The Red Guards & Mao´s Last Revolution

What do Red Guards protect/guard? The Red Guard Movement was a youth organization that span all across China. Their main goal was to deffend the Mao Zedong Thought from the so called “revisionist” movement.

Following the 11th Plenum Liu Shaoqi was no longer the stronger individual in the party and his and Deng Xiaoping’s say in the party were no longer as important. “This man Hitler was even more ferocious. The more ferocious the better don’t you think? The more people you kill, the more evolutionary you are” This exemplifies Mao’s new stance regarding revolution. This shows that Mao was trying to relive his days of mass mobilization through a “New Revolution” “Beijing is too civilized”

The origin of the Red Guard Movement The movement started in the elite universities in China. This included Tsinghua University, Peking University and the Beijing Aeronautical Institute. Violence and criticism started to emerge. Many called this hooliganism, however Mao thought of it as revolutionary movement. The movement started as a form of criticism in the form of Dazibao or Big Character Posters The movement became extremely violent

Education and the Red Guards Classes were suspended by Mao’s decree, so that the youth cold dedicate to the cultural revolution. A movement against was was perceived as Bourgeois emerged, targeting teachers and intellectuals Big Character Posters denounced revisionism and any threat to the Chairman and his ideology.

Red Guard Rallies During a rally in 1966, Mao gave his “ardent support” to the Red Guards, legitimizing the movement further. Mao tried to appear in as much rallies as possible. He felt that the USSR discarded Leninism because “too few people ever saw Lenin in person” He felt that as much of the Chinese Youth as possible should be able to see the older generations in persons Many rallies took place in Tiananmen between August and November 1966.

Tiananmen square -1966 Mao’s Jeep

Leaders in the Rallies. Mao was not alone attending and hosting rallies Jiang Xing was a common presence in the rallies. Zhou Enlai was popular among the people. However, the second most important presence in the rallies was….

LIN BIAO Mao was 72 years old by 1967 His various illnesses led his doctor to recommend that he did not appear in public so often. Lin Biao took over several times We enjoyed the rallies: “the sun shine brightest in Beijing during the fall,, and the win that took Tiananmen is strong, but Lin Biao apparently no longer feared sun or drafts” He started to appear more often in rallies as the centrepiece instead of Mao. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD8qi1C81-U

More about the rallies Sometimes they led to catastrophe In October 1st, a rally of 1.5 million people took place. Mao decided to go on a motorized greeting session, which ended in the death of 10 people who were trampled my the masses and over 100 injured. Once, in the Forbidden City, Mao was quoted saying: “We are going to carry the Great Cultural Revolution through to the end: If it comes down to it, we will all go down together!” Many people from other provinces (mostly students) travelled to Beijing only for the rallies. 3 million people added to the 7.7 million population of Beijing.

Revolutionary tourism Millions of red guards attended what were now considered historical sites all across China, such as Yan’an, and Mao’s library in Hunan. This was known as the “Great exchange of revolutionary experiences” which was subsidized by the government Red Guards felt like they were doing their own Great March. Having grown up hearing Mao’s inspiring tales (in which most of their parents fought)  Incredible experience for them This led to the viral spread of diseases all across China

Revolutionary Tourism This lead to violence and rectification of supposed Rightists

Eliminating the “Four Olds” The main task of the Cultural Revolution was the elimination of: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits; as stated in Lin Biao’s speech, in which he encouraged the red guards to “energetically destroy them”. People took to the streets to destroy the “Four Olds”, much to Zhou Enlai and Lin Biao’s delight. The police was told not to interfere and in any case to support the Red Guards.

Changing of names Another important aspect of the Cultural Revolution was the renaming of people, places and streets. Names that were deemed too traditional, old or rightist were to be changed. Many students went as far as changing their names to sound more revolutionary: Protect Biao Defend Ching Die Liu Die Among others Many students tried to convince Zhou Enlai to change the name of Tiananmen Square to “The East Is Red”. According to Zhou he consulted with Mao, who didn’t agree. Zhou and Mao maintained that names that were “too feudal or too backward” were alright.

The Red Terror 33,645 houses in Beijing alone were sacked by Red Guards or people who claimed to be such. Similarly, 84,222 houses Shanghai were looted or sacked. 3.34 million USD worth of jewellery were confiscated: “Confiscation of the ill-gotten wealth of the exploiting classes” A Bureau for sorting looted goods was established to return the jewellery, but most of the value was lost. Zhou Enlai justified the use of these goods to “cover the expenses they incurred” during the Cultural Revolution.

Red terror The red guards took the idea of the “Four Olds”. Sacking of common houses and industries occurred. The Guards humiliated the common citizens. Molesting of women Forcing people to strip naked. Taking all books and magazines. Many people didn’t know what was the original purpose of the red guards.

Destruction of national treasures Red Guards also attacked public property. By the end of the Revolution 4,822 of the 6,843 “Places of Cultural or Historical interests” in Beijing were destroyed. The destruction of the Forbidden City was prohibited, and it was heavily protected by Zhou Enlai’s decree. The destruction of Confucius Temple was a remarkable example of relic attacking. Wu Xun’s body, a cultural hero of the 19th century (Chinese Robin Hood) was dismembered and dumped, and the grave was also destroyed.  Irrational acts

Temple destruction

Repatriation The party implemented repatriation campaigns for citizens of “bad class background”.  They were thrown out of the cities and sent to the villages where their ancestors lived. The government supported the campaigns and provided jeeps and motorcycle for transportation. The campaign faced opposition from within the party after the suicide of the daughter of a landlord. It was seen as a “seriously erroneous political stand” 77,000 people were repatriated outside of Beijing.

Humiliation Top level “revisionists” faced massive acts of humiliation by the young Mao supporters gathered in sports stadiums. Peng Dehuai, Wu Han and Peng Zhen here publicly humiliated. Liu Shaoqi faced a similar fate in 1968 He was taken into an improvised prison by red guards, were he died.

Public Humiliation Rally “Revisionists” humiliated by crowds of Mao’s supporters

Red Guard Circuses Humiliation was taken to the extreme during the “Fifty Days” After Mao proclaimed that “to rebel is justified”, 1,700 murders took place in Beijing. Innocent people were publicly tortured and killed, or committed suicide after they suffered intolerable mental and physical abuse.