We have formulated a General Programme to serve as an introduction to the Constitution. It is the basic programme of our Party. As a component of the Party Constitution, this preamble sets out the general principles of the Party Constitution. Every Party member must accept this General Programme as the basis for all his activities. It will further strengthen the unity and solidarity of the whole Party.
The General Programme sums up the Party’s twenty-four years of experience in struggle while drawing while drawing on the best experience of the world-wide working class movement. It is an embodiment of the teachings of Comrade Mao Zedong, the leader of our Party. Its sets forth the concise language the Party’s character and theory; the character, motive forces, tasks and special features of the Chinese revolution; the Partys basic principles with respect to the Chinese revolution and the requirements the Party must meet; the need to eliminate opportunism inside the Party; and the importance of self-criticism, the mass line and organizational principles of the Party. All these points are included in the General Programme of the Party Constitution. However, I wish only to expound on the following questions.
The General Programme of the Constitution begins by pointing out that our Party is the organized vanguard of the Chinese working class and the highest form of its class organization. It represents the interests of the Chinese nation and people. At the present stage it is striving for new democracy in China and its ultimate aim is the realization of communism in China. Is this character of our Party questionable? I think not.
Prior to the founding of our Party in 1921, the Chinese nation and people, led by their distinguished champions, had waged successive, heroic revolutionary struggles against imperialism and feudalism for eighty years. Owing to both international and domestic developments (the former being principally the First World War and the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia and the latter, increasingly ferocious imperialist aggression and feudal warlord oppression, the people’s revolutionary struggles and the rise of the working-class movement following the May 4th Movement of 1919), the Chinese revolutionaries, as represented by Comrade Mao Zedong, turned for the first time from radical revolutionary democracy to proletarian communism, thereby giving birth to the Communist Party of China. Since its birth, our Party has a clear-cut class consciousness, adopted the proletarian stand in leading the Chinese bourgeois-democratic revolution, integrated the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese working class movement and the Chinese revolution and cultivated the fine style of work characteristic of an advanced proletarian political party. All these factors have given a new aspect to the Chinese revolution. Today, after twenty-four years of practical trials and tests in the most difficult, torturous and exceedingly intricate political struggles, the Party has not only opened up new prospects for victory in the Chinese revolution, but has also accumulated extremely rich experience which, through Comrade Mao Zedong’s crystallization and creative work, has raised to a higher plane the integration of the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution. This shows that our Party has always been, and is especially so today, a party of a completely new type — a proletarian Marxist-Leninist party.
Although the main body of our Party is operating in the countryside and the vast majority of Party members come from the peasantry and petty-bourgeois intelligentsia while only a small percentage are workers, in the aggregate, Party members of proletarian or semi-proletarian (poor peasant) origin constitute the majority. Naturally, this, among other factors, has given rise to a number of serious problems, such as the wide spread manifestation in the Party of the ideology of small producers. Even bourgeois and feudal ideologists have found their way into our Party through the medium of petty-bourgeois elements. Herein lies the social roots of subjectivism, sectarianism, stereotyped Party writing as well as political and organizational opportunism in our Party. However, this state of affairs cannot alter the fact that our Party is a political party of the proletariat.
The proletarian character of our Party is determined by the following factors:
1. It came into existence and developed in the epoch of the great world proletarian revolution by absorbing the best traditions of the world Marxist-Leninist movement and basing itself on the great working-class movement before 1927 and the revolution of 1927. It has maintained constant ties with the Chinese working-class movement.
2. Our Party has developed in strict adherence to the Marxist-Leninist teachings sinified by Comrade Mao Zedong and to the political and organizational line formulated by him. (All those who ran counter to this line have been discredited by history.) The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Central Committee headed by comrade Mao Zedong enjoys enormous prestige because a large number of cadres — many of whom emerged directly from the working-class movement — have been steeled in prolonged struggle and are armed with Marxist-Leninist and Mao Zedong Thought, they are fully capable of taking up the cause led by the Central Committee and Comrade Mao Zedong.
3. With its proletarian programme and policy, our Party is distinct from any other political party and has, on its own, organized and led the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal new-democratic revolution of the Chinese people. Having made the realization of socialism and communism its ultimate goal, it has enabled the Chinese proletariat to fulfill its tasks in the present bourgeois-democratic revolution to the fullest extent and to exercise its revolutionary leadership over the masses.
4. Every Party member must observe and not contravene the iron proletarian discipline of the Party. Every Party member is required to abide by the Partys Programme and Constitution and to work in a Party organization. The Party preserves and strengthens its proletarian unity ideologically, politically and organizationally at all times. It has cleared out of its ranks all alien elements and opportunists who are incorrigible beyond remoulding.
5. More than twenty years of both civil war and national war have steeled our Party. Hundreds of thousands of Party members have long left their respective occupations behind to plunge themselves into the revolutionary life of a military community and life-and-death struggle. They have undergone rigorous ideological and organizational education and tempering which has enhanced their class consciousness and collective spirit and strengthened their sense of organization and discipline. They have come to understand that, when confronted with the enemy, all Party members share identical interests and must obey the Party’s centralized leadership unconditionally. Wavering elements on the other hand,, will keep dropping out of the Party in the course of serious revolutionary struggles.
6. Marxist-Leninist education will enable Party members of petty-bourgeois origin to undergo a thoroughgoing ideological remoulding to change their former petty-bourgeois character and gain the qualities of advanced fighters of the proletariat.
A party founded, steeled and educated in such a manner is certainly not inferior — to say the very least — to any proletarian party of the capitalist countries.
It is not just the social origin of Party members but our Party’s political struggles and political life, its ideological education and its ideological and political leadership that decide things, and the General Programme of the Party and its organizational principles ensure the dominance of of the proletarian ideology and proletarian line. No matter how broadly petty-bourgeois ideology is manifested in the Party, it has no legitimacy and is being constantly corrected through education and the rectification movement. Moreover, this ideology has been shown to be incompatible with the interests of the people in serious practical struggles and has thus become increasingly discredited. The social origin of our Party membership does not determine the character of our Party anymore than the social composition of the of the membership of the Labour parties in certain European countries does. Although the majority of these members come from the working class, these Labour parties do not represent the working class in their countries, nor are they able to perform the tasks of the working class.
In China, a large number of petty-bourgeois revolutionaries have joined our Party, and this is a very good thing. Our Party must not reject them. While it is true that we should pay close attention to recruiting the advanced elements from among the workers, we should, at the same time, draw in numerous advanced elements from all other sections of the labouring people. Only then will it be possible for our Party to become a powerful party with a mass character. The proletariat must constantly replenish its ranks by recruiting members from the petty-bourgeoisie — this is an immutable historical law.
The petty-bourgeoisie and the peasantry are transitional classes which go through a process of disintegration under the capitalist system. Except for a small number of their members who will become members of the bourgeoisie, the majority will go bankrupt and swell the ranks of the proletariat. Being transitional classes, they may accept the political leadership of either the liberal bourgeoisie or the proletariat., and ideologically they may be influenced by either of these groups. Hence, under certain historical conditions, large numbers of revolutionary elements among the petty bourgeoisie may join the proletarian party and be susceptible to proletarian education. The proletarian party, our Party, is capable of educating and remoulding them. Experience shows that after joining our Party on our terms, most are conscientious in their studies, willing to receive the Party’s education in Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, observe Party discipline and take part in the practical revolutionary struggles of the people. Consequently, they change their original character and become Marxist-Leninists, fighters for the proletariat, and many have even sacrificed their lives for the Party’s cause — the realization of communism in China. However, there is also a very small number, who after joining the Party, fail to study Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought earnestly and correctly. Holding on to their old viewpoints or styles of work and sometimes even stubbornly opposing those of the proletariat, they try to reconstruct our Party and rebuild its internal life according to their own petty-bourgeois concepts and tastes. Quite naturally they not only fail to become genuine Marxist-Leninists, fighters for the proletariat, but are also responsible for many mistakes and divergences occurring in the Party. The Party’s experience shows that this has happened over and over again.
Therefore, all those who join our Party must seriously study Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. The petty-bourgeois revolutionary elements must, both before and after their admission into the Party be especially studious in order to remould their ideology. They must discard their original class stand to adopt the class stand of the proletariat and mus overcome their subjective, individualistic and sectarian tendencies. They cannot become good Party members without such remoulding. This is generally a long painstaking process which, when they are not fully aware of the need, can even be agonizing for many petty-bourgeois revolutionary elements This remoulding is a particularly important question or aspect in the building of our Party.
Inherent in our Party are the essential contradictions between proletarian ideologies and non-proletarian ideologies. The principal contradiction is between the ideology of the proletariat and the ideology of the peasantry and petty bourgeoisie. Our Party building and the cause of our Party can only advance and develop when we have gradually resolved this contradiction by intensifying our education and training in Marxism-Leninism, which is the scientific ideology of the proletariat and by continually overcoming the petty-bourgeois and other ideologies. reflected in our Party. If, conversely, petty-bourgeois ideology is allowed to spread freely within the Party and if it should come to dominate the Partys leadership and repress the development of proletarian ideas, the development and work of our Party will certainly retrogress and fail. Hence, in our Party building the principal need is for ideological development, that is, remoulding our Party members, especially the petty-bourgeois revolutionary elements, through education in Marxism-Leninism, the scientific ideology of the proletariat. In other words, we need to combat and overcome every kind of non-proletarian ideology in the Party.
Chinas petty bourgeoisie is numerically large and many of our Party members are of petty-bourgeois origin. In the past, both Chinas proletariat and our Party were in their infancy, lacking experience. Our Party did not have sufficient ideological preparation in Marxism-Leninism before its foundation, nor did it have enough time thereafter for theoretical study and propaganda work because it immediately immersed itself in turbulent, practical revolutionary struggle. For these reasons, our Party suffered for a long time form inadequate Marxist-Leninist ideological education. It was, therefore, possible for the petty-bourgeois elements inside our Party who hadnt undergone remoulding to propagate what was in essence opportunism under the cloak of Marxism-Leninism, by taking advantage of the ideological of many Party members and the petty-bourgeois sentiments in the Party. This is how petty-bourgeois ideology gained temporary predominance in the Partys leading bodies at certain periods.
When the petty-bourgeois ideology was predominate in the Party leadership, Right of Left opportunist lines were carried out not only politically but in the building and the organization of the Party.
The right opportunist line in the building and organization of the Party took the form of the liberalist line perused by certain comrades. They attempted to turn our Party into a liberalist party of the petty bourgeoisie. They opposed and discarded the Partys principled stand in ideological and organizational matters. They undermined the Partys democratic centralism and iron discipline by enrolling Party members en masse and without discrimination, allowing all sorts of erroneous ideas to spread within the Party unchecked, abandoning vigilance against the partys enemies and saboteurs and encouraging “ showing off”, lax discipline and factional tendencies and spontaneity within the Party. It is quite obvious that had these things continued, the result would have been to prevent our Party from accomplishing anything and to bring about its collapse.
The “Left” opportunist line in building and organization of the Party found expression in the action of some comrades who, ignoring Chinas special characteristics, mechanically imported the Party-building experience of Parties abroad and turned them into absolute dogmas. They placed one-sided emphasis on inner-Party centralism and inner-Party struggle, and they admitted no compromise and laid stress on mechanical discipline. They discarded inner-Party democracy and harmony, serious discussion of problems and relevant criticism and paid no heed to the political consciousness and initiative of Party members. Like patriarchs, they issued orders and ruled arbitrarily within the Party. They perused a policy of obscurantism. They encouraged blind obedience on the part of Party members, carried on mercilessly inner-Party struggles and engaged in punitiveness. They punished, expelled or purged Party members wholesale. As a result mechanical discipline and feudalistic order prevailed in the Party and inner-Party life became stagnant. Temporarily this may have created the appearance of inner-Party unity. But such unity was false, superficial and mechanical. Once found out it could have given way to a state of inner-Party anarchy, characteristic of ultra-democracy. It is quite obvious that such a line could destroy our Party by relegating it to a narrow, lifeless, sectarian faction.
These two deviations are reflections of petty-bourgeois liberalism and sectarionism as well as impetuosity on the question of organization.
In addition to the two deviations mentioned above, there were still other comrades who, because of their ideological weakness and political blindness, stressed only the organizational aspect of Party building to the neglect of the ideological and political building of the Party. The result was that Party building became a formality. They favoured and commended those “honest fellows” who were capable of nothing but blind obedience while they feared and blamed those who could do their own thinking, were highly capable and refused to obey blindly. They attached too much importance to the petty trifles in the daily lives of others while ignoring the one task of supreme importance, namely, enlightening and raising the ideological and political consciousness of Party members and thus strengthening the organization and discipline of the Party. Also failing to understand that in order to attain this objective, it is essential first of all to arouse and raise the consciousness of the high and middle-ranking cadres, they gave their minds only to the Party members of worker or peasant origin, and they were afraid of capable intellectuals. They busied themselves with so called organizational “leadership”; holding meetings, running here and there and occupying themselves with all kinds of trifling matters. But they did not use their brains. Instead of improving organizational leadership and linking it with ideological and political leadership, they separated the Partys organizational work from ideological and political leadership. This is blindness in Party building. Quite obviously, this is not the way to build up a Marxist-Leninist proletarian party, because opportunists inside the Party may very well take advantage of such a situation.
Our Party has overcome such erroneous ideas by ceaselessly waging uncompromising struggle against them. It has unanimously supported and followed Comrade Mao Zedongs line of Party building. In sharp contrast to the erroneous lines mentioned above, this correct line of Comrade Mao Zedong first of all lays stress on ideological and political building with out neglecting organizational building. He has repeatedly told us that ideological education and leadership should come first when our Party exercises leadership. He formulated detailed political, military and organizational lines for our Party. In the Revolution of the Gutian Meeting in 1929, he drew attention to the various erroneous deviations originating in non-proletarian ideology inside the Party and called upon our comrades to eliminate them. He also adopted a creative method of education in the form of rectification movement to remove all such petty-bourgeois ideology. He considered the development of our Party a process through which the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism was to be integrated ever more closely with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution. He linked the building of the Party closely with the Partys political line, with our partys relationship to the bourgeoisie and to armed struggle. Comrade Mao Zedongs On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party,the second part of his On the New Stage and his Introducing “The Communist”, Reform Our Study, Rectify the Party’s Style of Work, Oppose Stereotyped Party Writing, Decisions by the Central Committee on Continuing the Rectification Movement (April 3, 1943), Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership (June 1, 1943) and other works are direct expression of his correct line on Party building, formulated to our Party’s special features. The implementation of this line has enabled us to overcome all kinds of opportunist and other erroneous lines in Party building, with the result that the Party has made tremendous progress and achieved great success.
It is clear that had our Party followed these erroneous lines on Party building, it would not have become a party of the working class even if the percentage of workers in our Party membership had been higher. But as we have followed Comrade Mao Zedong’s line, we can build, and have already built, a Marxist-Leninist party of the working class, even though the workers in our Party membership do not yet constitute the majority.
For many years the bulk of our Party has been operating in the rural areas because China is a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country and because the peasant masses constitute the main force of the present revolution. In addition, the Chinese working class, being oppressed in the cities and for a long time unable to carry on revolutionary activities freely, has had to send its vanguard to the countryside to organize its vast ally and to act in co-ordination with it to liberate the cities when the conditions become favourable. Here lies the true significance of our Party’s long-term work in the countryside. Under circumstances as they exist in this present period, this is the only way our Party can represent the Chinese working class and carry out its tasks. If our Party acts otherwise, it will never represent the Chinese working class because the present revolution in China is essentially a peasant revolution. The basic and immediate task of the Chinese working class is to emancipate the Chinese peasantry. Under the leadership of a proletarian party, the great peasant war differs from all others in Chinese history, and it absolutely can be victorious. It is quite logical, therefore, that over the long years our Party has, as the vanguard of the working class, been organizing and leading this peasant revolution in the countryside with might and main.
The General Programme of the Party Constitution points out that our Party represents the interests of the Chinese nation and people. This is no doubt the essence of our Party and of Mao Zedong Thought. The interests of the Chinese proletariat are at all times identical with those of the Chinese people. The new-democratic revolution now being waged by our Party against imperialism and feudalism is in the interests not just of the working class but of the peasantry, the petty-bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie, too. The Chinese Communist Party can succeed only when it stands for the interests of the whole people, instead of merely for the partial and immediate interests of one class. The proletariat cannot win its own emancipation if it fails to emancipate the people as a whole. On the other hand, the Chinese working class and the working people as a whole constitute the main body of the Chinese nation. It is their interests that form the foundation of the interests of the Chinese nation and people. In fighting for an independent, free, democratic, united, prosperous and powerful new China, the Chinese Communist Party is representing the interests of the entire Chinese nation and people as well as those of the Chinese working class. The same will be true in the future when it will fight for socialism and communism, because the realization or a socialist and communist society will mean final emancipation of all mankind.
The General Programme of the Party Constitution states that the Chinese Communist Party is guided in all its work by Mao Zedong Thought — the doctrine that integrates the theory of Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the Chinese revolution — and that it is opposed to any dogmatic or empiricist deviations. As for our Chinese and foreign heritage, we neither reject it nor accept it without discrimination; we accept critically what is valuable and appropriate and repudiate what is erroneous and inappropriate, basing our judgement on Marxist dialectical materialism and historical materialism. All this is made very clear.
The General Programme of the Party Constitution provides that Mao Zedong Thought shall guide the work of our Party. The Constitution also states that it is the duty of every Party member to endeavour to learn the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. This is a most important historical characteristic of our present revision of the Constitution. I believe that this Congress and the entire Party membership will heartily support this provision.
For over a century the Chinese nation and people have suffered incredible hardships. They have accumulated rich experience in the struggles for their own emancipation, in which much blood has been shed. Their practical struggles and experience inevitably gave rise to a great body of theory demonstrating that the Chinese people are not only good at fighting but also capable of arming themselves with modern scientific revolutionary theory. Because of the political and economic flabbiness of China’s bourgeoisie and because of its lack of contact with the people and its limited outlook and thinking, its representatives could only advance certain revolutionary programmes and democratic ideas. We have already adopted all the good points of their programmes and ideas as part of our heritage. The representatives could not, however, formulate a systematic revolutionary theory, much less a comprehensive, systematic and scientific theory in relation to the whole course of Chinese history and the Chinese revolution. Such a theory can only be created by the representatives of the Chinese proletariat, of whom the greatest and most outstanding is Comrade Mao Zedong.
Our Congress should warmly celebrate the development of a unique, integrated and correct theory of the peoples revolution and national reconstruction which has been maturing since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. This theory has led our Party and our people to great victories and it will lead us to ultimate and complete victory and emancipation. It is the greatest achievement and glory of the Party and the Chinese people in their long struggles and will benefit our nation for generation upon generation. This theory is none other than Mao Zedong Thought — Comrade Mao Zedong’s theories with regard to Chinese history, Chinese society and the Chinese revolution and relevant policies.
Mao Zedong Thought is the theory which integrates Marxist-Leninist theories with the practice of the Chinese revolution. It is communism and Marxism applied to China.
Mao Zedong Thought is the development of Marxism with regard to the national-democratic revolution in the colonial, semi-colonial and semi-feudal country of the present period. It is an outstanding example of how Marxism is applied to a given nation. It has taken shape and has developed in the course of the long revolutionary struggles of the Chinese nation and people which include the three great revolutionary wars (the Northern Expedition, (120) the Agrarian Revolutionary War and the present War of Resistance Against Japan). It is at once Chinese and thoroughly Marxist. It has evolved through the application of the Marxist world outlook and social outlook, specifically, dialectical materialism and historical materialism. In other words, it has evolved it has evolved through careful, scientific analysis of the exceedingly rich experience of all modern revolutions. This includes of course, the experience gained by the Chinese Communist Party in directing the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people in the light of the characteristics of the Chinese nation and on the solid foundation of Marxist-Leninist theories. As theories and politics for achieving the emancipation of the Chinese nation and people, Mao Zedong Thought has developed by applying the scientific method of Marxism-Leninism to a synthesis of China’s history, social conditions and entire revolutionary experience with a view to furthering the interests of the proletariat and consequently the entire people. These are therefore, the only correct theories and policies with which the proletariat and all working people of China fight for their emancipation.
Mao Zedong Thought — the theory and practice of communism applied to China — has come into being and developed not only in the course of the revolutionary struggles against domestic and foreign enemies but also in the course of the principled struggles against various erroneous opportunist ideas within the Party, such as, Chen Duxiuism,(110) the Li Lisan line (18) and the subsequent “Left” deviationist line, capitulationist line, dogmatism and empiricism. It is our Party’s only correct guiding ideology and its only correct general line.
In the twenty-four years since its birth, Mao Zedong Thought has developed and matured. It has stood the test of innumerable bitter struggles of millions upon millions of people and has been proved to be objective truth and embody the only correct theories and policies for saving China. Numerous historical events have borne out the fact that whenever the revolution follows the leadership of Comrade Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought, it will go forward and succeed and whenever it departs from that leadership, it will go down-hill and eventually fail. The integration of Marxist theory with both the practice of the proletarian revolution in the era of imperialism and the practice of the Russian revolution gave rise to Russian Bolshevism (16) — Leninism. Leninism has not only led the Russian people to complete emancipation but also guided and still is guiding the people of the whole world in their struggle for emancipation.. As a pupil of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, Comrade Mao Zedong has exactly effected the integration of the Marxist-Leninist theories with the practice of the Chinese revolution. This has given rise to Chinese communism — Mao Zedong Thought — which has guided, and is still guiding, the Chinese people towards complete emancipation and which has made useful contribution to the cause of emancipation of the people all over the world, particularly people in the East.
Mao Zedong Thought, in terms of world outlook and style of work, is Marxism being developed and improved through its application in China. It constitutes the comprehensive theories of revolution and national reconstruction for the Chinese people. These theories are to be found in Comrade Mao Zedong’s writings and in many works of our Party literature. They include Comrade Mao Zedong’s analysis of the present world situation and Chinas conditions and his theories and policies with regard to New Democracy, the emancipation of the peasantry, the revolutionary united front, revolutionary wars, revolutionary bases, the establishment of a new-democratic republic, Party building, culture, etc. These theories and policies are at once thoroughly Marxist and thoroughly Chinese. They are the highest expression of the wisdom of the Chinese people and the most succinct of theoretical generalizations.
Because of the distinctive characteristics of China’s social and historical development and its backwardness in science, it is a unique and herculean task to apply Marxism systematically to China, to transform it from its European form into a Chinese form and thereby to solve the various problems in the contemporary Chinese revolution from the Marxist standpoint and with the Marxist method. Many of our problems have never been considered or approached by the worlds Marxists because, unlike the conditions in other countries, in China the main sections of the masses are not workers but peasants and the fight is directed not against domestic capitalism but against foreign imperialist oppression and feudal practices. This can never be accomplished, as some people seem to think it can, by memorizing and reciting Marxist works or by just quoting from them. It requires a high level of the combination of scientific and revolutionary spirit. It requires profound historical and social knowledge, rich experience in guiding the revolutionary struggles and skill in using Marxist-Leninist methods to make an accurate, scientific analysis of social and historical conditions and their development. It further requires boundless and tenacious loyalty to the cause of the proletariat and the people, faith in the strength, creative power and future of the masses and skill in crystallizing the experience, ideas and will of the masses and in bringing what is crystallized back to the masses for application. Only thus is it possible to make original and brilliant additions to Marxism-Leninism in the light of the historical development of each specific period and the concrete economic and political conditions in China, to express Marxism-Leninism in plain language easily understood by the Chinese people, to adapt it to the new historical environment and Chinas special conditions and to make it a weapon in the hands of the Chinese proletariat and the working people. No one but our Comrade Mao Zedong has so splendidly and successfully performed the extremely difficult task of adapting Marxism to China. This constitutes one of the greatest achievements in the history of the Marxist movement all over the world, and the dissemination of Marxism — the best of all truths — in a nation of 475 million people is unprecedented. This is something for which we should be particularly grateful.
Our Comrade Mao Zedong is not only the greatest revolutionary and statesman in Chinese history, but also the greatest theoretician and scientist. He has had the prowess to lead the whole Party and the entire Chinese people to wage struggles that shook the world and, what is more, he has been the best-versed and sternest challenger to theories. In the theoretical field, he has been bold in blazing the trail. He has discarded certain Marxist principles and conclusions that are outmoded or incompatible with the concrete conditions in China and replaced them with appropriate new ones. For this reason he has been able to successfully carry out the difficult and monumental task of sinifying Marxism.
Because of inadequate theoretical preparation, our Party and many Party members have been confused about how to do their work and so have suffered a lot, making quite a few unnecessary detours. Now, thanks to Comrade Mao Zedongs painstaking work and brilliant creativity, the groundwork has been fully laid for our Party and the Chinese people. This will greatly enhance our self-confidence and our ability to fight and speed the Chinese revolution to victory. Therefore, the important task now is to mobilize the entire Party membership to study and disseminate Mao Zedong Thought and to arm our membership and revolutionary people with it, so that it may become a living, irresistible force. For this purpose, all Party schools and training classes must adopt Comrade Mao Zedongs writings as basic teaching material, and the cadres must study these writings systematically. Our entire Party press must propagate Mao Zedong Thought in a systematic way. The propaganda departments of the Party should edit Comrade Mao Zedongs important works into popular reading matter suited to the level of the average Party member.
After having overcome thought-stifling dogmatism in the Party, we must make further efforts to remove the obstacle of empiricism and to start a campaign in the Party to study Mao Zedong Thought. We may then anticipate a great upsurge in the Party of Marxist culture which is ideological preparation for the victory of the peoples revolution in China.
Mao Zedong Thought is the foundation of the present revised Party Constitution and its General Programme. It is the duty of all Party members to study it, to disseminate it and follow its guidance in their work.
Next: III. Conerning the Characteristics of the Chinese Revolution