Chapter 20 Some historical experience of our party [1]

(September 25, 1956) U.S. imperialism is your enemy, it is also our enemy, and it is also the enemy of the people of the world.It is more difficult for U.S. imperialism to interfere with us than with you.The fact that America is far away from us is a factor.However, the hands of U.S. imperialism are very long, extending to our country's Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, South Vietnam, the Philippines and other places.The United States has stationed troops in Britain, France, Italy, Iceland, and West Germany, and it also has its military bases in North Africa and the Middle East.Its hands reach out to the whole world.It is a worldwide imperialism.It is the negative teacher of people all over the world.People all over the world should unite, help each other, and cut off its hands everywhere.Every time one of its hands is cut off, we are more comfortable.

China was also a country oppressed by imperialism and feudalism in the past, and our situation is very similar.A country with a large rural population and the existence of feudal forces is not good, but it is also a good thing for the revolution led by the proletariat, so that we have a broad ally of farmers.In Russia before the October Revolution, there was serious feudalism, and the Bolshevik Party [2] won the revolution because of the support of the vast number of peasants.This is even more so in our country.Our country is an agricultural country with more than 500 million people living in the countryside.In the past, fighting mainly relied on peasants.Now the urban bourgeoisie in our country is quickly submitting to socialist transformation, also because the peasants have organized and agricultural co-operatives have been transformed.Therefore, the party's work among the peasants is very important.

In my opinion, in countries with serious feudalism, the proletarian party must go to the countryside to find peasants.When intellectuals go to the countryside to find peasants, if they have a bad attitude, they will not be able to gain the trust of the peasants.Urban intellectuals do not know much about rural affairs and peasant psychology, so it is not always appropriate to solve peasant problems.According to our experience, it takes a long time to really become one with them and convince them that we are fighting for their interests before we can win.It must not be assumed that the peasants will trust us all at once.Remember not to think that if we help farmers, they will trust us.

The peasantry is the chief ally of the proletariat.Our Party did not understand the importance of farmers' work at the beginning, and put urban work first and rural work second.In my opinion, the parties in some countries in Asia have not done a good job in rural work. Our Party did not succeed in doing peasant work at first.Intellectuals have a little smell, that is, intellectual air.If you have this smell, you don't want to go to the countryside and despise the countryside.Peasants also looked down on intellectuals.At that time, our party had not yet found a way to understand the countryside.Later, I went back and found a way to understand the countryside, analyzed the various classes in the countryside, and understood the revolutionary demands of the peasants.

In the first period, we did not see the countryside clearly.At that time, Chen Duxiu's Right opportunist line [3] abandoned the peasants, the main ally.Many of our comrades look at the countryside from a two-dimensional perspective, not three-dimensionally, that is to say, they don't know how to look at the countryside from a class point of view.It was only after I mastered Marxism that I looked at the countryside from a class perspective.It turns out that the countryside is not flat, but there are rich, poor, and the poorest, and there are laborers, poor peasants, middle peasants, rich peasants, and landlords.During this period, I studied the countryside and held several seminars on the peasant movement[4]. Although I had some Marxism, I didn't understand it deeply.

In the second period, we should thank our good husband, Chiang Kai-shek.He drove us to the countryside.This period is very long, ten years of civil war, and fighting with him for ten years, so it is necessary to study the countryside.In the first few years of this decade, I still didn't have a deep understanding of the countryside. Later, I got a better understanding and a deeper understanding.During this period, the three "Left" opportunist lines [5] represented by Qu Qiubai, Li Lisan, and Wang Ming brought great losses to our party, especially Wang Ming's "Left" opportunist line, which brought us Most of the Party's bases in the countryside were ruined.

Then came the third period, the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan.Japanese imperialism has invaded, we ceased war with the Kuomintang, and fought against Japanese imperialism.At this time, our comrades can openly go to the cities in the Kuomintang areas.Wang Ming, who made the mistake of "Left" opportunism, made the mistake of Right opportunism[6].He first carried out the most "left" policy of the Comintern[7], and then he carried out the most right policy.He is also a very good negative teacher for us and has educated our party.We also have a very good negative teacher, Li Lisan.Their main mistake at the time was dogmatism, imitating foreign experience.Our party liquidated their erroneous line and really found a way to combine the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the specific conditions in China.Therefore, it was possible to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek and establish the People's Republic of China in the fourth period when Chiang Kai-shek attacked us.

The experience of the Chinese revolution, the establishment of rural base areas, the experience of encircling the cities with the countryside, and finally seizing the cities may not be applicable to many of your countries, but it can be used as a reference for you.I advise everyone, remember not to copy China's experience.Any foreign experience can only be used as a reference, not as a dogma.We must combine the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the specific conditions of our country. To win over and rely on the peasants, it is necessary to survey the countryside.The method is to investigate one or two or several villages and spend a few weeks to find out the class power, economic situation, living conditions and other issues in the countryside.It is cost-effective for a major leader like the party general secretary to personally get to know one or two villages and gain some time to do so.Although there are many sparrows, there is no need to analyze each sparrow, just dissecting one or two is enough.The general secretary surveys one or two villages, and when he has a good idea, he can help comrades understand the villages and find out the specific conditions in the villages.I have seen that in many countries, the general secretary of the party does not pay attention to dissecting one or two "sparrows". He knows a little about the countryside, but not deeply. Therefore, the instructions issued are not very suitable for the rural conditions.Leading organs of the Party, including responsible comrades at the national, provincial and county levels, should also personally investigate one or two rural areas and dissect one or two "sparrows".This is called "anatomy".

There are two methods of investigation, one is to take a quick look at the flowers, and the other is to get off the horse and look at the flowers.Take a quick look at the flowers, but don't go deep, because there are so many flowers.When you came to Asia from Latin America, you just took a quick look at the flowers.There are so many flowers in your country, it is not enough to take a look and leave. You must use the second method, which is to look at the flowers on horseback, look at the flowers carefully, analyze a "flower", and dissect a "sparrow". In the countries oppressed by imperialism, there are two kinds of bourgeoisie, the national bourgeoisie and the comprador bourgeoisie.Does your country have these two types of bourgeoisie? Probably both.

The comprador bourgeoisie has always been the running dog of imperialism and the target of revolution.The comprador bourgeoisie belongs to the monopoly capital groups of the United States, Britain, France and other imperialist countries.In the struggle against comprador groups, we must take advantage of the contradictions among the imperialists, deal with one of them first, and strike at the current most important enemy.For example, in the past China's comprador bourgeoisie included those who were pro-British, pro-American, and pro-Japanese.During the War of Resistance Against Japan, we took advantage of the contradictions between Britain, the United States and Japan to first defeat the Japanese aggressors and the comprador groups attached to it.Then, go to oppose the aggressive forces of the United States and Britain, and overthrow the pro-American and pro-British comprador groups.There are also factions within the landlord class.The most reactionary ones are the minority. Those who are patriotic and in favor of opposing imperialism should not fight together.It is also necessary to distinguish between large and small landowners.We should not attack too many enemies at any one time, but only a small number of them, and even against the big landlords we should only attack a small number of the most reactionary ones.Hitting everything may seem revolutionary, but it actually does a lot of damage.

The national bourgeoisie is our enemy.There is a saying in China: "It's not that enemies don't get together." The Chinese revolution has an experience, and it must be cautious when dealing with the national bourgeoisie.They are opposed to the working class and, at the same time, to imperialism.Given that our main task is to fight imperialism and feudalism, the people cannot be liberated unless these two enemies are defeated, so we must win over the national bourgeoisie against imperialism.The national bourgeoisie has no interest in fighting feudalism because of its close ties to the landlord class.They again oppress and exploit workers.Therefore, we must fight against them.However, in order to win the national bourgeoisie to join us in opposing imperialism, the struggle against them must be done in moderation, in a reasonable, beneficial and restrained manner.It means that the struggle must be justified, there must be certainty of victory, and there must be restraint when winning a proper victory.To do this, we must investigate both sides, the workers and the capitalists.If we only understand the workers but not the capitalists, we will have no way of negotiating with the capitalists.In this regard, typical investigations should also be carried out, and one or two "sparrows" should be dissected, and two methods should be used to see the flowers on horseback and to see the flowers off the horse. Throughout the historical period of opposing imperialism and feudalism, we must win over and unite with the national bourgeoisie so that they stand on the side of the people and oppose imperialism.After the task of fighting imperialism and feudalism is basically completed, we will maintain an alliance with them for a certain period of time.Doing so will help to deal with imperialist aggression, to develop production, to stabilize the market, and to win over and transform bourgeois intellectuals. You have not taken power yet, you are preparing to take it.A policy of "unity and struggle" should be adopted towards the national bourgeoisie.Unite them to oppose imperialism and support all their words and deeds against imperialism; carry out appropriate struggles against their reactionary words and deeds against the working class and the Communist Party.Only one aspect is wrong: only struggle and no unity is a "Left" error; only unity and no struggle is a Right error.Both of these mistakes have been made by our party, and the experience has been painful.Later, we summed up these two experiences and adopted the policy of "Unity and Struggle", where we must struggle, we shall fight, and we shall unite where we can unite.The purpose of the struggle is to unite them and achieve victory against imperialism. In countries oppressed by imperialism and feudalism, if the proletarian party wants to hold the national banner in its own hands, it must have a program of national unity and unite with all possible forces except imperialist lackeys.Let the people of the whole country see how patriotic the Communist Party is, how peace-loving it is, and how much it wants national unity.Doing so will help isolate imperialism and its lackeys, as well as the big landlords and the big bourgeoisie. Communists should not be afraid to make mistakes.Errors are twofold.On the one hand, mistakes damage the party and the people; on the other hand, good teachers educate the party and the people well, which is good for the revolution.Failure is the mother of success.If failure has no benefits, why is it the mother of success? Too many mistakes have been made, and we must reverse them.This is Marxism. "Extreme things must be reversed", when mistakes pile up, light will come. Published based on the transcript of the conversation kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is part of Mao Zedong's conversation with representatives of some Latin American parties attending the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China. [2] The Bolshevik Party, the predecessor of the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was formally established in 1912. [3] Chen Duxiu’s right-leaning opportunist line, see note [3] on page 56 of this volume. [4] During the first Civil Revolutionary War, Mao Zedong successively served as the director of the Sixth Peasant Movement Workshop in Guangzhou and the standing committee member of the Wuchang Central Peasant Movement Workshop. [5] Qu Qiubai's "Left" opportunist line, see note [9] on page 58 of this volume.For Li Lisan's "Left" opportunist line, see note [10] on page 58 of this volume.For Wang Ming's "Left" opportunist line, see note [18] on page 47 of this volume. [6] For the mistakes of Wang Ming’s right opportunism line, see the note [19] on page 48 of this volume. [7] The Communist International, the Third International, see note [7] on page 57 of this volume.