Conclusion

Many people wonder why it is that so many top officials in the Chinese Communist Party turn out to be capitalist roaders. Briefly I would like to list some reasons.

Firstly the enemy within is always more dangerous than the enemy without. Engels said in a letter to August Bebel in 1882:

"The development of the proletariat proceeds everywhere amidst internal struggles...And when, like Marx and myself, one has fought harder all one's life long against the alleged socialists than against anyone else (for we only regarded the bourgeoisie as a class and hardly ever involved ourselves in conflicts with individual bourgeois), one cannot greatly grieve that the inevitable struggle has broken out..."

When the proletariat has seized power these differences within the left become all the more important because state power and the whole social system are under their control. Wrong policies have more far-reaching and potentially dangerous effects.

Secondly, the Chinese realise that it is important to have a party that embraces as many points of view as possible which can be reconciled with their main tasks at the time. Such differences are deemed non-antagonistic. When the tasks of the party change and or the differences extend to the major tasks then, and only then, do the Chinese examine these differences and decide whether they have become antagonistic (i.e. irreconcilable).

Thirdly, socialist society is not perfect. It is a transitional form between capitalism and communism. In it major differences of an economic nature between workers and peasants, town and country and mental and manual labour can only slowly be resolved. Differences in income and life style and the existence of bourgeois right in the fields of distribution and exchange also exist. These inequalities, which are hangovers from capitalism form the economic basis for the restoration of capitalism. In the ideological and political sphere, international pressure (particularly revisionism) and the continuance of old ways of thinking allow bourgeois politics to continue. This latter point was recognised in the campaign to join the criticism of Lin Piao with an examination of Confucian thought. The ideas of Confucious still find currency in China and thus make it easier for people like Lin Piao to rise to high position.

Finally, the story of Lin Piao's rise and fall gives an accurate picture of class struggle in socialist China. Particularly it shows how the ultraleft pose as great a threat to socialism as the right-wing and that at times they are much harder to identify as their left words cover up their right essence.

Reviewed by Bruce Robinson