Dictionary of Revolutionary Marxism

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YAN’AN PERIOD   (Old style: YENAN PERIOD)
The period in the Chinese Revolution from 1937 to 1947 when Yan’an, a city in Shaanxi province, was the center of the Communist movement and headquarters of the Party and the people’s government it led in large parts of rural China.
        In addition, there was a distinctive style of leadership of the masses (based on the mass line), and a more modest and down-to-earth way of living by the CCP leadership who were closer to the life of the people during this period. This was later called by Mao the “Yan’an Way”, and he and his closest revolutionary followers always looked back on this period with fondness and seriously attempted to recreate the Yan’an Way in all of China during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, unfortunately with only partial and short-term success.

YANG Chu   (c. 395-335 BCE)
Early Chinese naive materialist philosopher, who severely criticized religious views and the belief in immortality in particular. He urged people to enjoy their lives and not worry about what will happen after death. He took a rather fatalistic view about nature and society. In ethics he emphasized that people should work toward the greatest satisfaction of their needs and wishes, but focused more on individual satisfaction than the satisfaction of collective interests. However, his individualism was in reaction to the reactionary Confucianism of his time which led to the differing social gradation of people.

YANG Xianzhen   (1896-1992)
Revisionist philosopher and politician in the People’s Republic of China. Provoked the One-Divides-into-Two Struggle in 1964 by erroneously arguing for the opposite, that the basic viewpoint of dialectics is supposedly that “Two Unite into One” (or “Two Combine into One”). This philosophical notion promoted the playing down of class struggle and the adoption of capitalist policies and methods in order to “build socialism”.

YAO Wenyuan   [Old style: Yao Wen-yuan]   (1931-2005)
One of Mao’s close followers and supporters in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and one of the so-called “Gang of Four”. [More to be added.]

YELLOW RIVER   [Huang He or Huang Ho (Old Style)]
A major river in China and the third longest river in Asia. Often called “China’s Sorrow” in pre-Liberation times (before 1949) because of the frequent terribly flooding which killed millions of people. During major floods it has often changed its course significantly, and the present course began with the 1897 flood. The 1887 flood is estimated to have killed between 900,000 and 2 million people and according to the Wikipedia was the second-worst natural disaster in history (excluding famines and epidemics). The 1931 flood killed between one and four million people, and is the very worst natural disaster ever recorded (excluding famines and epidemics).
        In 1938 Chiang Kai-shek ordered his troops to destroy the dikes along the banks of the Yellow River in a vain attempt to stop the Japanese imperialist invasion then in progress. It only slowed the Japanese down briefly and ended up leading to the deaths of around 800,000 people either directly or through starvation. This was one of the worst criminal acts of the 20th century.
        See also: CHIANG KAI-SHEK—As a Military Leader [2nd quote by Richard Bernstein]

YEMEN — U.S. Imperialist Drone Warfare In
See also: DRONES

“The U.S.’s Deadly Drone War
        “The U.S. has launched more than 100 drone strikes in Yemen since 2002, killing close to 900 militants, including Anwar al-Awlaki, whom U.S. counterterrorism officials called ‘the most dangerous man in the world.’ But dozens of civilians have also died. While most Yemenis want to see al Qaida driven from their territory, the strikes have stoked strong anti-American feeling. President Obama said missiles are fired only when there is ‘near certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured,’ but from the air it can be difficult, if not impossible, to discern every person’s identity. Many Yemenis believe that the Saleh and then Hadi governments often gave the U.S. names of their political enemies and identified them as terrorists. ‘Every time they kill an innocent person,’ said drone victims’ advocate Mohamed al-Qawli, ‘they motivate the families to join al Qaida.’” —From “Yemen’s Descent into Chaos”, The Week (a bourgeois U.S. magazine), March 6, 2015, p. 11.
        [Not only is U.S. imperialism itself by far the biggest direct source of terrorism in the world today, that same U.S. terrorism definitely leads to even much of the other terrorism in the world that the U.S. itself doesn’t directly commit! —S.H.]

YISHUV
A term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 25,000 Jews living in that region, and continued to be used until 1948, by which time there were some 630,000 Jews there. The term is still in use to denote the pre-1948 Jewish residents in Palestine. [From Wikipedia entry, as of March 5, 2024.]
        See also: ZIONISM and related entries.

YOUTH
        See also: COMMUNISM—Attitude of Americans Towards,   GENERATIONAL CHANGE—U.S.

“...Is it not natural that youth should predominate in our Party, the revolutionary party? We are the party of the future, and the future belongs to the youth. We are a party of innovators, and it is always the youth that most eagerly follows the innovators. We are a party that is waging a self-sacrificing struggle against the old rottenness, and youth is always the first to undertake a self-sacrificing struggle....
         “We shall always be a party of the youth of the advanced class!” —Lenin, “The Crisis of Menshevism”, LCW 11:354-5.

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