Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Many interpret this transition as the result of the "betrayal" by reformers in the Party who wanted to establish capitalism. Ralf Ruckus reveals that the planned economy of socialist China not only created a class society under CCP rule that was based on exploitation, repression, gender division, and social exclusion but also led to class struggles against the new socialist ruling class. In typical authoritarian fashion, the Party leadership reacted with repression and rigid policies that were meant to strengthen and consolidate power. The restructuring of the state sector, as well as foreign investments, industrialization, migration, and urbanization, fundamentally altered the economy, the gender regime, and the composition of the working class. By carefully tracing these developments, Ruckus provides us with an invaluable insight into how this would ultimately transform the CCP leadership itself, turning it into the core of the newly composed capitalist ruling class that is still in power today. The Communist Road to Capitalism is both a bold reinterpretation of the history of the People's Republic of China and a searing critique of centralized state power.
Synopsis
The Communist Road to Capitalism is an in-depth exploration of the central role that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) played in China's transformation from socialism to capitalism. Many interpret this transition as the result of the "betrayal" by reformers in the Party who wanted to establish capitalism. Ralf Ruckus reveals that the planned economy of socialist China not only created a class society under CCP rule that was based on exploitation, repression, gender division, and social exclusion but also led to class struggles against the new socialist ruling class--like mobilizations of workers and students during the Hundred Flower Movement in the mid-1950s and the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s, culminating in the 1989 worker and student uprising in Tiananmen Square.
In typical authoritarian fashion, the Party leadership reacted with repression and rigid policies that were meant to strengthen and consolidate power. The restructuring of the state sector, as well as foreign investments, industrialization, migration, and urbanization, fundamentally altered the economy, the gender regime, and the composition of the working class. Large-scale struggles of the "old" socialist working class, and of the "new" migrant working class in the new millennium forced the CCP regime to adapt its economic and political strategies for fear of more escalations of social struggles.
By carefully tracing these developments, Ruckus provides us with an invaluable insight into how this would ultimately transform the CCP leadership itself, turning it into the core of the newly composed capitalist ruling class that is still in power today. While breaking with established orthodoxies that dominate stale discussions about China's rise as an economic power, The Communist Road to Capitalism is both a bold reinterpretation of the history of the People's Republic of China and a searing critique of centralized state power. This book appeals to those who wish to better understand the dynamics and power of social struggles and the measures taken by governments to contain them through repression and co-optation.
Synopsis
The Communist Road to Capitalism explores how a dynamic of social struggles from below followed by countermeasures of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has pushed the historical evolution of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 1949.
Under socialism until the mid-1970s, during the ensuing transition until the mid-1990s, and in the capitalist period since, the CCP regime responded to the struggles of workers, peasants, migrants, and women* with a mix of repression, concession, cooptation, and reform. Ralf Ruckus shows that this dynamic took the country into a new phase each time--and eventually all the way from socialism to capitalism: in the 1950s, labor struggles and the Hundred Flowers Movement were followed by the regime's Great Leap Forward; in the 1960s, the Cultural Revolution led to the CCP's failed attempt to revitalize socialism; in the 1970s, social unrest and movements for a democratic socialism made room for the regime's Reform and Opening policies; in the late 1980s, the Tian'anmen Square uprising triggered more radical reforms; in the 1990s, peasant and state worker unrest could not stop the capitalist restructuring; and in the 2000s, migrant worker struggles led to concessions, tightened repression, and the regime's global capitalist expansion strategy in the 2010s.
The Communist Road to Capitalism breaks with established orthodoxies about the PRC's socialist "successes" and myths on its later rise as an economic power. It combines a historiography of workers', peasants', migrants', and women*'s struggles with a searing critique of exploitation, authoritarian state power and gender discrimination under socialism and capitalism. Drawing lessons from PRC history, Ralf Ruckus finally outlines political aims and methods for the left that avoid past mistakes and allow to fight on for a society free of all forms of exploitation and oppression.