Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech at Peking Mass Rally
[On Nov. 3, 1966]
[This article is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 9, #46, Nov. 11,
1966, pp. 10-11. Thanks are due to the WWW.WENGEWANG.ORG
web site for some of the work done for this posting.]
Students, Comrades and Red Guard Fighters:
With boundless love and infinite loyalty for our great leader Chairman Mao, you have come to Peking in the new nationwide upsurge of the great proletarian cultural revolution to see Chairman Mao and to exchange revolutionary experience. On behalf of Chairman Mao and the Central Committee of the Party, I extend my warmest welcome to you!
Chairman Mao is extremely happy to receive you today. This is the sixth time in two months or more, including National Day, that Chairman Mao has received revolutionary students and teachers and Red Guards from all over the country. Chairman Mao is the greatest proletarian revolutionary; he is always with the masses, has full confidence in them, shares weal and woe with them and wholeheartedly supports the revolutionary mass movement. Chairman Mao has set the most glorious example for all comrades in our Party and for the younger generation.
The present situation of the great proletarian cultural revolution is excellent! The gigantic, vigorous mass movement is developing in depth with each passing day. A tremendous change has taken place over the whole face of society and in the mental outlook of the people. The great thought of Mao Tse-tung has become more extensively disseminated and has gone deeper into the hearts of the people. As a result of Chairman Mao’s call “to take a firm hold of the revolution and promote production,” the great cultural revolution has promoted the revolutionization of people’s thinking and spurred extremely rapid development in industrial and agricultural production and in science and technology. The recent successful guided missile-nuclear weapon test is a great victory for Mao Tse-tung’s thought and a great victory for the proletarian cultural revolution!
The 11th Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party announced the victory of the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao and the bankruptcy of the bourgeois reactionary line. In the past two months and more, the correct line of Chairman Mao has been put before the broad masses and has been grasped by them, and criticisms have been made of the erroneous line. The broad masses have really translated into action Chairman Mao’s call to “concern yourselves with affairs of the state.” This is an extremely fine thing. It is an important guarantee that the great proletarian cultural revolution will be carried through to the end.
Chairman Mao’s line is one of letting the masses educate and emancipate themselves. It is the line of putting “daring” above everything else and of daring to trust the masses, daring to rely on them and daring to arouse them boldly. It is the application and a new development of the Party’s mass line in the great cultural revolution. It is the line of the great proletarian cultural revolution.
The bourgeois line is one of opposing the mass line, of opposing the education and emancipation of the masses by themselves, of repressing the masses and opposing the revolution. This bourgeois reactionary line directs the spearhead of struggle against the revolutionary masses, and not against the handful of persons within the Party, who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road, and all the ghosts and monsters in society. It uses various ways and means to incite one group among the masses to struggle against another group, and one section of students to struggle against another section.
The proletarian revolutionary line of Chairman Mao is as incompatible with the bourgeois reactionary line as fire is to water. Only by thoroughly criticizing and repudiating the bourgeois reactionary line and eradicating its influence can the line of Chairman Mao be carried out correctly, completely and thoroughly.
Under the guidance of Chairman Mao’s correct line, the broad revolutionary masses of our country have created the new experience of developing extensive democracy under the dictatorship of the proletariat. By this extensive democracy, the Party is fearlessly permitting the broad masses to use the media of free airing of views, big-character posters, great debates and extensive exchange of revolutionary experience to criticize and supervise the Party and government leading institutions and leaders at all levels. At the same time, the people’s democratic rights are being fully realized in accordance with the principles of the Paris Commune. Without such extensive democracy, it would be impossible to initiate a genuine great proletarian cultural revolution, stage a great revolution in the depths of people’s souls, carry out the great proletarian cultural revolution thoroughly and completely, eradicate the roots of revisionism, consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat and guarantee the advance of our country along the road of socialism and communism. This extensive democracy is a new form of integrating Mao Tse-tung’s thought with the broad masses, a new form of mass self-education. It is a new contribution by Chairman Mao to the Marxist-Leninist theory on proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship.
International historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat has demonstrated that without carrying out a thoroughgoing, great proletarian cultural revolution of this kind and without practising such extensive democracy, the dictatorship of the proletariat will be weakened and will change in essence, while capitalism will use various ways to stage a come-back and the exploiting classes will once again ride on the backs of the people.
Such extensive democracy must be thoroughly practised not only between the leadership and the masses; it is also absolutely necessary to carry it out thoroughly among the masses themselves and between all sections of the masses. Unless there is such extensive democracy among the masses themselves and unless they are good at mutual consultation, at listening to dissenting views, at presenting facts and reasoning things out, at using their brains to ponder problems, they cannot possibly educate and emancipate themselves, achieve the purpose of developing the ranks of the Left, uniting the great majority and isolating the handful of bourgeois Rightists, and fully carry out the line of the great proletarian cultural revolution put forward by our great teacher Chairman Mao.
Chairman Mao supports you comrades travelling on foot to exchange revolutionary experience, the advantages of which are widespread contact with the masses, contact with all aspects of the life of society and a deeper understanding of class struggle in socialist society. It provides better opportunities to learn from the workers and the peasants and to propagate Mao Tse-tung’s thought on an even broader scale. All this is very useful for the revolutionary teachers and students to have a better understanding of Mao Tse-tung’s thought and the correct line of Chairman Mao. Of course, this kind of travelling on foot for the exchange of revolutionary experience must be undertaken in a planned and organized way and must be well prepared.
The Central Committee of the Party is convinced that, with the experience gained in the last few months, the great proletarian cultural revolution will in the days to come make still better progress and attain still greater success!
March forward under the great banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought!
Long live the victory of the line of Chairman Mao!
Long live the victory of the great proletarian cultural revolution!
Long live the Chinese Communist Party!
Long live Chairman Mao! Long life, long, long life to him!
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