Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
January 31, 1958
[SOURCE: Long Live Mao Zedong Thought, a Red Guard Publication, 1969.]
Red and expert, politics and business are the unification of two pairs of opposites. [We] must criticize the a-political attitude. (We) must on the one hand oppose empty-headed politicos and on the other confound practical men.
There is no doubt that politics and economy, and politics and technology should be united. It has been so in the past and will be so for ever. This is what red and expert mean. In future, the term ‘politics’ will continue to exist but in a different sense. To pay no attention to politics and to be fully occupied with business matters is to become a perplexed economist or technician. And that is dangerous. Ideological and political work is the guarantee for the accomplishment of our economic and technological work; it serves the economic basis. Ideology and politics are the commanders, the soul. A slight relaxation in our ideological and political work will lead our economic and technological work astray.
Political workers must have some knowledge of business. It may be difficult for them to have a lot, but it may not do for them to have only a little. They must have some. To have no practical knowledge is to be pseudo-red, empty-headedly political. Politics and technology must be combined together. In agriculture, this means carrying out experiments; in industries, understanding advanced models, trying out new techniques, and producing new goods.