[This issue of Peking Review is from massline.org. Massline.org has kindly given us permission to to place these documents on the MIA. We made only some formatting changes to make them congruent with our style sheets.]
[This article is reprinted from Peking Review, #21, May 21, 1976, pp. 3-5.]
IN the last few days, people of all nationalities across China, full of the joy of victory, solemnly commemorated the 10th anniversary of the May 16, 1966 Circular of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China drawn up under the personal guidance of our great leader Chairman Mao. They hailed the tremendous victories of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
At the grand rallies and other commemorative gatherings held all over the country, armymen and civilians in their hundreds of millions reviewed the glorious fighting course of the Great Cultural Revolution over the past decade, and spoke of the great changes that had taken place in our great socialist motherland and the excellent situation at present. They pledged to conscientiously study the series of important instructions from Chairman Mao, restudy the Circular, and study the commemorative article “The Great Cultural Revolution Will Shine For Ever” by the editorial departments of Renmin Ribao, Hongqi and Jiefangjun Bao. They were determined to unite still more closely, advance in triumph under the leadership of the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao, and bring about a new upsurge in the struggle to criticize Teng Hsiao-ping and repulse the Right deviationist wind to reverse correct verdicts.
People of all nationalities in the various provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and P.L.A. units held rallies and celebration meetings at the grass-roots level. Filled with elation, Party members, cadres, workers, peasants and soldiers said that the ten years of the Great Cultural Revolution was a decade in which hundreds of millions of Chinese people, led by the great leader Chairman Mao, waged repeated struggles against the capitalist-roaders in the Party and won great victories. During this decade, armymen and civilians throughout China smashed resolutely and in good time the schemes of Liu Shao-chi, Lin Piao and Teng Hsiao-ping to restore capitalism, scathingly criticized their counter-revolutionary revisionist line, and seized back that portion of Party and state leadership they had usurped, thus ensuring that our country will continue to advance victoriously along Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line. Through this great revolution, Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought has been popularized on scale unknown before, and the people’s awareness of the need to combat and prevent revisionism and to continue the revolution has been greatly heightened. They pointed out: They should carry forward the basic experience of the Great Cultural Revolution, persist in arming themselves with Marxism and in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, and deepen their criticism of Teng Hsiao-ping’s revisionist line.
In the capital, the Peking Municipal Party Committee, the Peking Municipal Revolutionary Committee, and many factories, enterprises, government departments, schools and neighbourhood committees held discussion meetings and get-togethers to celebrate the anniversary. The worker-peasant-soldier students, teachers and staff members of Tsinghua and Peking Universities, who are marching in the van of the struggle to criticize Teng Hsiao-ping and beat back the Right deviationist attempt, conscientiously studied Chairman Mao’s important instructions—“Without struggle, there is no progress” and “Can 800 million people manage without struggle?!”—carried in the article by the editorial departments of Renmin Ribao, Hongqi and Jiefangjun Bao. They said: The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people have gone through ten eventful years of soul-stirring class struggles during which they defeated Liu Shao-chi, Lin Piao and then Teng Hsiao-ping. The struggles have educated the people, brought victories to them and promoted the vigorous development of the socialist revolution and socialist construction. Every victory is a great victory for Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line.
Both the new and veteran cadres and activists in theoretical study in the Peking February 7 Locomotive and Rolling Stock Plant conscientiously studied the article by the editorial departments of Renmin Ribao, Hongqi and Jiefungjun Bao and reviewed the achievements gained in the past decade by the plant. All of them agreed that, having tempered themselves in the Great Cultural Revolution, Party organizations at all levels have become more vigorous, more than 500 new members have been admitted into the Party, over 140 young workers have been selected to be cadres and the studying of the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and Chairman Mao’s works has become common practice in the plant. Revolution has promoted the rapid growth of production. They pledged to deepen the criticism of Teng Hsiao-ping, resolutely carry on the struggle and defend and expand the achievements of the Great Cultural Revolution.
Workers and the revolutionary masses in Shanghai, filled with militancy, held celebrations in the last few days to commemorate the anniversary. On May 16, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Revolutionary Committee held plenary meetings to study Chairman Mao’s important instructions and the article “The Great Cultural Revolution Will Shine For Ever” and make penetrating criticisms of Teng Hsiao-ping’s reactionary crimes and his counter-revolutionary revisionist line. While reviewing in the study sessions the course of struggle against the capitalist-roaders during the Great Cultural Revolution, cadres from the Shanghai Trade Union Council and workers and cadres from Shanghai’s No. 17 Cotton Textile Mill and other factories said with deep feeling: Practice in the struggles has time and again proved that the bourgeoisie is indeed inside the Communist Party and the main danger of capitalist restoration lies in those Party persons in power taking the capitalist road. They pledged to carry out a protracted struggle against the capitalist-roaders.
In Tientsin, the Tientsin Municipal Party Committee held a celebration meeting, and the Tientsin Trade Union Council, the municipal Women’s Federation, the Tientsin Railway Station, the No. 4 Cotton Textile Mill and the Takang Oilfield held discussion meetings that very evening, reviewing the militant course over the last ten years and warmly hailing the resounding victory of the Great Cultural Revolution. The million industrial workers in the city, who fought tenaciously against Liu Shao-chi, Lin Piao and Teng Hsiao-ping during the Great Cultural Revolution, have played the role of the working class as the main force. The workers’ theoretical contingent, now 300,000 strong, has become a mighty force in criticizing revisionism. The 50,000 new cadres who have come to the fore during the Great Cultural Revolution have added vigour and vitality to the leading bodies at all levels. Tens of thousands of workers have mounted the platform as part-time teachers in the spheres of the superstructure. Revolution has propelled production forward. The city’s gross industrial output value has increased 2.7 times in the last ten years. The workers said with pride and enthusiasm: The ten years of the Great Cultural Revolution was a decade of struggle and victory. But the struggle has not ended. We must carry the struggle to criticize Teng Hsiao-ping and beat back the Right deviationist wind to reverse correct verdicts through to the end.
Cadres and commune members of the Hsiaochinchuang Production Brigade also held discussions and poetry recitals that evening. They reviewed and summed up their experience in fighting the capitalist-roaders and enthusiastically eulogized the great victory of the Great Cultural Revolution. Secretary Wang Tso-shan of the brigade’s Party branch said: Around summer last year, Teng Hsiao-ping whipped up the Right deviationist wind to reverse correct verdicts and attacked the poor and lower-middle peasants of our brigade by name. Taking class struggle as the key link, persevering in progress and opposing retrogression, we have withstood the evil wind. Practice in the struggle tells us that the capitalist-roaders are only paper tigers. So long as we apply Mao Tsetung Thought in our analysis and criticism, we can surely defeat them.
In acclaiming the victories already won, people of all nationalities throughout the country denounced Teng Hsiao-ping’s crimes in spreading the fallacy that “the present is not as good as the past” and in negating the Great Cultural Revolution, and enthusiastically hailed the splendid achievements of the Great Cultural Revolution. This revolution, they said, has further strengthened our Party, and consolidated the dictatorship of the proletariat, while socialist new things have emerged one after another and socialist construction in various fields is flourishing.
Amidst cheers of “Long live Chairman Mao!” the cadres and masses of Shaoshan in Hunan Province, holding high red banners and beating gongs and drums, gathered together to celebrate the anniversary. Members of the Shaoshan district Party committee and the district revolutionary committee said: Profound changes have taken place in all fields in Shaoshan since the Great Cultural Revolution started. The biggest change is that Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought has taken deep root in the hearts of the people. We have studied Marxism in the course of struggle, and studied Chairman Mao’s great revolutionary practice, and Mao Tsetung Thought has illuminated our course to victory.
Armymen and civilians in the old revolutionary base on the Chingkang Mountains held a rally at Tzeping. Chou Wen-kai, leader of an insurrectionary detachment of the township of Big Well and participant in the battle to defend Huangyangchieh during the Second Revolutionary Civil War, said with emotion: Chairman Mao’s instruction has put in words what we revolutionary people feel in our hearts. The revolutionary base area of the Chingkang Mountains was created out of the struggle led by Chairman Mao against the Kuomintang reactionaries and the opportunists inside the Party. Since liberation the Chingkangshan people, persisting in the continued revolution and waging ceaseless struggles against the bourgeoisie and the capitalist-roaders in the Party, have won new victories in socialist revolution and construction. We are determined to inherit and carry forward the glorious revolutionary tradition of those days, deepen our criticism of Teng Hsiao-ping, repulse the Right deviationist wind to reverse correct verdicts and further strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat.
While celebrating the anniversary, people across the country restudied Chairman Mao’s important instructions: “Those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the Party, the government, the army and various spheres of culture are a bunch of cuounter-revolutionary revisionists. Once conditions are ripe, they will seize political power and turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.” “You are making the socialist revolution, and yet don’t know where the bourgeoisie is. It is right in the Communist Party—those in power taking the capitalist road. The capitalist-roaders are still on the capitalist road.” Communist Party members, workers, peasants and soldiers and revolutionary cadres and intellectuals all pointed out that, in these important instructions, Chairman Mao has defended and developed Marxism-Leninism, made a profound analysis of the changes in class relations and the characteristics of class struggle in the period of socialism, and clarified for us the orientation in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. We must make a further study of these important instructions.
In the Taching Oilfield, the workers, cadres and their family members said: Under the guidance of Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, we have persisted in criticizing revisionism and the bourgeoisie and in attacking the ideologies of all exploiting classes. We have made earnest efforts to build Taching into a great school of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, further strengthened the all-round dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, and scaled one new height after another in grasping revolution and promoting production. Today, the Taching Oilfield is producing six times as much crude oil as it did before the Great Cultural Revolution. All these are solid fruits of the victory of Marxism over revisionism and of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie.
After listening in to the broadcast of the article by the editorial departments of Renmin Ribao, Hongqi and Jiefangjun Bao, the cadres and poor and lower-middle peasants of the Tachai Production Brigade held a discussion meeting. They said: The ten years of the Great Cultural Revolution was a decade of fierce struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie; a decade of continual triumph of Marxism over revisionism and a decade in which the greatest changes have taken place in Tachai. Had it not been for Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, the revolutionary red banner of Tachai could not have been kept aloft, and without the Great Cultural Revolution the Tachai spirit would not be able to spread beyond our village. “Without struggle, there is no progress”—this teaching of Chairman Mao’s penetratingly expounds the objective law guiding the development of things. It says what we have in our minds. We Tachai people absolutely will not tolerate Teng Hsiao-ping negating the Great Cultural Revolution and settling accounts with it and restoring capitalism in China.
Teachers, students and faculty members of the Chaoyang Agricultural College in Liaoning Province said at a discussion meeting: Without the Cultural Revolution, it would have been impossible for our college to become what it is today. We must persist in studying Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, always act in contravention of the revisionist line and build our college into an instrument of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Commanders and fighters of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and militiamen reviewed the militant course they have traversed, in the past ten years and warmly praised the great victory of the Cultural Revolution. With great indignation they denounced Teng Hsiao-ping’s crime of scheming to restore capitalism and they resolved to play in a still better way their role as the pillar of the dictatorship of the proletariat and defend and develop the fruits of the Great Cultural Revolution with concrete actions.
Early on the morning of May 16, propaganda teams composed of commanders and fighters of the army, air force and navy stationed in Heilungkiang, Sinkiang, Inner Mongolia and Tibet as well as on the Fukien front and the Hsisha Islands went to the stockbreeding farms and fishing villages. Together with the militiamen and people of various nationalities, they studied Chairman Mao’s important instructions and the article “The Great Cultural Revolution Will Shine For Ever.” They expressed the determination to earnestly read and study, criticize Teng Hsiao-ping in a deep-going way, grasp revolution, promote production and other work and preparedness against war. They pledged to heighten their vigilance and be ready at all times to smash sabotage activities by class enemies at home and abroad and to defend the great socialist motherland and the gains of the Great Cultural Revolution.
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