Aral mula sa pakikibakang sosyalista ni Joan Hinton
Minahal sina Joan at Sid ng lahat ng kanilang mga nakatrabaho hindi lamang dahil sa kanilang pagpupursige at husay sa gawain, kundi maging sa kanilang pagiging mabait at simple. Hindi nila hinangad na magkaroon ng materyal na mga bagay na wala ang iba, kahit noong tinatawag na Hard Times o panahon ng kagipitan dahil sa pagbawi ng suporta sa Tsina ng Unyong Sobyet, na noo’y tumatahak na ng rebisyunistang linya.
Sid, in his generosity, lent their family’s ration for shoes to a dairy technician who said he was in need, and Joan was stuck trying to figure out how to get shoes for the kids. The first winter was passable, but then in the summer, Karen lost a pair of her shoes playing in the sand (not a big surprise since the goal of the game was to bury your shoes and see if you could find them again). She had to go through the summer barefoot, and the two boys’ shoes were a little worse for the wear, after being patched up twice. But by winter, Karen needed to put something on her feet, and Billy’s big toe was coming out the front of one of his threadbare shoes. After several attempts to try to find some shoes, even trying to buy leather shoes in the city, Joan brought the problem back to Sid and made him solve it, since he was the one who created it. After some awkward meetings with the farm leadership, that winter the kids all got new cotton padded shoes.
Bago ang Cultural Revolution, inilipat sina Joan at Sid sa Beijing para magtrabaho bilang mga copy editor ng mga publikasyon sa wikang Inggles. Malayo sa produksiyon at kolektibong pamumuhay sa farm, kinamuhian nila ang trabahong ito dahil sa mga pribilehiyong ibinigay sa kanila—gaya ng paninirahan sa magarang hotel, paghatid-sundo sa sasakyan, at mas mataas na suweldo kaysa sa karaniwan. (Kalauna’y mailalantad na ang espesyal na pagtrato sa mga dayuhan bilang bahagi ng iskema ng mga rebisyunista para ikorupt ang kanilang pag-iisip.) Kabilang sina Joan at Sid sa mga unang tumutol sa espesyal na pagtratong ito, sa pamamagitan ng paglathala ng isang dazibao. Ang dazibao ang tawag sa poster na inengganyo ni Mao ang mga mamamayan na gawin at ipaskil saanmang lugar, para ipahayag ang kanilang kritisismo at ilantad ang mga rebisyunista sa liderato ng partido, bilang bahagi ng Cultural Revolution. Kumalat ang kanilang dazibao, hanggang sa makarating ito kay Mao, na nagsabing tama sila at iniutos ang pagtigil sa burgis na pribilehiyo at iba pang porma ng diskriminasyon laban sa mga dayuhang rebolusyonaryo.
It was a tremendous feeling, and understanding of how a proletarian leader, a real proletarian leader has to be able to understand the oppression of all people, every kind of oppression and be able to act principled about it. You could see from the struggle that it was a question of principle how you treated foreign revolutionaries. The business had been coming down trying to build bourgeois nationalism. So as I see it, it was a fight between the Liu/Deng line and Mao’s line. That was why our dazibao hit a key place—we just happened to be the first to hit it.
Umigting ang tunggalian ng linya sa liderato ng partido. Sa gitna nito, sinikap nina Joan at Sid na itaguyod ang sosyalistang landas at labanan ang rebisyunismo. Iginiit nilang makabalik sa agrikultural na produksiyon, at nagtungo sa Dazhai, ang probinsyang modelo ng mga tagumpay ng sosyalistang ekonomiya. Gaya ng kanyang naunang mga karanasan, nakita ni Joan na tumataas ang produksiyon at lalong ginaganahan ang mga mamamayan na magtrabaho kapag kolektibo ang pamumuno at pagpapatakbo rito. Kaya nang mamatay si Mao noong 1976, agad nilang napuna ang kamalian ng linya ni Deng, na sa susunod na mga taon ay magmamaniobra para makuha ang liderato at tuluyang ilihis ang partido sa landas ng kapitalismo.
The first time that Joan and Sid got a clear idea of what Deng was about was the report they got at their cadre study from the Learn from Dazhai’s Example in Agriculture Meeting in Shanxi Province. His speech was about the failings of the work point system and how it dampened people’s enthusiasm. He called it “Da Guo Fan,” a catch phrase that would later be used to dismantle the collective system. The literal translation was Big Rice Pot, and the implication was that people had no incentive to work because people were all guaranteed a share of the rice in the pot no matter what. People who did work hard and were talented or smart, had to eat out of the same pot as lazy dumb people.
It struck Joan and Sid immediately because having lived and worked in Dazhai for many months, the speech had nothing to do with learning from Dazhai. In fact, it had everything to do with discrediting it.
Sa kabila ng unti-unting tagumpay ng rebisyunismo at pagkasira sa lahat ng kanilang mga pinaghirapan, pinili ng mag-asawa na manatili sa bansang kanilang minahal at pinaglingkuran. Para kay Joan na nakita at dinanas ang kapitalismo kaya’t hindi nakumbinsi sa landas na ipinang-aakit ni Deng sa mga mamamayang Tsino, pinatunayan ng kanilang karanasan na nagsisilbi sa interes ng nakararami ang sosyalismo. Aniya’y nagtagumpay lamang ang mga nagsusulong ng kapitalismo sa panghahati at panlilinlang ng mga mamamayan; at ang malakas na tendensiyang burgis sa bawat isa na mahati sa iba’t ibang paksiyon ang magiging hadlang sa pagkamit ng sosyalismo.
The working people fall for it all the time, because we do not have proletarian ideology. We don’t think that the working people are one family; we just look at somebody from the other village and think “they’re not our village…” There’s no reason on earth for them to hate each other.
At kapag tinatanong ang mag-asawa kung ano ang personal nilang pakiramdam sa nangyari sa Tsina, ang isinasagot lamang nila ay ganito: In China, they’d say, you have to have a sense of history, a sense of struggle, and a sense of humor. Tunay nga, ayon kay Dao-yuan Chao, pinupuno ng kanilang mga halakhak ang saanmang lugar sa sila’y magpunta.
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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