MIM Notes 35                    Jan 23 1989 

Cuba will not take up Gorbachev reforms

	Fidel Castro has said that those who want the reforms 
being implemented in the Soviet Union to apply in Cuba have 
"'an incorrect attitude, an ignorant attitude.'"  (Hartford 
Current, 7/27)

	According to AP, "in the past two years, Cuba has 
abandoned economic incentives aimed at boosting production and 
implemented a campaign of 'moral persuasion' that emphasizes 
greater worker discipline similar to that stressed in the 
early years of the Castro government."  (Ibid.)

	It appears that Castro's so-called "rectification" 
campaign is not working up much enthusiasm.  Nonetheless, he 
apparently closed independent farmers' markets and eliminated 
bonuses, which had been awarded to inefficient workers in any 
case.

	To stay away from Soviet reforms, Castro cloaked himself 
in nationalism. He derided "'two-bit imitators'" "'who don't 
trust themselves, who don't trust their country, who don't 
trust their people, who don't trust their revolution.'" (New 
York Times, 7/31/87)

Gorbachev supports private farming

Echoing Deng Xiaoping, Gorbachev has said, "'I would support 
any approach that proves itself.'" (New York Times, 10/14/88, 
4) He was referring to what kind of system there should be in 
agriculture.

Gorbachev has come out in favor of leasing Soviet land to 
families or other groups of farmers 50 years at a time. Yet, 
according to the New York Times, "leaseholding has encountered 
strong resistance from several sources: state farm bosses 
reluctant to surrender their power, farmers fearful of giving 
up the security of collective farming, and a public jealous 
and resentful of the growing private entrepreneurial class." 
(Ibid.)

Gorbachev phrased the need for private farming this way: 
"'Comrades, the most important thing today is to stop the 
process of depeasantization and to return the man back to the 
land as its real master.'" (Ibid., 1)

In order to force peasants into leasing, Gorbachev has said 
that salaried state agriculture must be abolished. (Ibid., 4)

Soviets change Marxist theory again

"'Until most recently, we imagined inflation as an ulcer of 
capitalism,' a Government economist said last month at a 
conference of officials and scientists from Communist 
countries. 'Inflation ought to be looked at as an element of 
the socialist economic mechanism.'" (New York Times, 11/3/88, 
1)

Why this change? "On Tuesday, Finance Minister Boris I. Gostev 
estimated the annual inflation rate at 0.9 to 1.5 percent, but 
some Soviet economists privately concede that the real rate is 
probably 6 or 7 percent." (Ibid.)

In another admission, the Soviets said that their economy had 
run deficits for years. The total deficit is about $58 billion 
according to the Soviets. That is about 4% of the Soviet's 
annual production. The deficit in the United States is 3% of 
its production. (New York Times, 10/28/88, 1)

Instead of admitting that their economy is now capitalist the 
Soviets say that Marx's theory of capitalism is wrong: 
socialism has the same problems as capitalism. The Soviets 
have already admitted that they have had a recession. (See 
last issue of MIM Theory.) They also employ profit schemes in 
industry and now want 50-year leasing in agriculture. Next 
Gorbachev will say that unemployment and income polarization 
are phenomena of socialism.

Soviets to allow 100% foreign ownership

Next year the Soviets will have a law to allow foreigners to 
own entirely companies in the Soviet Union. Currently, the 
Soviet government owns at least 51% of all firms set up with 
foreigners. (New York Times, 10/28/88, 1)

New York Times: 20 million starving in China, page 3

The New York Times put a very important story on page 3. Here 
is the entirety of it: "About 20 million people are facing 
starvation in China because of droughts and floods across the 
country this year, China Daily reported today.

"Another 80 million people in rural areas of at least 10 
provinces are threatened with food shortages this winter 
because of the impact of the natural disasters on grain crops, 
according to an official in the Ministry of Civil affairs 
quoted by the newspaper." (New York Times, "Millions Across 
China Said to Face Starvation," 10/28/88, 3)

China Daily is an official paper of the Chinese Communist 
Party, so the story is quite an admission on the part of the 
CCP.

The reason the starvation is happening may not have to do with 
the severity of natural disasters, however. Every year China 
faces natural disasters. The difference is that agriculture is 
no longer collective. Whereas large groups of people used to 
combine their work to fix the irrigation system, fight insect 
pests and build dams against floods, under the new family 
farming system, no one has the incentive to do that work: It 
doesn't make a profit. Everyone waits for someone else to do 
it.

In addition, the Chinese farmers have switched to cash-crop 
farming in order to increase profits. Consequently, the 
farmers grow luxury crops, earn money and then can't buy any 
subsistence grain. This happens because it is possible to make 
high profits while peasants starve.

China ruling class has tactical problems

The Chinese Communist Party is no longer entirely united on 
how best to implement capitalism. Faced with inflation "as 
high as 50 percent is some cities," (New York Times, 10/28/88, 
4) the governing party gave up its plans for a free market for 
now. It re-fixed many prices.

In addition, in "Guangdong Province alone, seven joint 
Chinese-foreign hotel projects worth $54.5 million were 
canceled." (Ibid.) Government investment nationally is planned 
for a 20% cut (which is a victory for the free market 
advocates) and Beijing is supposedly going to give orders to 
the notorious autonomous zones where foreign sweatshops are 
set up.

This trend has at least part of the bourgeois press very 
concerned. According to the Economist, "the crackdown is 
serious." (Economist, 10/22/88, 42)

To support this contention, the Economist cites the fact that 
the People's Bank of China stopped lending money for 
industrial and construction projects except for "the 15% of 
them covered by the state plan." (Ibid., 43)

Of course, the Economist does not attempt to make a thorough-
going analysis of capitalism and socialism. It simply rings 
its hands that capitalism in China is not moving toward the 
form it takes in England.

On the other hand, other capitalist-mouthpieces can identify 
with the problems of the Chinese ruling class: "'If I were 
advising them, I would tell them to retrench too,' a Wester 
diplomat said." (New York Times, 1/3/89, 3)

Counterrevolution spurs racist riots

The Communist Party has unleashed ugly forces of racism that 
have contributed to riots against African students in the past 
few years.

In the most recent incidents, at the end of December, 1988, 
thousands of Chinese attempted to drive all of 150 African 
students out of Nanjing because of a fight on December 24th. 
The initial fight was sparked when two Africans went to a 
party with Chinese dates in a country where inter-national 
dating is viewed more negatively than in the United States. 
Both sides claimed the other started the fighting.

Regardless of who started the fighting the riots denouncing 
all Blacks spread from Nanjing to other cities including 
Nanjing. "Thousands of Chinese workers and students marched 
through the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing today, shouting an 
extraordinary combination of racist and democratic slogans, 
after two days of clashes with African students studying in 
the city." (New York Times, "Chinese in Nanjing Hold Racist 
Rally," 12/27/88, 1)

The slogans included "Down with Blacks!" and "Black devils!"

The African students in Nanjing charged that police tortured 
them with electric cattle prods. They claimed that they were 
stripped and had shocks applied to their testicles and faces. 
Beijing officials denied the charges. (New York Times, 1/6/89, 
6; New York Times, 1/3/89, 3)

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) does not officially sanction 
racism. However, in recent years including similar riots in 
1986 the largest demonstrations in China have been racist 
ones. The authorities are both unwilling and unable to contain 
violent racist outbreaks. More importantly, the Chinese 
Communist Party's degeneration is most responsible for the 
rise of open racism.

Since the death of Mao, the CCP has made copying the West in 
order to modernize top priority. Not surprisingly, many think 
that racism is part of Western advancement.

Trotsky rehabilitated in Soviet Union

The revisionist Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) 
continued its efforts to propagandize future generations 
against Joseph Stalin. Yuri N. Afanasyev, "rector of the State 
Institute on Historical Archives," said Trotsky should be 
"exonerated of criminal charges and his works reprinted." 
(quoting St. Petersburg Times, 6/18/88, 1)

In a related development, a Kremlin official reported that an 
official under Stalin had Trotsky killed and trained the 
killer.

The Soviet Supreme Court had already exonerated Lev Kamenev, 
Grigory Zinoviev and Karl Radek. In another case it cleared 
Nikolai A. Bukharin of charges.  (Ibid.)

Meanwhile, art shows depict Stalin as a butcher.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union has also removed the 
works of Brezhnev and Chernenko from the library shelves. 
Memorabilia for the two are also gone including from their 
birth places. (There will no longer be things like the 
Brezhnev library etc.) (AP in Ann Arbor News, 12/30/88, a5)

Following Afanasyev's call on Trotsky, the CPSU started 
describing Trotsky as the second most popular revolutionary in 
the Soviet Union after Lenin. He is receiving laudatory 
historical mention for his role in 1917. (See, New York Times, 
"The New Trotsky: No Longer a Devil," 1/16/89, 3)

As far as Trotsky's criticisms of Stalin, the current Soviet 
revisionists are not yet willing to accept them. Instead they 
blame Trotsky for ineffective and incorrect opposition to 
Stalin. "'Imposing one discussion after another on the party, 
Trotsky unwillingly reinforced Stalin's authority as the party 
leader. This may sound paradoxical, but no other person 
contributed so much to the consolidation of Stalin's position 
at the head of the party column such as Trotsky,'" said Dmitri 
Volkogonov writing for Pravda. (Michael Parks, Los Angeles 
Times, "Soviets acknowledge Trotsky contributions")