, revolutionary dogmatism and semi-religious fanaticism. These teens became the Red Guard, a radical youth group who attacked Buddhist temples, who committed harassment against elderly and refused to listen to reason. For the Red Guards there was only one god: Mao Zedong! 

Millions of people were persecuted in the violent factional struggles that ensued across the country, and suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. A large segment of the population was forcibly displaced, most notably the transfer of urban youth to rural regions. Mao told his youth to work as farmer, millions went to the rural regions only to learn that farm work is harsh and heavy!

Soon the People's Liberation Army became a target for Red Guard terrorism. Soldiers who tried to stop the violence were called ''class enemies'' and openly attacked. Army generals who were pragmatic and not dogmatic loyal were beaten en forced to bow to pictures of Mao Zedong in the streets. The Red Guards were protected by chairman Mao, so the police and the army could not stop them. Deng Xiaoping was attacked too, but he was able to survive  Millions were not that lucky!

Mao Zedong used the Red Guards to destroy the last remnants of religion. Like Stalin he opposed religion and used marxism as excuse to murder priests and religious Chinese. Again the Red Guards played a role in destroying old temples and ancient Chinese structures. People who tried to help were attack and called ''enemies of the state''. Mao's terrorist youth gang grew so fast it suddenly became a danger to Mao himself. The youth wanted an end to bureaucratic rule and even challenged the foundation of Chinese Communist Party rule. So Mao Zedong called to disband the Red Guards in 1968, but he lost control over the most radical Red Guards!

In the end Mao Zedong called student radicalism ''counterrevolutionary''. He ordered the PLA to attack Red Guards who did not ended their radicalism. In many towns and cities the PLA started to execute many Red Guards who did not wanted to surrender. Mao's brainwashing and radicalism made them so dogmatic they refused to surrender to the ''bureaucrats of the army''. Again Mao Zedong was responsible for the death of workers, farmers, students and teenage children. By creating the Red Guard, Mao already did a bad thing. But by ordering the PLA to attack and murder these radical Red Guardists, he betrayed his own creation. For us revolutionary socialists this is just one of Mao Zedong's many crimes!

Yet the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution did not ended in 1968. Mao kept the program active and used his own face in a massive cult of personality. He became more then just a leader, he became a god for million Chinese. His return to power was absolute, he and his wife Jiang Qing had absolute power over the communist party and the state. In 1972, Mao shocked the world when he allowed president Richard Nixon to visit China. The People's Republic of China and the United States of America started to have formal relations. Maoist China also got a seat in the United Nations, they took the seat away from Nationalist China ( Taiwan ) who represented all of China since 1945!

America allowed China to buy western civilian airplanes. Unlike the Soviet-Union, the People's Republic of China was allowed to buy Boeing 707 aircraft. China stood in opposition to the Soviet-Union and they supported governments that were anti-Soviet. China supported the regime of Mobubtu in the 70's. Although the dictator of Zaire was very anticommunist, he and Mao had one common goal: to fight Soviet influence in Africa. So the anticommunist Mobutu and the anti-Soviet Mao worked together! 

Mao Zedong died in September 1976, he was 83 years old. When the news of his death was announced the People's Republic of China came to a halt. Millions cried out of fear and desperation. For 27 years, Mao Zedong was central in their lives. Now the leader of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was gone. His wife tried to carry on his legacy. She and four other classic maoists were later denounced as the Gang or Four by the pro-capitalists around Deng-Xiaoping!

When chairman Mao died he was replaced by Hua Guofeng. This leader was a mixture of orthodoxy and reformism. Hua made sure that Jiang Qing was removed as minister of culture. She and her Gang of Four were arrested late 1976. They became the scapegoats for the crimes of the party and government. Hua Guofeng was the leader who ended the cultural revolution it was he who also restored the authority of the CCP. Since 1966 the communist party was in a state of chaos, there was no understanding who did what. After four years the Gang of Four were trailed. Today we know this was a show-trail. The Chinese government wanted to put the blame on leading people of the cultural revolution but not chairman Mao!

Hua Guofeng was put aside in 1981 and finally replaced by Deng Xiaoping who since 1979 controlled the CCP. Under Deng, the People's Republic of China became a state-capitalist nation. When little Deng Xiaoping died in 1997, he did something Mao Zedong never could. He brought wealth to China and ended poverty for millions. Yet the price for that was high, the bourgeoisie returned and is again exploiting the workers of China. This is why we revolutionary socialists call of a second Chinese revolution against the state-capitalist CCP!


Chinese peasants had great hopes.
They were betrayed and murdered by Mao's regime! 

Struggle, Solidarity, Socialism

Struggle, Solidarity, Socialism