“During the War of Liberation, the U.S. imperialists
and their running dogs -- the bureaucrat-capitalists, the landlords and the
Kuomintang reactionaries who represented these two classes -- were the enemies
of the people, while the other classes, strata and social groups, which opposed
them, all came within the category of the people. At the present stage, the
period of building socialism, the classes, strata and social groups which
favour, support and work for the cause of socialist construction all come within
the category of the people, while the social forces and groups which resist the
socialist revolution and are hostile to or sabotage socialist construction are
all enemies of the people.”— Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976), Chairman of the Chinese
Communist Party, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People,” Speech at the Eleventh
Session (Enlarged) of the Supreme State Conference, Feb. 27, 1957
You know, I thought
I had heard that phrase “enemies of the people” somewhere, before it was used in a recent speech in which Donald Trump lambasted the media. It turns out that Chairman Mao had employed it. He really hated the idea of contradiction and constant
internal questioning of his policies. In this speech, given 60 years ago today,
he set out how he would like terms of debate in his country to work.
“Nonantagonistic” contradictions, he explained, could
be dealt with by nonviolent persuasion, but “antagonistic” contradictions—well, The
Party (i.e., Mao himself) would have to be the judge of that.
Except for that little bit about “U.S. imperialists
and their running dogs,” I don’t think there’s an awful lot that the Trump
administration would disagree with about this approach by Chairman Mao. After
all, the new President has spoken of Vladimir Putin being a “strong” leader,
and by that yardstick, Chairman Mao may have been even stronger—not to mention
Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler.
Oh, by the way: Did I mention that millions of
people died in China under the eyes of this “strong” leader? Just something to
think about the next time you hear a President refer to “enemies of the
people.”
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