Ideologies and states: the
socialist challenge
The Extra-European World
Term 1, week 9
Outline
1. Introduction: four leaders
2. The Impact of the First World War
3. The Soviet Model and the Communist International
4. National Liberation and Social Revolution
5. Conclusion and Outlook
Four leaders
Four leaders
Mao Zedong
(Mao Tse-tung)
1893-1976
Leader of Chinese
communist party
Kim Il-Sung
1912-1994
Leader of the
Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea
Fidel Castro
1926Cuban leader of the
1959 revolution
Secretary of the CCP
Hồ Chí Minh 1890-1969
President of the
Democratic Republic of
Vietnam (North
Vietnam)
What do they have in common?
•All leaders of extra-European
communist parties
•All leaders of communist states
•All had exposure to the Western
world
•All were exposed to the world of
agriculture
•All had connections to the military
What do they have in common?
• Nationalist tendencies, perhaps
originating with experiences of
colonial occupation in their youth
• Leaders of politically isolated states
• Cult of personality
Education
1.Why is education significant for understanding communism in the nonWestern world?
European communism had his mass base in blue-collar workers (many of
the leaders also came from the working class)
Extra-European support for communism came at the beginning from
intellectuals
1.Much of the world was ruled by European colonial powers
Needed loyal bureaucrats to serve the colonial administration
Educated promising individuals at Oxford, the Sorbonne, Leiden
1.Questioned the relationship between metropolitan theories and
domestic realities in their homelands, and demanded rights for their own
homelands.
Liberalism to Marxism
1. How did the transition from liberal nationalists to radical Marxists
come about?
2. Students of the history of relations between the first and the third
worlds realised that capitalism was impoverishing the majority on a
global scale.
3. There seemed to be a connection between imperialism and capitalism,
and it wasn’t working in favour of the majority of the population in the
non-European world (see here Hilferding’s and Lenin’s views of the
nature of imperialism)
4. Socialism seemed to offer an alternative for understanding the
relationship between imperialism and capitalism, and offer solutions
5. Promising young bureaucrats returned home as flaming Marxists.
Outline
1. Introduction: four leaders
2. The Impact of the First World War
3. The Soviet Model and the Communist International
4. National Liberation and Social Revolution
5. Conclusion and Outlook
Impact of world war I
Impact of the brutalities of the first World War: raised questions about
how civilised Europe was and whether the Europeans were in any
position to bring civilization to the rest of the world
Indian soldiers convalesce outside the Royal Pavilion. Over
fifty thousand volunteered to fight for Britain in the First
World War. Image courtesy of the Royal Pavilion &
Museums, Brighton & Hove.
Impact of world war I
European administrators in the colonial world were recalled by their
European governments, and replaced by native administrators.
Were promised a great deal of independence and responsibility, but
these promises were not kept in the interwar era.
German East Africa, for example, had been
under German colonial administration, but was
placed under Belgian administration in 1920,
known as Ruanda-Urundi. The Belgians used the
indigenous power structure, so that the
largely Tutsi ruling class controlled a
mostly Hutu population. The anger at the
oppression and misrule among the population
focused on Tutsi elite rather than the distant
colonial power.
Impact of world war I
Peace Treaty Negotiations in Versailles in 1919. Woodrow Wilson offered
self-determination of nations, but in practice their requests were denied.
Chinese protesters during the
May Fourth Uprising, 1919
Impact of world war I
Peace Treaty Negotiations in Versailles in 1919. Woodrow Wilson offered
self-determination of nations, but in practice their requests were denied.
National intellectuals in
colonies disappointed from
victorious Western
democracies – looking for
alternatives
Egyptian women demonstrating
in the 1919 Revolution,
precipitated by the Britishordered exile of nationalist
leader Saad Zaghlûl
Outline
1. Introduction: four leaders
2. The Impact of the First World War
3. The Soviet Model and the Communist International
4. National Liberation and Social Revolution
5. Conclusion and Outlook
Leninism and Stalinism
Leninism
revolutionary, materialist ideology based on Marxism
one party state + dictatorship of proletariat + nationalised
industry + planned economy + aims of revolution and socialism
justify all means, certain plurality in Bolshevik party accepted
Stalinism
Leninism + excessive use of force, rule of terror, cult of the
leader (Stalin), system of camps, people with different views
imprisoned or killed, no pluralism allowed inside Bolshevik party
Model for state building
• Soviet development: role model – only one path to socialism:
dominant until 1950: war communism followed by New
Economic Policy (with capitalist elements), collectivisation of
agriculture accompanied by industrialisation with focus on
heavy industry (ideological aim: creating working class – mass
base for communism)
• Soviet Army takes revolution to other countries (setting
example for China, Cuba)
• After Stalin’s death: return to more Leninist principles, camps
dissolved, de-Stalinisation, more Leninist than Stalinist
• Oppressive but no use of terror
• Foreign policy: wars can be avoided (after invention of nuclear
weapons)
The Communist International and the
World Revolution
• Founded 1919 in Moscow, basis (since 1920): Marxism-Leninism,
membership only for revolutionary parties
• Until 1929 Bolshevisation of communist parties, administered by
Comintern centre in Moscow (under control of Bolshevik leadership)
• Political line of Comintern determined by Bolshevik leadership, reflects
ideological development of Bolshevik Party
• General staff of world revolution
•
Comintern subordinated to interests of Soviet Union
• 1943 Comintern officially dissolved
•
1947 Communist Information Bureau (Cominform)
founded
The Communist International and the ‘Peoples
of the East’
• 1920 Conference of Baku of the ‘Peoples of the East’, mostly from
different parts of Soviet Union
• Colonised countries not yet ready for socialist revolution
• National Bourgeoisie of colonised countries is progressive
because it is fighting for national liberation against imperialist
powers and their local collaborators
• Communists in these countries should form alliance with
nationalist organisations fighting for ‘national liberation’
• After national liberation and successful de-colonisation
communists have to fight against national bourgeoisie
• Imposed from Comintern and Moscow on Communist parties all
over the world, often against the will of national communists
• Comintern and Soviet Union send advisors to different countries
advising not only Communists but also nationalist organisations.
• Example China: Soviet military advisors help to strengthen
Nationalist Party (GMD)
Socialism in Asia and Africa
A range of socialist and communist parties were founded after WWI.
These included:
Argentina, 1918
Great Britain, 1920
China, 1921
Cuba, 1921
South Africa, 1921
Japan, 1922
India, 1925
Vietnam, 1930
Socialism in Asia and Africa
In May 1925, strikes broke out in a number of Chinese cities, and workers
protested against the Japanese and British manufacturers. The Chinese
Communist Party played a central role in these anti-British, nationalist
strikes.
Outline
1. Introduction: four leaders
2. The Impact of the First World War
3. The Soviet Model and the Communist International
4. National Liberation and Social Revolution
5. Conclusion and Outlook
Impact of world war II
1.Enforced the sense of weakness of the imperial powers (see what
happened in France and Holland)
2.Failed promises to colonial adminstrations led to protests and conflicts
Impact of world war II
1.Enforced the sense of weakness of the imperial powers (see what
happened in France and Holland)
2.Failed promises to colonial administrations led to protests and conflicts
Leader of the Indonesian National Party
Achmed Sukarno (1902-70) demanding
independence from the Netherlands in an
undated photo. Indonesian independence
from Dutch colonial rule was achieved in 1949
after a bloody struggle. (-/AFP/Getty Images)
Impact of world war II
1.Enforced the sense of weakness of the imperial powers (see what
happened in France and Holland)
2.Failed promises to colonial adminstrations led to protests and conflicts
On 8 May 1945,
an uprising against the
occupying French forces in
the Algerian town of Sétif
resulted in the deaths of 21
settlers, and killed perhaps
as many as 40,000
Algerians.
Case studies:
China
1.Communist party in conflict with
Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Party
(GMD)
2.Comintern (advocated collaboration
with and support for bourgeois parties
such as the Chinese Nationalist
Nationalist Party (GMD).
3.Cooperation of Communist Party and
GMD ends in disaster (for Communists),
Chiang-Kai Shek (new leader of
Nationalist Party turns in Shanghai
against left GMD and Communists). In
the year after this ‘incident’ in April
1927, up to 300,000 communists were
killed.
4. Comintern insists (after invasion of Japan)
on a renewal of the alliance
5.CCP and Nationalist Party (GMD)
formed United Front in 1931 against the
invading Japanese forces.
Location of the first Congress of the
Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai,
1921
1.After events in Shanghai – new power base
of Communist Party in provinces Jiangxi and
Hunan – birthplace of People’s Liberation Army
2. In Autumn 1934 attacked by Nationalist
Army, Communist Army on legendary long
march (October 1934 – October 1935) from
Jiangxi to Shaanxi province.
3. Communists again forced by Soviet
leadership to cooperate with Nationalists
4. Even after World War II Stalin did not expect
socialist revolution in China, only reluctantly
supports Mao when he turned against
nationalists.
5.Civil War between 1945 and 1949 led to
1949 CCP victory.
6.Development of Mao Zedong-thought
(emphasizing the revolutionary potential of
the peasantry)
7.In Marxist-Leninist-Mao Zedong thought,
peasantry takes on the role of the proletariat
Note:
•War as the pathway to
revolution and the
communist goal
•Ongoing importance of
Maoism
•Based outside Peru
Case studies: CUBA
1.Fidel Castro started as a radical nationalist who wanted selfdetermination for Cuba, at the beginning he was no communist
2.Castro started out with socialist inclinations, and quite strong economic
ties with the US
3.1959 Cuban Revolution, and turn to the SU
4.Transforms Communist party into ruling party
Che Guevara added a
democratic socialist
dimension
Communism, decolonisation and the Cold War I
• After 1945 Eastern Europe becomes Communist: Beginning of Cold
War
• In Western Societies: Communist scare
• Afraid of power of Soviet Union (atomic weapons and Sputnik shock)
• Afraid of attraction of Communism inside Western Societies
• McCarthyism in United States of America
• Cambridge Five
• Strength of Communist parties in Italy and France
• Fear that more and more previous colonies would fall under
Communist influence and become allies of Soviet Union
• Unrest in Soviet camp: 1953 GDR, 1956: Poland and Hungary, 1968:
Czechoslovakia
•
Communism, decolonisation and the Cold War II
•But communist movement is no longer mono-centric: no longer just
Soviet model: Yugoslavia, China, later Cuba
• Soviet Union, China and Cuba different agendas – Soviet Union quite
conservative since Khrushchev: peaceful coexistence with capitalism
possible, reluctant to support communist insurgencies in Asia, Africa,
South America
• Korean war (1950-1953), Vietnam war (1956/65-1975) – successful and
failed attempt to contain communism
• Cuba takes over: Cuban military advisors and soldiers in Angola, helping
communist insurgents against Portugal
•In several Asian, African and South American states communist guerilla
fighters fighting against ‘national bourgeoisie’ and against (mostly)
American economic imperialism (United Fruit) – CIA organises coup
d’états in several states to replace anti-imperialists with ‘friends’
Outline
1. Introduction: four leaders
2. The Impact of the First World War
3. The Soviet Model and the Communist International
4. National Liberation and Social Revolution
5. Conclusion and Outlook
Communism, reformism and the New
Left
• Social-democratic parties completely embrace
reformism (SPD 1959 eliminates any traces of
Marxism in its programme)
• New protest movements in 1960s
• New left and student movements
• Marxism inspires theorists and intellectuals
(Sartre, Marcuse and others, also historians Hobsbawm)
Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
1989 ff
• End of socialism or communism as an alternative to
capitalism?
• Some revival of socialist ideas in South America Evo
Morales (Bolivia) and Hugo Chavez (Venezuela)
• After financial crash sales of Das Kapital (Karl Marx) in
Germany went up
• Increasing gap between top earners and low earners in
many ‘developed’ societies
• Child labour, exploitation of workers in many ‘less
developed’ countries
• What will be the future of capitalism?
Red - socialism
White - capitalism
Neoliberalism
Neoconservatism
Welfare state liberalism
Traditional conservatism
Social democracy
Democratic socialism
Ultraconservatism
Reform communism (market
socialism)
Totalitarian communism
Socialism vs. Capitalism
Fascism (National socialism)
From:
www.nmsu.edu/~govdept/students/Undergr
aduate/Ideologies-liberalism.ppt