Chinese Communist Party and the Sinicization of Marx’s Employ Labor Theory

Abstract. The employ labor theory of Marx’s is of great significance and it is one of the core concepts in the Marxist theory system. This theory acknowledges the alienation nature of employ labor under the dominance of capital logic. It considers the elimination of capitalist employ labor as a prerequisite to set labor free. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been devoting itself to eliminate exploitation and promote the sinicization of this theory since its foundation. CCP incorporated the theory with present class status in China, searched for the manifestations of Chinese employ labor and formulated some policy measures, which matched up with distinct Chinese characteristics, to solve the alienation problem. What CCP had done provided references to today’s studies on how to conquer the alienation of employ labor.

Key words: employ labor, alienation, Chinese Communist Party

I

How to overcome the alienation of employ labor is a puzzle that Marx left to the proletarians all over the world. While searching for answers, CCP made use of its own practical experiences to actively promote the sinicization of Marx’s employ labor theory and decidedly showed distinct Chinese characteristics during the process. CCP has not only achieved plenty of experiences but also gained deep understandings on the theory. The reasonable social and economic development of Chinese “employ labor” at present is a summary and application of experiences and understandings, which were gained along the way.

CCP started to study and discuss the “employ labor” since the beginning of the Party’s foundation. The principle of the First National People’s Congress, which was held in 1921, clearly indicated that the prerequisite of eliminating employ labor is to “eliminate the capitalist private ownership system”. Then the second Congress in 1922 pointed out that the supreme principle should be establishing a Communist society, in which the government is governed by the laborers and the farmers. The aim of such principle was to wipe out the private ownership system. Since the continuous changing of CCP’s status and specific missions in different historical periods, the understandings towards Marx’s employ labor theory varied. The alienation problem has become more and more obvious since CCP takes over the regime, especially after China established the goal of developing market economy. Generally speaking, the sinicization of Marx’s employ labor theory has been through the following stages:

1. CCP’s understanding and very first practices on Marx’s employ labor theory (1921-1949)

During the period of New Democratic Revolution, the national capitalism in China was developed. There was a surge in the number of employed laborers, so that the problem existed in employment became exposed. However, because China was a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society that the main contradictions existed were not between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, but between various revolutionary classes, which led by the proletariat, and the imperialism, feudalism as well as bureaucrat capitalism. As a result, CCP focused on the introduction and promotion of Marx’s employ labor theory in this stage. Within this period, several translation versions of Das Kapital were published. They revealed the hidden exploitative nature in employ labor and included contents regard the alienation. As for the political practices, CCP participated in activities that aim to resolve the alienation problem in employ labor in late 1930s, which mainly reflected in leading worker strikes and attempting to improve labor-capital relationship in the base and liberated areas. A significant event that took place in this stage is the First National Laborers’ Congress, which passed some crucial resolutions, including eight-hour working system, strike assistance and the organizational principle of All-China Federation of Trade Unions. These resolutions were symbols, which represented that CCP has been applying their understandings of Marx’s employ labor theory to practical policymaking. Although CCP has not yet put forward clear policies that actually “eliminate the employ labor”, the policies that were already in place and the measures adopted to comply with the policies have all shown that CCP has gained deep understanding on Marx’s employ labor theory.

2. Theoretical researches and political advices CCP has made to resolve the alienation of

“employ labor” (1949-1966)

The preliminary stage of CCP’s regime started with the Party’s foundation and ended in year 1966. This stage can be divided into three main periods, which were national economic recovery period, Three Great Remould and a ten-year period of overall socialist construction. In 1956, China completed the Socialist Transformation in agriculture, handicraft, capitalist business and industry and thus made the transformation from private ownership to public ownership on means of production come true. It was a sign showing that CCP indeed started to resolve the alienation problem in “employ labor”. During this stage, CCP’s promotion on Marx’s employ labor theory mainly reflected in the attempts to skip the development phase of capitalist economy, improve laborers’ living standards through reforming ownership patterns and productive relations as well as to conquer the labor problems brought about by the capitalist production mode. The main manifestations were building Co-operatives and People’s Communes in villages in order to achieve collaborations in agricultural works.In July 1963, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council agreed on Department of Labor’s plans and suggestions on salary arrangements in 1963. Considering the fact that the national economy showed great improvement, they decided to offer 1.1 billion to improve 40% laborers’ salary levels. The reform practices during this stage reflected CCP’s ideal to fundamentally eliminate the prerequisites of “employ labor” and to avoid alienation in it. We could say that CCP did a great job passing its knowledge of Marx’s theory to practices and it put a lot of efforts on trials in order to make this theory useful under China’s present economic situation.

3.“A thorough resolution” to the alienation in “employ labor” to a shallow extent（1966-1976）

From 1966 to 1976, CCP made some mistakes during socialist constructions. Influenced by the “Leftist”, CCP inevitably combined Marx’s employ labor theory with the “Left” ideology. In this stage, CCP focused on the constructions of national defense system and the development of various industries. On the economic front, it asked to implement purer and purer public ownership system. In villages, the Co-operatives and Communes were still in use in an aim to accomplish “integration of government administration with commune management”. The mode of distribution used in villages tended to stress equality, low payments or even none payments, while in cities, the laborers’ working hours were still restricted in eight hours. The May Seventh Instructions in 1966 put forward two missions. The first mission is to impose restrictions on the labor divisions, commodity production and the distribution according to contributions, while another is to criticize the bourgeoisie. Both missions limited on the conditions for “employ labor” to emerge as well as the conditions for it to stay alive. The missions represented CCP’s ambitions to eliminate “employ labor” and its alienation nature and they included contents of equalitarianism. Superficially, the “working class” played a key role in the social activities in this stage and the means of productions belonged to the country and Communes, so there would expect no exploitations and slaveries. The alienation in “employ labor” seemed to be wiped out. Actually, the productivity in commodity manufacturing was low and the goal of performing mass production hasn’t been reached yet. The labor problem was restricted because of undeveloped productivity. As result, the alienation seemed to be resolved whereas in reality, there wasn’t much of a breakthrough.

4. Great trials on the development of Marx’s employ labor theory (since 1978)

After “The Great Cultural Revolution”, there were two years of political transition and economic fluctuation. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee Meeting in 1992, CCP made new plans for Chinese social and economic developments based on the practical experiences accumulated since the foundation of the Party. It also did some bold trials on the reform of economic structures. The bold trials here reflected in the creative development on Marx’s employ labor theory, such as developing market economy based on socialist public ownership system. Considering the fact that the foreign countries were rapidly developing their technology and economy whereas China still had low productivity, the Party paid close attention to advantages that could help develop socialist productive forces and studied advanced system and management modes in Western countries. Thus, the market economy has become an irreversible trend in China.We could say that as long as the pursuit of residual value in private ownership economy remains unchanged, the surplus labor cannot be avoided, because the labors will be required to fulfill the needs for reproduction. Labor and enjoyment are still contradictable existences. In 2004, “the legal and private properties of citizens cannot be violated” was written in the constitution. Furthermore, “decidedly encourages, supports and guides the development of private ownership economy” was put forward in the Sixteenth National Congress, which further affirmed CCP’s acceptance in the private ownership economy and employ labor with the background of socialist public ownership system. Thirty years of economic development in China has proven that under the condition of publically owned means of production, the appropriate development of employ labor can improve the productivity. This was an innovation and development in Marx’s theory that shows distinct Chinese characteristics, as result, it was regarded as a bold trial with historic significance.

Ⅱ

In 90 years, CCP has been trying to understand and promote the employ labor theory of Marx’s. The Party incorporated the theory with China’s practical situations, well applied the theory in the reform process and actively propelled the sinicization of this theory. Local, practical and innovative traits can be found in the process.

Localization

Marx’s employ labor theory was a scientific theory, which was formulated by studying the labor conditions in cities of Western countries. Before liberation, China was a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The capitalist development only emerged in metropolises, riverside and coastal cities and the development was restricted to preliminary stage. What’s important is that CCP not only conducted research on the labor conditions in cities but also paid close attention to the “employ labor” phenomenon in villages.The history has already made clear that during different historical periods for Chinese economic and social development, the meaning of “employ labor” did not have exactly the same meaning as the capitalist employ labor. In the period of democratic revolution, CCP’s attitude towards the capitalism differed from Marx’s, since the semi-colonial and semi-feudal China did not have contradictions between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, instead, the contradictions were between various revolutionary classes led by proletariat (including workers, farmers, petty bourgeoisie in cities and national bourgeoisie) and imperialism, feudalism as well as bureaucrat capitalism. The New Democracy Discussion written by Zedong Mao not only included a systematic analysis on the social class structure in China, but also established policies to improve labor and capital relations. Since the Great Reform and Opening, the structure, which takes the public ownership as the main form and has various economic forms coexisting, has been taking shape. The employ labor phenomenon also represented some new features. In allusion to this, during Zemin Jiang’s speech in the 80th Anniversary of the Founding of Chinese Communist Party, he pointed out that individual proprietors and private business owners have contributed their labor into the socialist development as well. Though there were employ labor involved in this kind of private ownership economy, the employers did not have irreconcilable relations with the laborers anymore. This provided an idea for people to understand China’s employ labor phenomenon in a right way. Based on the Chinese social class structure and economic situation, CCP did not only make a place for Marx’s employ labor theory to fit in, but also further developed the theory during the applications, in another word, the theory got localized in the process.

Practicalness

CCP is a Party that practices Marxism. It highly stresses the importance of practices and tries to promote the development of Marxism in China. The sinicization of Marx’s employ labor theory represented distinct practical features, which mainly manifested in the fact that CCP transformed its theoretical understandings to political practices and further developed the theory during reform process. In the preliminary stage of the Party’s founding, CCP took actions to resolve the “employ labor” alienation problem in cities, mostly by establishing Labor Unions, leading laborers to strike for their rights as well as escalating the laborers’ class-consciousness. For instance, in the May Thirtieth Movement in 1925, Duxiu Chen pointed out “the reason for Chinese workers to stage strikes is that they cannot stand the increasing squeeze and oppress”6, which not only revealed the labor conditions in China and the employers’ exploitative nature, but also affirmed the rationality behind the strikes. Though there were some deficiencies and big mistakes during the sinicization after the New China comes into existence, the practices have been providing valuable experiences for the understanding and solution finding of the alienation problem. After the Third Plenary of the 11th Central Committee Meeting, CCP’s understanding towards socialism entered into a new stage, which aimed at rapid development in productivity. It included the productivity in the “Three Favorables” and regarded it as a criterion to examine work standards. In this way, the understanding on “employ labor” was carries forward to a deeper level. The reform process has already proven that the most important thing is to know how to identify and use the “capitalist” advantages as well as how to use the “employ labor” in a reasonable manner in an aim to actually drive the development of productivity and prosper the Chinese economy.

Innovativeness

CCP stressed the point that in order to develop market economy under socialist system, the country should allow various ownership patterns to coexist, in another word, the “employ labor” should not be banned. This adhered to Marx’s advocating of “rapidly improve productivity to accelerate the self-vanishing of capitalist employ labor”, to a larger extent, it brought forth new ideas and developments to the theory. Confronted with internal and external concerns for market economy, Xiaoping Deng emphasized many times that under the present socialist system, “capitalism is just a way” which will not threaten the dominant role of the public system. CCP proposed to “unswervingly strengthen and develop the public ownership economy” in the Sixteenth National Congress and stressed again to “persevere and improve the role of public ownership as the dominant pattern and meanwhile, ensure the collective development of diverse ownership patterns” in the Seventeenth National Congress. In the Eighteenth National Congress, the focus remained on the same ideas that were put forward during the last two Congresses. Apparently, the leading role of public ownership economy in the development of market economy will never be changed, so will the orientation and socialist nature of the market economy. CCP’s innovations to Marx’s employ labor theory also manifested in the new cognitions towards the capitalist system, in which the “employ labor” arose. The Party came up with a great idea to implement “one nation, two systems” policy, which was to keep the capitalist system in Hong Kong and Macau after their return. It was not only a promise to Hong Kong and Macau, but also an innovative theoretical application that considered China’s actual situation.

CCP has gained precious experiences on the way of promoting the sinicization of Marx’s employ labor theory. The experiences provided useful references to the establishment of harmonious labor relations in the socialist society. Most importantly, the political affiliation of Marxism has to be persevered, as well as the dominant position of Marxism in the ideological sphere. Secondly, in the process of applying Marxism into practices, new theories have to be innovated in accordance with the practical situations. Today, the sinicization of Marx’s employ labor theory continues, which requires us to treat this theory in a scientific, evolutional and practical way as before. Based on the present condition in China, we need to integrate the theory with the practical social and economic developments so that this theory could continue to function as a guide in the Chinese socialism while being innovated and enriched along the sinicization progress.

References

[1] The selected writings of Wang Sihua’s economic papers, Southeast University Press, pp. 135, 1989

[2] Chen Yun’s essays part three, Central Literature Press, pp 142-143, 2005

[3] Hanquan Wu, Shasha Ma, Investigations and sinicization of Marxism, Party’s history research and teaching, the 3rd edition, 2008

[4] Rural Economy in Old China, Agricultural Publishing House, pp 34, 1980

[5] Hanquan Wu and Zhongping Wang, The Academic History of Chinese Marxism (1919-1949): the Economics, Jilin People’s Publishing House, pp 60. 2008

[6] Selected writings of Duxiu Chen Part 2, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, pp.881, 1993