Marxist historians have grappled with the complexities of the history of Chinese social systems since the 1920s. They sought to assess the character of Chinese society by identifying the dominant mode of production and forms of class exploitation. They hoped to be able to explain patterns of historical change and to see how the evidence related to the Marxist theory of historical development.

This was not simply an academic exercise for revolutionaries. If the dominant system in the 1920s was capitalism, then the need to fight capitalism took priority. If the dominant system was feudalism, then the need to fight feudal remnants would be the priority.

The 1911 revolution opened an era in which Chinese capitalism took the dominant position in political and economic life. But progressive capitalist political forces navigated their revolution in conditions not of their own making. On the one hand, warlords, landlords and the imperialists exercised powerful economic, political and military influence, and were closely bound together with the capitalists. On the other hand, the economic dominance of capitalists was based on an expansion of the urban working class. This was the soil from which the early Communist Party grew. The bourgeoisie generally feared the workers' movement and its Communist leadership more than it feared the landlords, warlords and imperialist powers.

So when Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition arrived in Shanghai in 1927, the workers' movement and the Communist Party were already a powerful force. On advice from Moscow the Shanghai workers' militia gave up their arms and Chiang launched a ferocious coup against the Communists.

Stalin falsely blamed the party founder, Chen Duxiu, for the failure of the 1927 revolution. For his part, Chen argued that the root of this defeat lay in the analysis of the dominant class system. The Communist International and the Central Committee argued that, "feudal remnants still occupy the dominant position in the economy and politics and are the ruling power. As a result they consider these survivals as the object of the revolution and disregard the enemy, the suppressor of the revolution-the forces of the bourgeoisie."

Likewise, when Mao Zedong instigated guerrilla warfare, he was attacked by a Chinese delegate at the Comintern Conference in Moscow: "In Hunan province there exists a deviation, a special theory of comrade Mao Zedong…He has a whole system of ideas…He said that we are now entering a direct worker-peasant, i.e. socialist revolution...Mao's opinion…has obtained extensive currency among the broad masses".

History has shown that when the working class takes power in an economically underdeveloped country such as the USSR or China, the revolution can storm heaven, but can't create paradise on earth. Even if there had been a world socialist revolution between 1917 and 1930, many economically backward regions of the world could not have magically overcome their development problems. Some form of bureaucratic state was an inevitable outcome in those material conditions, although inequality and the level of democracy and popular participation would have varied in time and space.

The primary question is: how can the masses control their state and reduce bureaucratic power to a minimum, whilst simultaneously developing the socio-economic foundation for socialism, i.e. modern socialised production?

Nowadays the realisation of workers' democratic rights, as specified in law and the constitution, is the best way to guarantee that pro-capitalist social and political forces planning for a 'democratic' counter-revolution will remain isolated and weak. This can ensure that the revolutionary tradition of 1911 will continue to resonate in the hearts of the Chinese masses.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

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