Full at
http://cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2013/02/28/ows-and-the-importance-of-political-slogans/
"Radical political movements always employ slogans that encapsulate in a few
powerful words the aspirations of those fighting for a new world. The French
revolutionaries fought under the banner, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” words
that still resonate with radicals. The first words of the U.S. Constitution—“We
the People”—have quickened the hearts of generations of populist activists.
Emiliano Zapata’s soldiers longed for “Tierra y Libertad,”and the peasant
armies of Mao Tse Tung went to war for “Land to the Tiller.”
Every slogan has a context, circumstances that give rise to the words and make
them effective. For example, when the Chinese communists were waging their long
struggle against the army of Chiang Kai-shek, they relied upon mass support
from peasants, who formed the base of the Red Army. China was still a largely
feudal society, and peasants were brutally exploited by rich landlords. Those
who worked the land wanted it, and the communists promised to give it to them.
“Land to the Tillers” expressed this desire and the Party’s commitment to it.
Even today, after decades of capitalist restoration, China’s rural people still
have land rights won in revolutionary struggle.
The catchphrases of political upheaval are always somewhat vague. In China,
there were the farmers who tilled the soil and the landlords who owned it.
However, both classes included people of varying economic means. There were
small, medium, and large landholders. Not all peasants lived in squalor and
destitution. Yet, all landlords tended to be lumped together, and all of their
land was fair game for expropriation.
The imprecise nature of political slogans is a virtue. Actual political
programs do not derive from words alone but from the balance of class forces
that exist at a particular point in time. What slogans do is clarify the most
basic political cleavages; they help people develop the mindset most suited to
active participation in whatever struggles are at hand. In China, “land to the
tiller” said that those who worked the land should possess it; those who owned
but did not till, should not. That some both owned and tilled did not and
should not have mattered. Such complexities would have to be dealt with later,
when a new constellation of class forces had come into being."
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