Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution Life for the workers

Introduction The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution ( 无产阶级文化大革命 ), was started in It was set up to secure Maoism and eliminate Political Opponents. It officially ended in 1969, when Mao himself admitted that the revolution had ended. Over this period of three years, many died and millions more imprisoned. The leaders of the Cultural Revolution remained in power, even after the end of the Revolution. The period is widely considered to have been a period of economic stagnation.

A short intro to the Red Guard The Red Guard is the name given to the hundreds of thousands of students who left their schools to spread Mao ’ s message; that the Moderates were bringing China down the ‘ Capitalist Road ’, and needed to return to pure Communism once again They were responsible for a majority of the chaos created during the Cultural Revolution They traveled the countryside and visited factories, etc. to spread the message At the end of the Cultural Revolution, they were sent to the countryside to ‘ learn from the peasants ’

Influence – The Red Guard They had the workers arrange meetings so frequent that production came to a standstill Anyone who complained was accused of being a bourgeois, etc. Vandalism was also common, as the Red Guard started to stamp out authorities, like the leader of the factory, etc. High levels of violence ensued This meant that national output fell dramatically during the course of the Cultural Revolution This caused the Chinese economy to be crippled through the three-year duration of the Cultural Revolution

Influence - Political Later, the Gang of Four, especially Jiang Qing considered everything as Capitalist; they condemned a basic theory that production power decided the relation of production to the character of the society as ‘ Revisionism ’ ; in a sense referring to looking back to the past. They agitated workers openly by saying ‘ [not to] fear to stop production and work ’. They disliked modernism; they referred the introduction of technological plants as ‘ worshipping and toadying to foreign countries ’. Most workers complained about the Four ’ s policies, and made an effort to produce. However, a decline in production was impossible, with their constant exposure to slogans created by Jiang's groups