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From August 24th-28th we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the 10th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. It was a landmark event in the history of the World Communist movement in shimmering the banner of Marxism-Leninism or Mao Tse Tung Thought. It was ironically the last Congress when China upheld a Socialist path. Since the 1973 party Congress there has been no Congress of any Socialist state. It’s main characteristic was of highlighting the treachery of the path of Lin Biao,who staged a coup d’etat attempt in 1971.
Significant, is that the 10th Congess took place amidst the turbulence created from the plot and death of Lin Biao, which created a deep void and when anti imperialist movements were sweeping the world at an unprecedented scale. Earlier in 1969 it was Lin Biao, who was chosen as Mao’s successor.
The Congress report was formulated by Premier Zhou En Lai who analysed the demise caused by Lin Biao or the essence of his anti-proletarian character. He read it out on August 28th. The report summarised the path breaking achievements of the Cultural Revolution which took proletarian power or democracy to heights unscaled.
Positive Contribution of CPC 10th Congress
It rectified the erroneous assessment of the 1969 ninth party Congress which classified the era as that of ‘Allround victory of Proletarian Revolution and collapse of Imperialism.’ and defined it as that of ‘Era of Imperialism and proletarian Revolution.”It thus respected Leninism. and corrected era as being that of Imperialism and not of it being on verge of ultimate doom, nor proletarian revolution son he brink of sweeping victories., established or affirmed that Mao Tse Tung Thought was an integral part of Leninism .Most methodically it made an appraisal of the correctness of chairman Mao Tse Tung’s assessment of ‘Continuous Revolutions under the dictatorship of the Proletariat.” With high precision it delved into how a Socialist Society could degenerate into capitalist one, and why it was imperative to launch a Cultural Revolution.
The report underlined or illustrated how mass line was practiced in the Cultural Revolution and the consistency of 2-line struggle against capitalist roaders. It analysed why the Cultural Revolution had to be continued, concluding that there was still a long road to establish Communism.
The report distinguished from the military path of Lin Biao, who wished to bring the Cultural Revolution to halt and only concentrate on strengthening the Peoples Liberation army. The report stressed that revolution was far from won world-wide .It highlighted the functioning of mass organisations and revolutionary Commitees with democratic practice and greater autonomy.
It never erred in claiming that ‘people’s war ‘path was applicable to developed countries like leaders later like late Chairman Gonzalo of Peru ,emphasising it was only applicable in third world countries and rejected formulation that ‘Maoism’ was principal or era was that of ‘Maoism.’
Most coherently it defended the essence of the Great Debate, highlighting that after 1956 USSR had diverted from the Socialist Road. The Congress planted the seeds for the later political struggle against Lin Biao and Confucius, which led to consolidation o the Tachai Commune in 1974.
It gave an impetus for rise of Chairman Mao’s gang of four to pit a knockout punch to the capitalist roaders and planted the seeds for revolutionary movements to bloom at a crescendo ,from 1973-76. It gave a slap in the face to the scorn of Western bourgeois propaganda, terming the Cultural Revolution as Paronia, self-destruction, devastation and impeachment of freedom. The report most surgically probed into every sphere, to distinguish from reactionary path and manifested Marxist-Leninist orientation.
Classically it summed up or diagnosed how USSR had turned Social Imperialist, the headway for China and third world countries towards correct political orientation, the contradictions created by inter imperialist contention and fertility for revolutionary wars to blossom, worldwide.
Most symmetrically the report chalks out the tasks that are imperative, to enable the revolutionary road to flower. It stressed on crystallising greater democratic scope of people in revolutionary committees and escalating revolutionary democracy within party committees. It set the tone for undertaking major campaigns to educate people about the dictatorship of the proletariat and confront revisionism.
The Congress was the precursor of the anti-Lin Biao and anti-Confucius movement unfolding with workers most resiliently battling against efforts to restrict the scale of worker participation in management and cadre participation in labour. By 1974 the left sent shivers down the spine of the rightists in linking struggle with production.
The report should be studied by cadres today to distinguish between practice in Cultural revolution and ‘peoples war’, which was eclectically clubbed together later by the Peruvian Communist party in the 1980’s through slogans like ‘militarisation of the party’ and ‘peoples war till Communism. ‘Today even international organisations like International Communist League are swaying away from Marxist Leninist orientation by overestimating success of revolution on International scale.
Stupendous Achievements from 1973-76
It ressurected the Tachai commune in being a model of Socialist production and Revolutionary democracy in 1974 and Taching industry. It multiplied it’s production ten times as much as in the 1930’s or 40’s. Remnants of old society and inequality were eliminated as never before. Not only had radical changes been made in land transformation but the thinking of peasants was transformed at the very root, with an embryo created to give birth to socialist minded peasants of a new type.A Socialist big fair was set up through the Haerht’ao commune in Liaoning Province, grasping the fundamental lessons from Tachai and promoting criticism against capitalist tendencies. The theme was on ‘learning fro Tachai agriculture.’ Through prolonged period of study, criticism and ideological education, many commune members to facilitate socialist construction, sold private agricultural produce to the state. Worker-peasant alliance was also promoted through activities supporting agriculture organised by factories in the city. The banner was shimmered of Tachai, in grasping revolution. Broad masses of cadres and people enthusiastically participated in farmland capital construction.
The Shanghai clock and watch factory was an illustration of a mass movement learning from Taching industry and adhering to the “Charter of the Anshan Iro and Steel Works.” It initiated a system of two way learning on the spot in which ach cadre takes his turn in a workshops a hundred days a year, while groups of workers work around six months in offices, participating in management. It induced a revolutionary transformation in the relations among men, among units, and between the cadres and the masses in the factory. The purpose was to enable the cadres to toil as workers, and not to turn power in their hands into privilege. An integral link or bond was established between cadres and workers, with the workers educating the cadres inviting them meetings, in a nucleus study group .It was he birth of a new type of production relations in a Socialist enterprise.
The Chaoyang agricultural institute was constructed in Liaoning to educate masses how to challenge bourgeois rights. It’s curriculum comprised the deepest integration of teachers, peasants and students in work and study.
Aberrations
The Congress report failed to properly review errors in mass line committed before 1969 Pary Congress, which scattered the mass movement by breaking it’s unity, after fall of Lin Biao. It failed to highlight or review the retreat and termination of the revolutionary Committees and earlier the Shanghai Commune.It tended to virtually place sole blame on Lin Biao or Liu Shao Chi, evading the inherent weaknesses in practice. It did not accurately assess what conditions made a figure like Lin Biao prop up who was chosen as Mao’s successor before his revolt in 1971 or the trend of personality cult built up around Chairman Mao. There was no self-criticism of China integrating into the United Nations or treating USSR as the greater danger. It was formulated that Lin Biao was a modern Confucius, which was ambiguous. The left sectarian path towards writers, artists, and musicians was not self-criticized. Effective steps were not undertaken to prevent the infiltration of members with rightist orientation in the Peoples Liberation army.
Grounds were created for China to remain silent on the execution of Salvador Allende in Chile by USA or massacre in Sri Lanka. In 1973 path was paved for the rehabilitation and ascendancy of Teng Xiapoing. This exposed loopholes within the movement. Powerful tendencies of splittism and sectarianism by the Mao’s Gang of 4 who were unable to properly establish a united front to confront the capitalist roaders.Their final arrest told the story.
Unfair Criticism of Premier Zhou
I recommend the reading of ‘And Mao makes 5’ by Raymond Lotta, which is masterpiece. What I admire was the sheer humility of Premier Zhou in illustrating shortcomings, stressing that the revolution was far from over. Erroneously the Revolutionary Communist Party of USA and Raymond Lotta classed Premier Zhou En Lai as capitalist roader or revisionist, in spite of his making a very positive analysis of the Congress and playing such leading role in saving a Socialist State. To me the report was further evidence of premier Zhou En Lai’s stature as one of the great Communist leaders of all time. In this light I recommend readers to refer to the writings of late Harbhajan Sohi on Mao Tse Tung Thought and China in 1979 and 1980,which verify CCP adherence to massline, with the author who Zhou En Lai, in very great esteem.Excerpts of report of CPC 10th Congress report
Defeating Revisionist line of Lin Biao
The Party's Ninth Congress was held when great victories had been won in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution personally initiated and led by Chairman Mao.In accordance with the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse tung Thought on continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Ninth Congress summed up the experience of history as well as the new experience of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution criticised Liu Shao-chi's revisionist line and reaffirmed the basic line and policies of the Party for the entire historical period of socialism.
As we all know, the political report to the Ninth Congress was drawn up under Chairman Mao's personal guidance. Prior to the congress, Lin Piao had produced a draft political report in collaboration with Chen Po-ta. They were opposed to continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, contending that the main task after the Ninth Congress was to develop production. This was a refurbished version under new conditions of the same revisionist trash that Liu Shao-chi and Chen Po-ta had smuggled into the resolution of the Eighth Congress, which alleged that the major contradiction in our country was not the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, but that "between the advanced socialist system and the backward productive forces of society." Naturally, this draft by Lin Piao and Chen Po-ta was rejected by the Central Committee. Lin Piao secretly supported Chen Po-ta in the latter's open opposition to the political report drawn up under Chairman Mao's guidance, and it was only after his attempts were frustrated that Lin Piao grudgingly accepted the political line of the Central Committee and read its political report to the congress. However, during and after the Ninth Congress, Lin Piao continued with his conspiracy and sabotage in spite of the admonishments, rebuffs and efforts to save him by Chairman Mao and the Party's Central Committee. He went further to start a counter-revolutionary coup d'etat, which was aborted, at the Second Plenary Session of the Ninth Central Committee in August 1970, then in March 1971 he drew up the plan for an armed counter-revolutionary coup d'etat entitled Outline of Project "571", and on September 8, he launched the coup in a wild attempt to assassinate our great leader Chairman Mao and set up a rival central committee. On September 13, after his conspiracy had collapsed, Lin Piao surreptitiously boarded a plane, fled as a defector to the Soviet revisionists in betrayal of the Party and country and died in a crash at Undur Khan in the People's Republic of Mongolia.
The shattering of the Lin Piao anti-Party clique is our Party's greatest victory since the Ninth Congress and a heavy blow dealt to enemies at home and abroad.
In the last fifty years our Party has gone through ten major struggles between the two lines. The collapse of the Lin Piao anti-Party clique does not mean the end of the two-line struggle within the Party. Enemies at home and abroad all understand that the easiest way to capture a fortress is from within. It is much more convenient to have the capitalist-roaders in power who have sneaked into the Party do the job of subverting the dictatorship of the proletariat than for the landlords and capitalists to come to the fore themselves; this is especially true when the landlords and capitalists are already quite odious in society. In the future, even after classes have disappeared, there will still be contradictions between the superstructure and the economic base and between the relations of production and the productive forces. And there will still be two-line struggles reflecting these contradictions, i.e., struggles between the advanced and the backward and between the correct and the erroneous. Moreover, socialist society covers a considerably long historical period.
International Situation
Chairman Mao has often taught us: We are still in the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution. On the basis of fundamental Marxist principle, Lenin made a scientific analysis of imperialism and defined "imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism." Lenin pointed out that imperialism is monopolistic capitalism, parasitic or decaying capitalism, moribund capitalism. He also said that imperialism intensifies all the contradictions of capitalism to the extreme. He therefore concluded that "imperialism is the eve of the social revolution of the proletariat," and put forward the theories and tactics of the proletarian revolution in the era of imperialism. Stalin said, "Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution." This is entirely correct. Since Lenin's death, the world situation has undergone great changes. But the era has not changed. The fundamental principles of Leninism are not outdated; they remain the theoretical basis guiding our thinking today.The present international situation is one characterised by great disorder on the earth. "The wind sweeping through the tower heralds a rising storm in the mountains." This aptly depicts how the basic world contradictions as analysed by Lenin show themselves today. Relaxation is a temporary and superficial phenomenon, and great disorder will continue. Such great disorder is a good thing for the people, not a bad thing.
The awakening and growth of the Third World is a major event in contemporary international relations. The Third World has strengthened its unity in the struggle against hegemonism and power politics of the superpowers and is playing an ever more significant role in international affairs. The great victories won by the people of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia in their war against U.S. aggression and for national salvation have strongly encouraged the people of the world in their revolutionary struggles against imperialism and colonialism. A new situation has emerged in the Korean people's struggle for the independent and peaceful reunification of their fatherland. The struggles of the Palestinian and other Arab peoples against aggression by Israeli Zionism, the African peoples' struggles against colonialism and racial discrimination and the Latin American peoples' struggles for maintaining 200-nautical-mile territorial waters or economic zones all continue to forge ahead.
Lenin said that "an essential feature of imperialism is the rivalry between several Great Powers in the striving for hegemony." Today, it is mainly the two nuclear superpowers - the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. - that are contending for hegemony. While hawking disarmament, they are actually expanding their armaments every day. Their purpose is to contend f or world hegemony. They contend as well as collude with each other. Their collusion serves the purpose of more intensified contention.
Contention is absolute and protracted, whereas collusion is relative and temporaryce of meat coveted by all.
"The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history." The ambitions of the two hegemonic powers - the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. - are one thing, but whether they can achieve them is quite another. They want to devour China, but find it too tough even to bite. Europe and Japan are also hard to bite, not to speak of the vast Third World. U.S. imperialism started to go downhill after its defeat in the war of aggression against Korea. It has openly admitted that it is increasingly on the decline; it could not but pull out of Viet Nam. Over the last two decades, the Soviet revisionist ruling clique, from Khrushchev to Brezhnev, has made a socialist country degenerate into a social-imperialist country. Internally, it has restored capitalism, enforced a fascist dictatorship and enslaved the people of all nationalities, thus deepening the political and economic contradictions as well as contradictions among nationalities. Externally, it has invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia, massed its troops along the Chinese border, sent troops into the People's Republic of Mongolia, supported the traitorous Lon No l clique, suppressed the Polish workers' rebellion, intervened in Egypt, causing the expulsion of the Soviet experts, dismembered Pakistan and carried out subversive activities in many Asian and African countries.
Recently, the Brezhnev renegade clique has talked a lot of nonsense on Sino-Soviet relations. It alleges that China is against relaxation of world tension and unwilling to improve Sino-Soviet relations, etc. These words are above all meant for the monopoly capitalists in the hope of getting more money in reward for services in opposing China and communism. This was an old trick of Hitler's, only Brezhnev is playing it more clumsily. The Chinese people are not to be deceived or cowed. The Sino-Soviet controversy on matters of principle should not hinder the normalisation of relations between the two states on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The Sino-Soviet boundary question should be settled peacefully through negotiations free from any threat. "We will not attack unless we are attacked; if we are attacked, we will certainly counter-attack" this is our consistent principle.
We should point out that necessary compromises between revolutionary countries and imperialist countries must be distinguished from collusion and compromise between Soviet revisionism and U.S. imperialism. Lenin put it well, "There are compromises and compromises. One must be able to analyse the situation and the concrete conditions of each compromise, or of each variety of compromise.
Lenin pointed out repeatedly that imperialism means aggression and war. Chairman Mao pointed out in his statement of May 20, 1970, "The danger of a new world war still exists, and the people of all countries must get prepared. But revolution is the main trend in the world today."
We must uphold Chairman Mao's teachings that we should "be prepared against war, be prepared against natural disasters, and do everything for the people" and should "dig tunnels deep, store grain everywhere. and never seek hegemony,' maintain high vigilance and be fully prepared against any war of aggression that imperialism may launch and particularly against surprise attack on our country by Soviet revisionist social-imperialism. Taiwan Province is our motherland's sacred territory, and the people in Taiwan are our kith and kin. We have infinite concern for our compatriots in Taiwan, who love and long for the motherland.
Tasks to be undertaken
We must be aware that although we have achieved great successes in socialist revolution and socialist construction, we are always lagging behind the needs of the objective situation. We still face very heavy tasks in our socialist revolution. The tasks of struggle-criticism-transformation in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution need to be carried on in a thoroughgoing way on all fronts. More efforts are required to overcome the shortcomings, mistakes and certain unhealthy tendencies in our work.First of all, we should continue to do a good job of criticising Lin Piao and rectifying style of work. We should make full use of that teacher by negative example, the Lin Piao anti-Party clique, to educate the whole Party, Army and the people of all nationalities of our country in class struggle and two-line struggle, and criticise revisionism and the bourgeois world outlook so that the masses will be able to draw on the historical experience of the ten struggles between the two lines in our Party, acquire a deeper understanding of the characteristics and laws of class struggle and two-line struggle in the period of socialist revolution in our country and raise their ability to distinguish genuine from sham Marxism.
All Party members should conscientiously study works by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and by Chairman Mao, adhere to dialectical materialism and historical materialism, combat idealism and metaphysics and remould their world outlook.
We should attach importance to the class struggle in the superstructure, including all spheres of culture, transform all parts of the superstructure which do not conform to the economic base.
Economically ours is still a poor and developing country. We should thoroughly carry out the general line of going all out, aiming high and achieving greater, faster, better and more economical results in building socialism, and grasp revolution and promote production. We should continue to implement the principle of "taking agriculture as the foundation and industry as the leading factor" and the series of policies of walking on two legs, and build our country independently and with the initiative in our own hands, through self-reliance, hard struggle, diligence and thrift. One basic experience from our socialist construction over more than two decades is to rely on the masses. In order to learn from Taching in industry and to learn from Tachai in agriculture, we must persist in putting proletarian politics in command, vigorously launch mass movements and give full scope to enthusiasm, wisdom and creativeness of the masses.
We should further strengthen the centralised leadership of the Party. Of the seven sectors industry, agriculture, commerce, culture and education, the Army, the government and the Party - it is the Party that exercises overall leadership. Party committees at all levels should study on Strengthening the Party Committee System, methods of Work of Party Committees and other writings by Chairman Mao, sum up their experience and further strengthen the centralised leadership of the Party ideologically, organisationally as well as through rules and regulations. At the same time the role of revolutionary committees and mass organisations should be brought into full play. We should strengthen the leadership given to primary organisations in order to ensure that leadership there is truly in the hands of Marxists and in the hands of workers, poor and lower-middle peasants and other working people, and that the task of consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat is fulfilled in every primary organisation. Party committees at all levels should apply democratic centralism better and improve their art of leadership.
The experience with regard to combining the old, the middle-aged and the young in the leadership, which the masses created during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, has provided us with favourable conditions for training millions of successors to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat in accordance with the five requirements put forward by Chairman Mao.
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Harsh Thakor is freelance journalist who has done extensive research on Maoist China
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