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The Paris Commune in Shanghai

The Paris Commune in Shanghai

The Masses, the State, and Dynamics of "Continuous Revolution"

ByHongsheng Jiang

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20th century China has been rich with experiences of Commune-type theories and practices. At the end of 1966 and the beginning of 1967, inspired by the Maoist theory of continuous revolution and the vision of a Commune-type state structure, the rebel workers in Shanghai, together with rebellious students and revolutionary party cadres and leaders, took the bold initiative to overthrow the old power structure from below. On Feb. 5, 1967, the Shanghai workers established the Shanghai Commune modeled upon the Paris Commune. This became known as the January Storm. After Mao’s death in 1976, the communist party and government in China has rewritten history, attacking the Cultural Revolution. And the Shanghai Commune has barely been mentioned in China, let alone careful evaluation and in-depth study. This dissertation attempts to recover this lost yet crucial history by exploring in historical detail the origin, development and supersession of the Shanghai Commune. Examining the role of different mass organizations during the January Storm in Shanghai, I attempt to offer a full picture of the Maoist mass movement based on the theory of continuous revolution. Disagreeing with some critics’ arguments that the Shanghai Commune was a negation of the party-state, I argue that it neither negated the party nor the state. Instead, the Shanghai Commune embodied the seeds of a novel state structure that empowers the masses by relegating some of the state power to mass representatives and mass organs. Differing from the common narrative and most scholarship in the post-Mao era, I argue that the commune movement in the beginning of 1967 facilitated revolutionary changes in Chinese society and state structure. The Shanghai Commune and the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee developed as ruling bodies that did not hold general elections or abolish the standing army and in this way did not replicate the Paris Commune. But in contrast to the old Shanghai organs of power, they were largely in conformity with the principles of the Paris Commune by smashing the Old and establishing the New. Some of their creative measures, “socialist new things”, anticipated the features of a communal state–a state that does not eradicate class struggle yet begins to initiate the long process of the withering away of the state itself.

Details

Publication Date
Apr 10, 2022
Language
English
ISBN
9781471729249
Category
History
Copyright
All Rights Reserved - Standard Copyright License
Contributors
By (author): Hongsheng Jiang

Specifications

Pages
523
Binding Type
Paperback Perfect Bound
Interior Color
Black & White
Dimensions
A5 (5.83 x 8.27 in / 148 x 210 mm)

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