Reprinted from http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/octubre/mier7/Reflections-6OCT.html:

Reflections of Fidel
History cannot be ignored

(Taken from CubaDebate)

THE 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China was commemorated this past October 1.

On that historic day in 1949, Mao Zedong, as leader of the Communist Party of China, presided over the first parade of the People’s Army and the people of China in Tiananmen Square. The victorious soldiers bore the arms seized in combat from invaders, oligarchies and traitors to their homeland.

The following is a very interesting document from China, regarding recent events, ideological issues at stake, and the implications for the direction of socialism in China. It's reprinted here from MR Zine. The list of signatories on this letter are at the end of the document.

Our Views on the Black Brick Kiln and Other Incidents and Recommendations for the 17th Party Congress

by Ma Bin, et al.

Let us refer to a famous poem by Mao that stirs excitement among us all: "A cuckoo is crying in the midnight until she throws up blood; she believes that her crying can bring the east wind back!" We deeply hope our respected leaders will stir up the east wind!

General Secretary Hu Jintao and the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau Standing Committee Members, Members and alternates:

Click here to continue reading the letter...

December 26, 2006 marks the 113th birthday of Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. Mao died on September 9, 1976.

Mao was the principal leader of Chinese Communist Party, which led the 1949 revolution in China, which liberated 1/4 of the world's population from semi-colonialism, semi-feudalism and bureacrat capitalism.

In the Chinese revolution, Mao developed the military strategy of Protracted People's War, which was key to the victory in China and was then adapted to other successful socialist revolutions of the 20th century, such as in Vietnam, Korea, and was adapted as far away as places like El Salvador by the revolutionary national liberation movement.

Mao also deepened communist theory on how to organize the masses in his writings on the mass line and the united front.

Mao also was the main figure in the fight against modern revisionism as propogated by the Communist Party of the Soviet union under Kruschev. Mao and the Chinese Communist Party wrote some of the most important and influential polemics in this debate in the international communist movement.

There is of course much more to say but for time's sake I'll leave it at that and encourage readers to add their thoughts on Mao Zedong's important contributions to human liberation.

Nelson at Pottawatomie Creek blog has book tagged me. The rules are as follows:

1. Go to the nearest book in your reach and turn to page 123.
2. Go to the fifth sentence of the book.
3. Copy the next three sentences, then tag someone else.

Ok, so here's what I've got:

A second issue affecting the speed of improvement in standards of consumption is the rate of growth of the gross national product and national income. It is estimated that in the 20 years between 1980 and 2000, per capita gross national product will grow from US$280 to US$800-1000. So, in the next decade or so, the gross national product must double and industrial and agricultural production must develop steadily to meet the target.

Well, that must sound like a real snoozer...The excerpt is from the book China's Search for Economic Growth: The Chinese Economy Since 1949 a collection of essays collected by Xu Dixin, New World Press, China, 1982. What can I say, I'm reading it for a paper I'm writing!

According to the book's forward:

The essays in the book are based on papers presented by their authors at a conference on "Alternative Strategies for Economic Development" held at Wingspread, Racine, Wisconsin, USA in November 1980. The aim of this conference was to enable Chinese and American scholars to exchange views on the theoretical and practical problems of economic development. A wide range of issues was covered, including such topics as the balance between industry and agriculture during economic growth; the balance between acumulation and consumption and macro-economic strategies; planning in centralized and decentralized economies; and problems of income distribution, employment, technology, and economic structure.

The Chinese participants, who presented seven papers, reviewed China's experience of these issues during the past three decades of socialist construction and analyzed the lessons to be drawn therefrom ... This collection, therefore, gives a coherent picture of China's search for economic growth since 1949 as it is now generally viewed by China's economists.

While people in the Maoist milieu mostly focus on the political character of China after the start of economic reforms in 1978, my experience is that most people don't know squat about the Chinese economy itself and have little to say about the vital ongoing problem of how to develop the productive forces and acheive ongoing economic growth to be able to raise workers' and peasasnts' standard of living (or even more importantly, preventing it from going backward) after the revolution. So I'm trying to learn a thing or two about the Chinese economy, and both the political and economic questions that China has faced at different points since 1949.

I'm passing this book tag virus on to: jonnee's amerikana, Left Bank Blogger, and Comrade Zero's Marxist-Leninist blog.

A Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement

The Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Reply to the Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of March 30, 1963

June 14, 1963

The Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Dear Comrades,

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has studied the letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Sovi

ON THE QUESTION OF STALIN

Second Comment on the Open Letter of the Central Committee of the CPSU

by the Editorial Departments of Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) and Hongqi (Red Flag)

(September 13, 1963)

THE question of Stalin is one of world-wide importance which has had repercussions among all classes in every country and which is still a subject of much discussion today, with different classes and their political parties

IS YUGOSLAVIA A SOCIALIST COUNTRY?

COMMENT ON THE OPEN LETTER OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU (III)

by the Editorial Departments of Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) and Hongqi (Red Flag) September 26, 1963

Is Yugoslavia a socialist country?

All documents here were copied from the now-defunct Maoist Documentation Project.