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No. 202, Spring, 2008 No 202 SPRING 2008 40p Newspaper of the Spartacist League hina is not capitalist Siemens Metals and Mining China Photos Left: Baosteel plant in Shangl).ai, part of China's collectivised industry. Right: Workers demonstrate outside paper products factory to demand back pay, Shenzhen, China, October 2007. ';;~'~.jtDlltariaIl8.lIt1c.I"'".lud.nl~ ." . ." .' , . {.- .... ',' " "- In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics Tories and from none other than heir to racist and repressive overseers, holding been drawn ever more into the cross­ in August there is a growing crescendo of the British throne, Prince Charles, who the island as a protectorate until it was hairs of the imperialists since the coun­ imperialist anti-Communism against the happens to be a long-time friend of the rightfully returned to the People's terrevolutionary destruction of the de­ Chinese deformed workers state, pro­ counterrevolutionary Tibetan "God Republic of China in 1997. As in the formed workers states of Eastern moted by the Labour government and King". Cold War against the Soviet Union, Europe and, in particular, the destruc­ echoed by the reformist left. There has Despite their differences, the aim of what the imperialists understand by tion of the Soviet degenerated workers been a military build-up against China by all the imperialist powers towards the "human rights" above all is one thing: state in 1991-92. As a result of the US and Japanese imperialism and a bar­ People's Republic of China is to destroy the right of the bourgeoisie to unlimited treacherous Stalinist policy of "social­ rage of China-bashing that ranges from the workers state by counterrevolution. exploitation and enslavement of the ism in one country" and its associated crocodile tears over the "oppression of On the one hand they use China's "mar­ working masses. And this "right" was illusions in "peaceful coexistence" Tibet" and "human rights" to claims that ket reforms" to pursue intensified eco­ "violated" in China by the 1949 between the Chinese wprkers state and China is responsible for the horrific vio­ nomic penetration, thus British capital­ Revolution, which drove the bour­ imperialism, the Chinese bureaucracy lence in Sudan's Darfur region. ism is a prime investor in China and a geoisie off the Chinese mainland. has continued its policy of concessions Prime minister Gordon Brown's an­ competitor for Chinese overseas invest­ The reformist left agrees with bour­ to the imperialists. Thus, it supports the nouncement that he will meet the Dalai ment. On the other hand the imperialists geois public opinion that with the mar­ "war on terror", the sanctions against Lama in London in May is the latest in this are ratcheting up the military pressure ket reforms capitalism has been Iran and the campaign for the nuclear ongoing anti-Communist offensive by the on China. British foreign secretary restored in China, or is irreversibly disarmament of North Korea. None­ bourgeoisie and its ideologues against David Miliband leaves no doubt about being restored. On the contrary, China theless, China is surrounded today by a China. Not coincidentally, the Dalai British imperialism's support for this today remains what it has been since whole system of US military bases. Lama has recently been met by German military build-up. In a February state­ 1949: a bureaucratically deformed Along with North Korea, it is on the chancellor Angela Merkel and US presi­ ment he cited "the moral imperative to workers state. While the rule of the cap­ Pentagon's list as a potential target of a dent Bush. These meetings prefigured the intervene - sometimes militarily - to italists has been overthrown, laying the nuclear first strike by the US, while the monk-led riots in Tibet in mid-March help spread democracy throughout the basis for tremendous economic and US programme of National Missile which were a counterrevolutionary provo­ world", adding that: "After the end of social development, China is ruled by a Defense has the strategic goal of neu­ cation against the Chinese deformed the cold war it was tempting to believe nationalist, Stalinist bureaucratic caste tralising China's modest nuclear capac­ workers state. "An orgy of anti-Chinese in the 'end of history' -the inevitable that is hostile to workers democracy ities. Japan and the US are cooperating rioting convulsed the Tibetan capital, process of liberal democracy and capi­ and revolutionary internationalism. militarily, subordinating their rivalry to Lhasa" is how it was described by a cor­ talist economics. Now with the eco­ As the strongest of the remaining their common hostility to the workers respondent for the Economist (14 March) nomic success of China, we can no deformed workers states, China has continued on page 2 who reported that Tibetans were shouting longer take the forward march of slogans like "long live Tibet" and "long democracy for granted" (Guardian, 12 live the Dalai Lama". February). Gordon Brown used his high-profile In the name of "democracy", British visit to Beijing in January to try to per­ imperialism is currently heavily involved C11118r­ suade the Chinese regime to invest its in the brutal occupations of Iraq and $200 billion wealth fund in London. Afghanistan which have resulted in the Fearful of incurring a diplomatic rift slaughter of countless thousands of peo­ relPI_i.an with Beijing, Brown refuses to boycott ple. Historically, the kind of "democra­ the Beijing Olympics and was initially cy" and "human rights" the British hesitant to grant the Dalai Lama a meet­ Empire visited upon China is exempli­ rilIS·.·.il ing in London. Brown agreed to a meet­ fied by the opium wars and by the ing after he came under fire from the Empire lording it over Hong Kong as nery production, telecommunications, sciousness is the Labourite programme Chinese deformed workers state who China ... energy, petrochemicals - remain con­ of class collaboration with the "democ­ are willing to consign the Tibetan mas­ (Continued from page 1) centrated in state-owned companies, ratic" bourgeoisie at home while pro­ ses to the return of the Lamaocracy. which are strategic. State ownership of moting counterrevolution in the re­ The CWI ':is currently conducting a states in Asia. We are in favour of China land has prevented the development of maining workers states under cover of debate about the class nature of China and North Korea developing, testing a layer of rich large landowners domi­ "human rights" and "democracy". in which all the participants agree that, and producing nuclear weapons to nating the rural areas. State control over In opposition to this, we uphold the with the market reforms, the bureaucra­ defend themselves against British, US the financial system has so far been able Trotskyist programme for the uncondi­ cy has restored capitalism in China. and Japanese imperialism. to protect the People's Republic of tional military defence of China and the They merely disagree over whether it is As in the former Soviet Union, capi­ China from the manoeuvres of specula­ other deformed workers states of North "fully" capitalist yet. One contribution talist counterrevolution in China would tive capital, which have ruined the Korea, Cuba and Vietnam against posted on the CWI's Chinese-English have to triumph in the political arena, in economy in so many capitalist neo­ imperialism and internal counterrevo­ website says: the conquest of state power; it cannot colonies. lution. We also fight for proletarian "Capitalism in China has been recreated take place simply through a quantitative The fate of China, the most populous political revolution to oust the parasitic under the tutelage of the Stalinist ruling extension of the private sector, whether country on earth, where the bourgeoisie bureaucracy. Ultimately, only a politi­ party, in close interaction with overseas domestic or foreign. Moreover, the was expropriated by the 1949 Revolu­ cal revolution in China can lead to the capitalism through the process of globali­ large and growing private sector created tion, is of strategic importance to all the rule of workers and peasants soviets, sation. The Chinese capitalist class is extremely dependent on this state, pri­ by the market reforms, including for­ workers of the world, who must be won and only the extension of the Chinese marily to protect it from the working class, eign companies, is predominantly light to the understanding that it must defend Revolution internationally can ensure and for this reason its democratic ambi­ industry. Meanwhile core elements of China against imperialism and internal the defence and development of its tions - and desire for regime change­ the economy such as heavy industry­ counterrevolution. In Britain, the cen­ gains. Our defence of the deformed are almost non-existent." steel, non-ferrous metals, heavy machi- tral obstacle to this revolutionary con- workers states is integral to our pro­ -"China at the Crossroads", China gramme for proletarian socialist revo­ Worker online, 24 May 2007 lution against the capitalist ruling CWI leader Peter Taaffe says China classes internationally. The Interna­ "has been engaged in an almost 30-year May 1968 in France tional Communist League (Fourth long process of restoring capitalism" Internationalist) is dedicated to build­ but although it is travelling "in the On the fortieth anniversary of the rev­ ing a revolutionary internationalist direction of a full capitalist economy", olutionary events in Paris in May 1968 we workers party. As a section of the ICL, China "has not arrived at this situation reprint below an extract from our article the Spartacist League/Britain is fight­ yet" ("Has capitalism been fully in Spartacist at that time. What began as ing to build a party committed to the restored?" socialistworld.net, 22 March student protests became the spark for a revolutionary overthrow of British 2007). Another contribution titled revolutionary upheaval of the working imperialism and establishing a federa­ "China's capitalist counterrevolution" class.
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