People's History of Ideas Podcast

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Vagrants, Mercenaries, and Rich Peasants (November 1928) Nov 27, 2022

Show notes

A close reading of a couple portions of Mao’s November 25, 1928 report to the Central Committee.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 2: National Revolution and Social Revolution, December 1920-June 1927
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Mao Zedong, “The Struggle in the Chingkang Mountains”
Names listed as having attended Nov. 6 meeting mentioned near the beginning of the episode:
Zhu De, Chen Yi, He Tingying, He Changgong, Yuan Wencai, Wang Zuo, Tan Zhenlin, Deng Ganyuan, Li Quefei, Chen Zhengren, Wang Zuonong, Xiao Wanxia, Liu Huixiao, Xie Chunbiao, Liu Di, Xiong Shouqi, Yang Kaiming, Cao Shuo, Deng Jiuting, Mao Zedong, Song Qiaosheng, Peng Gu, and Yuan Desheng.

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Transforming, Building, and Purging the Party (September to November 1928) Oct 31, 2022

Show notes

Finishing our close reading of the resolution of the Border Area Party Congress of October 4 to 6, 1928. Also, the reorganization and purge of the party following the Communist recovery of the Jinggangshan base area after the August Defeat.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Charles Bettelheim, Class Struggles in the USSR: First Period: 1917-1923
Fyodor Vasilievich Gladkov, Cement

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Opportunism and Self-Criticism: The Jinggangshan Party Congress Resolution of October 1928 Oct 20, 2022

Show notes

A discussion of the concept of opportunism as it developed in the international communist movement, and a close reading of the self-critical portion of the resolution of the Border Area Party Congress of October 4 to 6, 1928.
Further reading:
Lenin, “Opportunism, and the Collapse of the Second International”
Cheng Yen-shih, ed., Lenin’s Fight Against Revisionism and Opportunism
Mao Zedong, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People”
Lynn White, Policies of Chaos: The Organizational Causes of Violence in China's Cultural Revolution
Some names from this episode:
Du Xiujing, Inspector sent to the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee in May 1928 and who returned in June
Liu Zhen, Secretary of the Yongxin County Party Committee

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“Why Is It that Red Political Power Can Exist in China?” (October 1928) Sep 15, 2022

Show notes

A close reading of the portion of the resolution of the Border Area Party Congress of October 4 to 6, 1928, which later became a key early text in the Maoist canon.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Mao Zedong, “Why Is It that Red Political Power Can Exist in China?”
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Jane Degras, ed., The Communist International, 1919-1943: Documents, vol. 2: 1923-1928
A name from this episode:
Du Xiujing, Inspector sent to the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee in May 1928 and who returned in June

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The August Defeat (Part 2): The Communists Strike Back (August to November 1928) Jul 31, 2022

Show notes

The Communists fight to regain lost territory, and ethnic tensions explode among the peasants in the base area.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Some names from this episode:
Du Xiujing, Inspector sent to the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee in May 1928 and who returned in June
Gong Chu, Political commissar for the 29th regiment
Chen Yi, Political commissar for the 28th regiment
Kang Keqing, Peasant guerrilla fighter from Wan’an County
Yuan Wencai, Leader of the 32nd regiment

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The August Defeat (Part 1) Jul 24, 2022

Show notes

The 29th Regiment goes against Mao’s orders and decides to stay in Hunan, with disastrous results for the Communists.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De]
Jurgen Domes, Peng Te-huai: The Man and the Image
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Some names from this episode:
Wang Zuo, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Yuan Wencai, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Hu Shaohai, Commander of the 29th regiment of the 4th Red Army
Du Xiujing, Inspector sent to the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee in May 1928 and who returned in June
Fan Shisheng, Guomindang general and old friend of Zhu De
Yuan Chongquan, 28th Regiment battalion commander who mutinied
Yuan Desheng, Representative of the Hunan Provincial Committee
Peng Dehuai, Guomindang colonel who was secretly a Communist and who launched an uprising in July 1928

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The Yongxin Joint Conference and Mao’s July 4, 1928 Report to the Hunan Provincial Committee Jul 17, 2022

Show notes

Mao explains his refusal to comply with orders from the Hunan Provincial Committee.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Some names from this episode:
Du Xiujing, Inspector sent to the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee in May 1928 and who returned in June
Yuan Desheng, Representative of the Hunan Provincial Committee in the Jinggangshan
Yang Chisheng, Guomindang commander defeated by the Communists in June 1928
Wang Zuo, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Yuan Wencai, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Wang Jun, Guomindang military commander in Jiangxi
Shang Chengjie, Guomindang military commander in Hunan
Xu Kexiang, Guomindang military commander in Hunan
Wu Shang, Guomindang military commander in Hunan

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Clandestine Transcripts of Revolutionary Globalization: The Shining Paths of Late Cultural Revolution Maoism Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

A talk that I recently delivered at the University of Hamburg, focused on the development of a new socialist political economy late in the Cultural Revolution and how this influenced the Communist Party of Peru.
Further reading:
Alessandro Russo, Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Culture
Fabio Lanza, The End of Concern: Maoist China, Activism, and Asian Studies
Antonio Díaz Martínez, China: La revolución agraria
Catalina Adrianzén, “Semblanza de Antonio Díaz Martínez”
Peer Moller Christensen and Jorgen Delman, “A Theory of Transitional Society: Mao Zedong and the Shanghai School”
Stephen Andors, China's Industrial Revolution: Politics, Planning, and Management, 1949 to the Present
Some names from this episode:
Catalina Adrianzén, Peruvian anthropologist in China from 1974-1976
Antonio Díaz Martínez, Peruvian agronomist in China from 1974-1976
Zhang Chunqiao, Leading figure on Maoist left in China
Jiang Qing, Leading figure on Maoist left in China

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Nuclear War and Communist Revolution Mar 07, 2022

Show notes

In light of the Ukraine crisis, a historical look at communist thinking on the connection between a third world war and revolution.
Further reading:
Sergei N. Goncharov, John W. Lewis, and Xue Litai, Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War
David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb
Edward Wilson, “Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war”
Mao Zedong, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People”
Mao Zedong, “Speech at a Meeting of the Representatives of 64 Communist and Workers’ Parties”
M. Upshaw, “Considerations on a Revolutionary Situation in the United States: Likely Triggering Factors, Potential Political Contours”
Some names from this episode:
Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet foreign minister
Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov, Soviet submarine officer who averted nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis

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The Beginning of the Midyear Crisis (June 1928) Feb 27, 2022

Show notes

The Hunan Provincial Committee decides that Mao must obey its authority.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Elizabeth Perry, Anyuan: Mining China’s Revolutionary Tradition

Some names from this episode:
Wang Meisheng, Courier between Anyuan and the Jinggangshan
Du Xiujing, Inspector sent to the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee
Yuan Desheng, Sent to work in the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee
Yang Kaiming, Sent by Hunan Provincial Committee to replace Mao as secretary of the Jinggangshan special committee
Yuan Wencai, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong

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