We are pleased to publish below the text of a speech given by Eben Williams, Education Officer for the Young Communist League of Britain, at our September 28 conference celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The speech reflects on the strategy of the united front, and how the Chinese leadership applies it at an international level. Discussing the recent World Youth Development Forum held in China, Eben notes that “it was not a specifically socialist event as such”, and yet “it was revolutionary precisely because of this focus on development which naturally brings the developing or so-called ‘third world’ camp into conflict with US-led imperialism and neo-colonialism, which is also the primary obstacle to a more advanced level of socialist development, both in China, and the world”.
Eben goes on to describe some of the progress that has been made in youth development in China in recent years. For example: “This is the best educated generation in Chinese history, and over the past ten years, average years in education has increased from 12.7 to 13.8, and higher education enrolment has increased by 27.8%, with nearly doubled attendance in vocational schools.” Further, “thanks in part to nutrition subsidies and lunch programmes, in the last ten years, nutrition and fitness have increased in rural areas with 86.7% of students now passing physical fitness tests, up from 70.3% ten years before, and a huge drop in rates of malnutrition.”
The Communist Youth League, with a membership of 74 million, is involved in organising 90 million youth volunteers, “including the 5.5 million young people who volunteered during COVID-19 to provide medical care, transport supplies, and build medical facilities; the nearly six million youth volunteers who have been paired up with rural children with disabilities or in need of long-term support; and the more than 4.9 million youth volunteers who took part in relief efforts during the earthquakes in 2008 and 2010. These efforts are deliberately linked up with China’s wider socialist project and the promotion of young heroes of the Chinese revolution, like Lei Feng.”
Eben works as a Chinese translator, speaks and reads Mandarin, and has lived and worked in China.
Hi comrades, thanks very much for having me here, thanks to Friends of Socialist China for co-hosting this event and congratulations to all Chinese comrades on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. My name’s Eben and I work as a Chinese translator but I’m here today as the Education Officer for the Young Communist League, so I’m going to be speaking a bit about what Chinese socialism means for the youth in China and Britain, as well as the importance of promoting socialist education and Marxist theoretical discussions through events like this one.
But first, I’d like to kick off with two basic Marxist-Leninist concepts which are really helpful in framing Chinese strategy and policy. Firstly, understanding that socialism is primarily the product of economic development, moving from an idealistic and moralistic framing toward a more scientific one that recognises capitalism as a system that has outstayed its welcome as a historical stage of human development, and that it is when the ever-increasing development of the productive forces of a country come into contradiction with the fetters of the private relations of production that it becomes necessary for a revolutionary break.
Secondly, Mao’s understanding of the need for a united front of different patriotic classes led by the proletariat against the primary threat of imperialism, but with the understanding that these other classes, and especially the national bourgeoisie, are unstable and untrustworthy and will later betray to the side of the enemy. The Chinese flag represents this understanding, with the four smaller stars representing the four main classes of Chinese society: the proletariat, the peasantry, the petty-bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie, under the leadership and firm hand of the large star, representing the dictatorship of the proletariat and the communist party. So, we have here these two central elements of Chinese socialism: the focus on the development of the productive forces and the united front against imperialism.
Last month, the YCL sent delegates to China’s World Youth Development Forum which is a really good example of this socialist strategy in practice, just like China’s strategy regarding BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Belt and Road Initiative, and other development-focused united front projects. The World Youth Development Forum is an annual event ran by the Communist Youth League of China which looks to unite youth organisations from around the world and promote contributions to global youth development via the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Aside from the small number of communist youth organisations like ours that have good relations with the Chinese Party, the forum was dominated by liberal NGOs, UN representatives, and charity projects from around the world who often could not make the political connection between socialism and China’s success. This meant that it was not a specifically socialist event as such, but it was certainly revolutionary.
And it was revolutionary precisely because of this focus on development which naturally brings the developing or so-called “third world” camp into conflict with US-led imperialism and neo-colonialism, which is also the primary obstacle to a more advanced level of socialist development, both in China, and the world. In China, US-led imperialism is the reason that the revolution remains incomplete with US troops still occupying Chinese soil with the support of the comprador bourgeoisie in Taiwan. It’s the reason that China has had to face off threats of counterrevolution in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang, and has had to find ways to survive in a post-Soviet world dominated by capitalism and imperialism. Since World War II, the United States has become the leading counterrevolutionary force against former, current, and potential socialist states through both direct coups and more indirect methods of anti-communism. US imperialism is the primary external reason that the first wave of socialist revolutions in the 20th Century did not progress further and lead to a decisive victory, and it is the urgent need for development which unites all anti-imperialist forces in this struggle.
And in terms of youth development, China’s progress has been astounding. As part of the 13th Five-Year Plan in 2017, the Communist Party issued the Middle- and Long-term Youth Development Plan, setting key targets for youth development up to 2025 in areas like employment, education, and social wellbeing. This is the best educated generation in Chinese history, and over the past ten years, average years in education has increased from 12.7 to 13.8, and higher education enrolment has increased by 27.8%, with nearly doubled attendance in vocational schools. Compulsory education spending has nearly doubled from 1.17trn to 2.29trn yuan and 240bn yuan is now spent in subsidies for students at all levels. China’s poverty alleviation efforts have raised 25 million young people out of poverty, there have been focuses on increasing the availability of housing and government-subsidised rental housing, and thanks in part to nutrition subsidies and lunch programmes, in the last ten years, nutrition and fitness have increased in rural areas with 86.7% of students now passing physical fitness tests, up from 70.3% ten years before, and a huge drop in rates of malnutrition.
This kind of progress is inconceivable in an advanced capitalist economy like our own, where both Tory and Labour governments have been complicit in cutting youth funding, directly leading to increases in child poverty, which currently stands at 30%. Most recently, 361 Labour MPs voted in favour of the two-child benefit cap, blocking additional support for families with children, and the 7 who voted against were suspended unanimously, meaning that there was not a single MP who was both willing and able to stand up for Britain’s young people from within the Labour Party. These political questions demonstrate just how important it is for us to spread a Marxist understanding of the problems young people in Britain are facing, to develop young people’s political education, and to enable them to build a revolutionary opposition.
On its part, China is committed to promoting Marxist education and socialist consciousness among young people, with socialist education beginning at primary school level through organisations like the Young Pioneers and initiatives like the Young Marxists Training Project which promotes theoretical study, revolutionary education, and practical training. We in the YCL have a lot to look up to, as Communist Youth League membership now stands at about 74 million members. Among other things, the Communist Youth League helps organise around 90 million youth volunteers, including the 5.5 million young people who volunteered during COVID-19 to provide medical care, transport supplies, and build medical facilities; the nearly six million youth volunteers who have been paired up with rural children with disabilities or in need of long-term support; and the more than 4.9 million youth volunteers who took part in relief efforts during the earthquakes in 2008 and 2010. These efforts are deliberately linked up with China’s wider socialist project and the promotion of young heroes of the Chinese revolution, like Lei Feng.
During our delegation, we also visited Hangzhou which is the first city with a Youth Development Index and is a pilot project for China’s youth-development oriented cities. We learned about government subsidies for housing and education, 265K new affordable housing units, free short-term accommodation for young people first arriving in the city, free summer schools and night schools, cradle-to-grave youth services, support for young families, and a free mental health hotline. We also visited a youth community in Hangzhou, closely linked with the Party, which provides government-subsidised apartments for about £140 a month, dozens of clubs and societies, and support facilities for small businesses and students. Residents are rewarded for volunteer work in the wider community, including rent reductions, and the community is also experimenting with forms of community-level self-governance with support from the CPC.
Of course, we can celebrate these incredible achievements while also recognising the contradictions introduced into China with the expansion of the market since reform and opening up, and some of the challenges which China still has to tackle, including levels of unemployment, consumerism, and developmental inequality. That’s why events like this one are so important to not only celebrate China’s success so far, but also to facilitate conversations about the future of socialism, both in China and in our own country, as we chart our progress towards an end to commodity exchange, an end to the market, an end to class and class conflict, an end to private property, an end to the profit motive, and not only towards a multipolar world but to a socialist one. We were very lucky to have representatives from the Communist Party of China’s cadre school giving us lectures on socialism with Chinese characteristics and the multipolar world at our Harry Pollitt School event in Manchester this April, which had over 100 participants, and we’ll be looking to expand that event and continue those conversations next year, so even small organisations like ours can start making these contributions to the ideological struggle against the New Cold War. We’re very excited by the work done by Friends of Socialist China in co-organising this event, because of just how important it is to build platforms for the anti-imperialist Marxist left to promote our ideas. That’s how we build support for socialism and unity around unresolved questions, and create networks between intellectuals, revolutionaries, and the wider working class rooted in practical action to build power here in Britain as well as practical solidarity and exchanges with our comrades in China.
Thank you very much. Onward to the centenary, onward to the multipolar world, and onward to socialism in our lifetimes!
