ABSTRACT
Comments such as this, taken from an interview with a manager from a state enterprise, are commonplace, especially in the case of larger companies. This seems, at first sight, to pose a conundrum. How can an organisation that has cut back on its activities within state enterprises nevertheless continue to enjoy considerable influence within them? For there is no doubt that, in terms of the experience of ordinary workers, Party-led campaigns have faded to a pale shadow of their former selves. Among ordinary workers the fear of falling victim to one or another of the endless political campaigns and study sessions that characterised the Cultural Revolution has gone. Party members are no longer called upon to fight one political battle after another, ferreting out class enemies. You Ji sums up the spirit of those times succinctly:
Political drives were usually launched at the apex of power to purge a few designated members of the leadership, under the guise of abstract ideological rectification. At the grassroots, where the specific targets became remote, it was the task of Party cells to tackle the ‘social base’ of the disgraced Party leaders. So ‘followers’ of the erroneous Party line were ferreted out, often on the basis of a quota which factory Party cells had to fulfil. Because it was difficult to establish
the exact political and ideological crimes of those targeted, people who had either a ‘bad family’ origin or a bad relationship with Party cadres became vulnerable in these drives.
