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The Constitution of the Communist Party of China adopted by the Tenth Party
Congress expressly reiterates: Communists must "work for the interests of the
vast majority of people of China and the world."
All Chinese Communist Party members should, in line with this demand, work hard
to remould their world outlook and persist in the aim of building a Party for
the interests of the vast majority. They should be staunch fighters in
continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, serve the
people of China and the world wholeheartedly, and advance steadfastly along
Chairman Mao's revolutionary line.
The Proletariat's Aim in Party Building: Working For
the Interests of thle Vast Majority
In the course of building our Party; Chairman Mao has consistently educated
all Party members in the ideals of building a Party to work for the interests of
the vast majority of people of China and the world.
He has pointed out: "The Communist Party is a political party which works in
the interests of the nation and people and which has absolutely no private ends
to pursue." "We must work for the interests of the vast majority of the people,
for the interests of the vast majority of the people of China and for the
interests of the vast majority of the people of the world; we must not work for
a small number of persons, for the exploiting classes for the bourgeoisie or for
the landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements or
Rightists."
Proceeding from the nature and historical tasks of the proletarian political
party, these instructions of Chairman Mao's profoundly expound the aim of Party
building.
The proletariat is the most far-sighted, most selfless and most thoroughly
revolutionary class in human history. It can finally emancipate itself only when
it has emancipated all mankind. Therefore, a fundamental unanimity of interests
exists between the proletariat and the masses of the people, who make up the
overwhelming majority of the population.
The Bourgeoisie's Aim in Party Building: Working for
the Interests of tile Minority
The chiefs of all the opportunist lines in our Party since the time of Chen
Tu-hsiu were opposed to working for the interests of the vast majority. Setting
up "mountain strongholds" and indulging in sectarianism, they pushed opportunist
lines in an effort to change our Party's proletarian character; trying to turn
it into a tool for the interests of the exploiting minority.
Lenin pointed out: "In reality, the opportunists' formal membership in
workers' parties by no means disproves their objectively being a political
detachment of the bourgeoisie, conductors of its influence, and its agents in
the labour movement."
A selfish, profit-grabbing exploiting class, the capitalist class exploits and
enslaves the proletariat and other labouring people and enriches itself at
others' expense as a matter of course. The bourgeois class nature of tile chiefs
of the various opportunist lines determined that they would persist in building
the Party for the interests of the minority. In promoting opportunist and
revisionist lines, they attempted to make the proletariat and the masses of the
people conform to the private interests of the various groups and parties of the
bourgeoisie.
Historical experience tells us that representatives of the bourgeoisie are not
necessarily big capitalists. Nominal Communists like Khrushchov; Brezluiev, Liu
Shao-chi and Lin Piao are actually agents of the bourgeoisie, they are
revisionists who had become thoroughly bourgeois ideologically, politically and
in their way of life. It is much more convenient for the landlords and
capitalists to let these agents of theirs, whom they had pulled out of the
revolutionary ranks or who were enemies who had sneaked into the revolutionary
ranks, act for them under the mask of ‘Communists' than for the landlords and
capitalists to come out into the open themselves; this is especially true "'hen
the landlords and capitalists are already quite odious in society. We must fully
realize this characteristic and law of class struggle and the struggle between
the two lines in the socialist period and raise our vigilance, We must uphold
the three fundamental principles put forward by Chairman Mao: "Practise
Marxism, and not revisionism; unite, and don't split; he open and aboveboard,
and don't intrigue and conspire."
Implementing tile Party's Basic Line
Departing from the Party's basic line would be departing from the long-range and
overall interests of the masses of the people; departing from the basic
principles and policies that should be followed in the current socialist
revolution and construction would make it impossible to work for the interests
of the vast majority. Practice has repeatedly proved that, whenever and wherever
the Party’s basic line has been conscientiously carried out, both revolution and
construction advance in the right direction, and the work is done well and to
the benefit of the people, When the reverse is the case, both revolution and
construction will lose the correct orientation, there will be setbacks in work
and the interests of the people will be impaired.
Implementing the Party's basic line involves a process fraught with sharp
struggles and will meet with resistance from class enemies at home and abroad as
well as interference and sabotage by erroneous lines and tendencies. Since tills
is the case, even, Communist Party member is required to persist in working for
the interests of the vast majority of people of China and the world at all
tunes. Towards matters having a bearing on the line and on the overall
situation, a Party member should always keep in mind the public interest and
display the revolutionary spirit of going against the tide; lie should stand
firm for what is correct and oppose and resist what is erroneous. All erroneous
lines and tendencies benefit the exploiting classes, which constitute a
minority, and harm the broad masses. Fighting against them means safeguarding
the Party's basic line and upholding the people's interests by practical deeds.
In the course of struggle, however, the demarcation between the correct and
erroneous lines should be drawn with care and accuracy, so that the struggle
between the two lines and two ideologies is waged correctly and actively.
With some comrades, it is often not a question of not being able to distinguish
at all between the correct and the erroneous lines and tendencies, but a
question of not daring to fight against the erroneous line and tendency for fear
of impairing their own interests. These comrades are prone to avoid the issue
and be lion-committal on crucial questions. This is not an attitude Communists
should take.
Uniting With the Vast Majority
Inside the country, the vast majority should be united with, in order to
consolidate the proletarian dictatorship and build socialism: internationally,
it is also necessary to do so in order to oppose imperialism, revisionism and
reaction and support the revolutionary struggles of the world's people.
We Communist Party members must never sacrifice the interests of the Party and
the people for the interests of a small clique. Those who have the
"mountain-stronghold mentality" and practise sectarianism will be blinded by the
narrow interests of a few and cease to see the overall interests of the Party
and the people. If this goes on, they will hold sectarianism above the Party and
may end up on the road of collusion in carrying out anti-Party activities.
In our revolutionary ranks, it is quite normal that there are differences of
opinion. The question is what stand one should take with regard to the different
opinions.
Some people fraternize with others holding similar views but repulse those with
different views, regardless of the fact whether or not these views or ideas
conform to Marxist principle and the interest of the people and to the
proletarian Party spirit and Party policy; in some cases they are only trying to
outdo others. All these are manifestations of complete disregard for the
interests of the whole: they are detrimental to uniting with the vast majority
and are against the interests of the broad masses of the people.
Fostering Proletarian World Outlook
Essentially speaking, the question of whose interests one works for is a
question of world outlook. A Communist Party member can dedicate his life to the
interests of the vast majority of the people only when lie has fostered a
proletarian world outlook and has the communist spirit of utter devotion to
others without any thought of self. In past revolutionary wars, many of our
Communist Party members fought bravely on the battlefields and shed their blood
and lost their lives: many unflinchingly faced death under the butcher's knife
of the enemy. Many have worked fearlessly under difficult conditions,
consciously obeying the Party’s discipline and imbued with revolutionary
optimism: working faithfully at posts of ordinary work, they have made
remarkable contributions to the people. The basic cause of their being able to
do all this is their proletarian world outlook which serves as their guide to
action.
Chairman Mao has said: "It is not hard for one to do a bit of good. What is
hard is to do good all one's life and never do anything bad, to act Consistently
in the interests of the broad masses, the young people and the revolution, and
to engage in arduous struggle for decades on end. That is the hardest
thing of all!"
There is no construction without destruction. To foster the proletarian world
outlook, revolutionary criticism of the bourgeois world outlook must be carried
out in a thoroughgoing way. The bourgeois world outlook is the product of the
bourgeois relations of production and serves capitalist private ownership of the
means of production. It is the ideological root of building the Party for the
interests of the minority. The practice of inner-Party struggle has proved that
it is impossible for a person with bourgeois ideas to work for the interests of
the vast majority.
Every Communist must conscientiously study the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and
Stalin and Chairman Mao's writings, strive to arm himself with dialectical
materialism and historical materialism, criticize revisionism and the bourgeois
world outlook, fully play the role of an advanced element of the proletariat,
and make new contributions in the great struggle for the interests of the vast
majority of the people of China and the world.
— From Peking Review No. 49, December 7; 1973
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