Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1992, Page 27
every criticism” was a handy maxim used to squelch any defensiveness in response to a
criticism or any attempt to challenge an incorrect criticism.
The collective critiques of someone’s class history were lengthy and grueling, often taking up
most, if not the entire agenda, of an eight- or ten-hour meeting. Written and then oral
presentations of each member’s family background and personal history were evaluated from
the extremely critical stance of what was or wasn’t for or against the working class. Again
following Mao’s tenet that “every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the
brand of a class,” these sessions became a kind of relentless and often torturous political
autopsy that did not finish until the person adopted the “correct class analysis” of his or her
life up to the point of joining the organization.
Both of these techniques (criticism/self-criticism and class histories), readily accepted as
invaluable means of re-education and remolding, were especially formulated on the Chinese
model. The use of these remolding approaches intensified and became even more directed
during the first few years of the WDU’s existence. In fact, the sessions on class histories that
were held by the founders were merely a factual and chronological recounting of one’s
background. It was, however, the next round of recruits and those after who were subjected
to the kind of badgering and grueling interrogations that became the initiation ritual of party
member-ship. Similarly, the harshness and viciousness of the criticism sessions soon became
the norm, led by founders and early members who were all well trained in leading these
sessions.
Basic Texts
In the early period, two books were used as basic texts for under-standing the political
effectiveness of these processes and for learning how to carry them out. One was Fanshen: A
Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village by William Hinton (1966), which describes in
detail the “over-turning” of the villagers’ thinking from backward and counterrevolutionary to
pro-Maoist and revolutionary. “Fanshen” means to turn over. In Long Bow village this was
done by the Red Guards inciting the residents to take up the revolutionary cause, with hours
and days of mass meetings for public confessions, criticisms, and denunciations before fellow
villagers. Eventually the majority of the population of Long Bow expressed unity with the
people’s revolution.
The other book studied carefully was Prisoners of Liberation by Allyn and Adele Rickett
(1973), a description of four years spent in a Chinese communist prison on charges of
espionage. During this time (the early 1950s), the Ricketts underwent what became known as
the Chinese thought reform process. They returned home to the U.S. as self-confessed spies
and in complete support of the Chinese revolution.
Along with Baxter’s (and later also her second-in-command Sandra’s) specific direction on
how criticism sessions and class histories were to be carried out, these two books, plus
Baxter’s rewrite of Frank Meyer’s (1961) The Moulding of Communists (see above, footnote
4), were the basis for the development of the WDU’s use of highly effective, probing
techniques. In fact, these methods came to more or less dominate the group’s existence --an
existence characterized by almost continual denunciation and self-confession.
every criticism” was a handy maxim used to squelch any defensiveness in response to a
criticism or any attempt to challenge an incorrect criticism.
The collective critiques of someone’s class history were lengthy and grueling, often taking up
most, if not the entire agenda, of an eight- or ten-hour meeting. Written and then oral
presentations of each member’s family background and personal history were evaluated from
the extremely critical stance of what was or wasn’t for or against the working class. Again
following Mao’s tenet that “every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the
brand of a class,” these sessions became a kind of relentless and often torturous political
autopsy that did not finish until the person adopted the “correct class analysis” of his or her
life up to the point of joining the organization.
Both of these techniques (criticism/self-criticism and class histories), readily accepted as
invaluable means of re-education and remolding, were especially formulated on the Chinese
model. The use of these remolding approaches intensified and became even more directed
during the first few years of the WDU’s existence. In fact, the sessions on class histories that
were held by the founders were merely a factual and chronological recounting of one’s
background. It was, however, the next round of recruits and those after who were subjected
to the kind of badgering and grueling interrogations that became the initiation ritual of party
member-ship. Similarly, the harshness and viciousness of the criticism sessions soon became
the norm, led by founders and early members who were all well trained in leading these
sessions.
Basic Texts
In the early period, two books were used as basic texts for under-standing the political
effectiveness of these processes and for learning how to carry them out. One was Fanshen: A
Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village by William Hinton (1966), which describes in
detail the “over-turning” of the villagers’ thinking from backward and counterrevolutionary to
pro-Maoist and revolutionary. “Fanshen” means to turn over. In Long Bow village this was
done by the Red Guards inciting the residents to take up the revolutionary cause, with hours
and days of mass meetings for public confessions, criticisms, and denunciations before fellow
villagers. Eventually the majority of the population of Long Bow expressed unity with the
people’s revolution.
The other book studied carefully was Prisoners of Liberation by Allyn and Adele Rickett
(1973), a description of four years spent in a Chinese communist prison on charges of
espionage. During this time (the early 1950s), the Ricketts underwent what became known as
the Chinese thought reform process. They returned home to the U.S. as self-confessed spies
and in complete support of the Chinese revolution.
Along with Baxter’s (and later also her second-in-command Sandra’s) specific direction on
how criticism sessions and class histories were to be carried out, these two books, plus
Baxter’s rewrite of Frank Meyer’s (1961) The Moulding of Communists (see above, footnote
4), were the basis for the development of the WDU’s use of highly effective, probing
techniques. In fact, these methods came to more or less dominate the group’s existence --an
existence characterized by almost continual denunciation and self-confession.
