The Communist Road to Capitalism (in China), Oakland, 2 May 2019

Ralf Ruckus: The Communist Road to Capitalism

Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 7 PM – 9 PM

Tamarack Oakland
1501 Harrison Street, Oakland, California 94612

Please join us for a presentation by Ralf Ruckus on his forthcoming book with PM Press, The Communist Road to Capitalism: Rupture and Continuity in China since 1949

"Since the reforms started in China in the 1970s, the CCP has never declared the official end of its socialist project, and its leadership still uses Mao Zedong and Marxism as ideological references. Meanwhile, Chinese labor activists use the same references today to justify their opposition against capitalist exploitation under the CCP regime. This confusion is reflected in the positions of outside observers. Some support the CCP’s ‘market socialism with Chinese characteristics’ while others criticize today’s system simply as state-controlled ‘capitalism.’ Often both positions remain blurred as central aspects of China’s socialist history and capitalist present get idealized and others diminished. Clearing up the fog and confusion is not a question of using the correct ideological terms but of following the actual historical trajectory. Ruptures and continuities define the past 70 years of CCP rule. Both were produced by social and political subversion ‘from below’ – from the protests around the ‘Hundred Flowers Movement’ in the 1950s to the strikes of migrant workers in the 2010s – and the regime’s repressive and co-opting counter measures. Thereby, the Chinese society was gradually (and in the end substantially) changed while the ‘red bourgeoisie’ of the CCP managed to stay in power to this day. How and why this happened, that is at the center of the forthcoming book (out in 2020). Its main arguments and conclusions will be presented and discussed during the event."

Ralf Ruckus supports and analyzes social struggles in China and elsewhere. For more from him see Gongchao: https://www.gongchao.org

Facebook announcement: https://www.facebook.com/events/356336364988354/