The Pro-Democracy Movement of the 1980's
Communism took over China soon after the second world war. Mao Zedong,
the leader of the communist party who came from the country, remained
paramount until his death on the 9th of September 1976. During his
rule, he modified Marxist-Lenonism to suit China's population of
peasants, and went through many "leaps" to try and revolutionise
China's economy as he had done with the political system. But in the
end, Millions of Chinese men, women and children died. When Mao
himself died after a life of stubborness and an apparent inability to
listen, Deng Xiaoping came into power even thought being exiled twice
before.
Deng Xiaoping, after seeing the errors of Mao's long rule, began to
introduce political and economic reforms to China. Politically, he
wanted to deal with leadership change, the constitution, dealing with
dissidents, more power for the state rather than local, changes of
area's and branches, and perhaps even village democracy. Economically,
Deng's reforms included going from stateplan to market mechanism's,
state intervention in science and technology, creating taxation,
labour market change and the four modernisations. The four
modernisations included changes in agriculture, industry, military and
science and technology. But even during this, Deng wanted to uphold
"Four Basic Principles" which were upholding the socialist road,
upholding the dictatorship of the proletariat, upholding the
leadership of the Communist Party and upholding the
Marxist-Leninist-Mao Zedong thought.
Despite the rapid changes that were occuring to China, the people of
China wanted more, the student'...
... middle of paper ...
... Deng that the spear was
pointed at him to take action.
With the government's stubborness, and the student's refusal to back
down, the pro-democracy movement never really had a chance in
suceeding. If the government had been more accepting and listened,
this could have been averted. But the Chinese power systems never
really listened to what the people wanted so this was not going to
happen. If all the students chose to understand the momentum they had
gained and decided to back down after the martial law order then the
death could have been averted. But the students were hyped by the
words of "radical" leaders such as Wuer Kaixi and Chai Ling, and would
not back down the government they had rebelled against for so long.
This resulted in the Tianenman Massacre, and the fall of the
pro-democracy movement in China.
Mao Zedong will forever live on history as a revolutionary, not only in China but across the globe. There are very few communist nations today because of the many difficulties of having a homogenous population, which shares the same ideals. Mao was able to modernize and re-socialize his citizens in a short amount of time. He defined himself as the face of change in China. Mao’s vision of equality for all Chinese citizens has still not been achieved but it is well on its way. The only question lies in, does the end justify the means.
The Populists and Progressive were form of movement that occurred during the outbreaks of the workers union after the civil war. The populists began during the late 1800s.The progressive began during the 1900s. There are many differences between these two movements, but yet these movements have many things that are similar.
The 1960s and 1970s helped shape the conservative movement to grow in popularity and allowed conservatives to enjoy modern benefits such as economic prosperity and consumerism without conforming to liberal ideologies. The period of strong conservative support, the 1960s, usually refers to the time frame between 1964 through 1974. The grass roots mobilization started strong with the help of Orange County's middle-class men and women volunteers. The effort and hard work of these people along with economic support from businesses such as the National Review helped to spread conservative philosophy. Other contributions to the effort include community meetings, film showing, handing out pamphlets, and Fred Schwarz's school of anti-communism to inform Southern Californians of communist threat. Among anti-communism, conservatives also believe in the importance of religion, a restrictive government role, upholding traditional American values, and private business prosperity. The ethos upheld by long-time residents along with a heavy migration of people who would later join right-wing conservatism made Orange County the ideal location to enrich and expand the movement.
During the last 4 months, I’ve studied a lot about Canadian history and come across many great historical events that have shaped Canadian identity. The two most defining moments between the years 1900 to 2000 were women’s suffrage which was an issue to determine if women should have the right to vote or not. The other defining moment for Canada was Expo 67, which was the most successful worlds fair in history.
Through the history, women have always fought for their rights creating a new space for their participation as citizens. After the First World War during the 1920s and 1930s new histories of women suffragettes have been written. During that period of time some activist groups were created, for instance, the Edwardian women’s suffrage movement that created in women a ‘Suffragette Spirit’ with the same goals and purposes even with the same militant procedures such as radical feminism that involved hunger strike and forcible feeding. This argument have become controversial due to different points of view in recent years. Another samples are the formation of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), a group led by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst under an autocratic system; Women’s Freedom League (WFL), a self-proclaimed militant organization and National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). These groups were formed in Britain giving way to creation of some texts that explain the actions of the feminist groups and were the basis to achieve the right of suffragettes. Furthermore, the author of this article talks about a second narrative published in 1914 by Constance Lytton that explain about her own experiences in a militant period and personal sacrifice in an attempt to vote. Finally, her experience of militancy had become the archetype of suffrage militancy. In addition, she became in a feminist and kept touch with important members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). According to Lytton (cited in Mayhall, 1995: 326) She said that whilst she felt sympathy towards men, children and even animals – those that she said were ‘down-trodden’ – she had completely ‘been blind to the particular sufferings ...
Women’s rights have been a concern around the World since almost forever. The biggest advances in these rights, though, happened in America. For almost two hundred years, give or take some breaks, women have been doing what they could to advance their rights. Women did more to expand their rights before and during WWII, though. They spread their message by holding protests, stepping outside of the boundaries given to them, and reaching out to other women.
Despite the death of Mao in 1976 and the trial of the Gang of Four in 1980, the Cultural Revolution continues to hold significant influence over China’s political decisions. This is particularly evident in 1989, during the Tiananmen Incident. Despite the celebration of the May Fourth student movement as the catalyst in the formation of the Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping (a victim of the Cultural Revolution) and other hardline Party members were adamantly against the gathering of students in Tiananmen Square. The experience of the Cultural Revolution has led Chinese political leaders to be cautious about large scale political movements, and student activism in particular. The lingering resonance of the Cultural Revolution is also evident in the fact that the CCP saw the need to address Mao’s responsibility while trying to maintain his legitimacy and importance as the ideological leader of the Party.
Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. These women lived at the turn of the century, and fought vehemently for a cause they believed in. They knew that they were being discriminated against because of their gender, and they refused to take it. These pioneers of feminism paved the road for further reform, and changed the very fabric of our society.
China has been ruled by the Communist Party ever since. It was the events between 1946 and 1964 that strengthened communism in China. At the end of World War II, the Nationalist Party (GMD) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) raced for power in China. The chairman of the Communist Party was Mao Zedong and their army was known as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The Nationalist’s were led by Chiang Kai-shek and their army was the Kuomintang.
More murderous than Hitler, more powerful than Stalin, in the battle of the Communist leaders Mao Zedong trumps all. Born into a comfortable peasant family, Mao would rise up to become China’s great leader. After leading the communists away from Kuomintang rule, he set out to modernize China, but the results of this audacious move were horrific. He rebounded from his failures time and again, and used his influence to eliminate his enemies and to purge China of its old ways. Mao saw a brighter future for China, but it was not within his grasp; his Cultural Revolution was not as successful as he had wanted it to be. Liberator, oppressor, revolutionary, Mao Zedong was the greatest emancipator in China’s history, as his reforms and actions changed the history of China and of the wider world.
The extreme economic growth and falls threw many daily life for people off balance. Some of these were large cuts to living standards for citizens. Inflation was said to be officially 19%. However, it was thought to be in the range of 25-30%. Because of this, many families were not being able to live as well, resulting in seven million students dropping out of school along with tens of thousands of teachers. Not only education was affected. Factory workers received cuts to their pay or joined the 400,000 other workers who got laid off . Some may argue that Deng brought stability to China after Mao’s death, because the end of an almost cult-like following post cultural revolution led to growing unrest in China. However, some people disliked the idea of open commerce, some even went to the point of calling it “Japan’s second occupation”. The stability was indeed there, but it came with a price. Deng sought to find it at all costs. The massacre at Tiananmen Square was one such occurrence. 241 killed and another 7,000 wounded. This was not the only event where people were hurt. In 1975, Deng ordered the army to hunt down a muslim village in Yunnan which resulted in a staggering 1,600 deaths, 300 were children. Deng did achieve his goal, but not without repercussions. Deng’s effects on China still ripple through the country today. The gap between the poor and rich are beyond average.
The women’s suffrage movement was the struggle for the right of women to vote and run for office. It was the the idea that there can be an equalization in what it means to be "American" between men and women. Women wanted to and began to see themselves as equal to men. They demanded "equal pay for equal work" not only in the workforce, but equality in general. Women began to see that they could possess more in terms of opportunities than societies standards conformed them to.
As it’s known around the world, Chinese political system is Communism. Some may say that communism is good and bad. Well it all began when Mao Zedong came into power, his ideas influenced Chinese people and how the true way of living is. The introduction of communism into China changed how people perceived each other. One of his first ideas was “The Great Leap Forward,” which a lot of historians considered as a failure because its initial goals were never met. The Chinese society was losing faith in Mao, and not loyal to him. In desperate needs, Mao came up with the “Cultural Revolution” or also known was “The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”. Mao main goal was to turn all people to follow the idea of communism, but not in the way like Russia did. Even though a huge amount of people died and harmed the future image of China. Mao did whatever it took to make people to follow his ideas, he didn’t matter what the consequences were, and he was willing to kill anybody who was a “counter revolutionary.” Well, was his idea successful? it mostly depends on your point of view. According to Dictionary.com, successful mean achieving or having success. This revolution has impacted everybody, with witnessed accounts during the Mao’s rule. At last, did it work? In the following essay, Mao’s ideas how people view communism as a form of a government than the abuse of power.
Mao Zedong was a leader from China that has impacted the lives of numerous Chinese people. He is also called Mao Tse-Tung. He served as chairman from 1949 to 1959. He also led the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) from 1935 until his death. Mao Zedong was an influential man who is known to have reshaped both China’s history and culture. He did this by starting some of his most well-known projects; China’s first five-year plan, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.
Zhao, S., (2003), ‘Political Liberalization without Democratization: Pan Wei’s proposal for political reform’ Journal of Contemporary China, 12(35): 333–355.