No Woman, No Revolution, Part 7a
The Little Red Book
This is about the little book
with the red plastic cover, which is not central to this course. But it is part
of the history of ideas. According to Wikipedia, it
was published in a total printing of 1,055,498,000 copies, in many different
languages.
That’s more than a billion.
Chapter 31 is on Women. Among
other things it says:
“Unite and take
part in production and political activity to improve the economic and political
status of women.”
None of Mao’s statements are
“gendered”.
Mao correctly places the
question of male authority within a class and economic (political economy)
context.
Mao’s form of propaganda is
reminiscent of the kind that Clara Zetkin advocated: Well-produced, but short,
and capable of being read by everybody.
·
The above is to
introduce the original reading-text: The Little Red
Book, Chapter 31 on Women, Mao, 1966.
