First Published: The Call, Vol. 5, No. 25, October 25, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The Chinese people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, have intensified their class struggle and their efforts to defend the great communist legacy left behind by Mao Tsetung. Amid speculation and rumors in the capitalist press, China is making great gains in carrying on its revolution under the conditions of socialism.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party announced on October 8 two decisions of great importance. The first was the establishment of a memorial hall for the great leader and teacher, Chairman Mao Tsetung and the second, the publication plans for all of Mao Tsetung’s collected works. The announcement said that Volume Five of Selected Works of Mao Tsetung will be published at the “soonest possible date, with other volumes to follow.” It added that “active preparations” are being made for the publication of the Collected Works of Mao Tsetung.
The editing and publication work for this monumental effort has been placed under the direct leadership of the Central Committee’s Political Bureau which is now headed by Hua Kuo-feng. The Central Committee has called on party committees at all levels throughout the country to collect and send in all manuscripts written by Chairman Mao, including original scripts, articles, documents, telegrams, directives, letters, poems, etc.
A joint editorial published Oct. 10 in People’s Daily, Red Flag Journal and the Liberation Army Daily called the two decisions “major events in the political life of the Chinese people and in both the annals of the development of Marxism and of the international communist movement.” It called on the Chinese people to actively take up the call of the Central Committee to begin a new upsurge in studying the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Chairman Mao.
The decision to make Hua Kuo-feng Chairman of the Central Committee, while not yet officially announced, was made evident in the editorial which called on the masses to “rally most closely round the Party Central Committee headed by Comrade Hua Kuo-feng...”
The editorial points out the great necessity of studying Chairman Mao’s teaching: “Practice Marxism, and not revisionism; unite and don’t split; be open and aboveboard, and don’t intrigue and conspire,” and calls on the people to struggle against all statements and actions that are contrary to these three basic principles.
These “three do’s” and “three don’ts” of Chairman Mao’s provide solid criteria for understanding the two-line struggle. It is the Marxist-Leninist line, representing the interests of the great majority of the people, that relies on winning the masses through open struggle. The revisionists, on the other hand, have always been forced to intrigue and conspire because their line never represented the interests of more than a handful of capitalists.
“It has never been easy to try to crush our Party,” says the Oct. 10 editorial. “Anyone who betrays Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and tampers with Chairman Mao’s directives, and anyone who practices revisionism and splittism and engages in conspiracies is bound to fail.”
Chairman Mao’s directives on practicing Marxism and not revisionism as well as carrying through to the end the proletarian revolutionary cause which Chairman Mao pioneered, are being spoken of as “Chairman Mao’s behests” or last wishes. The Central Committee has raised the guiding slogans of: “Long Live Invincible Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought!” and “Carry out Chairman Mao’s Behests and Carry the Cause of the Proletarian Revolution Through to the End!”
While Teng Hsiao-ping and the “right deviationist wind” he stirred up have been successfully beaten back, the struggle to continue the revolution under the conditions of socialism is developing. The editorial in People’s Daily on the October First anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China stressed this point, basing itself on Chairman Mao’s scientific conclusion that the “capitalist roaders are still on the capitalist road” and that the “bourgeoisie is right in the Communist Party.”
As long as classes exist, Chairman Mao pointed out, there will be class struggle. While Chairman Mao has passed away, this teaching of his is guiding the Chinese people forward to new and greater victories.