The victory of the Chinese Communist Party over the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War was a turning point in world history. A decrepit, corrupt, US-backed regime fell to the military campaign of a widely supported, peasant-based Communist army.

But, what limited progress that victory opened up ultimately paved the way for a new type of capitalist state, one that would suppress the aspirations of the working class and oppressed in China for decades to come.

This talk will interrogate the history and politics of the Chinese Revolution of 1949, to account for what was achieved, what was suppressed, and to salvage a genuine Marxist vision of socialist liberation.