The Sunlight of the Party Illuminates the Road of the Great Cultural Revolution
[This article is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 9, #27, July 1,
1966, pp. 9-10. Thanks are due to the WWW.WENGEWANG.ORG
web site for some of the work done for this posting.]
Under the correct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the current great proletarian cultural revolution in our country, a revolution without parallel in history, is gaining victory step by step.
Chairman Mao has said: “The force at the very core that leads our cause is the Communist Party of China.”
It is only under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party that the Chinese people can be victorious in all their undertakings and struggles.
The victory of the democratic revolution which toppled the “three great mountains” [Imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. —Tr.] was won under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
All the great achievements in the socialist revolution and socialist construction have been brought about under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
Likewise, it is only under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party that the great proletarian cultural revolution is able to triumph.
In short, without the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party it is absolutely impossible for our country to become prosperous, rich and strong and establish the great socialist system free from exploitation of man by man. To think that these things could be achieved without such leadership would be a pure illusion.
Our Party has the great and invincible Mao Tse-tung’s thought as the ideological basis for the unity of the whole Party and the revolution, and it has the firm and powerful leadership of its Central Committee at the core of which is Chairman Mao.
Our Party is built in accordance with Chairman Mao’s ideas on Party building and his revolutionary style, and it is a proletarian revolutionary Party, one that integrates theory with practice, closely links itself with the masses and has the spirit of self-criticism.
Our Party has developed, grown and been consolidated in the course of struggle against powerful enemies both at home and abroad and against opportunism of all kinds within the Party, and has gone through the severe tests of protracted revolutionary struggles.
Our Party is one that, guided by Mao Tse-tung’s thought, has experienced countless hardships with almost no equal in world history, skillfully steering past hidden shoals in fierce tempests and advancing from victory to victory.
Our Party enjoys the greatest prestige, unshakable prestige, among the people. Our Party represents the highest interests of the proletariat and the broad masses of the working people, and its relationship with the masses of the people is, as Chairman Mao says, like that between fish and water.
Therefore, our Party is worthy of being called a great Party, a glorious Party, a correct Party.
Under the leadership of the Party’s Central Committee and Chairman Mao, the overwhelming majority of our Party organizations at all levels, and of our Party members and cadres are good and loyal to the proletariat, to the cause of communism, and to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s thought. Although some Party members and Party organizations to one degree or another have manifested shortcomings and made mistakes, many of them will be able to rectify these through criticism and sell-criticism with the help of the Party and the masses and under their education and supervision.
During the period of the socialist revolution and socialist construction, class struggle is still very acute, and the struggle between the socialist road and the capitalist road is extremely sharp and, furthermore, is protracted. The class struggle and the struggle between the two roads in society are inevitably reflected within our Party. To Marxists, this is nothing strange, but a normal phenomenon conforming to objective laws.
In our Party there is a small handful of anti-Party and anti-socialist representatives of the bourgeoisie. They are class enemies who have sneaked into our ranks or those degenerated elements who have been drawn away from our ranks. They usurped leadership in a number of units and departments. Such things have happened in the past, they have been found to exist now and they may occur again in the future. The fact that the Party can mobilize the masses to uncover them, dismiss such people from office, strip them of their power and resolutely remove them from our ranks testifies to the strong militancy, the unity and the consolidation of our Party.
The great proletarian cultural revolution is a revolution against the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all exploiting classes. As Chairman Mao has said, this is a great revolution that touches the people to their very souls. This great cultural revolution is not only a sharp class struggle in society, but, within the Party, it is bound to encounter resistance from those who have not joined the Party ideologically but cling stubbornly to bourgeois ideas.
The touchstone for every member of society, testing whether he supports the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist system or not, is his attitude towards the great cultural revolution.
Every Party organization and every Party member will be tested in this great cultural revolution.
The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party armed with Mao Tse-tung’s thought is the fundamental guarantee for victory in the great proletarian cultural revolution.
The great cultural revolution can take the correct direction, the revolutionary people can see and think clearly and the movement can develop in a healthy way only with the correct leadership of the Party.
Correct leadership by the Party means being good at following the mass line of “from the masses and to the masses,” being good at consulting the masses, listening to their opinions, distinguishing right from wrong and dealing with different things in different ways.
Correct leadership by the Party means relying on the resolute proletarian revolutionaries, expanding the ranks of the Left, winning over the greatest majority, isolating and splitting up the minority and dealing blows with concentrated force against the diehard anti-Party and anti-socialist counter-revolutionary elements, who account for only a few per cent.
Correct leadership by the Party means constantly raising the proletarian political consciousness of the masses, adopting for the great majority the policy of unity-criticism-unity* and, through the movement, in the end uniting over 95 per cent of the people, including those Party members and non-Party people who have committed mistakes but are willing to correct them and admit the error of their ways.
All good Party members, good functionaries and good Party organizations should courageously take part in this revolution, arm themselves further with Mao Tse-tung’s thought and lead the mass movement of this cultural revolution well. They should stand in the van of the movement and among the masses and not be afraid of them or dampen their enthusiasm.
As for some of the leading functionaries in our Party organizations at all levels, if they are not anti-Party and anti-socialist they should come to the battle-front without any mental burdens. They should be courageous in self-examination of their shortcomings and mistakes, and open-mindedly accept criticism from the masses. They should not become disgruntled and disheartened just because the masses have posted a few big-character posters and voiced some opinions.
Our Party and the masses of the people are proud of the guidance of the great Mao Tse-tung’s thought and are proud of the leadership of the Central Committee of the Party armed with Mao Tsc-tung’s thought.
Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s theory of classes, class contradictions and class struggle in the period of socialism is a new development of Marxism-Leninism. It is a proletarian revolutionary truth that has been tested and confirmed again and again. It is the irrefutable proletarian revolutionary science. This proletarian revolutionary science has been developed in the course of the practice of our socialist revolution and socialist construction. It has been developed in the struggle waged by our Party and the Marxist-Leninists of other countries against imperialism and modern revisionism. It has been developed through the serious and painful lesson that the Khrushchev clique of the Soviet Union usurped Party, army and government leadership in that country and led it away from the socialist system and on to the road to the restoration of capitalism.
The class struggle in China’s great proletarian cultural revolution and the multitude of facts brought to light in this class struggle have added fresh proof of the correctness of Chairman Mao’s theory of classes, class contradictions and class struggle during the period of socialism.
It is in accordance with this theory of Chairman Mao’s which reflects the objective laws that we should conduct the struggle in this great cultural revolution and transform people’s inner, subjective world and the objective world, so that we can carry out our socialist revolution and socialist construction better and make it possible for our country to achieve the future transition from socialism to communism.
The road of our great proletarian cultural revolution is illuminated by the sunlight of Mao Tse-tung’s thought and the leadership of the Central Committee of the Party.
We shall be invincible provided we resolutely work in accordance with Mao Tse-tung’s thought and the instructions of the Central Committee of the Party and Chairman Mao, strengthen the Party’s correct leadership of the movement and link leadership by the Party closely with the masses.
In the end, no monsters can escape exposure under the sunlight of Mao Tse-tung’s thought and of the Party. Under this sunlight, under the watchful eyes of millions of awakened masses, no monsters can possibly succeed in their attempts to gain something by trickery, to reverse right and wrong, to fish in troubled waters, and to create confusion in people’s minds. Still more impossible is it for them to slip through and hope to escape their destined failure.
(“Renmin Ribao” editorial, June 24.)
_______________
* This means to start off with a desire for unity and resolve contradictions through criticism or struggle so as to achieve a new unity on a new basis. —Tr.
Contents page for this Peking Review issue.
Peking Review article list (in date order).
Peking Review article list (by subject).