Shanghai Commune 1967
anecdote · history ·
retold in 5 talks
Workers and students in Shanghai took Mao’s call to 'attack the headquarters' literally, overthrowing local party offices and ignoring the army, leading to a tragic battle where the army turned on the revolutionaries.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 4
“residents of shanghai workers and students decided to take literally mao's call... they took this literally and simply overthrew”
“residents of Shanghai, workers and students, decided to take literally Mao's call… they took this literally and simply overthrew offices of local Communist Party, ignored the army and took over.”
“Mao got afraid and ordered Lin Biao to send the army... between the army Lin Biao on the orders of Mao and radical revolutionaries themselves”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Saint Maximus the Confessor2Saint Athanasius of Alexandria2Will Self2Peter Wessel Zapffe2Wendell Berry1Ramesh Srinivasan1Thomas Müntzer2Jane Bennett2
alongside works
Every retelling 4
Workers and students in Shanghai took Mao’s call to 'attack the headquarters' literally, overthrowing local party offices and ignoring the army, leading to a tragic battle where the army turned on the revolutionaries., illustrating communism-socialism,ideology
During the Cultural Revolution, workers and students in Shanghai took Mao's call to 'attack the headquarters' literally, overthrew local Party offices, and ignored the army, whereupon Mao sent the army to crush them in the biggest battle of the Cultural Revolution, with tens or hundreds of thousands dead., illustrating the limits of Communist revolution,the gap between theory and radical practice,predestination and political action
Workers and students in Shanghai took Mao at his word and established a non-representative commune without state/army/party; Mao ordered Lin Biao to crush it, the greatest battle of the Cultural Revolution was against the most radical revolutionaries., illustrating tragic dimension of emancipatory politics,Maoism
In 1967 workers in Shanghai took Mao's words literally, declared the Shanghai Commune without army or party, and Mao had to send in the army to crush it, with thousands dying. This was the moment of truth of the Cultural Revolution: the most violent battle was not against class enemies but internal., illustrating revolution and its betrayal,communism and its limits,Cultural Revolution