UNITE! Info #026en-rep: China, early '76, on nukes etc
[Posted: 27.01.2008]
Note: The "UNITE! (etc) Info" posting series (1995-) advocates the
political
line of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong. For all items, see
www.rolf-martens.com.
INTRO NOTE, 2008:
Here's a html version of my Info #026en, originally posted in text
document
form to newsgroups etc in 2 parts, part 1/2 and part 2/2, on 18.01.1997.
I'm making this Info available in a more easily readable form now because
of a
continued debate about the arch-reactionary anti-nuclear-energy campaign
and
anti-industry campaign in general, and about who have always been its
perpetrators and instigators - which some Trotsky-adhering and other
bourgeois
forces still are trying to hide away - in the first place, and for
submitting
that Peking Review article from 23.01.1976 which makes up its main part
also to
the Marxists Internet Archive (MIA), in the second place.
[MIA: http://www.marxists.org/]
On the anti-nuclear-energy campaign in the world, and on the entire
"green"
(anti-industrial) warfare by the imperialists against the people in all
countries, see also several articles listed under those subjects in my
homepage
section "Subjects in postings".
INTRO NOTE (longish because of some im****tant connections) [1997]:
In this Info is reproduced an article published in the Peking Review No.
4/1976, 23.01.1976 (pp. 49-51): "Human Cognizance and Utilization of
Energy
Sources Is Never-Ending - Refutation of 'exhaustion of energy sources'",
by
Chin Hua.
This article shows some of the basic standpoints of Marxists on the
question of
energy in general and also on that of nuclear energy in particular. In
China at
that time, the genuinely Marxist, extremely successful ideological and
political line of Mao Zedong, who then since four decades back was
Chairman of
the Communist Party of China and who had made and still was making that
im****tant further development of Marxism-Leninism which is known as Mao
Zedong
Thought, was being followed.
Today, the arch-reactionary bourgeois propaganda syndrome which this
article
attacks, the propaganda directed against modern energy sources in general
and
against nuclear energy in particular, and saying i.a. that "the energy
sources
are being exhausted", has gone much further still than 21 years ago. This
campaign is only one part of a most rabid and massive attack against the
workers and the oppressed peoples, above all, on the part of the main
bourgeois
forces in the world today, a "green" warfare consisting of a whole series
of
anti-industry, anti-technology, anti-science and anti-growth campaigns in
the
ideological, political and economic fields.
For the Marxists, it's extremely im****tant to combat these campaigns.
They're
sup****ted too, or at least covered up, precisely by a large number of
organizations which are pretending to be "Marxist" - in some cases, even
directly maintaining that they're "adherents of Mao Zedong Thought", i.e.,
that
they're opposing modern revisionism (phoney "Marxism") - but which in
reality
are nothing but muppets of ultra-reaction, arch-enemies of the peoples.
(In
some cases, "anti-nuke" "revolutionaries" perhaps may be excused by their
ignorance - of much use to the workers they're not.)
One reason why I'm bringing this article is that it hits at those phoney
forces, by showing what was the standpoint of some genuine adherents of
Mao
Zedong, over 20 years ago. The article does have certain weaknesses too,
above
all in that it offers no real explanation of why those bourgeois forces
had now
started engaging in that propaganda against industry, technology, science
and
growth. The main reason for this apparently was not in fact discovered by
the
Chinese communists. And later in the same year, revisionists started that
overthrow of socialism in China which took place between November 1976 and
approximately the end of 1978.
In Europe, more than 140 years ago, Marx himself had already seen that
element
in bourgeois society which is the main factor behind the "green" warfare
of
today. He said, in a speech in London in 1856, i.a.: "Steam, electricity
and
the self-acting mule were revolutionists [NB!] of a rather more dangerous
character than the very citizens Barbes, Raspail and Blanqui." (See
"UNITE!
Info #5en", of 27.07.96, or the Marx-Engels archive at
<http://www.marx.org>.)
[Note, 2008: That link still works today, leading to the main page of the
Marxists Internet Archive (MIA). The main address of it today however is
http://www.marxists.org/.]
And it was in Europe, too, that the real motives behind the
anti-nuclear-energy
campaign and the other anti-industrial campaigns in modern time were
publicly
disclosed for the first time, by two articles published as leaflets by the
then
still revolutionary party KPD/ML (NEUE EINHEIT) in (West) Germany in the
spring
of 1977. (I've reproduced them in German as "Info #7de", on 07.04.96.
[Added in
2008: See Einl., Teil 1/3 etc.] Translation so far exists only into
Swedish.)
My "Info #4en", of 21.03.96, contains an analysis in English of those
bourgeois
attacks, largely based on that of the former KPD/ML (NEUE EINHEIT). [Added
in
2008: See part 1/2 etc.] I'll return to the subject.
During the time when China was turning revisionist, there still were some
articles in the Peking Review attacking the anti-nuclear-energy campaign.
One,
in issue 22/1977, quoted from a speech by Yu Chiu-li on 04.05.1977 at the
National Conference on Learning From Taching in Industry among other
things
[said] this:
"Chairman Mao said as early as in 1955: 'We have entered a period, a new
period
in our history, in which what we have set ourselves to do, think about and
dig
into is socialist industrialization, socialist transformation and the
modernization of our national defence, and we are beginning to do the same
thing with nuclear energy.' "
Another article, in PR No. 15/1978, "Utilization of Nuclear Energy and the
Struggle Against Hegemony", in itself correctly pointed out:
"With rapid progress in the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy, a
struggle
is intensifying between the Soviet Union and the United States on one
side, and
the second and third world countries on the other. The former are seeking
to
maintain their monopoly in this field while the latter are fighting to
foil the
superpowers' attempts."
This did point out *one* of the motives behind a large part of the
anti-nuclear-energy campaign, but (whether consciously or not) was silent
on
the *main* motive behind it, the one that caused this campaign to be so
massively engaged in within the USA itself, for instance. (See the Marx
speech
mentioned, and/or "Info #4en".) [Added in 2008: See #004en, part 1/2 etc.
The
link "Marx speech" here goes directly to it at MIA.]
And furthermore, such articles, on the part of the then Chinese
leader****p,
also contained a great deal of cover-up and vile hypocrisy, for at that
very
time, those same persons were engaging in massively *sup****ting* some
ultra-reactionary phoney"Marxist" forces in (West) Germany, who among
other
things precisely combated nuclear energy, *against* the (then) correct
Marxist-Leninist forces there, who were upholding Mao Zedong's line
completely
and thus also *sup****ted* the use of nuclear energy.
On 10.10.1978, the latter /the NE/ published an im****tant leaflet i.a.
smacking
that obvious contradiction into the faces of the now revisionist Chinese
leader****p. I rendered that one in Swedish too.
[Added in 2008: That Swedish translation is not on the Net. Its title,
however,
can be found in the document at my homepage showing the titles of the
items in
my (mainly Swedish-language) leaflet series "INFORMATIONSBLAD". It was
that of
item 9 in that series, published on 31.01.1979: "Vad man bör beakta när
det
gäller den nuvarande kinesiska ledningen - Om det att köpa kärnenergi och
samtidigt understödja den ökända anti-kärnenergi-kampanjen här i landet -
". In
English, that would be: "What Should Be Taken into Consideration
concerning the
Present Chinese Leader****p - On buying nuclear energy and at the same time
sup****ting the infamous anti-nuclear-energy campaign here in this country
-".]
Here follows the 1976 PR article, from then still socialist China:
HUMAN COGNIZANCE AND UTLIZATION OF ENERGY SOURCES IS NEVER-ENDING
- Refutation of "exhaustion of energy sources"
by Chin Hua
The essence of energy is motion of matter. The world of matter is
never-ending,
as are the motion of matter and energy in nature. Therefore, human
cognition
and utilization of energy sources also is never-ending. Chairman Mao has
said:
"The history of mankind is one of continuous development from the realm of
necessity to the realm of freedom. This process is never-ending." The
history
of development of the cognizance and utilization of energy sources in
nature is
also a vivid description of a dialectical process of development.
Of course, transformation of energy sources is carried out under definite
conditions; so is energy in nature transformed into energy available to
humanity. In class society such conditions are determined by class
struggle,
the struggle for production and the levels of scientific experiment. The
practices of human beings are developing continuously.
Therefore, energy sources have been constantly developing. What was not
considered energy sources previously have been changed into im****tant
energy
sources. The process of the struggle in the cognizance and utilization of
energy sources is precisely one in which human beings incessantly study
the
conditions of transformation so as to render more and more energy
available for
the progress of society.
THEORETICALLY WRONG VIEWS
Views of "energy exhaustion" in human history have been varied. Such views
are
wrong theoretically, either because they take a metaphysical approach to
the
problem of energy and deny the infinity of the material world and the
indestructibility of the motion of matter, or because they take an
isolated and
absolute approach to the definite conditions for the transformation of the
motion of the matter. Politically, such views meet the needs of the
declining
reactionary classes and are used by them as tools against progress.
In China, Ssuma Kuang (1019-1086 A.D.), a disciple of Con****ius and
Mencius,
preached that "material and wealth in nature are finite" at a time when
the
landlord class was becoming increasingly reactionary. In Europe, when the
bourgeoisie was becoming more and more reactionary, the "theory of the
death of
heat" by Clausius appeared. He maintained that with the continuous
dissipation
of heat, there would finally be a limited state in which no heat energy
could
be found which can be transformed into mechanical power, even though the
world's total amount of heat energy did not decrease at that time. The
universe
would then remain in a somewhat inert and rigid condition. His assumption
tallied with the needs of the reactionary classes so much so the Pope
listed it
as one of the "scientific evidences" for proving the existence of God.
Basing himself on the dialectical-materialist principle that motion is
indestructible, Engels thoroughly criticized Clausius' theory, pointing
out
that "the indestructibility of motion can not be merely quantitative, it
must
also be conceived qualitatively." (Introduction to Dialectics of Nature.)
The
development of the natural sciences has continued to confirm Engels'
brilliant
thesis.
At present, with the deepening of the imperialist system's crisis, the
reactionary view of "energy exhaustion" is once again being blared to
cover up
that system's decline. One U.S. paper exclaimed: "We can see the bottom of
the
barrel." The Soviet revisionists talk nonsense such as: "Mankind has
before it
a genuine catastrophe - energy hunger". These reactionary views not only
run
counter to the materialist-dialectical theory of knowledge, but also to
the
historical facts of energy development.
HISTORY OF ENERGY DEVELOPMENT
Known energy deposits are increasing. The view of "energy exhaustion" does
not
correspond with the objective reality existing in nature. Deposits of
petroleum, natural gas and coal, which are the primary energy sources
today,
have not all been found due to the limitations of social systems, the
level of
development of production and other reasons. For instance, old China was
deemed
an "oil-poor" country, but rich petroleum resources have been found in New
China. The history of the discovery of energy deposits like petroleum,
coal and
natural gas in different countries of the world has proved this fully.
According to statistics published by the U.S. World Oil and Oil and Gas
Journal, exploitable oil resources in the world (excluding China) were
estimated at over 6,000 million tons in 1939 and over 90,000 million tons
in
1974. New oil fields have been found continuously in the continental
shelves.
The same is the case with discoveries of natural gas reserves. Nearly
2,000,000
million cubic metres were found in 1939 and 70,000,000 million cubic
metres in
1974. All this demonstrates that increasing amounts of global energy
resources
like petroleum, natural gas and coal have been steadily discovered.
Moreover,
there is a long way to go before humanity discovers all the deposits and
makes
full use of them.
New energy sources which can be utilized by humans are on the increase.
With
the progress of human society, nature's range of energy sources which can
be
utilized is always being extended. New energy sources are being
discovered.
Humans only knew how to burn wood as energy in ancient times. However,
several
thousands years ago, coal and natural gas were used as energy. In the 20th
century, we started utilizing nuclear energy.
Viewed from how energy as a motive force was utilized, the earliest
sources of
energy as power in production was natural mechanical energy like water and
wind
power which could be used directly. Afterwards, through the use of steam
engines, heat energy was transformed into mechanical energy, so that the
naturally abundant mineral fuels became power sources for social
production.
Since the 19th century when the transformation of electric energy and
other
energies was discovered, electric energy has become the most widely used
form
of energy. Nuclear fission energy, which is now being used extensively by
the
power industry, and nuclear fusion energy, whose power is much greater
than
that of nuclear fission, will become energy sources too. As soon as
controlled
thermonuclear reaction comes into being, the vast expanse of sea water
will
become an inexhaustible energy source. It is estimated that the energy
stored
in deuterium in the world's oceans can be used for 10,000 million years,
if the
present level of consumption is maintained. In addition, the earth itself
is a
big thermal energy reservoir. It has an enormous amount of heat along with
energy countless times greater than the total energy of deposits of coal,
petroleum and natural gas - the present primary energy sources.
Utilization of
the abundant energy contained in terrestrial heat is only in its infancy.
Free
from pollution, solar energy has not yet been directly used on a large
scale.
Besides, with the development of human society, new energy sources will be
discovered to serve the people.
Utilization efficiency by human beings is getting higher. The development
of
energy sources shows that humanity not only is continuously extending the
range
of energy utilization, but also raising its utilization efficiency. For
example, the thermal efficiency of the steam engine attained in its
initial
stage was only several per cent, but now it goes as high as 30-40 per
cent.
With the development of industrial production and the rising of technical
levels, the utilization efficiency of energy is getting higher and higher.
For
instance, popularization of steam power apparatuses with a large capacity
and
high parameters, promotion of gas input parameters of the gas turbine,
application of gas-steam combined cycles and the magneto-hydrodynamic
generator
and fuel cells now being studied - all these are pioneering the way to
higher
energy utilization efficiency.
The utilization rate of uranium in nuclear fission energy sources is being
raised time and again. In the thermal neutron reactor generally used for
its
power nowadays, the rate can only reach 1-2 per cent, but it might be
raised to
60 per cent by using the fast-neutron breeder reactor.
In short, the history of the development of energy sources fully testifies
that
"ideas of stagnation, pessimism, inertia and complacency are all wrong."
REFLECTION OF THE CRISIS OF CAPITALIST SYSTEM
The so-called energy crisis in the capitalist world today is a product of
the
imperialist system itself and an indication of its aggravating decay.
Bragging
about her prosperity, the United States boasts that her population
constitutes
only 6 per cent of the world's population but the energy sources she
expends
are one-third of the world's total. This is a typical example of waste and
destruction of energy sources due to decadent relations of production.
Energy
sources in the United States are consumed in large quantities for arms
expansion and war preparations, 10 per cent of the petroleum and 33 per
cent of
the industrial electric power are devoted to the production of munitions.
The reactionary and decadent nature of Soviet revisionist
social-imperialism is
also reflected in the question of energy sources. It wantonly plunders the
third world's energy sources for high profits. In the past few years, its
im****ts of low-priced crude oil from the Middle East have sharply
increased:
100,000 tons in 1967, over 7 million tons in 1972, and over 13 million
tons in
1973. The Soviet revisionists compelled the Arab countries to pay for
their
munition debts with cheap petroleum which was resold to European and
American
countries at a much higher price in order to rake in enormous profits. It
is
because of the wild exploitation and plunder by the imperialists,
especially
the two superpowers, that the third world has to use petroleum as a weapon
against them.
"Energy exhaustion" and "hunger for energy" uttered by the two superpowers
actually mean the crisis of their policy of plunder and hegemonism,
showing
that they can no longer ravage the third world as they please. Take
petroleum
again as an example. According to statistics published in the United
States,
total discovered petroleum reserves in 1974 was 93,800 million tons, but
total
world output of petroleum that year was only 2,800 million tons. How can
there
be "exhaustion" and "hunger"? The fact is that around 80 per cent of the
known
reserves is in the third world. With the third world steadily awakening
and
growing in strength, the superpowers can no longer plunder it at will.
The frantic cries of the two hegemonic powers about "energy exhaustion" is
but
a smokescreen to cover up and create public opinion to facilitate their
aggression and plunder. Whenever the U.S. imperialists seized Middle East
petroleum in the past, they first of all created public opinion about
"energy
exhaustion". After World War I, the U.S. propaganda machine was put to
work
clamouring that "U.S. petroleum resources will soon be exhausted". Soon
afterwards, the U.S. State Department clamoured that "open-door" and
"equal
op****tunity" principles should be adopted for the exploitation of Middle
East
petroleum resources. Thus the U.S. monopoly groups made their way into the
Middle East.
After World War II, these monopoly groups once again raised a hue and cry
about
"energy exhaustion", howling that all U.S. produced petroleum had been
used up
and that if they were to maintain their civilization on the basis of
petroleum,
they should be ready to go into those rich petroleum areas. Soon after
this,
they managed to control most of the petroleum resources in the Middle
East.
The same can be said of the Soviet revisionists. Their "energy hunger" cry
is a
smokescreen to conceal their outrageous plunder of petroleum wealth so as
to
wrangle with the U.S. imperialists over Middle East oil. All this
illustrates
that the so-called energy crisis is a crisis of the imperialist system
itself.
With the victorious advance of the third world countries and the people of
the
whole world in their struggle against imperialism, there will soon emerge
a new
and unprecedented bright era in the history of development of energy
sources.
_____________________
Message posted by:
Rolf Martens
Malmö, Sweden
Phone and fax:
+46 - 40 - 124832;
rolf.martens@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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