Discuss the politics of Third World peasants. Examine the role the Research Paper

Discuss the politics of Third World peasants. Examine the role the Chinese peasants played during the Revolution, and their pres - Research Paper Example (Kataoka 1974, p. 297) Historians, however, are not quick to deny the role played by the peasant revolutions in the political development of China. The reason for this is that out of all the weaknesses of the peasantry in waging their wars, they are considered invaluable in the success of the Communist Party in its campaign against the Nationalist KMT from 1927 to 1949. Mao has recognized the potential force of the sheer number of the peasants and with the fact that they constitute the bulk of Chinese population during the Civil War period. Under the tutelage of his mentor Li Dazhao, Mao have actually started his campaign for social change with his attempts at organizing peasants as early as 1922 and that he would further be impressed by the effect of peasant revolution as he witnessed the protest and insurrection of more than a million peasants in the province of Hunan in the late 1926. (Grasso, Corrin and Kort 2009, p. 103) Together with some comrades, Mao has studied the dynamics of these peasant uprisings and worked hard to win them into the revolution’s fold. His experiences with the peasantry and the developments triggered by peasant insurrections that he has witnessed led Mao to the conclusion that if his Marxist campaign is to succeed, he must tap and harness this mass, which, in his opinion, when given momentum could rise like a mighty storm, a force that no one can hold back. The problem, however, was that the Marxist ideology, mandates that the central revolutionary role should be taken by the working class. This became problematic for a time because using the peasants would mean diverting from the ideal Marxist ideology. A series of setbacks finally shook things up and transformed the Communist Party’s stand with regards to the peasantry. For instance, in 1927, the Nationalist government launched the dreaded White Terror that nearly decimated the CCP. Mao and his comrades were driven to the countryside and finally worked with the peasa nts. His argument is that the peasants are important and that the proletariat should lead them instead of criticizing and opposing them. With the peasantry, Mao was able to steer the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) into a stronger force because the peasants helped him secure a physical base. Mao’s relationship with the peasants revealed interesting insights about this class and the variables that led them to rise and join revolutions. As previously mentioned, there is a widespread belief among scholars, even contemporary proletarian officers, that the peasants cannot lead themselves and are good at following leaders outside their class. In a way, this demonstrates the dependency theory, wherein a weaker or poorer class is exploited for the perpetuation of a higher or more dominant class and its causes. Mao and his comrades have sufficiently studied the peasantry in such a way that they have successfully established mechanisms of control to keep the peasant’s dependence. The Communist Party operated with low finances and so it cannot offer material things for support. However, they have an extremely good organizational capability and that the peasantry saw