"if you look at Mao's regime as a brutal expropriation of small holders from their land resulting in the creation of an industrial proletariat..." Brutal expropriation of the landlords perhaps, but the small holders were actually *brought into existence* by land reform under Mao. Collectivization was on the whole not a brtual process.
Primitive accumulation is the separation of people from the means of production, no? It's hard to argue that that is what was happening in China under Mao. The parcelling of land to the farmers and the household registration system kept people in rural areas, so there was no mass exodus of uprooted peasants into the cities/industry. And even after collectivization, peasants still had a range of rights and real control over their means of production. Lots of surplus was still being pumped from agriculture to industry, but you'll have to look at that on its own terms. The category primitive accumulation doesn't really help all that much.
Jonathan
Jon Johanning wrote:
> On Sep 23, 2004, at 2:27 PM, Curtiss Leung wrote:
>
>> I dunno...but if you look at Mao's regime as a brutal expropriation
>> of small holders from their land resulting in the creation of an
>> industrial
>> proletariat, it seems like a straightforward case of primitive
>> accumulation,
>> culminating in capitalist production in a previously agricultural
>> nation.
>
>
> I think that the whole Maoist thing was just that, primitive
> accumulation, which pretty much inevitably led to a capitalist
> development, just as it did in Europe. What else would it have led to?
> Maoist China was in no position to develop in a socialist direction, as
> far as I can see. (But of course the champions of Mao's thought will
> have lots of arguments to prove me wrong :-) ).
>
>
> Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org
> __________________________________
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