Is socialist revolution necessary? Under what conditions? How far should it go? Is more than one revolution needed, even in the same society? What about the issue of revolutionary “excess”? Is there such a problem, and if so, what causes it and does it lead to counterrevolution? If the revolution is “defeated,” was it still worth undertaking? And finally, who gets to decide these questions, and write the history of revolutionary change? For each country or society, these queries must be broken down more specifically. In the case of China, for example, was a revolution in land control needed? Should it have been carried to the point of the collective socialist organization of rural society? Why was the Great Leap Forward undertaken, and the Cultural Revolution? Did they go “too far”? Did their “excesses” lead China back to the “capitalist road” under Deng Xiaoping?

Since ancient times, there are those who have dreamed of finding a City of Youth, where the population never ages, and any outsider who comes to live will remain forever young. They probably did not have in mind, however, the kind of “agelessness” found in Shenzhen, China.

Every class and sub-class stratum in China is undergoing dramatic changes that will have a profound impact on their own role, the relations between them, and the future course of the society. These transformations are especially evident among the Chinese working classes, who are experiencing the most radical alterations in their conditions in many decades. They have major implications not only within China, but for the global system, both in their own direct impact and as one “model” for developments elsewhere as well. The Chinese working classes are today mounting …

A few weeks after we left, some of these Zhengzhou workers distributed a leaflet on the anniversary of the death of Mao, calling on the party to turn back from the “capitalist road,” and return to the path to socialism. Despite arrests, and the continued imprisonment of one of them, these activists, known as the Zhengzhou 4, show the spirit that lives on in the working classes from Cultural Revolution days, and they received significant support from leftists and progressives from both inside and outside China. That is how revolutionary socialism continues to revive and to resume its historical march. Workers and peasants in China and all over the globe, look back to the Commune, the Cultural Revolution, and all the great “lost” struggles of the past, for inspiration and guidance, even as they move forward into the future. It is in this way, I believe, that we can and will continue to advance to ever higher forms of a socialist society-in spite of the many defeats and setbacks along the path-one in which the working classes themselves take the lead, in ways we have not yet seen before and can hardly even imagine here today.

EDITOR”S NOTE: “Good introduction to China’s reform process, emerging or worsening environmental and social problems, and various attempts to deal with these, including only currently available English introduction to the “New Rural Reconstruction Movement” that I’ve seen. Also good for footnote chasing, but apparently we can’t post footnotes yet on CSG, so go to Dale’s page (see “Link”) for footnotes. Note that this is the full translation of the Chinese version - a shorter version was published in print and online versions by IFG, but this removed most of the …