The May 4th Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist and nationalist movement that began on this day in 1919 when more than 4,000 unversity students took to the streets in protest of the Treaty of Versailles. These protests became a national and cultural movement that served as an inspiration for later left-wing movements.

On the afternoon of May 4th, over 4,000 students of Yenching University, Peking University, and other schools marched from many points to gather in front of Tiananmen. They shouted slogans as "struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home", "do away with the Twenty-One Demands", and "don't sign the Versailles Treaty".

The next day, students in Beijing as a whole went on strike and in the larger cities across China. Students, merchants, and workers joined the protests. The demonstrators appealed to the newspapers and sent representatives to carry the word across the country. In Shanghai, a general strike of merchants and workers took place, negatively impacting the economy.

In the years that followed, many Chinese political thinkers turned to leftist politics in the wake of the political upheaval of the May 4th Movement. In 1939, Mao Zedong claimed that the May Fourth Movement was a stage leading toward the fulfillment of the communist revolution.

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  • spring_rabbit [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Last night a coworker asked me what communism is because she literally had no idea, and I realized that while I can defend communism from various criticisms, I've never had to actually describe the basics from the ground up. Fortunately my commie coworker who is good with words stepped in and gave a good explanation.

    I'm so used to butting heads with anti-communists that I forget that some people are still blank slates.

    • Solara [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      True. I think first I like to talk about worker power + people having power In their workplace and the contradiction between employee and employer.

      • spring_rabbit [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah this was in the context of her signing her union card, and commie coworker celebrating by showing off his hamsick tattoo. She asked what it was, he said "communism symbol" and she asked "what's communism?"

        We basically said "Yo what if the people who actually worked at a job were in charge instead of the bosses, and banks and rental companies couldn't hoard all the housing and making it so damn expensive?"

        We work in homeless services and she is trying to buy a house right now, so I hit with the personal touch. I don't think it was an effective explanation, but she signed the card so hey.

    • DialecticalShaman [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      My coworker asked me

      What does "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need" mean?

      He's a well off centrist who leans reactionary due to a strong individualist streak so I'm like, uhhhh why are you asking? Don't want to be known as the turbo commie lol. Anyway yeah it was hard to break down cause I find the phrase self-explanatory.

      Turns out it was for a political compass placement test.

      He got lib-left :picard: