On Saturday 9 October, we held a very successful webinar opposing the propaganda war being waged by the US and its allies against China. The videos from the event are embedded below.
Don’t forget, we have our Propaganda War Against China event coming up on Saturday 9 October 2021, at 2pm Britain / 9am US Eastern / 9pm China.
We will discuss the relationship between this propaganda onslaught and the New Cold War; the reality in Xinjiang and Hong Kong; the participation of sections of the Western left in the propaganda war; and more.
The event is co-sponsored by the Morning Star, the Grayzone, Pivot to Peace, the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, the International Manifesto Group, and Qiao Collective.
Continue reading Reminder: The Propaganda War Against China (Saturday 9 October)Friends of Socialist China are pleased to offer a rare opportunity to watch the film 1921.
‘1921’ is a full length feature film produced to mark this year’s centenary of the Communist Party of China. It is set against the background of the intense class struggle waged by the young Chinese working class in Shanghai in particular. The action also takes us to Moscow, Paris and elsewhere. Key early Chinese communists like Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping all feature in this not to be missed film. As gripping as any Hollywood blockbuster, it is also an education and an inspiration.
A review by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Keith Bennett can be read online.
Please note the film is in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles.
This event is organised by Friends of Socialist China, in coordination with Trinity Cine Asia. It is co-sponsored by the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding, the Morning Star, the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, the International Manifesto Group, and Qiao Collective.
At the start time (7pm Britain, 2pm US Eastern, 11am US Pacific), registered users will receive (by email) a link to stream the film. They will then have a three-hour window in which to watch it.
Please note that Friends of Socialist China are not making any money from the showing; our purpose in arranging it is to ensure that its important political and cultural content reaches a wider audience. However, Trinity Cine Asia, with whom we are partnering to organise the screening, have paid the costs of distribution and marketing; therefore all proceeds go to them.
On 24 September 2021, the Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution (IICR, an Islamabad based think tank) and the China NGO Network for International Exchanges (CNIE) held a webinar of international experts to expose the Western media’s propaganda in relation to the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez was among the speakers. The video is embedded below, along with a list of the speakers and a report of the event, republished from Asia Free Press.
On Thursday 23 September 2021, at 6:30pm British time (1:30pm US Eastern, 10:30am US Pacific), Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Stop the War Coalition are holding an emergency online rally to discuss the dangers of the AUKUS military pact and how best to organise against it.
Register: Zoom
On Sunday, 26 September 2021, the CPUSA is hosting a webinar on China’s elimination of extreme poverty.
In 2021 China announced the elimination of extreme poverty, a historic accomplishment of socialism. Speakers from China and the USA will discuss the conditions of old China before the victory of the revolution in 1949: destitution, illiteracy and violence, as well as imperialist invasion and occupation. This will be followed by a discussion of today’s successful poverty alleviation program and the role of the Chinese Communist Party. The class will end with Q&A and discussion.
Speakers will include: Shen Ning (North American Bureau of Communist Party of China International Department), Norman Markowitz (Rutgers University); and Luo Xiaoping (sociologist from North China Electrical Power University).
The Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War is organising a webinar on Wednesday 22 September 2021 at 7pm EDT with a set of expert panelists explaining the many reasons why Meng should (and can legally be) released now in order to restore friendly relations with China, and to set a new and independent course in foreign policy for Canada.
Continue reading Webinar: Why Meng Wanzhou should be released NOW! (22 September)On Sunday 25th July, the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) organised a webinar celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). We’re pleased to make available the video of that event, featuring some excellent presentations from Wang Yingchun of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; Robert Griffiths, General Secretary of the CPB; Kenny Coyle and Iain Inglis, CPB members living in China; and China specialist and campaigner Jenny Clegg; along with some brief archive footage on the founding of the CPC.
We’re excited to announced that our next webinar takes place on Saturday 9 October, 9am US Eastern / 2pm Britain / 9pm China.
You can register for the Zoom event on Eventbrite.
On Saturday 9 October 2021 (2pm Britain, 9am US Eastern, 9pm China), Friends of Socialist China are hosting an international webinar to discuss the intensifying information warfare being waged by the US and its allies against the People’s Republic of China.
We will discuss the relationship between this propaganda onslaught and the New Cold War; the reality in Xinjiang and Hong Kong; the participation of sections of the Western left in the propaganda war; and more.
The event is co-sponsored by the Morning Star, the Grayzone, Pivot to Peace, the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, the International Manifesto Group, and Qiao Collective.
About the organisers
Friends of Socialist China is a platform based on supporting the People’s Republic of China and promoting understanding of Chinese socialism. Its website (edited by Danny Haiphong, Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez) aims to consolidate the best articles and videos related to China and Chinese socialism, along with original analysis.
On Thursday 19 August 2021 (8pm US Eastern, 5pm US Pacific), Workers World Party is hosting an online roundtable discussion about the rising tide of anti-China conspiracy theories. The discussion will be led by Lee Siu Hin and Sara Flounders.
Register for the Zoom event here.
Rather than change course from the disastrous policies of former President Donald J. Trump, the Biden administration has doubled down on the deadliest aspects of the U.S. COVID response. The U.S. capitalist state is refusing to put modest safety protocols and lockdown procedures in place despite the skyrocketing infection rate of the even more deadly and contagious Delta variant.
Meanwhile, President Biden and other U.S. lawmakers are hell bent on blaming the COVID catastrophe on China. Join revolutionaries in the U.S. and China for this necessary pushback on “lab leak theory” and the Cold War being waged against China and the entire global working class.
The Communist Party of Britain is holding an online meeting to celebrate the centenary of the Communist Party of China. The event takes place online via Zoom on Sunday 25 July 2021 at 2pm Britain / 9am US Eastern / 9pm China. Register on Zoom.
Speakers
Along with the speeches there will be vintage film footage and new productions not previously seen including China’s struggle against COVID and 100 years of the CPC.
On 10 July 2021, we co-hosted a book launch for John Ross’s book China’s Great Road; Lessons for Marxist Theory and Socialist Practices, along with the Morning Star, Tricontinental Institute, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, and Learning from China.
China’s Great Road features ten articles by Ross published between the years 2010 and 2021, all of which provide a clear analysis of China’s economic and foreign relations policies over the past decades. More importantly, Ross’ writing cuts through Western propaganda and directly addresses China’s socialist project, its history and growth, and what could be possible for future socialist countries around the world.
Speakers included:
On Saturday 26 June, Friends of Socialist China held its first webinar: China’s Path to Zero Poverty, supported by the Geopolitical Economic Research Group. This event brought together a diverse range of speakers with different perspectives on China’s successes in eradicating poverty. The entire webinar (along with the individual speech videos) can be watched on our YouTube channel. Below we provide a summary of the proceedings.
Introducing the event, Radhika Desai (Professor of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group) commended the extraordinary effort on the part of the Communist Party of China to eradicate extreme poverty. “It’s been a hard slog, as old as the revolution itself.”
Radhika noted that land reform, carried out in the liberated territories in the 1930s and 1940s and then extended throughout the country following the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, was the first step along the road to eradicating poverty, and provided the firm foundation for transforming what was then one of the poorest countries in the world.
Speaking of the targeted anti-poverty campaign of the last few years, Radhika pointed out that the threshold for lifting people out of poverty was not exclusively based on the World Bank daily income figure. This income figure is accompanied by ‘Two Assurances and Three Guarantees’: assuring that people have sufficient access to food and clothing, and providing guaranteed access to compulsory education (nine years), basic medical services and safe housing.
Continue reading Report: analysts from around the world explore and celebrate China’s poverty alleviation successesThis webinar was held on Zoom on 3 July 2021, organised by the Morning Star with the support of Friends of Socialist China.
The speakers were:
All the speeches were excellent. You can view the video on YouTube (embedded below).
A reminder that our first webinar takes place on Saturday 26 June, 9am US Eastern / 2pm Britain / 9pm China.
You can register for the Zoom event on Eventbrite.
Details
On 1 July 2021, the Communist Party of China celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding. Of all the CPC has accomplished in that period, the elimination of extreme poverty is unquestionably among its most impressive and historically significant achievements.
In this webinar, academics, politicians, journalists and campaigners from around the world will explore how China has been able to carry out the most extensive poverty alleviation program in history, and what lessons there are for humanity.
Speakers
About the organisers
Friends of Socialist China is a new platform based on supporting the People’s Republic of China and promoting understanding of Chinese socialism. Its website (edited by Danny Haiphong, Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez) aims to consolidate the best articles and videos related to China and Chinese socialism, along with original analysis.
The Geopolitical Economy Research Group is a policy institute based at the University of Manitoba and run by Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman. It analyses and proposes policy alternatives for managing the interaction of national economies and states to promote human development and mutual benefit in today’s multipolar world.
Update: this event is now in the past. You can watch the stream below.
New Hampshire Peace Action is organising an online event on China, US relations with China, and the demonisation of China as a rival to American hegemony. The discussion will be led by Danny Haiphong and Ben Norton.
The event takes place online via Zoom on 17 June 2021 at 7pm US Eastern / 4pm US Pacific / 12am Britain / 7am China. Register on Action Network.
The US is currently engaged in a program to modernize its entire nuclear arsenal. US citizens are told that Russia & China are doing the same. The US foreign policy establishment, through their implementation of the “Great-power competition” doctrine, manifestly situate China to replace the “Global War on Terror” as the next big threat to US national security. Join this discussion to better understand the motives behind US fear-mongering rhetoric towards China and analyze the reality of conditions on the ground.
Danny Haiphong is a Contributing Editor of Black Agenda Report, Co-Host of The Left Lens, and an organizer with No Cold War. He is co-author of American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror and maintains his own blog at patreon.com/dannyhaiphong
Ben Norton is assistant editor of the investigative journalism website The Grayzone. He produces the political podcast and video show Moderate Rebels, which he co-hosts with The Grayzone editor and founder Max Blumenthal. Ben has reported from numerous countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and more.
To mark the centenary of the Communist Party of China, the Marx Memorial Library is organising an online lecture by Jenny Clegg – former senior lecturer in international studies at the University of Central Lancashire, peace activist, and author of ‘China’s Global Strategy: Towards a Multipolar World‘.
The event will be held on Thursday 1 July, 7pm BST / 2pm US Eastern / 11am US Pacific. Register via Eventbrite.
Was Mao a Marxist? Mao and the Chinese peasant revolution (1925-1949)
One hundred years ago, on July 1st 1921, the Communist Party of China was founded by a handful of people who, for the sake of secrecy, held their first meeting on a boat on a lake to the south of Shanghai. Today, the CPC is a huge organisation with a membership of 91 million people.The CPC came to power with the support of the vast majority of the population: the peasants. The Party had come to understand that agrarian transformation was the main content of the Chinese revolution and the peasants its main force. Many on the Left still to this day under-rate Mao as little more than a peasant leader.This session will on the contrary discuss how Mao, through the sinification of Marxism, came to develop his distinctive policies and ‘mass line’ approach as he figured out ways to address the challenges of the Chinese revolution and social transformation through engaging in the revolutionary process in the countryside. Marking out the differences between Mao, Stalin and Trotsky, it will further consider the relationship between the national and the agrarian revolution.What are the lessons for us to draw on today from the Chinese experience of revolution?
Dr Jenny Clegg is an academic, activist and long term China specialist. Her PhD on China’s peasants in revolution was awarded by the University of Manchester in 1989. A revised version will be published later this year by Praxis Press.
On 3 June 2021, the People’s Forum NYC held an online launch for John Ross’s new book, China’s Great Road: Lessons for Marxist Theory and Socialist Practices.
The launch features interesting speeches from John Ross, Radhika Desai, Vijay Prashad and Brian Becker. In addition to recommending the book, the speakers engage with some important and controversial topics: to what extent is Socialism with Chinese Characteristics consistent with Marxism? To what extent was pre-reform Chinese socialism consistent with Marxism? To what extent can the lessons of China’s rise be applied elsewhere in the world? What is the nature of globalisation?
As John Ross points out in his remarks, his book is meant to be a starting point for an extremely important discussion in the socialist movement, particularly in the West, about Chinese socialism. Watching the book launch should help to equip people to participate further in that discussion.
The book can be ordered from 1804 Books (Americas) and Praxis Press (Europe).
The British branch of No Cold War is holding a launch event on Wednesday 16 June, 7pm BST (2pm US Eastern, 11am US Pacific), organised in coordination with the Tricontinental Institute. The theme is China is not our enemy, and there’s an excellent list of speakers:
You can register for the Zoom event on Eventbrite.
Speakers will address a number of themes and questions including:
Follow @NCWBritain, @nocoldwar and @tri_continental on Twitter for updates.
Our first webinar takes place on Saturday 26 June, 9am US Eastern / 2pm Britain / 9pm China.
You can register for the Zoom event on Eventbrite.
Details
On 1 July 2021, the Communist Party of China celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding. Of all the CPC has accomplished in that period, the elimination of extreme poverty is unquestionably among its most impressive and historically significant achievements.
This webinar will explore how China has been able to carry out the most extensive poverty alleviation program in history, and what lessons there are for humanity.
Speakers
About the organisers
Friends of Socialist China is a new platform based on supporting the People’s Republic of China and promoting understanding of Chinese socialism. Its website (edited by Danny Haiphong, Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez) aims to consolidate the best articles and videos related to China and Chinese socialism, along with original analysis.
The Geopolitical Economy Research Group is a policy institute based at the University of Manitoba and run by Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman. It analyses and proposes policy alternatives for managing the interaction of national economies and states to promote human development and mutual benefit in today’s multipolar world.
