Never Forget Classes and the Class Struggle

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Never Forget Classes and the Class Struggle has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

• Quotation in On the Counter-Revolutionary Double-Dealer Chou Yang, First English Edition, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1967.
• Quotation in Report to the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in The Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, First English Edition, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1969.
• Speech at the Tenth Plenum of the Eighth CPC Central Committee, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Third English Edition, Vol. 8, Foreign Languages Press, Paris, 2020.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is the speech delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong in opening the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, China on the 24th of September, 1962. It was first published in the Red Guard collection Long Live Mao Zedong's Thought! in 1968.

The Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing, China between the 24th and 27th of September, 1962.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#NEVER FORGET CLASSES AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE

#OPENING SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE TENTH PLENARY SESSION OF THE EIGHTH CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong

#24th of September, 1962

#★

It is now 10:00. The meeting is in session.

This Plenary Session of the Central Committee will solve a number of important problems. One is the problem of agriculture, another that of commerce. Both of these are important problems. There are also the problems of industry and planning, which are secondary. The third is the problem of inner-Party unity. Several comrades have already delivered speeches. The problem of agriculture was explained by Comrade Chen Boda, the problem of commerce by Comrade Li Xiannian, and the problems of industry and planning by Comrade Li Fuchun and others. In addition to these problems, we also had the problem of increasing the membership of the Control Commission and the problem of the vertical and horizontal exchange of cadres.

This conference did not open today; it has already been in session for over two months. It met for a month in Beidaihe and has continued for almost a month since transferring to Beijing. The practical problems were discussed and clarified in August and September by various small groups (all of you present participated), which were in fact big groups. So now, the Plenary Session will not take too long — three to five days will probably suffice. If we cannot finish by the 27th, we will stay over until the 28th, by which date the meeting must adjourn.

At Beidaihe, I presented three problems: the problem of classes, the problem of the present situation, and the problem of contradictions. I raised the problem of classes, because this problem had not been solved. Leaving aside the domestic situation, internationally, there are imperialism, nationalism, and revisionism. I am talking about the capitalist countries, which have not solved the class problem. So, we have the task of opposing imperialism and of supporting the national liberation movement, that is to say, we must support the broad masses of the people of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, including the workers, peasants, revolutionary national bourgeois, and revolutionary intellectuals. We want to unite with so many people. But they do not include reactionary national bourgeois, like Nehru, nor reactionary bourgeois intellectuals, like the Japanese renegade against Communism, Kasuga Shojiro, who supports the theory of structural reform along with seven or eight other people.

#1. THE PROBLEM OF CLASSES

Now then, do classes and class struggle exist in socialist countries? We can now affirm that classes and class struggle undoubtedly do exist in socialist countries. Lenin once said that, after the victory of the revolution, because of the existence of the bourgeoisie internationally, the existence of bourgeois remnants domestically, and because of the existence of the small bourgeoisie, which continually creates a bourgeoisie, the overthrown classes will continue to exist for a long time and may even attempt restoration.¹ The bourgeois revolutions in Europe, such as in England and France, had many ups and downs. After the overthrow of feudalism, there were several restorations and reversals of fortune. This kind of reversal is also possible in socialist countries, for example, in Yugoslavia, which has changed its nature and become revisionist, changing from a country ruled by the workers and peasants into a country ruled by reactionary nationalist elements. In our country, we must come to grasp, understand, and study this problem really thoroughly. Socialist society covers a considerably long historical period. In the historical period of socialism, there are still classes, class contradictions, and class struggle; there is the struggle between the socialist road and the capitalist road; and there is the danger of capitalist restoration. We must recognize the protracted and complex nature of this struggle. We must heighten our vigilance. We must conduct socialist education. We must correctly understand and handle class contradictions and class struggle, distinguish the contradictions between ourselves and the enemy from those among the people, and handle them correctly. Otherwise, a socialist country like ours will turn into its opposite and deteriorate, and a capitalist restoration will take place. From now on, we must remind ourselves of this every year, every month, and every day, so that we can retain a rather sober understanding of this problem and have a Marxist-Leninist line.

The situation in our country has not been very good in the past few years, but now, it is starting to take a turn for the better. In 1959 and '60, a number of things were done wrong, mainly because most people had no experience that would enable them to understand these problems. The most serious problem was that our requisitioning of grain was excessive. When we did not have enough grain, we insisted on saying that we hand. There was commandism in both industry and agriculture. There were also some other large-scale mistakes. In the second half of 1960, we started to put these right — in point of fact, it was quite early on, starting with the First Zhengzhou Meeting in October-November 1958. Next came the Wuhan Meeting in November-December 1958, and in February-March 1959, we held the Second Zhengzhou Meeting. At the Shanghai Meeting in April 1959, we also paid attention to correcting our mistakes. Meanwhile, there was a period in 1960 when we did not pay enough attention to it, because the revisionists were putting pressure on us. Our attention was diverted to opposing Hrusev. Starting in the second half of 1958, he wanted to blockade the Chinese coastline. He wanted to set up a joint fleet, so as to have control over our coastline and blockade us. It was because of this problem that Hrusev came to visit our country. After this, in September 1959, during the Sino-Indian border dispute, Hrusev supported Nehru in attacking us, and TASS issued a communique supporting India. Then Hrusev came to China, and at our banquet to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the People's Republic of China in October 1959, he attacked us on our own rostrum. At the Bucharest Meeting in 1960, they tried to «encircle and suppress» us. Then came the meeting between the Chinese and Soviet Parties, the 26-party drafting committee, the 81-party Moscow Meeting, and the Warsaw Meeting, all of which dealt with the dispute between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism. We spent the whole of 1960 fighting Hrusev. So you see that, among socialist countries and within Marxism-Leninism, a question like this could emerge. But in fact, its roots lie deep in the past, in things that happened very long ago. The Soviets did not permit China to make revolution; that was in 1945. Stalin wanted to prevent China from making revolution, saying that we should not have a civil war, that we should cooperate with Jiang Jieshi; otherwise, the Chinese nation would perish. But we didn't do what he said. The revolution won victory. After the victory of the revolution, Stalin next suspected China of being like Yugoslavia, and me of being like Tito. Later, when I went to Moscow to sign the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance, we had to wage another struggle. He was unwilling to sign a treaty. After two months of negotiations, he at last signed. When did Stalin begin to have faith in us? It was at the time of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, starting in the winter of 1950. He then came to believe that we were not like Tito and Yugoslavia. But now, we have become «‹Left-wing› adventurists», «nationalists», «dogmatists», and «sectarians», while the Yugoslavs have become «Marxist-Leninists». Nowadays, Yugoslavia is quite all right, it's doing fine. I hear that it has become «socialist» again. So, the socialist camp is internally highly complicated, too. However, it is also very simple. There is only one principle involved, the problem of the class struggle — the problem of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between Marxism-Leninism and opposition to Marxism-Leninism, between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism.

#2. THE PROBLEM OF THE PRESENT SITUATION

As for the present situation, it is good both internationally and domestically. In the initial period after the founding of our State, some people, including myself and some other comrades, were of the opinion that the Communist Parties and trade unions of Asia and Africa might suffer some serious harm. It was later proved that this standpoint was incorrect; it did not turn out as we expected. Since the Second World War, thriving national-liberation struggles have developed in Asia, Africa, and Latin America year by year. There was the Cuban revolution, the independence of Algeria, the Asian Games in Indonesia, the demonstrations against and smashing of the Indian Consulate by tens of thousands of people, the isolation of India, the handing over of West Papua to Indonesia by the Netherlands, and the development of armed struggle in South Vietnam — a very good armed struggle. There was also the victory of the armed struggle in Algeria, the victorious struggle in Laos, the Suez Canal Incident, and the independence of Egypt. The United Arab Republic was learning to the Right, but then Iraq emerged. Both are Right-of-Centre, but both are anti-imperialist. Although the population of Algeria is less than 10'000'000, and France sent an army of 800'000 to fight there for seven or eight years, Algeria still won victory in the end. Thus, the international situation is excellent. Comrade Chen Yi has delivered a very good report on this question.

#3. THE PROBLEM OF CONTRADICTIONS

The contradiction I want to talk about is the contradiction between ourselves and imperialism. The contradiction between the people of the whole world and imperialism is the primary contradiction. The people of all countries oppose the reactionary bourgeoisie and reactionary nationalism. There are also contradictions between the people of all countries and revisionism, contradictions between the imperialist countries, the contradiction between the nationalist countries and imperialism, internal contradictions within the imperialist countries, and the contradiction between socialism and imperialism.

I think that we need to stop talking about Right-wing opportunism in China and rename it to Chinese revisionism. The two months' meetings in Beidaihe and Beijing have been concerned with two different kinds of problems. One was the problem of political work; the other was the problem of the class struggle. In our conditions, the class struggle takes the form of the struggle between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism.

The problem of political work is also the problem of the struggle against bourgeois ideas, which is identical with the struggle between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism. We have adopted several documents on problems of work in industry, agriculture, commerce, and so on, and various comrades have spoken on these questions.

As for the question of how the Party should handle the problem of revisionism within the country and within the Party, and how the Party should handle the problem of the bourgeoisie, I think we should adhere to our former policies and not change them. No matter what kind of mistakes a comrade has made, we should follow the line of the Rectification Movement in 1942. So long as comrades admit their mistakes and undergo remoulding, we'll welcome them. We must unite with them and apply the policies of «curing the sickness to save the patient», «learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones», and «Unity-Criticism-Unity». But we must be quite specific about what is right and what is wrong. We mustn't mince words or only say one thing at a time. Why does the monk knock the wooden fish drum while chanting a sutra? Pilgrimage to the West explains that it is because the sutras in India were devoured by the black fish daemon, which would spit out just one word each time it was hit. This is the explanation for the wooden fish drum. We mustn't adopt the attitude of the black fish daemon, but rather think things over carefully. We will unite with all comrades who have made mistakes, provided they recognize their mistakes and return to the Marxist standpoint. I also welcome the comrades who are present here. Don't be shy just because you've made mistakes. We allow people to make mistakes, and once they've made them, we also allow them to correct their mistakes. Don't be intolerant of mistakes and prevent people from correcting them. Many comrades have corrected their mistakes well, which is excellent. The speech delivered by Comrade Li Weihan is a case in point. Comrade Li Weihan has corrected his mistakes, and we trust him. First, we must be resolute in criticizing people, and second, we must be resolute in helping them. There are also other comrades who have made mistakes. I have also made mistakes. I talked about those mistakes last year. You must also allow me to make mistakes and allow me to correct them. When I correct them, you should welcome it. Last year, I said that we must adopt an analytical approach toward people. Nobody is free of error. Consider the sages: to say that they were without shortcomings would be a metaphysical standpoint, and not a Marxist, dialectical-materialist standpoint. Anything can be analysed. I urge all comrades, no matter whether they are maintaining illicit relations with foreign comrades or belong to underground anti-Party cliques, to spill the beans and tell the whole truth. If you do so, we will welcome you and give you work to do. We must on no account adopt the attitude of ignoring such people, still less resort to the method of executing them. We cannot break our ban on executions. Haven't there been many counter-revolutionaries whom we haven't executed? Wasn't Emperor Puyi a counter-revolutionary? We didn't kill him, nor did we kill war criminals like Wang Yaowu, Kang Ze, Du Yuming, Yang Kuang, and a whole lot of others. Many people corrected their mistakes, and we granted them parole. We didn't kill them. The Right-wingers who have corrected their mistakes have had their labels removed. The recent trend to reverse correct verdicts is wrong. Only those verdicts which were truly incorrect may be reversed. Correct verdicts cannot be reversed. As for the reversal of truly incorrect verdicts, when they were completely wrong, they should be completely reversed, and when they were partly wrong, they should be partly reversed. When they were correct, they should not be reversed. We cannot reverse all of them indiscriminately.

On the question of work, all comrades should please take care not to let the class struggle interfere with our work. The First Mount Lu Meeting in 1959 originally had to do with our work. Then, Peng Dehuai jumped out of his box and said: «You've fucked my mother for 40 days, so can't I fuck your mother for 20 days?» All this fucking messed up the meeting and affected our work. 20 days wasn't long enough, and we had to abandon the question of our work. We really mustn't do that this time and must really pay attention. In transmitting their briefings on this conference, all the localities and departments should take care to put the work first. The work and the class struggle should proceed simultaneously. The class struggle mustn't be given too much prominence. We have now formed the two Special Case Review Commissions to clear up problems, shed some light on them, and convince people. We have to wage class struggle, but there are special people to take care of that kind of work. The public security departments have the special task of waging the class struggle. Pan Hannian, Hu Feng, and Rao Shushi are all counter-revolutionaries, but we haven't killed any of them! We mustn't let the class struggle interfere with our work. We can wait until the next Plenary Session or the one after that before we try to clear up these matters. The main task of the public security bodies is to deal with enemy sabotage. If people engage in sabotage, then we will break our ban on executions. But this is only directed against people who destroy factories or bridges, throw bombs around, or commit murder or arson. The task of the public security bodies is to defend our cause, to defend our factories, enterprises, communes, production brigades, schools, government, army, and Party bodies, and mass organizations, and also our cultural organs, such as newspapers, publishing houses, and news agencies — that is to say, their job is to protect the superstructure.

Writing novels is very popular these days, isn't it? It was a great invention to use novels to carry out anti-Party activities. To overthrow a political power, it has always been necessary first of all to build up public opinion, to do work in the ideological sphere. This is true for the revolutionary class as well as for the counter-revolutionary class. Our ideology is revolutionary Marxism-Leninism; it is the integration of the universal truth of Marxism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution. If these two aspects are integrated, then our problems will be more easily solved. If they are not well integrated, then we shall meet with failures and setbacks. As regards socialist construction, it is also an integration of universal truth with concrete practice — the practice of construction. Have we integrated these aspects well or not? We are in the process of solving this question. The same is true for military construction. For example, our military line of a few years ago is not the same as our military line of today. Comrade Ye Jianying wrote a book about this question, which is very sharp; it is not confused about essential points. I have always criticized him for not being sharp enough, but this time, he was sharp. «Zhuge Liang was cautious all his life, whereas Lu Duan was a fool when it came to minor points, but not major ones.»

Please announce the names of those who are not attending this Plenary Session. The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau decided that five members shouldn't attend.

[Someone says: «The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau decided that five important Central Committee members shouldn't attend the Plenary Session — Peng Dehuai, Huang Kecheng, Zhang Wentian, Zhou Xiaozhou, and Xi Zhongxun — because there are presently under investigation. While they are under investigation, they are not qualified to attend meetings.»]

Because their crimes are really too big, they are not qualified to attend meetings, shouldn't attend important meetings, and shouldn't be allowed to appear at the Square of Heavenly Peace until the situation has been cleared up through investigation. We must use analysis and investigation to distinguish between important and unimportant individuals. Some unimportant individuals are attending our meeting today. When unimportant individuals have thoroughly corrected their mistakes, they should be given work to do. When important individuals have thoroughly corrected their mistakes, they should also be given work to do. We are particularly hopeful that the unimportant individuals will become conscious of their mistakes; naturally, we also hope that the important individuals will become conscious as well.