Lin Biao
Delivered: October 1, 1966
Source: Forward Along the High Road of Mao Tse-tung’s Thought (pamphlet)
Published: Foreign Languages Press, 1967
Online Version: Lin Biao Internet Archive, December 2003
Transcribed/HTML Markup: Kenneth Higham and Roland Ferguson
Comrades and Friends,
Today is the great festival of the 17th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. On behalf of our great leader, Chairman Mao, the Central Committee of the Party and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, I most warmly salute the workers, peasants and soldiers, the revolutionary teachers and students, the revolutionary Red Guards and other militant youth organizations, the revolutionary people of all nationalities and the revolutionary cadres throughout the country, and extend a hearty welcome to our friends from different countries of the world
The 17 years that have elapsed since the founding of the People’s Republic of China have been no ordinary years. They are years which have witnessed earth-shaking changes in China. And they are also years which have witnessed earth-shaking changes in the world.
In the short space of 17 years, the Chinese people have completely changed the face of old China. This is a highly meritorious deed performed by the masses of the Chinese people under the leadership of Comrade Mao Zedong. We are convinced that all the oppressed peoples and nations of the world will take their own paths in the light of their own countries’ conditions and seize final victory as the Chinese people did.
Today, we are celebrating this great festival amid an upsurge of the great proletarian cultural revolution. This is a great revolution, an entirely new and creative revolution carried out after the seizure of political power by the proletariat. Its aim is to overthrow through struggle the small handful of persons within the Party who are in authority who have taken the capitalist road, to sweep away all ghosts and monsters in our society., and to break the old ideas, culture, customs and habits of the exploiting classes and foster the new ideas, culture, customs and habits of the proletariat, with a view to further consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and developing the socialist system. The historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the world teaches us that if we fail to do this, the rule of revisionism will come about and the restoration of capitalism will take place. Should this happen in our country, China would go back to its former colonial and semi-colonial, feudal and semi-feudal road, and the imperialists and reactionaries would again ride roughshod over the people. The importance of our great cultural revolution is therefore perfectly clear.
At present, hundreds of millions of people have been aroused. The revolutionary people feel proud and elated, while the reactionary bourgeoisie has been completely discredited. We are forging ahead. We have already laid the corner-stone for a great victory.
The great proletarian cultural revolution is promoting the revolutionization of people’s minds and has thus become a powerful motive force for the development of socialist production in our country. This year is the first year of our Third Five-Year Plan. The plan for this year’s industrial production is expected to be over fulfilled, and agriculture promises another good harvest. New heights are being scaled in China’s science and technology. Our great motherland has never been so prosperous and so full of vigour. Our national defence has never been so strong.
Chairman Mao long ago pointed out that the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and the struggle between the capitalist and socialist roads exists throughout the historical period of socialism. The great proletarian cultural revolution constitutes a new stage in the struggle between the two classes and between the two roads. In the course of this revolution, the struggle is still going on between the revolutionary proletarian line represented by Chairman Mao and the bourgeois line of opposing revolution. Those who cling to the erroneous line are only a small handful of persons who divorce themselves from the people, oppose the people and Mao Zedong’s thought, and this spells their certain failure.
Comrades and friends! At present, an excellent situation prevails in the world. The great upheavals of the past few years in the world show that the days of imperialism headed by the United States, modern revisionism and all reaction are numbered.
U.S. imperialism is trying hard to find a way out by launching a world war. We must take this seriously. The focal point of this present struggle lies in Vietnam. We have made every preparation. Not flinching from maximum national sacrifices, we are determined to five firm support to the fraternal Vietnamese people in carrying the war of resistance against U.S. aggression and for national salvation through to the end. Imperialism headed by the United States and modern revisionism with the leadership of the CPSU as its centre are colluding and actively plotting peace talk swindles for the purpose of stamping out the raging flames of the Vietnamese people’s national revolutionary war against the U.S. aggression, of the national revolutionary struggles in Asian, African and Latin American countries and of the world revolution. They will not succeed in their schemes so long as the people of the whole world keep their eyes wide open. Twenty years ago, Chairman Mao said that the people of the whole world must form a united front against U.S. imperialism so as to defeat it. The revolutionary people of all countries are now advancing along this road.
Chairman Mao has said,
People of the world, be courageous, dare to fight, defy difficulties and advance wave upon wave. Then the whole world will belong to the people. Monsters of all kinds shall be destroyed.
Such is the inevitable future of the world.
The Chinese people will continue to hold high the banner of Marxism-Leninism and the banner of proletarian internationalism and, with the Marxist-Leninists of the whole world and the revolutionary people of all countries, carry the struggle against U.S. imperialism and its lackeys and the struggle against modern revisionism with the leadership of the CPSU as its centre through to the end!
Comrades and friends!
All our achievements and successes have been scored under the wise leadership of Chairman Mao and represent the victory of Mao Zedong’s thought. We must use Mao Zedong’s thought to unify the thinking of the whole Party and the thinking of the people of the whole country. We must hold high the great red banner of Mao Zedong’s thought and further unfold the mass movement for the creative study and application of Chairman Mao’s thought throughout the country. We must turn the whole country into a great school of Mao Zedong’s thought. We must build our great motherland into a still more powerful and prosperous country. This is the demand of the Chinese people as well as the hope placed in us by the people of all countries.
Long live the people of all nationalities in China!
Long live the great unity of the people of the world!
Long live the People’s Republic of China!
Long live the Communist Party of China!
Long live the ever-victorious thought of Mao Zedong!
Long live our great leader Chairman Mao, and long life, long, long life to him!