Scrubbing off the traces O1 'democracy'

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In the past, Deng. Xiao Ping has Nond /loftl with Chairman Han Bureaucratic spring cleaning has wiped Peking's "democracy wall" clear of any trace of proletarian democracy and political opposition to the ruling Stalinist bureaucracy. .

But Chinese workers are now "free" to express themselves on another wall, provided by the Peking municipal committee.

Posters can be displayed here -at a safe distance from the city centre-after registration with the authorities, who must also give permission for the poster to appear!

Suppression

This new act of political suppression has been expected since the standing committee of the National People's Congress demanded "resolute action" against those subversive forces responsible for posters which attacked the Party leadership.

Xidan-'democracy wail'has been used as a symbolic pawn in the power struggle within the Peking bureaucracy. isation' or 'democratisation' measures.

But Deng has now lined up with his rivals, clearly assessing that the 'dissident' movement no longer has any value for his ambitions and is fast becoming a threat to every section of the bureaucracy, including himself.

This tactical about-turn offers yet another vindication of the Trotskyist analysis of the ruling Stalinist bureaucracies.

Whatever the limited gestures it may make for its own reasons, no section of this parasitic caste can open • up through its leadership the development af genuine proletarian democracy in China.

That struggle can be waged to the end only by the building of a revolutionary party which asserts through its programme and leadership the revolutionary independence of the working class from the political dictatorship of the Stalinist bureaucracy. conflict will not come from these economic methods. The forces building up within Iran