Cultural Revolution 1966-67 “Mass Mobilization” The Fifty Days June-July 1966 Big Character Posters (大字报) Formation of Red Guards (红卫兵)

Big Character Posters大字报

Big Character Posters大字报

The Fifty Days June-July 1966 Red Guards vs. Party Work Teams Uncertainty about Mao’s intent Party Work Teams on Campuses Political and Personal Attacks Liu Shaoqi used work teams to exert control Despite purge of Peng Zhen, failed to understand scope of Cultural Revolution

Big Character Posters (大字报) College Campuses Tsinghua University (清华大学), 65,000 posters Target: “Counterrevolutionary Black Gang” Teachers, responsible for “bourgeois” or “revisionist” curricula Direction of Cultural Revolution unknown

Liu Shaoqi, Eight-point Guidelines Big-character posters should be put up only inside schools Meetings should not hinder work or studies There should be no street demonstrations Foreign students should not participate in the movement Targets should not be struggled against in their homes Attention had to be paid to security concerns People should not be hit or roughed up Active leadership was necessary to ensure that the struggle stayed on the right track

Mao Takes a Dip in the Yangzi

Mao Returns to Beijing, July 18th Resides at Diaoyutai (钓鱼台国宾馆) Recall Work Teams July 24th Condemned “Fifty Days” Remove Liu Shaoqi from position in Cultural Revolution Central Committee Plenum August 1 “To Rebel is Justified”

Tiananmen August 1966

August to January, 1966-67 “To Rebel is Justified” “Bombard the Headquarters” “Bourgeoisie Reactionary line” October, 1966 Seizing power Revolutionary Committees January 1967 Revolutionary masses Local military Revolutionary former leading cadres

Initial Goals Cultural Revolution Mao’s goal to create disorder Carte blanche to Student Radicals Attack Four “Olds” (四旧) Culture, customs, habits, ideas Destruction of National Treasures Beijing: 4922 “places of cultural or historical interest” destroyed (6,843 total)

Smash the Old World Create the New World

Main Target “Those within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road” Initial Shake-up in top leadership Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping Issue self-criticisms CCP “sense of impending doom” “Central Cultural Revolution Group” CCRG New power base at the center

Wang Guangmei

Luo Ruiqing

Struggle Sessions

Struggle Sessions

Struggle Session

Targets of Cultural Revolution Peng Dehuai

Seizing Power Unleash Masses Red Guard Rallies Allow Workers to form Red Guards Spread CR to Villages Attack the Party Party First Secretaries suicides, 1967 Shanxi, Tianjin, Yunnan Liu Shaoqi attacked in Zhongnanhai (中南海) January 1967

Restoring Order, Spring 1967 Zhou Enlai with permission from Mao Zedong Students and Teachers stop marching, infectious diseases Return to classes Red Guards forbidden: punish party members, return confiscated property Off Limits: National security, organs of Central Committee, Public security, finance, foreign affairs, planning, scientific commissions, national media Workers and students return to “Third Front” projects

“Shanghai Commune” January 1967 Attack on Government Institutions Shanghai “January Storm” Factional Fighting among Rebels Revolutionary Committee of Shanghai Municipality, February, 1967

Revolutionary Committees Three in One Formula Revolutionary masses Local military Revolutionary former leading cadres

Role of PLA “PLA’s behavior … most powerful factor in shaping the further course of the Cultural Revolution” Maintain Security, semblance of law and order Participate in Early Power Seizures Mao’s order: “When genuine proletarian Leftists ask the army for help, the army should send troops to actively support them.”

Role of PLA, January 1967 “Three supports and the Two Militaries” the left, peasants, workers to carry out military training and control Two Militaries Training: drill and military exercises in schools Being on premises and enforcing order Control: putting ministry, province or area under military rule

Role of PLA, April 1967 MAC Reaction to PLA treatment of “Rebels” Do not fire on members of mass organizations No arbitrary arrests Not declare mass organizations reactionary Opposition to PLA not criterion for politics Rectify any errors immediately CCRG restrain law-and-order commanders

February Countercurrent, 1967 Last Stand of Old Guard against CCRG Mao angry at challenge similar to Lushan, 1959 Wuhan Incident July, 1967 Near Civil War

May 16 Conspiracy Burning of British Embassy, July 1967 Ambiguous threats from left or right Pretext for attacking leftists, “backstage bosses” Zhou Enlai vs. Left Purge leftist in CCRG Placate military

Restoring Order May 7th Cadre Schools Resume Classes Send party members, government, intellectuals to learn from peasants Resume Classes Disband Red Guards July, 1967 “Sent down youth” Become ordinary peasants or ordinary workers 1967-79 16,470,000 rusticated youth