The Communique of the
Second Plenary Session of the Party’s Ninth Central Committee called for
strengthening Party building and "giving further play to the leading role of
the vanguard of the proletariat." In the past year and more, the whole Party
has done a great deal of work in accordance with Chairman Mao’s line for Party
building. The present domestic and international situation is very fine. In
order to fulfil our Party’s glorious tasks still better, the Party committees at
all levels must sum up their experience in earnest so as to continue to
strengthen Party leadership over all kinds of work.
What are the main
questions to be stressed in strengthening Party leadership?
It is imperative to
strengthen the Party concept. Chairman Mao teaches us: "The Chinese Communist
Party is the core of leadership of the whole Chinese people. Without this core,
the cause of socialism cannot be victorious." Our Party is the vanguard of
the proletariat; it is the highest form of class organization of the
proletariat. Of the seven – industry, agriculture, commerce, culture and
education, the army, the government and the Party – the Party gives leadership
to the first six. Party committees at all levels should exercise centralized
leadership in all fields of work in accordance with the Party’s line and
policies and, for the purpose of consolidating the dictatorship of the
proletariat, strive to unite the revolutionary masses and unite all the forces
that can be united so as to give fuller play to the role of the vanguard of the
proletariat as the core. Chairman Mao regards Party building as one of the three
principal magic weapons for the Chinese revolution and helping to strengthen,
and not discard or weaken, the leadership of the Communist Party as one of
the most important political criteria for distinguishing fragrant flowers from
poisonous weeds. In the complicated class struggle and the struggle between the
two lines, every Party member and every revolutionary must firmly bear in mind
Chairman Mao’s teaching: "We must have faith in the masses and we must have
faith in the Party. These are two cardinal principles. If we doubt these
principles, we shall accomplish nothing." It is especially necessary for
members of Party committees at all levels to strengthen Party concept and place
themselves within the Party committee and not outside it, still less above it.
It is imperative to
carry on education in ideology and political line in a deep-going way. Chairman
Mao has pointed out on many occasions: The correctness or incorrectness of
the ideological and political line decides everything. Policies are the
concrete embodiment of a political line. Fundamentally, strengthening Party
leadership means the firm implementation of Chairman Mao’s proletarian
revolutionary line and policies. The history of inner-Party struggle between the
two lines shows that the representatives of the bourgeoisie always change their
tactics in an attempt to substitute their opportunist line and policies for the
Party’s Marxist-Leninist line and policies and substitute their bourgeois
programme for the Party’s proletarian programme, and thus to bring about a
change in the character of the Party, turning it from a proletarian into a
bourgeois Party, and achieve their criminal aim of liquidating Party leadership
and undermining the Chinese revolution. This is an inevitable reflection of the
class struggle in society. Under the guidance of Chairman Mao’s correct line and
proletarian policies, our Party is growing more consolidated and stronger in the
storms of class struggle. Neither imperialism, nor social-imperialism, nor
revisionism within our Party has been able to defeat us. On the contrary, every
triumph of the correct line over the incorrect line has dealt heavy blows at the
enemies at home and abroad, brought about still greater victories in the
revolutionary cause and enabled our Party to become stronger, more united and
thriving. This is the conclusion drawn by history.
It is imperative to
strengthen the unity of the Party. Chairman Mao has all along stressed the
importance of being able at uniting with the great majority and regarded
the unity of the Party as the most essential factor in winning victory in the
revolution and construction. Had it not been for the correct principle of unity
of the Seventh Party Congress, the new democratic revolution could not have
achieved victory. And had it not been for the line of unity for victory of the
Ninth Party Congress, the fruits of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
could not have been consolidated and developed. Opportunism in politics is,
organizationally, inevitably accompanied by the mountain-stronghold mentality,
sectarianism and splittism. History does not lack such lessons. Chen Tu-hsiu’s
patriarchism, Chu Chiu-pai’s punitiveness, Li Li-san’s "my word is law," Wang
Ming’s "ruthless struggle and merciless blows," Chang Kuo-tao’s splittism and
warlordism, and the "striking at many in order to protect a handful" practised
by Liu Shao-chi and other swindlers like him have all caused tremendous harm to
the unity and unification of the Party. In his struggle against opportunist
lines Chairman Mao set forth the principles of "unity, criticism, unity"
and "learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones and cure the sickness to
save the patient." Only by implementing these principles is it possible to
educate the cadres and strengthen the unity of the Party on the basis of the
principles of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. Hidden anti-Party and
anti-socialist counter-revolutionaries are very few in number. The overwhelming
majority of good people who committed mistakes in political line are able to
return to the correct line through criticism and self-criticism.
Be open and
above-board. Chairman Mao pointed out long ago: "We Communists have
always disdained to conceal our views." All Party comrades, and it goes
without saying for senior Party cadres, must be frank and forthright
politically. At all times one ought to state one’s political views openly and,
on every important political issue, express one’s position, either for or
against, adhering to what is right and correcting what is wrong. This is a
question of the Party’s style of work and of Party spirit. As chieftains of
opportunist lines are engaged in splitting activities, they are bound to resort
to conspiracies and intrigues. In his famous talk in 1964 on bringing up
successors, Chairman Mao pointed out: "Beware of those who engage in intrigue
and conspiracy. For instance, men like Kao Kang, Jao Shu-shih, Peng Teh-huai and
Huang Kecheng were to be found in the Central Committee. Everything divides into
two. Some persons are dead set on conspiring. In our Party’s history, those
bourgeois careerists, conspirators and persons having illicit relations with
foreign countries, who clung to opportunist lines and engaged in conspiracies,
could not but bring ruin, disgrace and destruction upon themselves in the end.
It is imperative to
strengthen the sense of discipline. Discipline is the guarantee for the
implementation of the line. In summing up our Party’s struggle against Chang
Kuo-tao’s opportunist line, Chairman Mao pointed out: "Some people violate
Party discipline through not knowing what it is, while others, like Chang
Kuo-tao, violate it knowingly and take advantage of many Party members’
ignorance to achieve their treacherous purposes. Hence it is necessary to
educate members in Party discipline so that the rank and file will not only
observe discipline themselves, but will exercise supervision over the leaders so
that they, too, observe it, thus preventing the recurrence of cases like Chang
Kuotao’s." We must bear firmly in mind this historical experience,
resolutely carry out the Party’s unified discipline stipulated in the Party
Constitution and resolutely carry out "The Three Main Rules of Discipline and
the Eight Points for Attention" formulated by Chairman Mao.
It is imperative to
practise Marxism-Leninism, and not revisionism. To practise Marxism or to
practise revisionism? The struggles between the two lines within our Party, in
the final analysis, boil down to this question. Why is it that some people are
fooled and taken in during the struggle between the two lines? The fundamental
reason is that they do not read and study seriously and cannot distinguish
materialism from idealism and the Marxist line from the opportunist line. This
is an extremely profound lesson. Comrades throughout the Party, senior Party
cadres in particular, must follow Chairman Mao’s teachings, continuously persist
in reading and studying seriously, have a good grasp of Marxism, consciously
remould their world outlook, combine study with revolutionary mass criticism,
constantly raise their ability to distinguish between genuine and sham Marxism
and carry out Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line ever more consciously.
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