A Quotation From Chairman Mao Tse-tung
So long as we can grasp the science of Marxism-Leninism, have confidence in the masses, stand closely together with the masses and lead them forward, we shall be fully able to surmount any obstacle and overcome any difficulty. Our strength will be invincible.
— The Present Situation and Our Tasks
Carry the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution Through to the End
“Renmin Ribao” and “Hongqi” Editorial
(January 1, 1967)
[This article is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 10, #1, Jan. 1, 1967,
pp. 8-15. The phrases in brackets are in the original. Thanks are due to the
WWW.WENGEWANG.ORG web site for some of the work done for this posting.]
THE emergence of the great proletarian cultural revolution in China in 1966 is the greatest event in this sixth decade of the 20th century. This revolution has taken China’s socialist revolution forward to a new stage. It has opened a new era in the history of the international communist movement.
Under the leadership of V.I. Lenin, the Great October Socialist Revolution opened the new era of proletarian revolution. The October Revolution solved the question of the seizure of political power by revolutionary violence and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, thus setting a great example for the proletariat of the whole world. At that time it was impossible, however, to solve a series of problems concerning who would win in a socialist state—the proletariat or the bourgeoisie—the maintenance of proletarian political power and the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the prevention of a capitalist restoration. Things have gone so far that in the birthplace of the October Revolution modern revisionism has emerged and usurped the leadership of the Party and state, setting the Soviet Union, the first socialist state, on to the road of capitalist restoration. This lesson shows that whether or not the proletariat is able to maintain political power and prevent capitalist restoration after it has seized political power is now a new, central issue for study by the proletariat of the world. This question decides the fate of a state which practises the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the fate of the revolutionary cause of the whole proletariat and all oppressed nations of the world. The great proletarian cultural revolution started and led by Chairman Mao Tse-tung himself has set a new and great example for the whole world proletariat in the solution of this question of great historic significance.
The great proletarian cultural revolution is a new stage in China’s socialist revolution. After the basic completion of the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production, the bourgeois Rightists in the country and the handful of bourgeois representatives within the Party are not reconciled to the demise of the system of exploitation, so they have launched repeated frenzied attacks on the proletariat in a vain attempt to stage a capitalist restoration. Under the guidance of Chairman Mao’s theory on classes and class struggle in socialist society, our Party has led the proletariat and other revolutionary sectors in successful counter-attacks against the challenge of the bourgeoisie. The current great proletarian cultural revolution is an all-round test of strength between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and its agents in our Party.
Through intense class struggle, China’s great proletarian cultural revolution has already begun to win great victories.
In 1963, under the personal guidance of Chairman Mao, the revolution in literature and art was launched in China, marked mainly by the reform of the dramatic arts; this was, in fact, the beginning of the great proletarian cultural revolution.
Since October 1965, the criticism, initiated by Chairman Mao himself, of the anti-Party, anti-socialist opera Hai Jui Dismissed from Office, of the counterrevolutionary “Three-Family Village” clique, and of the counter-revolutionary, revisionist leaders of the former Peking Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party served to prepare public opinion and blazed the path for the large-scale mass movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution.
On June 1, 1966, Chairman Mao decided to publish in the press the first Marxist-Leninist big-character poster in the country, posted first in Peking University. This kindled the raging flames of the great proletarian cultural revolution and set in motion the mass movement which has as its main target for attack the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road. A number of those in authority who took the capitalist road and reactionary bourgeois academic “authorities” were exposed by the masses who struggled against them until their prestige was completely swept into the dust. Political life in our country, the outlook of society, and the thinking of the people has undergone profound changes. A large number of brave, revolutionary path-breakers have emerged in the course of this great mass movement.
The path of revolution is tortuous. Precisely at the time when hundreds of millions of people were consciously rising to make revolution under the guidance of the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao, one, two or even several responsible people in the work of the Central Committee, in Chairman Mao’s absence from Peking, took the opportunity to put forth the bourgeois reactionary line to counter Chairman Mao’s correct line. With those responsible persons who firmly carried out the bourgeois reactionary line, they took the reactionary bourgeois stand to enforce bourgeois dictatorship in those spheres which they could reach temporarily, and tried by every means to suppress the vigorous movement of the great cultural revolution of the proletariat. These people reversed right and wrong, juggled black and white, encircled and suppressed revolutionaries, clamped down on different views, practised white terror and applauded themselves for doing so. They were puffing up the arrogance of the bourgeoisie and vitiating the morale of the proletariat.
At that crucial moment, the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Party was convened, presided over by our great helmsman Chairman Mao himself. It drew up the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,” and penetratingly exposed the bourgeois reactionary line. This reactionary line shielded the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road and played a part in their vile actions in suppressing the revolutionary mass movement and opposing the revolutionary masses. In the final analysis, it wanted to lead China towards a capitalist restoration.
The Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Party proclaimed the victory of the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao and the failure of the bourgeois reactionary line, thus guiding the great proletarian cultural revolution on to the correct path. This marked a great new victory of Mao Tse-tung’s thought in the course of the socialist revolution.
After the Eleventh Plenary Session the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao has been integrated with the revolutionary enthusiasm of the broad masses. Hence the mass criticism and repudiation of the bourgeois reactionary line and the new upsurge of the great proletarian cultural revolution. An important sign of this upsurge has been the Red Guard movement and the extensive exchange of revolutionary experience.
The Red Guards are something new that has emerged in the course of the great proletarian cultural revolution. When the Red Guards first appeared in June and July they consisted of only several score people and were smeared as a “reactionary organization” by those who put forth the bourgeois reactionary line; they were attacked and assaulted from all sides. However, the great proletarian revolutionary Chairman Mao perceived the boundless vitality of the Red Guards the instant he discovered the new—the Red Guards. He sang the praise of the Red Guards for their proletarian revolutionary rebel spirit and gave them firm and warm support. Chairman Mao’s voice was like a clap of spring thunder. In a very brief time, Red Guards developed in schools all over the country, in many factories and rural areas, and became an enormous and powerful cultural revolutionary army. The struggle [to overthrow those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road], the criticism and repudiation [of the reactionary bourgeois academic “authorities” and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes] and the transformation [of education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure that do not correspond to the socialist economic base] in the schools have been extended to the whole of society. The revolutionary Red Guards have destroyed the “four olds” of the exploiting classes on a large scale and extensively fostered the “four news” of the proletariat. They are in the van in the criticism and repudiation of the bourgeois reactionary line. They have served as the vanguard.
The extensive exchange of revolutionary experience is also something new that has emerged in the course of the great proletarian cultural revolution and has been supported and promoted by the great proletarian revolutionary Chairman Mao. The extensive exchange of experience by revolutionary students and teachers on a nationwide scale has linked the great proletarian cultural revolutionary movement throughout the country. The extensive exchange of revolutionary experience has spread Mao Tse-tung’s thought, propagated Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line and organized the proletarian revolutionary ranks all over the country and greatly battered the bourgeois reactionary line.
However, the very few persons who stubbornly persist in the bourgeois reactionary line are not reconciled to their defeat. The bourgeois reactionary line has its social base, which is mainly the bourgeoisie, and those landlords and rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements and Rightists, who have not reformed themselves sufficiently. The bourgeois reactionary line has a certain market within the Party too—among cadres whose world outlook has not been remoulded, or not been remoulded sufficiently. The very few persons who stubbornly persist in the bourgeois reactionary line are stirring up trouble by making use of its social base and its influence inside the Party. They resort to a variety of tricks in their dual tactics to resist the proletarian revolutionary line and to sabotage the criticism and repudiation of the bourgeois reactionary line by the revolutionary masses.
The most important plot and scheme of the very small number of persons who stubbornly persist in the bourgeois reactionary line is to incite the masses to struggle against each other. They have secretly organized and manipulated some people and mass organizations, whom they have hoodwinked, to suppress the revolution, protect themselves, and to provoke conflicts in which coercion or force are used in a vain attempt to create confusion. They spread rumours, turned black into white and shifted the blame for the evil they had done behind people’s backs on to the proletarian revolutionaries, labelling the latter with the “bourgeois reactionary line.” They have continued to vainly attempt to direct the spearhead of the attack against the revolutionary masses, the proletarian revolutionary line and the proletarian revolutionary headquarters.
When our Party was organizing the proletarian cultural revolutionary ranks in accordance with Chairman Mao’s class line, this very small number of persons who stubbornly cling to the bourgeois reactionary line made use of the slogan “A hero’s son is a real man! A reactionary’s son is no damn good!” to bewilder a number of students, create factions and confuse the class fronts. This slogan was first put forth by some naive young people. Because of certain one-sidedness in their methods of thinking, and proceeding from the correct premise of opposing the discrimination against and attack on the sons and daughters of revolutionary cadres, workers and peasants by the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and taking the capitalist road, these young people have moved to another extreme. Towards these naive youngsters, the proper thing to do is to patiently give them correct guidance. This was what the Party did at the time. However, those who stubbornly persist in the bourgeois reactionary line have made use of this slogan and have ulterior motives for deceiving a very small number of students (among whom are some cadres’ sons and daughters who have not been properly educated), trying to lead them on to the wrong path and to create antagonism between these and other students. The slogan “A hero’s son is a real man! A reactionary’s son is no damn good!” has thus been turned into something in opposition to the proletarian revolutionary line. It should be pointed out that the way those people with ulterior motives have made use of the slogan is in essence to advertise the exploiting classes’ reactionary “theory of family lineage.” This is exactly the same as the lineage theory spread by the feudal landlord class that “a dragon begets a dragon, a phoenix begets a phoenix, and those begotton by rats are good at digging holes.” This is out and out reactionary historical idealism.
The very small number of persons who stubbornly persist in the bourgeois reactionary line not only refuse to make a self-criticism before the masses, to reverse the verdicts passed on those of the revolutionary masses who have been branded “counter-revolutionaries,” “anti-Party elements,” “pseudo-Leftists but genuine Rightists,” “self-seeking careerists” and so on and so forth, and to publicly burn the material they have compiled against some of the revolutionary masses. On the contrary, they have been loudly publicizing “the theory of settling accounts after the autumn harvest,” and declaring that some of the revolutionary masses will be dealt with as “Rightists.” This means that they are going to counter attack and settle their accounts with the revolutionary masses. The proletarian revolutionaries are not afraid of settling accounts. The “theory of settling accounts after the autumn harvest” can in no way intimidate the revolutionary masses. Those who spread such talk have contracted a new debt to the Party and the revolutionary masses who are sure to settle accounts with them.
These manoeuvres of the very few persons who stubbornly persist in the bourgeois reactionary line serve precisely to expose them. The greater the disturbances they make, the clearer the masses understand what is meant by the bourgeois reactionary line and the more they see that it is absolutely necessary to rise up and expose, criticize and repudiate it.
Why were these persons who persist in the bourgeois reactionary line able to hoodwink some people for a time? They made use of the high prestige enjoyed by Chairman Mao and the Party among the masses; they arrogated to themselves the credit of the Party, describing themselves as the personification of the Party, their words and actions as the expression of the Party leadership and the people’s faith in the Party as faith in them. They also made special efforts to spread the idea that people should obey the leadership of their immediate superiors unconditionally and in disregard of principle. Such an idea in essence advocates blind obedience and slavishness, and is opposed to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s thought.
As early as during the rectification campaign in 1942, when the question of the Wang Ming line was solved ideologically, Chairman Mao pointed out:
“Communists must always go into the whys and wherefores of anything, use their own heads and carefully think over whether or not it corresponds to reality and is really well founded — on no account should they follow blindly and encourage slavishness.”
Chairman Mao has often taught us that erroneous leadership, which brings harm to the revolution, should not be accepted unconditionally but should be resisted resolutely. In fact, in the course of the current great cultural revolution, the masses of revolutionary students and teachers and revolutionary cadres have put up wide resistance to erroneous leadership.
It is both a political and organizational principle of a proletarian political Party armed with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s thought, resolutely to accept and carry out correct leadership by Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s thought, resolutely to resist wrong leadership that brings harm to the revolution, and resolutely to oppose slavishness. All true Communists should act in accordance with this principle resolutely, wholly and fearlessly, and undertake to propagate it correctly to the masses. Once this principle is grasped by the revolutionary masses and the masses of revolutionary cadres, those persons who stubbornly persist in the bourgeois reactionary line and the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road will be disarmed.
More than four months have passed since the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Chairman Mao and his comrades-in-arms have done much political and ideological work with regard to those comrades who have committed errors of line, and the revolutionary masses have criticized and educated them. Some comrades have already corrected their errors and others are now correcting them, and this should be welcomed. As for those persons who still refuse to correct their errors, we should sharply tell them: pull back before it is too late! If they continue to cling to the bourgeois reactionary line and use two-faced tactics towards the Party and the masses they will be wallowing in the mire with those persons who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road, or prove themselves to be, in fact, persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road.
This struggle between the two lines is a very deep-going one. The mass movement carried out in the past few months to criticize and repudiate the bourgeois reactionary line has scored tremendous achievements and enabled hundreds of millions of people to understand the essence of the struggle. The proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao aims to boldly arouse the masses, overthrow the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road and the bourgeois reactionary academic “authorities,” and eradicate all vestiges of the exploiting classes. On the other hand, the bourgeois reactionary line aims to suppress the masses, protect the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road and the bourgeois reactionary academic “authorities” and defend all vestiges of the exploiting classes. One wants to carry the socialist revolution through to the end while the other wants to preserve the old capitalist order. One wants to revolutionize while the other wants to preserve. This is the essence of the struggle between the two lines.
As the mass criticism and repudiation of the bourgeois reactionary line grows deeper, the masses are further grasping the proletarian revolutionary line of Chairman Mao and a new situation has developed in China’s great proletarian cultural revolution. The main features of this new situation are the following:
Vast numbers of workers and peasants have risen. They are breaking through all obstacles to establish their own revolutionary organizations and they have plunged into the movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution.
The forces of the revolutionary students have grown greatly and become much stronger, and their level is much higher. A number of revolutionary students have gone to factories and villages and have begun to integrate themselves with the worker-peasant masses.
The revolutionary cadres in Party and state organizations have risen to revolt against those persons holding responsible posts who are stubbornly clinging to the bourgeois reactionary line.
The mass movement has grown in scope. The content of struggle has grown richer. More revolutionary path-breakers have appeared among workers, peasants, students and cadres. The handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road have become more isolated.
All cultural revolution movements in contemporary Chinese history have begun with student movements and led to the worker and peasant movements, to the integration of revolutionary intellectuals with the worker-peasant masses. This is an objective law. This was true of the May Fourth Movement which marked the beginning of China’s contemporary history of revolution and is true also of the great proletarian cultural revolution which has brought the country’s socialist revolution to a new stage. In 1967, China’s great proletarian cultural revolution will continue to develop in line with this objective law.
1967 will be a year of all-round development of class struggle throughout China.
It will be a year in which the proletariat, united with other sectors of the revolutionary masses, will launch a general attack on the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road, and on the ghosts and monsters in society.
It will be a year of even more penetrating criticism and repudiation of the bourgeois reactionary line and elimination of its influence.
It will be a year of decisive victory in carrying out the struggle [to overthrow those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road], the criticism and repudiation [of the reactionary bourgeois academic “authorities” and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes] and the transformation [of education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure that do not correspond to the socialist economic base].
The main political tasks confronting the whole Party and all revolutionaries in the country for 1967 are:
First, in accordance with the directive of Chairman Mao and the Central Committee of the Party to “grasp the revolution and promote production,” the great proletarian cultural revolution should be carried out on a large-scale in the factories and rural areas, so as to stimulate the revolutionization of people’s thinking and promote the development of industrial and agricultural production.
The great proletarian cultural revolution in the factories and rural areas must follow the 16-point decision of the Party’s Central Committee concerning the cultural revolution and firmly adhere to the line of letting the masses educate themselves, liberate themselves and rise up and make revolution by themselves. No one should take everything into one’s own hands. The “four clean-ups” movement is to be incorporated into the great cultural revolution in which the question of the “four clean-ups” and the question of re-checking the results will be solved.
The great proletarian cultural revolution in the factories and rural areas is of the utmost importance. The workers and peasants are the main force in this revolution. The worker-peasant masses must be boldly aroused to struggle against and overthrow the handful of persons in the Party who are in authority in the factories and mines and in the rural areas and who are taking the capitalist road and root out all vestiges of capitalism and revisionism. Only in this way can the roots of capitalist restoration be eliminated.
In the early period of the War of Resistance to Japanese Aggression, Chairman Mao said: “only by mobilizing the masses of workers and peasants, who form 90 per cent of the population, can we defeat imperialism and feudalism.” Likewise, only by “mobilizing the masses of workers and peasants, who form 90 per cent of the population,” will it be possible today to defeat the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road and to settle the question of who will win, the proletariat or the bourgeoisie.
The great proletarian cultural revolution must go from the offices, schools and cultural circles to the factories and mines and the rural areas so that all positions are captured by Mao Tse-tung’s thought. If the movement is confined to offices, schools and cultural circles, the great proletarian cultural revolution will stop half way.
Any argument against the carrying out of a large-scale proletarian cultural revolution in factories and mines and the rural areas is erroneous.
Some muddle-headed people counterpose the revolution to production and think that once the great cultural revolution starts, it will impede production. Therefore, they take hold of production alone and do not grasp the revolution. These comrades have not thought through the question of what is the purpose of farming, weaving, steel making. Is it for building socialism, or is it for building capitalism? The historical experience of countries under the dictatorship of the proletariat tells us that only when the great proletarian cultural revolution is carried out successfully can the advance of our economic construction along the road of socialism and communism be ensured. Many instances during the great proletarian cultural revolution show that production makes great headway wherever the cultural revolution is successful. Revolution can only promote the development of the social productive forces, not impede it. This is a Marxist-Leninist truth, a truth of Mao Tse-tung’s thought.
There are also an extremely small number of persons who use the taking hold of production as a pretext to repress the revolution. They appear to be interested in production, but, in point of fact, they are interested in their own posts and the preservation of old bourgeois things; they are afraid that the revolution may turn against them. They go to such lengths as abetting the section of people who, for a time, are hoodwinked by them, to halt production and take action against the revolutionary masses when the masses rise to make vigorous revolution. Some of them even collude with landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements and Rightists to engage in underhanded activities. This only exposes them as pursuing the bourgeois reactionary line, or worse still, that they are, or are on the point of becoming, persons in authority taking the capitalist road.
The mass movement in factories and mines and the rural areas in the great proletarian cultural revolution is an irresistible historical trend. Any argument or person standing in the way of this trend will be swept on to the rubbish heap by the revolutionary masses.
Second, with regard to the great proletarian cultural revolution in the schools and every cultural sphere, the idea should be energetically advocated that revolutionary students, teachers and intellectuals should go to the factories and rural areas in a planned and organized way, to integrate themselves with the worker-peasant masses.
In The May 4th Movement and The Orientation of the Youth Movement, both published in 1939, Chairman Mao pointed out:
“The intellectuals will accomplish nothing if they fail to integrate themselves with the workers and peasants. In the final analysis, the dividing line between revolutionary intellectuals and non-revolutionary or counter-revolutionary intellectuals is whether or not they are willing to integrate themselves with the workers and peasants and actually do so.”
“The young intellectuals and students throughout the country must unite with the broad masses of workers and peasants and become one with them, and only then can a mighty force be created. A force of hundreds of millions of people! Only with this huge force can the enemy’s strongholds be taken and his last fortresses smashed.”
Here, Chairman Mao stated a universal truth. Integration with the worker-peasant masses is the orientation for the youth movement in both the period of the new democratic revolution and the period of the socialist revolution.
It is still true today that “in the final analysis, the dividing line between revolutionary intellectuals and non-revolutionary or counter-revolutionary intellectuals is whether or not they are willing to integrate themselves with the workers and peasants and actually do so.” Only by integrating himself with the workers and peasants can the intellectual establish a truly proletarian world outlook and become a proletarian intellectual in the true sense.
It is still true today that young intellectuals and students must go to the factories and the countryside, integrate themselves with the workers and peasants and become one with them. Only then can a mighty hundreds of millions strong force be organized to take by storm the positions held by the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road and to win final victory in the great proletarian cultural revolution.
Going to the factories and the countryside should be rationally arranged in relation to the tasks of struggle, criticism and repudiation, and transformation in a given unit. The necessary summing up of the struggle in the previous period in the unit has to be done, so as to further clarify the essence of the struggle between the two lines in the great cultural revolution, distinguish right from wrong on cardinal issues, and adopt a correct attitude and get a correct understanding in the matter of going to the factories and rural areas.
Having gone to the factories and rural areas, we should learn modestly from the worker and peasant masses and be their willing pupils, join together with them to work, study and discuss the problems in the cultural revolution, propagate the proletarian revolutionary line of Chairman Mao, and criticize and repudiate the bourgeois reactionary line. We must direct our eyes downward, undertake thoroughgoing investigation and study, integrate ourselves with the revolutionary mass organizations in the factories and rural areas, guard against the idea of our being always right and avoid taking everything into our own hands.
An important condition in carrying out the tasks of struggle, criticism and repudiation, and transformation within a given unit is that its members should go to factories and rural areas. When students and other young intellectuals plunge into the heat of the mass movement of the workers and peasants so that their ideology will be remoulded, they will be able to struggle more powerfully against the handful of persons within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road, and to differentiate more clearly between right and wrong in the big debate. Only when the great proletarian cultural revolution in the factories and rural areas is carried out thoroughly can the revolution in the schools and cultural circles, which belong to the superstructure, be completely accomplished. Only when the actual conditions in the factories and rural areas are understood and the voice of the workers and peasants is heard, can the system and content of education and the method of teaching be changed in a practical way and our cultural bodies and cultural work be transformed effectively so that they will serve the workers, peasants and soldiers truly and completely.
Third, fully develop extensive democracy under the dictatorship of the proletariat. This extensive democracy means mobilizing hundreds of millions of people under the command of Mao Tse-tung’s thought to launch a general attack on the enemies of socialism and, at the same time, criticize and supervise leading organs and leading cadres at all levels. Fostering such a social atmosphere of extensive democracy is of great, far-reaching significance for the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the prevention of the restoration of capitalism.
Extensive proletarian democracy is a new development of Chairman Mao’s mass line and a new form of the integration of Mao Tse-tung’s thought with hundreds of millions of people. This extensive democracy is the best way for the masses to educate and liberate themselves. In the course of this movement for extensive democracy, the masses are taking Mao Tse-tung’s thought as their weapon to draw a line between the enemy and themselves and distinguish right from wrong. This extensive democracy is the best school for learning Mao Tse-tung’s thought.
Chairman Mao teaches us: “Democracy sometimes seems to be an end, but it is in fact only a means.” What we aim to achieve by means of extensive democracy is the carrying out of the great proletarian cultural revolution and the development of the cause of socialism. If we depart from the interests of the proletariat and other labouring people, from socialism and from the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao, we shall not be able to have extensive proletarian democracy, and the result can only be the oppression of the revolutionary masses by a small number of persons.
The extensive democracy we advocate is under the centralized guidance of Mao Tse-tung’s thought. Different opinions among the masses should be debated under the guidance of Mao Tse-tung’s thought by presenting facts and reasoning things out; it is impermissible to use coercive measures to make others submit. Among the people, it would be against the principle of extensive proletarian democracy if only one himself is allowed to express opinions while others are forbidden to air different opinions. A very few bad eggs with ulterior motives are instigating those of the masses whom they have hoodwinked to carry out struggles by force and coercion in an attempt to suppress the revolution. They are sabotaging extensive proletarian democracy, the great proletarian cultural revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Chairman Mao teaches us that there should be democracy within the ranks of the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the safeguard for the implementation of extensive proletarian democracy. Extensive proletarian democracy in turn is aimed at consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat. Without extensive proletarian democracy, there is the danger that the dictatorship of the proletariat will turn into the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Without the dictatorship of the proletariat there can be no proletarian democracy. There cannot even be democracy on a small scale, let alone extensive democracy. In the course of the great proletarian cultural revolution, our organs of proletarian dictatorship must resolutely and unswervingly guarantee the democratic rights of the people and guarantee that free airing of views, the posting of big-character posters, great debates, and the large-scale exchange of revolutionary experience proceed in a normal way. Where there is clear evidence of cases of murder, arson, poisoning, traffic accidents created with murderous intent, maintaining traitorous relations with foreign countries, theft of state secrets and sabotage, the counter-revolutionaries concerned must be subjected to dictatorship and punished according to law. All revolutionary people must assist and supervise our state organs of the dictatorship in carrying out their task of safeguarding extensive proletarian democracy. As for Rightists who are reactionary-minded but have not done anything against the law, the masses should struggle against them by presenting facts and reasoning things out.
Fourth, continue to carry out mass criticism of the bourgeois reactionary line.
It is by no means accidental that the bourgeois reactionary line has appeared in the great proletarian cultural revolution. Since China entered the stage of socialist revolution, struggles have existed between the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao and the bourgeois reactionary line, and over the issue of whether to build socialism or capitalism. Those who have put forward the reactionary line in the great proletarian cultural revolution only further exposed their bourgeois reactionary stand.
A great deal of intensive and careful work still has to be done in order to get rid of the bourgeois reactionary line and stamp out its effects In the factories mines, in rural areas, in primary and middle schools, in colleges and universities, in cultural circles, in Party and government institutions and in all other spheres so that people can really get to the ideological root in solving this question. We must soundly understand this point.
Greet efforts must be made henceforth to destroy the bourgeois reactionary line and establish Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line in the movement among the workers, peasants and students, and on a variety of fronts in the great proletarian cultural revolution. This is the key to carrying the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end.
Revolutionary cadres in the Party and government institutions must break with outmoded rules and regulations and conventions which shackle the revolution. They must go among the misses and, together with the workers, peasants and revolutionary students, criticize and repudiate the bourgeois reactionary line and struggle against the handful of people within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road. Through the mass movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution, we shall realize the thorough proletarian revolutionization of our Party and government institutions.
During the criticism and repudiation of the bourgeois reactionary line, those comrades who commit errors of line must be treated in accordance with Chairman Mao’s instructions: “In the spirit of ‘learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones’ and ‘curing the sickness to save the patient’ in order to achieve the twofold objective of clarity in ideology and unity among comrades.” As for the very few double-dealers who refuse to correct themselves, stick to their errors and feign compliance while acting in opposition, the masses will surely overthrow them and they will have only themselves to blame.
The Chinese Communist Party is great, glorious and correct. Those in the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road amount to just a handful of people. The overwhelming majority of Party members and cadres are good and want revolution. Through the testing and tempering of the mass movement in the great proletarian cultural revolution, they will become still stronger.
The revolutionary Left should make great efforts to study and apply Chairman Mao’s works creatively, raise their level and readjust their ranks in the struggle to criticize and repudiate the bourgeois reactionary line. The ranks of the revolutionary Left must strengthen their unity on the basis of Mao Tse-tung’s thought. They should make greater efforts to study and grasp the strategic and tactical concepts of Chairman Mao and be good at winning over and uniting with the great majority so as to isolate the diehard enemy to the greatest possible extent. In the struggle, a strict distinction must be made between contradictions between ourselves and the enemy and those among the people. “The strictest care should be taken to distinguish between the anti-Party, anti-socialist Rightists and those who support the Party and socialism but have said or done something wrong or have written some bad articles or other works,” and “to distinguish between the reactionary bourgeois scholar despots and reactionary ‘authorities’ on the one hand and people who have the ordinary bourgeois academic ideas on the other.” By the end of the movement we shall achieve unity of more than 95 per cent of the cadres and more than 95 per cent of the people.
It is certain that the handful of people within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road and those very few diehards who stick to the bourgeois reactionary line will play new tricks and continue to make trouble. Like all other reactionaries, “in the last analysis, their persecution of the revolutionary people only serves to accelerate the people’s revolutions on a broader and more intense scale.” To be sure, like all other reactionaries, they too are paper tigers. We must do as Chairman Mao teaches us: despise them strategically and take full account of them tactically, and wage an unremitting struggle against them.
In the great proletarian cultural revolution, we should take as the key link the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the struggle between the two roads of socialism and capitalism and the struggle between the proletarian revolutionary line and the bourgeois reactionary line, and, in conjunction with the free airing of views, big-character posters and great debates, develop more fully the mass movement for the creative study and application of Chairman Mao’s works in response to the call of Comrade Lin Piao who is holding high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought, and temper and strengthen the highly proletarianized and militant revolutionary ranks to win one new victory after another.
Under the banner of the great thought of Mao Tse-tung,
Let the working class unite,
Let the working class unite with the poor and lower-middle peasants and other labouring people,
Let all labouring people unite with the revolutionary students, revolutionary intellectuals and revolutionary cadres,
Let the people of all nationalities unite,
Unfold class struggle in an all-round way throughout the country,
And carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end!
Long live the great teacher, the great leader, the great supreme commander and the great helmsman Chairman Mao!
Contents page for this Peking Review issue.
Peking Review article list (in date order).
Peking Review article list (by subject).