The 4th of May Movement

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of The 4th of May Movement 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:

  • The May 4th Movement, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
  • The May Fourth Movement, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 7, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 2005.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an article written by Comrade Mao Zedong in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 4th of May Movement. It was first published in the Jiefang, No. 70 (1st of May, 1939).

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#THE 4TH OF MAY MOVEMENT

#Mao Zedong
#Before the 1st of May, 1939

#★

The 4th of May Movement 20 years ago marked a new stage in China's bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism. The cultural reform movement which grew out of the 4th of May Movement was only one of the manifestations of this revolution. With the growth and development of new social forces in that period, a powerful camp made its appearance in the bourgeois-democratic revolution, a camp consisting of the working class, the student masses, and the new national bourgeoisie. Around the time of the 4th of May Movement, hundreds of thousands of students courageously took their place in the forefront. In these respects, the 4th of May Movement went a step beyond the Revolution of 1911.

If we trace China's bourgeois-democratic revolution back to its formative period, we see that it has passed through a number of stages in its development: the Opium War, the War of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894,1 the Reform Movement of 1898,2 the Boxer Movement,3 the Revolution of 1911, the 4th of May Movement, the Northern Expedition, and the Agrarian Revolutionary War. The present War of Resistance Against Japan is yet another stage, and is the greatest, most vigorous, and most dynamic stage of all. The process of development of the bourgeois-democratic revolution can be considered accomplished only when the forces of foreign imperialism and domestic feudalism have fundamentally been overthrown and an independent democratic State has been established. From the Opium War onward, each stage in the development of the revolution has had its own distinguishing characteristics. But the most important feature differentiating them is whether they came before or after the emergence of the Communist Party. However, taken as a whole, all the stages bear the character of a bourgeois-democratic revolution. This last characteristic is the fundamental characteristic that is common, in varying degrees, to all the stages. The aim of this democratic revolution is to establish a social system until now unknown in Chinese history, namely, a democratic social system having a feudal society (during the last 100 years, a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society) as its precursor and a socialist society as its successor. But this system itself will be a democratic society. It is coming from a feudal society and will move toward a socialist society, but, during a certain historical period, it fights to establish a democratic society. If anyone asks why a Communist should strive to bring into being first a bourgeois-democratic society and then a socialist society, our answer is: We are following the inevitable course of history.

China's democratic revolution depends on definite social forces for its accomplishment. These social forces are the working class, the peasantry, the intellectuals, and the progressive faction of the bourgeoisie, that is, the revolutionary workers, peasants, soldiers, students and intellectuals, and businesspeople, with the workers and peasants as the fundamental revolutionary forces and the workers as the class which leads the revolution. It is impossible to accomplish the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal democratic revolution without these fundamental revolutionary forces and without the leadership of the working class. Today, the main enemies of the revolution are the Japanese imperialists and the Chinese traitors, and the fundamental policy in the revolution is the policy of the Anti-Japanese National United Front, consisting of all workers, peasants, soldiers, students and intellectuals, and businesspeople who are against Japanese aggression. Final victory in the War of Resistance will be won when this united front is greatly consolidated and developed.

In the Chinese democratic revolutionary movement, it was the intellectuals who were the first to awaken. This was clearly demonstrated both in the Revolution of 1911 and in the 4th of May Movement, and in the days of the 4th of May Movement, the intellectuals were more numerous and more politically conscious than in the days of the Revolution of 1911. But the intellectuals will accomplish nothing if they fail to integrate themselves with the workers and peasants. This was the cause of the failure of the Revolution of 1911 and the 4th of May Movement. In the final analysis, the dividing line between revolutionary intellectuals and non-revolutionary or counter-revolutionary intellectuals is whether or not they are willing to integrate themselves with the workers and peasants and actually do so. Ultimately it is this alone, and not professions of faith in the «Three People's Principles» or in Marxism, that distinguishes one from the other. A true revolutionary must be one who is willing to integrate themself with the workers and peasants and actually does so.

It is now 20 years since the 4th of May Movement and almost two years since the outbreak of the anti-Japanese war. The young people and the cultural circles of the whole country bear a heavy responsibility in the democratic revolution and the War of Resistance. I hope they will understand the character and the motive forces of the Chinese revolution, make their work serve the workers and peasants, go into their midst, and become propagandists and organizers among them. Victory will be ours when the entire people arises against Japan. Young people of the whole country, bestir yourselves!

  1. Editor's Note: The First Sino-Japanese War of 1894 was started by Japanese imperialism for the purpose of invading Korea and China. Many Chinese soldiers and some patriotic generals put up a heroic fight. But China suffered defeat because of the corruption of the Qing government and its failure to prepare resistance. In 1895, the Qing government concluded the shameful Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan. ↩

  2. Editor's Note: The Reform Movement of 1898, whose leading spirits were Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Tan Sitong represented the interests of the liberal bourgeoisie and the enlightened feudal lords. The movement was favoured and supported by Emperor Guangxu, but had no mass basis. Yuan Shikai, who had an army behind him, betrayed the reformers to Empress Dowager Cixi, the leader of the Right-wingers, who seized power again and had Emperor Guangxu imprisoned and Tan Sitong and five others beheaded. Thus, the movement ended in tragic defeat. ↩

  3. Editor's Note: The Boxer Movement was the anti-imperialist armed struggle which took place in northern China in 1900. The broad masses of peasants, handicraftspeople, and other people took part in this movement. Getting in touch with one another through religious and other channels, they organized themselves on the basis of secret societies and waged a heroic struggle against the joint forces of aggression of the eight imperialist powers — the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, Tsarist Russia, France, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. The movement was put down with indescribable savagery after the joint forces of aggression occupied Tianjin and Beijing. ↩