Revisiting China’s Agricultural Experiments (1949–1984): Class Transformation Beyond Teleological Narrative

This article offers a nonteleological, class-focused Marxist analysis of China’s agricultural transition from 1949 to 1984. It argues that this period was not a single, cohesive movement but a series of decentralized, often contradictory, experiments driven by the push and pull of local initiatives and Communist Party plan and guidance. This approach reveals a complex landscape of both exploitative and nonexploitative class structures of surplus arrangements. The article emphasizes the concept of overdetermination, showing how the combined effects of class and nonclass processes could undermine even well-intentioned socialist goals such as collective ownership, leading to unexpected outcomes such as exploitation class structure. It additionally demonstrates how minor or repressed experiments from one period could later become significant. Ultimately, our reading unlocks valuable resources from China’s experimental phases—including a spirit of cooperation, collective use rights, collective surplus appropriation, and independent class processes—which reveal practical Marxist choices and offer lessons for rethinking postcapitalist social reconstruction. JEL Classification: P29, P32, B51