The Nature of a Proletarian Dictatorship

The Necessity of the Cultural Revolution

Countless attempts at proletarian dictatorship have been implemented in the past before, and it is universally true that all have ended in the defeat of the proletarian movement and a revival of capitalism and bourgeois rule. This is something that by necessity has to be analyzed, as it is a problem of socialist experiments that almost places communism as a simple “pipe dream,” a mere hope at a utopia that can never be realized. Therefore, what causes the end of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and what is the dictatorship of the proletariat?

A dictatorship of the proletariat is a system in which the proletarian class has complete control, and are able to exercise their class interests, that being achieving a communist society. The proletariat as a class is a class that owns no property (that being, private property) and sells their labor power (their ability to do labor) to the bourgeoisie in exchange for a commodity, money. As a propertyless class, their interest lies in abolishing the institution of private property rather than expanding their nonexistent proprietorship. In this sense then, the class interest of the bourgeoisie is to maintain or expand their control over capital, and therefore their oppression of the proletariat. Capitalism, otherwise known as a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, oppresses all working class structures such as revolutionary parties and organizations in order to maintain their control. In much the same way, socialism necessitates a dictatorship of the proletariat to oppress potential bourgeois movements that spring up in order to drag the working class back into capitalism and oppression. Therefore, any revolution’s success necessitates the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship, and therefore the proletarian state. Marx, in his Conspectus on Bakunin’s Statism and Anarchy, makes clear that “so long as the other classes, especially the capitalist class, still exists… [The Proletariat] must employ forcible means, hence governmental means. It is itself still a class and the economic conditions from which the class struggle and the existence of classes derive have still not disappeared…”

This is a likelihood in revolution, but the idea of socialism returning to capitalism is one that is unthinkable to most, as socialism presents itself as a qualitative difference when compared to capitalism. However, this does not take into account the actual nature of socialism. Lenin made clear in State and Revolution that “And so, in the first phase of communist society (usually called socialism) "bourgeois law" is not abolished in its entirety, but only in part, only in proportion to the economic revolution so far attained…” Marx emphasized this further in Critique of the Gotha Programme. Hence, socialism retains certain features of capitalism such as commodity production and the wage system. As Marx and Lenin made clear, socialism is able to abolish the “exploitation of man by man” through the abolition of private property, but “is unable at once to eliminate the other injustice, which consists in the distribution of consumer goods ‘according to the amount of labor performed’ (and not according to needs)” (Lenin).

In his seminal work “On Exercising All-Round Dictatorship over the Bourgeoisie,” Zhang Chunqiao, a leader of the CPC at the height of the Cultural Revolution, discussed why the proletarian dictatorship was a necessity for the establishment of communist society. Revolutionary China implemented an “eight-grade wage system, distribution according to work and exchange through money, and in all this differs very little from the old society” (Zhang). Small production and the existence of the commodity form facilitates a capitalist reversal, which results in existing socialist experiments turning revisionist and back to capitalism. As Zhang said, “This is not only because imperialism and social-imperialism will never give up aggression and subversion against us, not only because China's old landlords and capitalists are still around and unreconciled to their defeat, but also because new bourgeois elements are being engendered daily and hourly.” Thus, systems such as the distribution of goods according to labor performed rather than personal need that facilitates the development of the new bourgeoisie and the intra-party bourgeoisie is able to work in conjunction with the foreign imperialists antagonisms against the proletarian state. The proletarian state is under attack by the forces of capitalism at all times, and methods to rectify this antagonism is a necessity.

The danger of revisionism is one that looms over the heads of all communist parties, as the bourgeois line of the party overpowering the proletarian line is a very real possibility. Revolutionary China faced three bourgeois headquarters attempting to overthrow Mao’s proletarian state. Liu Shaoqi’s scarlet guards, royalists, and other conservative forces in the turbulent early years of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution waged campaigns of violence against China’s radical domestic policy, wishing to institute among other conservative ideas, Liu Shaoqi’s theory of the productive forces. The theory of the productive forces was the definitively anti-marxist and pro-capitalist idea that the development of the productive forces (i.e. industry, factories, etc) was primary over people’s relations to production. This idea had already been refuted by Stalin in Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, where he stated in the section Comrade Yaroshenko’s Chief Error that “On the contrary, the new relations of production are the chief and decisive force, the one which in fact determines the further, and, moreover, powerful, development of the productive forces, and without which the latter would be doomed to stagnation…” Lin Biao, a few years later in 1971, would attempt a coup against the proletarian leaders of the CPC in order to put an end to the Cultural Revolution permanently. And later in 1976, a month after Chairman Mao’s death, the rightist line led ideologically by those like Deng Xiaoping implemented a coup against the proletarian faction of the party, arresting leaders like Zhang Chunqiao and Mao’s wife Jiang Qing. In this way, China reverted to capitalism and revisionism, a “communist” party with billionaire members. The USSR faced a similar crisis, but due to the nature of the USSR being a pioneer as the first example of socialism, they lacked the theory and practice, and following Khruschev’s denouncement of Comrade Stalin at the 20th party congress in 1956, the USSR instituted countless policies intending to make peace with the imperialist nations, assume the role of a social-imperialist superpower, and role back the collectivization process, ending socialism in the former Soviet states.

Therefore, the only method to prevent revisionism is through a complete and total proletarian dictatorship over the bourgeoisie. When Chairman Mao instituted the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, there were several goals in mind. One would be to rid China of the influence of the oppressive feudal aristocrats and create a new proletarian culture, as the superstructure of feudal China threatened the establishment of socialism. The most important goal, however, was to combat the rise of the intra-party bourgeoisie. At the 9th central committee in 1969, Chairman Mao said: “Apparently, we couldn't do without the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, for our base was not solid. From my observations, I am afraid that in a fairly large majority of factories… leadership was not in the hands of real Marxists and the masses of workers. Not that there were no good people in the leadership of the factories. There were… But they followed that line of Liu Shao-chi's, just resorting to material incentive, putting profit in command, and instead of promoting proletarian politics... But there are indeed bad people in the factories. This shows that the revolution is still unfinished.” The rise of bureaucrats in the positions of leadership in socialist China was a commonality that even the proletariat leaders viewed as being a danger to their experiment. The red guard movement, the various campaigns such as the Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucious Campaign, and the calls to attack bourgeois headquarters were not so much a unique expression of China, but the expression of what exercising dictatorship over the bourgeois looks like. The proletarian line may have been defeated by the new Chinese bourgeoisie, but by learning from the Chinese experience, communists can grow their understanding of political theory and economy in order to achieve a long-lasting socialism, with one day bringing about global communism for the masses.