The Communist Road to Capitalism: How Social Unrest and Containment Have Pushed China’s (R)evolution since 1949

by Ralf Ruckus

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 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.

Genres: China, Politics, History, Economics

256 pages, Paperback

Published July 27, 2021

Reviews

[Pete Dolack · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is perhaps no bigger controversy among partisans of the Left than the nature of China and its economy. Is it socialist? Capitalist? State capitalist? A hybrid? That so much debate swirls around this issue is its own proof that the question doesn’t have a definitive answer, at least not yet.

What can be agreed upon is that China has experienced decades of extraordinary economic growth. But the nature of that growth, and the base upon which it has been created, are also subject to intense debate, arguments that necessarily rest on how a debater classifies the Chinese economy. An additional debate is whether China’s growth is replicable or is the product of particular conditions that can’t be duplicated elsewhere. And what should be at the forefront of any debate is how China’s working people, in the cities and in the countryside, fare under a tightly controlled system that promises to bring about a “moderately prosperous society.”

Setting out to examine China from that last perspective is The Communist Road to Capitalism. As you might guess from the pungent title, Communist Road, authored by activist Ralf Ruckus, is not only critical of the Chinese Communist Party, but comes squarely down on the proposition that China has become a capitalist society. Despite China’s increasing integration into the world capitalist system, the increasing emphasis placed on markets and widening inequalities, the proposition that China has moved to capitalism is quite controversial for many people on the Left.

The book proposes a four-stage approach to China’s history since 1949 consisting of transition to socialism, socialism, transition to capitalism and capitalism, skillfully leading readers through each stage. The crushing of the Tiananmen Square occupation was a crucial turning point; Deng Xiaoping put China on a course toward capitalism and integration into the world capitalist system.

What were the results? The book doesn’t hold back: The use of special economic zones to draw in foreign direct investment (FDI), job security guarantees replaced with contracts, welfare provisions scrapped, privatizations, state-run companies converted to state-owned enterprises expected to maximize profits, 50 million laid off and an intensification of work. “Growing job insecurity, unemployment, low wages, the loss of welfare protection, and higher work pressure led to discontent,” the author wrote. “[State-owned enterprise] workers started organizing a wave of protests against the restructuring of the state sector that would last into the 2000s. Moreover, the deterioration of living conditions in the countryside triggered peasant unrest in the mid- and late-1990s. These two cycles of struggle marked the beginning of the capitalist period in the PRC,” which the author dates from the mid-1990s.

This transition need not be seen as either inevitable or the result of a plot by some party leaders, according to the book. “This transition was not the result of a detailed master plan or blueprint but of a series of — often experimental — reform steps taken to improve the country’s economic performance, save the socialist system, and stabilize CCP rule. This is the meaning of the phrase ‘crossing the river by feeling the stones’ that Deng Xiaoping allegedly used to describe his understanding of the course of reform.”

Moreover, in its summation, Communist Road acknowledges that the four-stage conception “has its limitations.” There are not clear borders between the stages nor is there a straight historical direction. “The long transition from socialism to capitalism in particular was not only gradual and intermittent but also ambivalent and contradictory. [M]any of those subperiods [within the stages] overlapped, as unrest from below was often vibrant and erratic and took years to develop and grow, while containment measures and reforms from above were also staggered and long-lasting.”

Although the book presents its perspective in strong, uncompromising terms, it nonetheless is often nuanced in its judgments, as the above two paragraphs indicate. No single book can be the last word, but Communist Road provides a strong argument, backed by ample evidence, for the thesis that China has become capitalist, as well as a useful, brisk history from below of China since 1949.

[Héctor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una historia de la República Popular China entre 1949 y 2020 desde un punto de vista autonomista/operaista: es decir, es un repaso de los diferentes cambios políticos y estructurales de la RPC (desde la transición al socialismo de los 50 a la transición al capitalismo post-Tiananmen incluyendo la revolución cultural o el Gran Salto adelante) explicados como el resultado de la dinámica de luchas desde abajo (obreras, migrantes y de mujeres) y su cooptación, represión, concesión por parte del PCCh.

Pase un par de semanas con Ralph hace años en un campamento Internacional y seguramente no haya nadie que hubiera podido escribir mejor este libro. Ahora bien, el libro tiene todo lo bueno y todos los límites del autonomismo. Por el lado bueno, la importancia de las luchas para forzar cambios estructurales, los desbordes de campañas lanzadas desde arriba (como en la campaña de las 100 flores o la Revolución Cultural) y una visión muy amplia de estas luchas en la que se ve la relación entre lucha obrera, campesina, tensiones entre campo y ciudad y la lucha contra el patriarcado.

En el lado malo deja de lado de factores también clave como son las dinámicas internas del PCCh y los cambios internacionales económicos y geopolíticos. Esto es comprensible dada la extensión del libro y su interés por explorar más en detalle el factor de las luchas.

Donde realmente naufraga el libro es en su parte final, mas política que histórica, sobre las lecciones para la izquierda de la experiencia China y hacia donde puede ir el próximo ciclo de luchas en el que cae en todos y cada uno de los lugares comunes del autonomismo, repitiendo fórmulas abstractas gastadas (hay que abolir el capitalismo, evitar la cooptación de la izquierda, no intentar tomar el estado, etc) que al final muestran que el operaismo no es una teoría del cambio social social o revolucionario sino de la movilización o de los movimientos sociales. Parte clave, sin duda, del proceso revolucionario o transformador pero que en ningún caso agota la complejidad del mismo ya que nunca afronta la parte constituyente (No solo política, también social y económica) de toda transformación estructural profunda.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short and sweet introductory history-from-below of China from 1949-2020 from an undogmatic libertarian Marxist perspective. It's full of enlightening insights about the era from someone with a kaleidoscopic knowledge on the subject who provides lots of references to interesting research. The writing style is clear and accessible, if rather dry and formulaic; it reads like a PhD thesis and does a lot of repeating itself with pointless methodological expositions (e.g. "this chapter will talk about this, this section in the chapter will do this, and this section will discuss this," etc). The focus on the restless workers movements and the experience of rural migrants and women was very insightful, however these often felt quite tacked onto the analyses, and such intersectional inclusions beg the question of why equally important aspects such as ecology, Covid, race, ethnicity, and LGBTQ issues were virtually absent (Xinjiang only got a couple of sentences, Tibet was mentioned literally once or twice). The social history focus also was often pursued at the expense of the important details of the factional struggles at the top of the CCP, especially in the post-Deng years. I was hoping to learn about how Xi Jinping came to power and in what way the factional struggles still operate, and how these have affected policy decisions. The conclusion's outline of lessons to be learned by the left from the experience of the PRC was similarly tacked on and a bit superficial in its analysis (this is a very common feature of leftist literature). While the book may lack the historical scope and delightful prose of Maurice Meisner's masterpiece "Mao's China and After" or the razor-sharp critique of the Chuang collective's writings, it is definitely a valuable book as an accessible and up-to-date introduction to the subject for those intimidated by a book as long as Meisner's, which also only goes up to 1999.

[Mallory · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history of modern China is a topic I know little about going in. I liked the approach to break down the history into economic phases (even if it's not really a hard line in practice). That framework allowed me to digest the enormous amount of history contained in this book.

[Dave MacFarquhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central thesis and structure are a great primer on the development of communist China (for someone who knew very little coming in) but the ending felt lacking. It seems like a more comprehensive incisive critique of how the historical materialist worldview contains the seeds of the ultimate collapse at its core is absolutely possible, it seemed like the author faded off into a less than innovative pitch for anarchist organizing. At a time when solutions to the industrial growth model are direly needed I hope the closing call to be part of the development of these ideas is a fruitful endeavor.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Undogmatically Marxist and historically interesting, this is an account that takes that origins of Mao's attempt to move to socialism at face value, spells out the ways in the system compromised with capitalists both internal and external to maintain itself, and shifted to a largely capitalist economy with heavy state investment and involvement. The style is matter of fact, and social history focus is helpful, but I did want more of the details from the CPC itself on how the various factions aligned. Thus this serves as a readable and non-sectarian introduction to how Communist China ended up integrating in to the capitalist world system.

[loitering outside 711 · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are Chinese microchips in your blood. Drink pure ethanol to cure yourself.

(I like the book, though I disagree with the framing of the early period as socialist in anyway I agree with the author that it is still important to emphasize that there is a major shift in the organization of the economy.)

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a name like this, The Communist Road to Capitalism is bound to attract leftist sectarian arguments about precisely the nature of China's economy. That is however largely irrelevant to Ruckus's narrative. The division into a "Communist" Maoist period and "Capitalist" period since Deng Xiaoping's ascent and their respective transition periods by Ruckus marks major shifts in the Party's ideology and behaviour, but in all periods, there was no meaningful autonomy by the workers, or their ownership of the means of production.

Much more importantly, the book presents a very brief synopsis of the People's Republic's history "from below". That is, instead of following the official ideology and policies of the state, Ruckus focuses on the conditions and experiences of the masses and they way the subjectivises them and revolts against them.

The book is remarkable when one takes into account the general atmosphere in contemporary China. The Chinese individuals who are discontented with the current level of repression and control tend to be fatalistic and nihilistic about the possibility of any form of liberation of the Chinese people. Due to various co-optation and repression of past resurrectionists, there is a general feeling that the Chinese "race" or culture is simply incapable of achieving a liberatory revolution.

Ruckus's focus on grassroot revolts in even the most disastrous events in the PRC's history such as the Great Cultural Revolution therefore highlights the liberatory potential that exists within the Chinese people under even the most dire of circumstances (although admittedly all of which have been squandered). Even with the dryest and non-flowery narration, then, I find it an immensely hopeful outlook for the people of China.

With its short length covering 70 years of history, the book is necessaily brief and goes through big events with mere paragraphs at times. It is however very well documented with citations and references and will serve as a good index and starting point to look further into the history the PRC with an alternative lens.