Volume 1, No. 6, August 2000

(We print here the first part of the article published in the March 23, 1973 issue of Peking Review. The second and concluding part of the article will appear in the next issue)

"The force at the core leading our cause forward is the Chinese Communist Party." To enable our Party to effectively lead the proletariat and the revolutionary people to fulfil the revolutionary tasks in different historical periods, we should build it into a Marxist-Leninist political Party which is fully consolidated ideologically, politically and organizationally. Our great leader Chairman Mao has always paid great attention to this important question. Chairman Mao’s Introducing "The Communist," made public in October 1939, is a brilliant Marxist-Leninist work for correctly solving this question.

In this introduction, Chairman Mao summed up the historical experience of the struggle between the two lines (correct and erroneous political lines - Tr.) in the 18 years following the birth of the Chinese Communist Party and clearly set forth the important thesis: The building up of the Party is "closely linked with its political line." In the period of the new democratic revolution, the united front and armed struggle were our two basic weapons for defeating the enemy. The question of building up the Party was always closely linked "with the correct or incorrect handling of the questions of the united front and armed struggle." When these questions were correctly handled by the Party, it moved forward a step in its development and consolidation; but when it incorrectly handled these two questions because of the interference and sabotage of the opportunist lines pushed by Chen Tu-hsiu, Wang Ming and others, it then went back a step. Building up our Party, therefore, involved a process of struggle between the correct and erroneous lines. It was precisely in the course of this struggle that the Party achieved its development, growth in strength and consolidation. This is a very important historical experience in building up our Party.

To restudy at this time Chairman Mao’s teaching that Party building must be closely linked with its political line is of great importance in further strengthening Party building according to the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and style in the socialist period.

Socialist society covers a fairly long historical period. Throughout this historical period, there are classes, class contradictions and class struggle, there is the struggle between the socialist road and the capitalist road, there is the danger of capitalist restoration and there is the threat of subversion and aggression by imperialism and modern revisionism. Under such historical conditions, a proletarian political Party may turn from a Marxist-Leninist Party into a revisionist party if it is not guided by a Marxist-Leninist line. The basic line* formulated by Chairman Mao for our Party during the historical period of socialism has not only correctly solved the problems of theory, principles and policies for continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, but it has also correctly solved the fundamental question concerning Party building in the socialist period. According to the Party’s basic line, Party building must be linked with the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and between the socialist road and the capitalist road, the strengthening and consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat and persistence in continuing the revolution under the proletarian dictatorship. The Party must, in the complex class struggle, be good at correctly distinguishing between and handling the two different types of contradictions — those between ourselves and the enemy and those among the people. Only in this way can it rally the people of all nationalities in the country to defeat the class enemies at home and abroad who make trouble and carry out disruptive activities and to advance the socialist revolution and construction from victory to victory.

Chairman Mao has pointed out with special emphasis that the three great revolutionary movements class struggle, the struggle for production and scientific experiment — "are a sure guarantee that Communists will be free from bureaucracy and immune against revisionism and dogmatism, and will for ever remain invincible. They are a reliable guarantee that the proletariat will be able to unite with the broad working classes and realize a democratic dictatorship." Only when we carry out the Party’s basic line, learn to correctly handle the two different types of contradictions, persist in the three great revolutionary movements and uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat, can we prevent our Party from degenerating and changing its nature and give full play to its leading role as the vanguard of the proletariat. Should we depart from the Party’s basic line and the three great revolutionary movements, liquidate or slacken the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, abandon or weaken the dictatorship of the proletariat and fail to correctly handle the contradictions between ourselves and the enemy and those among the people, the building up of our Party would be weakened and undermined, making it impossible for the Party to play its role as the vanguard of the proletariat. Liu Shao-chi and other political swindlers fundamentally betrayed the Marxist-Leninist thesis on the proletarian dictatorship and theory of Party building. Their revisionist line on Party building was aimed at changing the Party’s proletarian nature by spreading reactionary bourgeois ideas, plotting to split the Party and corrupting cadres and Party members thereby making it their tool for restoring capitalism and subverting the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In order to persist in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, our Party, guided by Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, has since the founding of the People’s Republic of China more than 20 years ago led the nation in a series of great struggles on the economic, political and ideological fronts, repulsing one frenzied attack after another unleashed by the bourgeoisie and its representatives who wormed their way into the Party. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution personally initiated and led by Chairman Mao has completely shattered Liu Shao-chi’s bourgeois headquarters and demolished the counter-revolutionary schemes of Liu Shao-chi and other political swindlers. It was in these sharp and fierce struggles between the two classes, the two roads and the two lines that our Party went through profound tests and was consolidated on an extensive scale, thus giving fuller play to its role as the force at the core leading the cause of revolution and construction forward. Our Party today is more fully developed than ever politically, purer organizationally and more united ideologically. The practical experience of struggle for more than the last 20 years has time and again borne out the truth that the Party’s basic line is the lifeline of our Party. Only by closely linking Party building with this line can we correctly solve the problems of what kind of party is to be built up and how to do it.

During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao pointed out: "The Party organization should be composed of the advanced elements of the proletariat; it should be a vigorous vanguard organization capable of leading the proletariat and the revolutionary masses in the fight against the class enemy." This brilliant instruction of Chairman Mao’s once again elucidates our Party’s nature of being the vanguard of the proletariat and sets forth the great militant task of the Party organizations under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The basic programme of the Communist Party of China is the complete overthrow of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in place of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the triumph of socialism over capitalism. The ultimate aim of the Party is the realization of communism. Our Party is to all intents and purposes a tool in the hands of the proletariat for waging struggles against the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes. On the eve of nationwide liberation, Chairman Mao pointed out that the entire Party must learn how to engage in political, economic and cultural struggles against the imperialists, the Kuomintang and the bourgeoisie. "If we do not pay attention to these problems, if we do not learn how to wage these struggles against them and win victory in the struggles, we shall be unable to maintain our political power, we shall be unable to stand on our own feet, we shall fail." Party organizations at all levels, therefore, should make carrying out class struggle, especially the one in the realm of the superstructure, their task of prime importance and never place it in a secondary position. For Communist Party members, this should be their life-long duty, to be performed every day, every month and every year. A Party organization cannot possibly play the role of a fighting bastion of the vanguard of the proletariat if it neglects or slackens in grasping class struggle. If a Communist turns a blind eye to the living reality of class struggle, he is hardly worthy of the title of a vanguard fighter of the proletariat. In its true sense, the vanguard of the proletariat must act according to the Communist Party’s philosophy of struggle, carrying on an unremitting battle against the class enemy as well as the ideas of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes. Experience has proved that wherever the Party organization makes constant efforts to take class struggle as the key link in all its work and leads the masses to fight the class enemy, the Party members and the masses there are imbued with vitality, the revolution and production thrive from day to day and Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line and policies are implemented to the letter. On the contrary, if the Party organization does not grasp class struggle, an atmosphere of political apathy is bound to prevail and both revolution and production fail to be satisfactory.

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