The People’s Liberation Army Firmly
Backs the Proletarian Revolutionaries
[This article is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 10, #5, Jan. 27,
1967, pp. 10-11. Thanks are due to the WWW.WENGEWANG.ORG
web site for some of the work done for this posting.]
CHINA’S great proletarian cultural revolution, led by our great leader Chairman Mao, has entered a new stage. The main task of struggle in this new stage is for the proletarian revolutionaries to form a great alliance, concentrate their forces, and seize power from the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and taking the capitalist road and from the tiny number of diehards who persistently cling to the bourgeois reactionary line.
The Chinese people, led by our great leader Chairman Mao himself, wrested political power throughout the country after 28 years of arduous struggle, and founded a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. However, a handful of bourgeois representatives who have wormed their way into the Party are not reconciled to the doom of the system of exploitation. They have usurped the power of leadership in some places and departments, practised the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and tried in every way to pull socialist China to capitalism. It is entirely justified for the proletarian revolutionary rebels to rise and seize power from them in this great proletarian cultural revolution which is without precedent in history. The struggle to seize power constitutes a general counter-offensive against the attacks launched on the proletariat in the last 17 years by the bourgeois agents who wormed their way into the Party. The characteristic of this struggle to seize power is that it is a conscious mass movement drawing in hundreds of millions of revolutionary people under the command of Mao Tse-tung’s thought; that, with the support of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee headed by the great leader Chairman Mao, the revolutionary people capture, one by one and from below, the positions where the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and taking the capitalist road are entrenched; and that various new forms coming forth in the mass movement are used to eradicate thoroughly the old things of the exploiting classes and revisionism and completely transform all parts of the superstructure that do not correspond to the socialist economic base.
Our People’s Liberation Army is a revolutionary army of the proletariat created by Chairman Mao himself. It is a pillar of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In this great struggle of the proletariat to seize power from the bourgeoisie, we must firmly stand on the side of the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao, firmly stand on the side of the proletarian revolutionaries. The P.L.A. must firmly support and assist them, for this is a great call from our great leader Chairman Mao. We must follow Chairman Mao’s teachings and enthusiastically, unequivocally and wholeheartedly support the proletarian revolutionary rebels in rising to seize power. Even though they may be just a minority temporarily, we must support them without the slightest hesitation.
In the new situation in the present great proletarian cultural revolution, it is not possible for the People’s Liberation Army to refrain from intervening. Some people use “non-intervention” as a pretext to actually suppress the masses. This is absolutely impermissible. Their so-called “non-intervention” is false. The question is not whether or not to intervene, but which side to stand on. It is a question of whether to support the proletarian revolutionaries or to support the conservative-minded people or even the Rightists. In the present great proletarian cultural revolution, in the present fierce class struggle, not to stand on the side of the proletariat means to stand on the side of the bourgeoisie. Not to stand on the side of the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao means to stand on the side of the bourgeois reactionary line. There can be no eclecticism, no compromise and no neutrality on this question. Our P.L.A. must clearly and actively support the proletarian revolutionary Left.
The demand of all genuine proletarian revolutionaries for the army’s support and assistance must be met. The People’s Liberation Army should carry forward the fine tradition of doing mass work. In giving support to the great proletarian cultural revolution among the civilians they should become one with the proletarian revolutionaries and with the revolutionary masses, learn from the masses, propagandize the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao among the masses and help the proletarian revolutionaries develop and grow.
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” The political power of the proletariat seized by the people’s army with the gun has to be defended by the people’s army with the gun, too. Active counter-revolutionaries and counter-revolutionary organizations sabotaging the great proletarian cultural revolution must be resolutely suppressed and the dictatorship of the proletariat exercised over them.
Chairman Mao teaches us: “The Chinese Red Army is an armed body for carrying out the political tasks of the revolution.” The proletarian revolutionary rebels have risen to seize power from those in authority taking the capitalist road and to ensure that our country will not change colour for all generations to come. This is the highest politics of the proletariat. Our People’s Liberation Army is infinitely loyal to Chairman Mao and to the proletarian revolutionary line he represents. We have made contributions in faithfully defending the great proletarian cultural revolution. We will make new and still greater contributions to supporting the proletarian revolutionaries in rising and seizing power.
Comrades, we heroically went through fire and water to win the country for the people and made immortal contributions in the past. In the present rigorous and great class struggle, we should become a bulwark defending the great proletarian cultural revolution. We must follow Comrade Lin Piao’s instruction: enthusiastically support Chairman Mao, zealously support the proletarian revolutionary Left, hit hard at the handful of persons who are in authority and taking the capitalist road, and always keep the banner of our great People’s Liberation Army completely red.
(“Jiefangjun Bao” editorial, January 25.)
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