The Orientation of the Youth Movement

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of The Orientation of the Youth 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 Orientation of the Youth Movement, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• Speech at the Meeting in Yan'an in Commemoration of the Twentieth Anniversary of 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 a speech delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at a mass meeting of youth in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 4th of May Movement in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 4th of May, 1939. It was first published in the Zhongguo Qingnian, No. 6 of 1939.

The speech represented a further development of Comrade Mao Zedong's ideas about the nature of the Chinese revolution, which he later took up in The Chinese Revolution and the Communist Party of China, On New Democracy, and other works.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#THE ORIENTATION OF THE YOUTH MOVEMENT

#SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE YAN'AN RALLY COMMEMORATING THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 4TH OF MAY MOVEMENT

#Mao Zedong

#4th of May, 1939

#★

Comrades!

Today is the 20th anniversary of the 4th of May Movement, and the youth of Yan'an are all gathered here for this commemoration meeting. I shall therefore take the occasion to speak on some questions concerning the orientation of the youth movement in China.

First, the 4th of May has now been designated as China's Youth Day,¹ and rightly so. 20 years have elapsed since the 4th of May Movement, yet it is only this year that the day has been designated as the National Youth Day, and this is a most significant fact. For it indicates that the Chinese people's democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism will soon reach a turning point. This revolution encountered repeated failures over several decades, but now there must be a change, a change toward victory and not another failure. The Chinese revolution is now going forward, forward to victory. The repeated failures of the past cannot and must not be allowed to recur, and they must be turned into victory. But has the change already taken place? No. It has not, nor have we yet won victory. But victory can be won. It is precisely in the present War of Resistance Against Japan that we are striving to reach the turning point from failure to victory. Just consider. For the past 20 years, the 4th of May was not designated as Youth Day. Since March this year, it has been designated as Youth Day upon the proposal of youth organizations in Yan'an, and youth organizations outside Yan'an have also made it Youth Day. Our hearts are like theirs. «We are of the same mind and follow the same reasoning.» We all want to fight against Japanese imperialism and build a New China. Isn't this good news? Many people in the past were not in favour of designating the 4th of May as Youth Day, and refused to recognize the revolutionary significance of the 4th of May Movement, saying that it was an anti-governmental movement. Now, those who opposed it are also supportive. They have probably understood the point that the 4th of May Movement was directed against a government of national betrayal, a government which conspired with imperialism and sold out the interests of the nation, a government which oppressed the people. Was it not necessary to oppose such a government? If it was not, then the 4th of May Movement was simply a mistake. It is obvious that such a government must be opposed, that a government of national betrayal must be overthrown. Just consider, long before the 4th of May Movement, Dr. Sun Yixian was already a rebel against the government of his day; he opposed and overthrew the Qing government. Was he right in doing so? In my opinion, he was quite right. For the government he opposed did not resist imperialism, but conspired with it, and was not a revolutionary government, but one that suppressed the revolution. The 4th of May Movement was a revolutionary movement precisely because it opposed a government of national betrayal. The youth of China should see the 4th of May Movement in this light. Today, when the whole nation has militantly risen to resist Japan, we are determined to defeat Japanese imperialism, and we shall not tolerate any traitors or allow the revolution to fail again, for we have taken warning from its failures in the past. With few exceptions, the whole youth of China is awakened and determined to win, and this is reflected in the designation of the 4th of May as Youth Day. We are advancing along the road to victory and, provided the whole people make a concerted effort, the Chinese revolution will definitely triumph through the War of Resistance. This is the first point I want to address today.

Secondly, what is the Chinese revolution directed against? What are the targets of the revolution? As everybody knows, imperialism is one target and feudalism the other. What are the targets of the revolution at this moment? One is Japanese imperialism, and the other the Chinese collaborators. To make our revolution, we must overthrow Japanese imperialism and the Chinese traitors. Who are the makers of the revolution? What is its main force? The common people of China. The motive forces of the revolution are the proletariat, the peasantry, and all members of other classes who are willing to oppose imperialism and feudalism; these are the revolutionary forces opposing imperialism and feudalism. But who, among so many, are the fundamental force, the backbone of the revolution? The workers and the peasants, forming 90% of the country's population. What is the nature of the Chinese revolution? What kind of revolution are we making today? Today, we are making a bourgeois-democratic revolution, and nothing we do goes beyond its scope. By and large, we should not destroy the bourgeois system of private property for the present; what we want to destroy is imperialism and feudalism. This is what we mean by the bourgeois-democratic revolution. But its accomplishment is already beyond the capacity of the bourgeoisie and must depend on the efforts of the proletariat and the broad masses of the people. What is the goal of this revolution? To overthrow imperialism and feudalism and to establish a people's democratic republic. A people's democratic republic means a republic based on the revolutionary «Three People's Principles». It will be different both from the semi-colonial and semi-feudal State of the present and from the socialist system of the future. Capitalists have no place in a socialist society, but they should still be allowed in a people's democracy. Will there always be a place for capitalists in China? No, definitely not in the future. This is true, not only of China, but of the whole world. In the future, no country, whether it be Britain, the United States, France, Japan, Germany, or Italy, will have any place for capitalists, and China will be no exception. The Council Union is a country which has already established socialism, and beyond all doubt, the whole world will follow its example. «The turtles in the front make the way, and the others behind follow.» China will certainly go over to socialism in the future; that is an irresistible law. But at the present stage, our task is not to put socialism into practice, but to destroy imperialism and feudalism, change China's present semi-colonial and semi-feudal status, and establish people's democracy. This is what the youth of the whole country must strive for. This is the second point I want to address today.

Thirdly, what are the lessons of the Chinese revolution? This question is also an important one for our youth to understand. Strictly speaking, China's bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism was begun by Dr. Sun Yixian and has been going on for more than 50 years; as for foreign capitalist aggression against China, it has been going on for almost 100 years. During that century, there was first the Opium War against British aggression, then came the War of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, then the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the Reform Movement of 1898, the Boxer Movement, the Revolution of 1911, the 4th of May Movement, the Northern Expedition, and the war waged by the Red Army — although these struggles differed from each other, their common purpose was to repel foreign enemies or change existing conditions. However, it was only with Dr. Sun Yixian that a more or less clearly defined bourgeois-democratic revolution began. In the last 50 years, the revolution started by Dr. Sun Yixian has had both its successes and its failures. Was not the Revolution of 1911 a success? Didn't it send the Emperor packing? Yet it was a failure in the sense that, while it sent the Emperor packing, it left China under imperialist and feudal oppression, so that the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary task remained unaccomplished. What was the aim of the 4th of May Movement? Its aim likewise was to overthrow imperialism and feudalism, but it, too, failed, and China still remained under the rule of imperialism and feudalism. The same is true of the revolution known as the Northern Expedition; it scored successes, but it too failed. From the time the Nationalist Party turned against the Communist Party,² China again fell under the domination of imperialism and feudalism. The inevitable result was the ten years' war waged by the Red Army. But these ten years of struggle fulfilled the revolutionary task only in parts of China and not in the country as a whole. If we are to sum up the revolution during the past decades, we may say that it has won only temporary and partial victories and not permanent and nationwide victory. As Dr. Sun Yixian said: «The revolution is not yet completed, all my comrades must fight on.» The question now is: Why, after decades of struggle, has the Chinese revolution not yet attained its goal? What are the reasons? I think there are two: first, the enemy forces have been too strong; second, our own forces have been too weak. Because one side was strong and the other side weak, the revolution did not succeed. In saying that the enemy forces have been too strong, we mean that the forces of imperialism (the primary factor) and of feudalism have been too strong. In saying that our own forces have been too weak, we mean weak in the military, political, economic, and cultural fields; but our weaknesses and our consequent failure to fulfil the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal task are chiefly due to the fact that the working people, the workers and peasants, constituting 90% of the population, have not yet been mobilized. If we are to sum up the experience of the revolution of the past decades, we may say that the people throughout the country have not been fully mobilized and that the reactionaries have invariably opposed and sabotaged such mobilization. This is the fundamental lesson. You should study it carefully, and so should the youth throughout the country. Only by mobilizing and organizing the workers and peasants, who comprise 90% of the population, is it possible to overthrow imperialism and feudalism. Dr. Sun Yixian said in his Testament:

For 40 years, I have devoted myself to the cause of the national revolution with the aim of winning freedom and equality for China. My experiences during these 40 years have firmly convinced me that, to achieve this aim, we must mobilize the masses of the people and unite in a common struggle with those nations of the world which treat us as equals.

It is now more than ten years since Dr. Sun died, and if we add these on, the total is over 50 years. What is the lesson of the revolution during these years? Fundamentally, it is, «mobilize the masses of the people». You should carefully study this lesson, and so should all China's youth. They must know that only by mobilizing the masses of workers and peasants, who form 90% of the population, can we defeat imperialism and feudalism. Unless we mobilize the workers and peasants of the whole country, it will be impossible for us to defeat Japan and build a New China.

Fourthly, to return to the youth movement. On this very day 20 years ago, there occurred in China the great historical event known as the 4th of May Movement, in which the students participated; it was a movement of tremendous significance. What role have China's young people played since the 4th of May Movement? In a way, they have played a vanguard role — a fact recognized by everybody except the Far Right. What is a vanguard role? It means taking the lead and marching in the forefront of the revolutionary ranks. In the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal ranks of the Chinese people, there is a contingent composed of the country's young intellectuals and students. It is a contingent of considerable size and, even if the many who have given their lives are not included, it now numbers several million. It is an army on one of the fronts against imperialism and feudalism, and an important army too. But this army is not enough; we cannot defeat the enemy by relying on it alone, for when all is said and done, it is not the main force. What then is the main force? The workers and peasants. Our young intellectuals and students must go among the workers and peasants, who make up 90% of the population, and mobilize and organize them. Without this main force of workers and peasants, we cannot win the fight against imperialism and feudalism, we cannot win it by relying only on the contingent of young intellectuals and students. Therefore, the young intellectuals and students throughout the country must unite with the broad masses of workers and peasants and become one with them, and only then can a mighty force be created. A force of hundreds of millions of people! Only with this huge force can the enemy's strongholds be taken and their last fortresses smashed. The whole of China's revolutionary movement found its origin in the initiative of young students and intellectuals who had awakened. But every beginning must have a fulfilment. Thus, for example, when the students in Yan'an reclaim land and plant grain, reclaiming the land is the beginning, but the fulfilment comes only with the harvest. The young students and intellectuals must unite with the broad masses of young workers and peasants. Only when the millions of students have become one with the tens of millions of young workers and peasants can they form a powerful youth movement. Otherwise, they cannot become a powerful movement. If the youth wish to achieve results, they must also make friends with adults and unite with the majority of people who are over 25 years old. Do we also need the elderly? Of course, we need them, too. The elderly have experience; one cannot neglect them because they are old. Consequently, the youth must join forces with the elderly, even with those who are 100 years old, and unite with them to fight against Japan. Aren't there people who want to organize an «army of the elderly»? What can an «army of the elderly» do? They can work as propaganda teams. The elderly are very good at doing propaganda work; the common people love listening to them. Children are also important. Comrades, organizing children is also an important task of the youth movement. Children can form «children's armies», which are the Children's Corps. Japanese imperialism is busy out there training our children into little Chinese traitors, so how could we refrain from allying ourselves with the children? «People cannot be judged by appearances, and water in the sea cannot be measured by the litre.» There was not only the case of the 80-year-old Jiang Ziya meeting King Wen, but also that of the 12-year-old Gan Luo becoming prime minister as well! Once organized, children have great advantages. They can identify Chinese traitors, keep track of opium-smokers, and confiscate mahjong sets, and are especially good for standing sentry and checking road passes. In North China, there are children's armies that are very fierce and very capable of standing sentry and checking road passes. Thus, we see that the youth must unite with the adults, the elderly, and the children. Only if they do so can they be effective in resisting Japan and saving the nation, and only this will benefit the youth movement itself. Let the youth go among the 450'000'000 of our people and organize them to make of them a great anti-Japanese revolutionary army. Only if we have such a revolutionary army can we defeat Japanese imperialism. In assessing the youth movement of the past from this standpoint, we should call attention to a wrong tendency. In the youth movement of the last few decades, a section of the young people have been unwilling to unite with the workers and peasants and have opposed their movements; this is a counter-current in the youth movement. In fact, these people are not at all bright in their refusal to unite with the masses, who make up 90% of the population, and in going so far as to oppose them outright. Is this a good tendency? I think not, because in opposing the workers and peasants, they are in fact opposing the revolution; that is why we say it is a counter-current in the youth movement. A youth movement of that kind would come to no good. It is like planting trees that do not bear fruit or growing crops that do not yield grain. How can one call such a movement a real anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary movement? A few days ago, I wrote a short article in which I noted:

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.³

Here, I advanced a criterion which I regard as the only valid one. How should we judge whether a youth is a revolutionary? How can we tell? There can only be one criterion, namely, whether or not they are willing to integrate themself with the broad masses of workers and peasants and do so in practice. If they are willing to do so and actually do so, they are a revolutionary; otherwise, they are a non-revolutionary or a counter-revolutionary. If today they integrate themself with the masses of workers and peasants, then today they are a revolutionary; if tomorrow they cease to do so or turn around to oppress the common people, then they become a non-revolutionary or a counter-revolutionary. Some young people talk glibly about their belief in the «Three People's Principles» or in Marxism, but this does not prove anything. Doesn't Hitler profess belief in «Socialism»? 20 years ago, even Mussolini was a «Socialist»! And what does their «Socialism» amount to? Fascism! Didn't Chen Duxiu once «believe» in Marxism? What did he do later? He went over to the counter-revolution. Didn't Zhang Guotao «believe» in Marxism? Where is he now? He has run away and landed in the mire. Some people style themselves «followers of the ‹Three People's Principles›» or even old stalwarts of these «Principles»; but what have they done? It turns out that their Principle of Nationalism means conspiring with imperialism, that their Principle of Democracy means oppressing the common people, and that their Principle of People's Livelihood means sucking the people's blood. They affirm the «Three People's Principles» with their lips, but deny them in their hearts. Wang Jingwei is the main representative of these people. So, when we assess a person and judge whether they are a true or false adherent of the «Three People's Principles», whether they are a true or false Marxist, we need only find out how they stand in relation to the broad masses of workers and peasants, and then we shall know them for what they are. This is the only criterion, there is no other. I hope that the youth of our country will never allow themselves to be carried away by this sinister counter-current, but will clearly recognize the workers and peasants as their friends and march forward to a bright future. I hope that all young comrades will think this point over and judge whether there is truth in it.

Fifthly, the present War of Resistance Against Japan marks a new stage — the greatest, most dynamic, and most vigorous stage — in the Chinese revolution. In this stage, the youth shoulder tremendous responsibilities. Our revolutionary movement has gone through many stages of struggle in the last decades, but at no stage has it been so broad as in the present War of Resistance. When we maintain that the Chinese revolution now has features distinguishing it from the revolution in the past and that it will make the turn from failure to victory, we mean that the masses of the Chinese people have made progress, of which the progress of the youth is a clear proof. Hence the anti-Japanese war must and certainly will triumph. As everybody knows, the fundamental policy in this war is the Anti-Japanese National United Front, whose aim it is to overthrow Japanese imperialism and the Chinese collaborators, transform Old China into a New China, and liberate the whole nation from its semi-colonial and semi-feudal status. In other words, to carry out Dr. Sun Yixian's «Three People's Principles» and build a New China of the «Three People's Principles». Recently, President Jiang Jieshi said: «The State is supreme, the nation is supreme.» This is a call to overthrow Japanese imperialism completely, and not to allow Japanese imperialism to trample on our State and our nation; it is a call to overthrow completely the Chinese traitor Wang Jingwei, who is selling out his country, and all his followers and adherents, and not to allow any overt or covert Chinese traitors, big or small, now or in the future, to sell out our national interests. What we demand is complete independence for our State and complete national liberation, and that is what is meant by «the State is supreme, the nation is supreme». What does President Jiang mean when we says, «Military affairs take first place, victory takes first place»? This means that the War of Resistance must be carried through to the end, that resistance to Japan should take precedence over everything, and that everything else should be subordinated to it. We must definitely mobilize all available forces, strive for final victory, fight to the banks of the Yalu River, and recover all our lost territory. So long as there is one inch of unrecovered Chinese territory, our war will never cease. If anyone dares to try to stop the War of Resistance Against Japan halfway, and to carry out a peaceful compromise, we shall declare ourselves irreconcilably opposed to them. President Jiang has also put forward the slogan: «Concentrate our will, concentrate our strength.» What is the meaning of this? It means that, if we want to win final victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, all of the country's strength must be concentrated in the united front and definitely must not be dispersed to opposing sides, thus increasing the importance of our task of consolidating and enlarging the united front. All the minds and wills in our country must definitely be concentrated on the single point of winning final victory, and we must definitely permit no one to entertain irresponsible ideas of compromise and capitulation. Because of this, the masses of the youth of Yan'an and of the whole country must continue to urge the «Three People's Principles» Youth League to join hands with us and to set up a united youth movement. You have already made several proposals to them regarding this point, but they have not yet written you in reply. That is a pity, but you should keep on putting forward proposals, for the present lack of unity in the Chinese youth movement is a serious weakness. You should continue to strive for unity, because unity is strength. You must help the youth of the whole country to understand the present situation. Japanese imperialism is still fighting ferociously. Militarily, they are going to attack the South-West and the North-West. Politically, they are trying to destroy our united front, to destroy the Nationalist Party, and to destroy the Communist Party. They are trying to overthrow President Jiang; they call this «overthrowing Jiang». They are trying to annihilate the Communist Party; they call this «opposing Communism». The youth of the whole country must absolutely not be deceived by the enemy's attempts to sow dissension and must never promote friction within their own ranks. They must expose the heresy of «overthrowing Jiang and opposing Communism», so as to achieve unity and resist Japan to the end.

Sixthly and lastly, I want to speak about the youth movement in Yan'an. It is the model for the youth movement throughout the country. The direction it is taking is in fact the orientation for the youth movement of the entire country. Why? Because it is the correct orientation. You see, in the matter of unity, the youth of Yan'an have acquitted themselves well, indeed very well. The youth of Yan'an have achieved solidarity and unity. The young intellectuals and students, the young workers and peasants in Yan'an are all united. Large numbers of revolutionary youth from all over the country, and even from Chinese communities abroad, have come to study in Yan'an. Most of you attending this meeting today have come to Yan'an from thousands of miles away; whether your surname is Zhang or Li, whether you are a man or a woman, a worker or a peasant, you are all of one mind. Should this not be regarded as a model for the whole country? The youth in Yan'an, besides being united among themselves, have integrated themselves with the masses of workers and peasants, and more than anything else this makes you a model for the whole country. What have you been doing? You have been learning the theory of revolution and studying the principles and methods for resisting Japan and saving the nation. You have been carrying out the campaign for production and have reclaimed thousands of mu of wasteland. Confucius never reclaimed land or tilled the soil. When he ran his school, he had quite a number of students, «70 worthies and 3'000 disciples» — quite a flourishing school! But he had far fewer students than there are in Yan'an, and what is more, they would have disliked production movements. When a student asked him how to plough the fields, Confucius answered: «I don't know, I am not as good at that as a farmer.» Confucius was next asked how to grow vegetables, and he answered: «I don't know, I am not as good at that as a vegetable gardener.» In ancient times, the youth of China who studied under a sage neither learned revolutionary theory nor took part in labour. Today, there is little revolutionary theory taught and there are no such things as production movements in the schools over vast regions of our country. It is only here in Yan'an and in the anti-Japanese base areas behind the enemy lines that the young people are fundamentally different; they are really the vanguard in resisting Japan and saving the nation, because their political orientation and their methods of work are correct. That is why I say the youth movement in Yan'an is the model for the youth movement throughout the country.

Our meeting today is highly significant. I have said all I wanted. I hope you will all study the lessons of the Chinese revolution in the last 50 years, develop its good points, and discard its mistakes, so that the youth will be at one with the people of the whole country and the revolution will make the turn from failure to victory. When the youth and the whole nation are mobilized, organized, and united, Japanese imperialism will be overthrown. Each young person must shoulder their responsibility. You must each be different from before and resolve to unite the youth and organize the people of the whole country for the overthrow of Japanese imperialism and the transformation of Old China into New China. This is what I expect of all of you.

[Prolonged applause. Shouts of «Youth of the country, unite!» «People of the country, unite!» «Promote the glorious tradition of the 4th of May Movement!» «Oppose the Chinese traitors who sell out their country!» «Down with Wang Jingwei!» «Down with all Chinese traitors!» «Down with Japanese imperialism!» «Long live the national liberation of China!»]