The Revolution Is Still Unfinished
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of The Revolution Is Still Unfinished 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 edition published in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Third English Edition, Volume 9, Foreign Languages Press, Paris, 2021.
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is the speech delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at the First Plenary Session of the Ninth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, China on the 28th of April, 1969. It was first published in the Zhonggong Yanjiu, Volume 4, Number 3.
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#THE REVOLUTION IS STILL UNFINISHED
#SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE FIRST PLENARY SESSION OF THE NINTH CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA
#Mao Zedong
#28th of April, 1969
#★
What I am going to say is old stuff, with which you are all familiar. I am not going to say anything now. I am simply going to talk about unity. We must unite to win still greater victories.
The Soviet revisionists are now attacking us. Some TASS broadcast or other, the Wang Ming material, and a long screed published in the Komunist [Communist] all say that we are no longer a proletarian political party, and all call us a «small-bourgeois political party». They say we have imposed a monolithic order and have returned to the time of the base areas, that is, that we have retrogressed. What do they mean by «monolithic»? They say it is the same as a «military-bureaucratic system». In Japanese revisionist terminology, it is a «system». In Soviet revisionist terminology, it is a «military-bureaucratic dictatorship». They see that we have elected a lot of military people, so they call us «military». As to the «bureaucracy», I suppose they are referring to the batch of «bureaucrats» comprising myself, Zhou Enlai, Kang Sheng, and Chen Boda. In a word, those of you who do not come from the military all supposedly come from some kind of bureaucratic network, and we are hence collectivelly named a «military-bureaucratic dictatorship». Let them talk. They can say what they want. But their words have one interesting characteristic: they avoid branding us as a bourgeois politival party and instead label us a «small-bourgeois political party». We, on the other hand, openly label them a restored dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
Speaking of victory, we must ensure that the people throughout the country are united to win victory under the leadership of the proletariat. The socialist revolution must still continue. In the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, some tasks have not yet been fulfilled and they should now be carried out, for instance, the tasks of «Struggle-Criticism-Transformation». We may have to carry out another revolution in a few years.
Several of our old comrades have been to the factories for a while to see the conditions there for themselves. I hope that, in the future, you people will also go down to have a look when the opportunity arises. You should study the problems in different factories. Apparently, we couldn't do without the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, for our basis was not solid. From my observations, I am afraid that, in a fairly large majority of factories — I don't mean all or the overwhelming majority — leadership was not in the hands of real Marxists and the masses of workers. Not that there were no good people in the leadership of the factories. There were. There were good people among the secretaries, deputy secretaries, and members of Party committees, and among the Party branch secretaries. But they followed that line of Liu Shaoqi's, just resorting to material incentive, putting profit in command, and, instead of promoting proletarian politics, handing out bonuses, and so on. Some factories have now liberated them and included them in the leading bodies set up on the basis of the «three-in-one» combination. Some factories have still not done so. But there are indeed bad people in the factories. For example, in the 7th of February Works, which is the train repair works at Changxintian. This is a big factory with 8'000 workers, or several tens of thousands, if you include their families. In the past, the Nationalist Party of China had nine district branches there, and the «Three People's Principles» Youth League had three organizations and eight so-called special duty bodies. Of course, careful analysis is called for, because, in those days, it wouldn't do to refuse to join the Nationalist Party! Some of the ones who did so are old workers. Are you going to get rid of all the old workers? That won't do! You should distinguish the serious cases from the trivial cases. Some were nominal Nationalists who were forced to join the Nationalist Party. It is only necessary to have a talk with them. There are others who had more responsibility, while there is a small minority who were up to their necks in it, and who did bad things. You must distinguish between their different circumstances. We should also distinguish among those who did bad things. If they are aboveboard, then we should be more lenient. If they resist, then we should be more severe. If they make a proper self-criticism, then we should let them continue working (of course, we shall not give them leading posts). If you don't let them work, what will they do at home? What will their children do? Besides, most of the old workers are skilled, even if their skills are not of a high level.
This shows that the revolution is still unfinished. Therefore, all comrades of the Central Committee, including alternate members, please pay attention: In a word, we must work meticulously. Meticulous care is necessary; to be careless will not do, for that often leads to errors. There are some places where too many people have been arrested. This is bad. Why arrest so many people? They haven't committed murder, arson, or poisoning. I say that, provided they haven't committed murder, arson, or poisoning, you shouldn't arrest them. As to those who have committed the mistake of taking the capitalist road, still less should they be arrested. Those in the factories should be allowed to work and to participate in mass movements. After all, people who have committed mistakes committed them in the past. They may have joined the Nationalist Party, done some bad things, or perhaps they committed mistakes recently, such as taking the capitalist road. But they should be allowed to integrate with the masses. It would be bad not to let them integrate with the masses. Some people have been locked up for two years in «cattle pens». They no longer know anything about the outside world. When they come out and talk to people, they don't make any sense. They still speak the language of two years ago. These people have been divorced from real life for two years and must be given help. Organize study groups with them, talk with them about history, and explain the course of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the past two years to them. In this way, you will enable them gradually to awaken.
Let us unite for one purpose, that is, the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This must be fully achieved in every factory, village, office, and school. At first, it must not be done too comprehensively. It can be done, but it shouldn't be started and then left half-way. It can't just be done for half a year or longer and then be left alone. Sum up experience factory by factory, school by school, body by body. Hence, Lin Biao's report says that it must be done factory by factory, school by school, commune by commune, Party branch by Party branch, unit by unit. The question of dealing with one Communist Youth League branch after another and with the League as a whole has also been raised.
Another subject about which we have talked in the past is that we should be prepared against war. We should maintain our preparedness year after year. People may ask: «But what if the enemy doesn't come?» It doesn't matter whether the enemy comes or not, what matters is that we get prepared. Don't expect the central authorities to distribute materials, even for the manufacture of hand grenades. Hand grenades can be made everywhere, in every province. Every province can even make rifles and light weapons. This point concerns material preparations, but the most important thing is ideological preparations. To get ideologically prepared means to be morally prepared to fight. Not only should we on the Central Committee get ideologically prepared, but we should see to it that the great majority of the people get ideologically prepared, too. I am not talking about the enemies of the dictatorship of the proletariat, such as the feudal lords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, and bad elements, because they would be happy to see the imperialists and revisionists attack us. If they attacked us, these people suppose that this would turn the world upside down, so that they would come out on top. We should also get prepared against this. In the process of the socialist revolution, we must also carry out a revolution in the sphere of preparedness against war.
The enemy may come and attack us, but we shall not fight outside our own borders. It is a principle that we do not fight outside our own borders. We will not be provoked. Even if the enemy invites us to come out, we will not go, but if they should come and attack us, then we shall deal with them. It depends on whether they carry out a small-scale attack or a large-scale attack. If they carry out a small-scale attack, then we shall fight them on the border. If they carry out a large-scale attack, then I am in favour of yielding some ground. China is no small country. If there is nothing in it for the enemy, then I don't think they will come. We must make it clear to the whole world that we have both the truth and the advantage on our side. If the enemy invades our territory, then it will be to our advantage, so we have both the truth and the advantage on our side. They would be easy to fight, since the people would encircle them. As to things like aeroplanes, tanks, and armoured cars, experience has proved everywhere that they can be dealt with.
To win victory we must have more people, people from all walks of life, no matter on which mountaintop or in which province they are, no matter whether they are in the North or the South. Which is better, to unite more people or fewer people? It is always better to unite more people. Some people's opinion differs from ours, but that is not a contradiction between ourselves and the enemy. To put it concretely, I do not believe that the relationship between Yang Dezhi and Wang Xiaoyu is a contradiction between ourselves and the enemy. Is the relationship between you two a contradiction between ourselves and the enemy or is it a contradiction among the people? In my opinion, it is merely a quarrel among the people. The central authorities are also rather bureaucratic; they did not pay enough attention to you. Neither did you bring your problems up to the central authorities for discussion. Such a big province as Shandong has a lot of contradictions among the people. You should take this opportunity to talk it over. I think that in East China, too, there are contradictions among the people. This is also the case in Shanxi Province. You support one faction, I support another, but there is no need for this incessant quarreling. There are also problems in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan. Every place has a certain number of problems, but things are much better than last year and the year before. In July-September 1967, when I and Xu Shiyou were in Shanghai, things were really terrible. Now life is after all a bit better. I am talking about the overall situation. In his Nanjing, there emerged a so-called Red Headquarters. Work was done, and as a result, the Red Headquarters and the 27th of August Organization decided to cooperate in the end.
The main problem still concerns our work. The answer to the problem of the localities lies in the army, the answer to the problem of the army lies in political work. You are not implacable enemies to the death, so why bother about it? When it comes to personal gratitude or hatred, that is not of such great consequence. In a word, there is nothing about either your previous or your present lives that forces you to be enemies. You simply clashed, had some differences of opinion, criticized each other, and opposed each other. You attacked and counter-attacked each other, and, as a result, a contradiction arose. Those opposed to you are not necessarily bad elements. One of the individuals whom Beijing often wanted to overthrow was Xie Fuzhi. He later adopted the following method: He told everybody who wanted to overthrow him that there was nothing wrong with them, and everybody who supported him that they were not necessarily good.
So, what I am saying is still the same old words, that we need to unite to win still greater victories. In this there is concrete content. What are we going to do? What sort of concrete victories are we going to win? And how do we go about uniting people?
I believe in some of the old comrades who have made mistakes in the past. Originally there was a long list of 30-odd people whom we wanted to elect to the Political Bureau. Then someone prepared a shorter list of less than 20 people. We thought this list was too short. Most of us are «Centrists» who advocate a middle list of between 20 and 30 people, so the only thing possible to do was to elect representatives. This is not to say that the candidate members of the Central Committee are not as good as full members or Political Bureau members in terms of their political level, ability to work, and their moral and intellectual qualities; that isn't the point at all. In fact, something about this is unfair. You may say that it is quite fair, but I don't think it's very fair or very just. Everyone should be both prudent and cautious, no matter whether they are an alternate member of the Central Committee, a full member of the Central Committee, or a member of the Political Bureau; everyone should be prudent and cautious. Don't be impulsive and hotheaded. Since the time of Marx we have never talked about credit. We are Communists, we are the most conscious part of the masses, the most conscious part of the proletariat. So, I am for the slogan: «Fear neither hardship nor death!»; but I am against the slogan: «Even if we get no credit, we are rewarded by hard work; even if we get no credit for hard work, we are rewarded by exhaustion.» This slogan is the direct opposite of «fear neither hardship nor death». You know how many of us have died. All the old comrades who still remain are fortunate to be alive and have only survived by chance. Comrade Pi Dingjun, at that time in the Central Plains Liberated Area, there were so many people with you, but not so many of them are still around today. At the time after the Central Red Base Area, we went through large-scale fighting and suffered great losses, so not many comrades from that time are still around. This is what is meant by «fear neither hardship nor death». For years we did not receive any salaries, but only a fixed amount of food, oil, and salt. If we got a bit of millet, that was great. As to vegetables, how could we get vegetables wherever the army went? Then we entered the cities. That was a good thing because, if we had not entered the cities, Jiang Jieshi would still be occupying them. But it is also a bad thing because it caused our Party to deteriorate. So some foreigners and journalists now say that our Party is being rebuilt. In fact the Party needs to be rebuilt. Every Party branch must reconsolidate itself in the midst of the masses. This must be done with the participation of the masses and not merely a few Party members; it is necessary to have the masses outside the Party attend the meetings and give comments. Individuals who are no good should be persuaded to leave the Party, to withdraw their membership. A very small minority may have to be disciplined. Isn't this laid down in the Party Constitution? It also has to be approved by the Party branch congress and approved by the superior level. In a word, we must be prudent. This must be done, it certainly has to be done, but it must be done prudently.
This National Congress seems to have been a very good one. In my opinion, it has been a congress of unity and a congress of victory. We use the method of issuing communiques. The foreigners can no longer fish for information from us. They say that our meetings are secret. In fact we work both openly and secretly. I think that the reporters in Beijing are not very skilled. Perhaps it is because we have cleared out most of the traitors and spies who had sneaked their way into our midst. In the past, whenever we held a meeting, it was immediately leaked, and the Red Guards immediately put up posters about it. Since Wang Li, Guan Feng, Qi Benyu, Yang Zhengwu, Yu Lijin, and Zhuan Zongpi fell, they no longer receive any more information about the meetings of the Central Committee.
That's more or less it. The meeting is adjourned.