The Current Situation and the Party's Tasks
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of The Current Situation and the Party's Tasks 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 Current Situation and the Party's Tasks, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
- Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on the Current Situation and the Party's Tasks, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 7, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 2005.
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is a resolution drafted by Comrade Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 10th of October, 1939. It was first published in the Jiefang, No. 87/88 (30th of October, 1939).
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#THE CURRENT SITUATION AND THE PARTY'S TASKS
#RESOLUTION OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA
#Mao Zedong
#10th of October, 1939
#★
#1
The outbreak of the imperialist world war represents a new stage in the imperialist Second World War; it is the result of the attempt of the imperialist countries to extricate themselves from a new economic and political crisis. Whether on the German side or the Anglo-French-Polish, the war is unjust, predatory, and imperialist in character. The Communist Parties throughout the world must firmly oppose this war and also the criminal action of the Social-Democratic Parties in betraying the proletariat by supporting it. The Union of Socialist Council Republics is persevering as before in its policy of peace, is maintaining strict neutrality toward both belligerents, and, by sending its armed forces into Poland after the collapse of the Polish government, has checked the eastward expansion of the German forces of aggression, strengthened peace in Eastern Europe, and liberated its fraternal nations in western Ukraine and Belarus from the oppression of the Polish rulers. The Council Union has concluded a number of pacts with neighbouring countries to prevent any possible attacks by the forces of international reaction and is endeavouring to restore world peace. China should maintain strict neutrality in the war between Britain, France, and Germany. We must resolutely oppose any political conspiracy that aims to lure China into joining the Anglo-French side, for this is merely a reactionary step in preparing for surrender to the Japanese bandits and disrupting national unity.
#2
The policy of Japanese imperialism in this new international situation is to concentrate its attacks on China in order to settle the China question — that is, the total subjugation of the whole of China under its euphemistic slogan of the «Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere» — in preparation for extending its international adventures in the future. The policy by which it is attempting to settle the China question is as follows:
- With regard to the occupied areas, its policy is to tighten its hold on them in preparation for subjugating the whole of China. To do this, it has to «mop up» the anti-Japanese guerrilla base areas, exploit economic resources, set up puppet regimes, and break the people's national spirit.
- With regard to China's rear areas, its policy is to launch mainly political offensives, supplemented by military offensives. Political offensives mean concentration, not on launching large-scale military attacks, but on disrupting the anti-Japanese united front, breaking up Nationalist-Communist cooperation, and inducing the Nationalist government to capitulate.
In the present period, the enemy is not likely to launch big strategic offensives, like the one against Wuhan, because of the blows dealt by China's heroic resistance during the past two years and of the inadequacy of their armed strength and financial resources. In this sense, fundamentally, the War of Resistance has reached the stage of strategic stalemate. And the stage of strategic stalemate is the stage of preparation for our counter-offensive. But first, when we say that fundamentally a stalemate has been reached, we do not rule out the possibility of further offensive campaigns by the enemy; Changsha is now being attacked, and other places may be attacked later. Second, as the possibility of a stalemate at the front grows, the enemy will intensify their «mopping-up» operations against our guerrilla base areas. Third, if China should fail to disrupt the enemy's occupation of the areas they have seized and allow them to succeed in their attempts to tighten their hold on them and exploit them, if China should fail to repulse the enemy's political offensives and to persist in resistance, unity, and progress, and thus fail to accumulate strength for the counter-offensive, or if the Nationalist government should capitulate of its own accord, then the enemy may still launch bigger offensives. In other words, the stalemate that has now been reached may still be broken by the enemy or by the capitulators.
#3
The danger of capitulation, a split, and retrogression within the anti-Japanese united front is still the greatest current danger, and the present anti-Communist and retrogressive actions of the big landlords and the big bourgeoisie continue to be preparatory steps to their capitulation. In order to build up strength for the counter-offensive, it is still our task, in cooperation with all Chinese patriots, to mobilize the masses for the effective application of the three great political slogans put forward in our Party's Manifesto of the 7th of July: «Persist in resistance and oppose capitulation!», «Persist in unity and oppose a split!», and «Persist in progress and oppose retrogression!». To achieve this objective, behind the enemy lines, it is imperative to keep up guerrilla warfare, defeat the enemy's «mopping-up» operations, disrupt the enemy's occupation of the areas they have seized, and introduce radical political and economic changes beneficial to the masses who are resisting Japan. At the front, it is imperative to sustain military defence and repel any offensive campaigns the enemy may launch. In China's rear area, it is imperative to introduce speedy and genuine political reforms, end the Nationalist Party's one-party dictatorship, convene a national assembly truly representative of the people's will and invested with real power, draw up and adopt a constitution, and put constitutional government into practice. Only thus will it be possible to avoid the danger of national subjugation and accumulate strength for the counter-offensive. Any vacillation or procrastination, any contrary policy, is absolutely wrong. At the same time, the leading bodies of our Party at all levels and all Party members must exercise more vigilance in the present situation and do their utmost to achieve the ideological, political, and organizational consolidation of our Party and of the armed forces and bodies of political power under its leadership, in order to be ready for any emergency endangering the Chinese revolution and to prevent unexpected losses to the Party and the revolution.