Aral mula sa pakikibakang sosyalista ni Joan Hinton
Nang makumpleto ang transisyon patungo sa sosyalistang ekonomiya noong 1956 (ibig sabihin, nagbuwag ang pribadong pagmamay-ari ng mga kasangkapan sa produksiyon—napunta sa kontrol ng Estado ang malalaking empresa, at kinolektibisa ang lupaing agrikultural), nagdiwang ang mga mamamayang Tsino. Ganito isinalarawan ni Joan ang atmospera noong panahong iyon:
The whole atmosphere was one of: now we’re all in it together and nobody’s getting rich off anybody else. Suddenly all of the social problems from before just evaporated. Anybody who went through that time knows there’s no reason for all these problems that we’re having now; it only comes when the top is corrupt. When the top leaders are taking from the people, nobody can expose them, so they scapegoat the people down below, and its an impossible situation…But in those few years after Liberation, people didn’t steal anymore…Basically in ’56, if you dropped a ten dollar bill in the road, somebody’d pick it up and chase after you to give it back to you.
Nagkaroon sina Joan at Sid ng tatlong anak. Sinikap nilang palakihin ang kanilang pamilya ayon sa rebolusyonaryong ehemplo.
Later, when the kids were older, the family instituted regular meetings, modeled after the cadre meetings that were so much a part of Joan and Sid’s discipline. The whole country, in fact, was immersed in a culture of doing “criticism, self criticism”, trying to foster a de-personalized and open evaluation of people’s work. So Joan and Sid brought it down to the family unit, and everyone had the chance to talk about what they thought was right and wrong in people’s actions.
Nagpatuloy ang Communist Party of China, sa pamumuno ni Chairman Mao Tse Tung, sa paglulunsad ng mga kilusang pagwawasto, para waksihan ang korupsiyon ng pag-iisip ng mga kadre na natatali sa burukrasya at nalalayo sa paglilingkod sa sambayanan. Isa na rito ang The Hundred Flowers Campaign, kung saan inengganyo ang kritikal na pag-iisip at bagong mga ideya sa sining at agham at teknolohiya. Ito ang paraan ni Mao ng pakikitungo sa mga umaatake sa sosyalistang landas ng partido—na hayaan silang gawin at sabihin ang lahat ng nais nila, para masaksihan mismo at maintindihan ng mga mamamayan ang kanilang mga intensiyon. Pero ginamit ni Deng Xiaoping ang pagkakataon para akusahan si Mao na “hinahayaan ang burgesya na atakehin ang partido,” kaya’t inilunsad ni Deng noong 1957 ang Anti-Rightist Campaign, na nagmistulang isang witch hunt. Bagaman hindi pa malinaw sa marami noong panahong iyon, nagsisimula nang lumitaw ang biyak sa pamununan ng partido, ang pananabotahe nina Deng at Liu Shaoqi para mabigyang-katwiran ang panunumbalik sa landas ng kapitalismo. Umabot sa pinagtatrabahuang farm nina Joan at Sid sa probinsya ng Caotan ang epekto ng kampanya ni Deng. Pinresyur at dahil nais ding mapalapit sa nakatataas, inakusahan ng direktor ng dairy ang kanilang beterinaryo ng pananabotahe sa mga baka. Naaalala ni Joan ang pulong kung saan nangahas siyang ipagtanggol ang beterinaryo (na nagpakamatay sa kalaunan).
At certain times in your life, you do things that are against the current and you get flutters in your heart. I had flutters in my heart at that big meeting when they said the vet has sabotaged and killed all those cows, because I got up and said “I don’t think he did.” I remember feeling flutters, because it was like I was supporting the counterrevolutionary…I said there were reasons that the cows had died, and I didn’t believe the vet was sabotaging and intentionally killing them.
Sa kabila ng mapait na karanasang iyon, nagpursige ang kanilang farm na mag-ambag sa pagpapataas ng produksiyon sa buong bansa. Itinalaga si Joan na mangasiwa sa pagpapatakbo sa dairy, na ang gatas ay ipinapadala sa mga ospital sa Beijing. Malaki ang kanyang pagkainis noon sa dalawang manggagawa na isinisisi niya sa aksidenteng pagkakatapon o pagkakapanis ng gatas; sa wakas, nang magpatawag ng pulong hinggil sa problemang ito, nakita niya ang pagkakataon na idiin ang dalawang manggagawa para sa kanilang pagkainutil. Pero sa pulong na iyon, nagbulalas ang mga manggagawa ng kanilang sama ng loob kay Joan, na umano’y tinatrato silang parang mga robot at hindi naiintindihan ang hirap na kanilang pinagdadaanan sa produksiyon. Naging mahalagang aral para kay Joan ang insidenteng ito:
I walkd out along the bank of our little drainage canal, thinking over all that had been said. It was raining slightly. The cool drops felt good on my face. My head was in a swirl. Here I had thought I’d worked so well, so conscientiously. I’d fought so hard to get things going, and bumped my head against so many stone walls. Then suddenly the world had turned upside down, and there I was at the bottom. The main stone wall was myself. Evidently I had been living for years in the world of things—of cows, of milk, of science and technology. But there was a whole other world—the world of people—which I had missed. I had thought of the spoiled milk only in terms of spoiled milk, while the workers—they were just instruments to keep it from spoiling. Without conscientiously realizing it, I had not thought of them as human beings like myself as all.
The truth was that I had not actually believed in them and this fact, after all, more than anything else had been the main cause for so much milk spoiling. And now? Now I must start again from scratch. The point was not that my temper was bad, but rather why was it bad? A temper is an outward expression of an inner existence. One can not just decide “I’ve got to change my temper.” It doesn’t work. I tried that many times before, but always failed. Why? Because I never took it by the roots. You must change your whole outlook on life and people. You must really believe, not only in people in the abstract, but in people—real, live, everyday people.
Simula noon, mas naging mabuting lider si Joan, at hindi na lamang simpleng technician. Naiwaksi niya ang indibidwalistang pag-iisip na mas magaling siya o kanyang mga ideya kaysa sa iba, at natutong makipagtulungan para malutas ang iba’t ibang problema. Lumago ang produksiyon sa kanilang farm. Niyakap din ni Joan maging ang mga gawaing noong una’y wala siyang kaalam-alam o inakala niya “mababa” para sa kanyang katayuan bilang siyentista.
I’ve gotten over my disappointment about having to raise ducks. My biggest experience is that whatever you do, as long as you go right into it, it becomes interesting. It’s not interesting if you don’t try to understand it, but anything can be your zhuanye [field of study or expertise]. A lot of people in China say to me “oh, you’ve changed your zhuanye.” But to me, I’m not any zhuanye; whatever you’re doing is your zhuanye. You go deeper and deeper into it and it becomes fascinating if you really try to find out what the laws that work are—otherwise it’s just fluffy. It’s really observing nature, and in China it was observing people and the relations between people, and the relations between production and the enthusiasm of the people.
Short URL: http://pinoyweekly.org/new/?p=8228
Posted by Ilang-Ilang D. Quijano
on Jul 17 2010. Filed under Lathalain.
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