Chapter 134 Businessmen must control their own destiny[1]

(October 27, 1955) China's united front has a long history, from the new democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism to the current socialist revolution.The proletariat is a united front led by the Communist Party.I think the united front is beneficial, it is anti-imperialist and anti-feudal, and it supports socialism. Why should we drive them away? Is it better to have more people, or to drive away many positive factors? It is better to unite the positive factors.It is necessary to unite the national bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie (rural and urban), religious figures, and so on.When more people are united, there will be fewer obstacles, and things will be easier to get through.As for elections, it is not good not to vote for democrats, but it is possible to convince voters that doing so is not harmful but beneficial to the working people.Of course, there are also "Left" factions. If the door is closed tightly, they can also be persuaded.

Regarding the timing of the transformation of private industry and commerce, some people say that the gongs, drums, and huqin are now being played tightly, and they are worried that it will be done too quickly.We say that the socialist transformation means that the three five-year plans are basically completed, and there is still a tail that will be dragged on for fifteen years.If you eat an unripe apple, it will be sour.Now it is a matter of negotiation. Such a big matter, a major matter related to the people of the whole country, of course needs to be negotiated.If everyone does not agree, then there is no way to do it well.There are some things that are better done slowly than urgently, but should we let go of the gongs and drums now and stop singing? No, we still have to persuade everyone to take the road of socialism.

Generally speaking, China's national bourgeoisie has basically done good things, which are beneficial to the national economy and the people's livelihood.It is certainly not good for some people to evade taxes, but because the capitalist system still exists, there are these problems.If it is said that private industrial and commercial people evade taxes 100%, I don't believe it. Some of them only have a few million yuan (equivalent to a hundred yuan now), forget it, don't do it all.Among the Communist Party members, there are also those who embezzled hundreds of dollars, but forget it, they are still good people.The Communist Party is not that clean, and there are a few people in the government who manage money and are corrupt.

From a social point of view, there are always more good deeds, more beneficial to the national economy and people's livelihood, and the mistakes are only partial.To have this estimate, don't always hold your head up.But don't go out and say that there is no problem, you can talk more about the shortcomings.China's national bourgeoisie is different from those in other countries. Since Sun Yat-sen, it has been striving for the establishment of a democratic republic.Later we took over, and it was still a bourgeois-democratic revolution.The bourgeoisie in China and abroad have played an active role in history, and the forces of revolution have played a role in the development of production.The bourgeoisie also had materialism during the revolutionary period, but it has not always been idealism.

Therefore, I would like to persuade some people that each large and medium-sized city has dozens, hundreds, or two hundred core figures with relatively high consciousness, and it is better than us to persuade the majority of people through them.Some people must make up their minds to support communism[2] earlier, because sooner or later, communism will come. Peasants engage in cooperatives, and they are always reluctant to part with private ownership. There is a reason for Xiao Guiying in "Fishing and Killing" to cherish the furniture when she left home.It is not easy to get rid of old things all at once, and it is not easy to accept new things all at once.A new social system and a new idea must slowly gain ground in people's minds and gradually reduce the influence of the old.It is good for our cause that a few core figures in a city can figure out their ideas first.There are about 300 members of the Central Committee of the Democratic National Construction Association and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. There are also a group of members in various provinces and cities, which together number tens of thousands.Win a group of people among these people and build up their determination early, not to immediately communism, but to make ideological preparations and accept the propaganda and education of socialism and communism.Now engage in semi-communism first.Before 1960, the peasants only set up semi-socialist agricultural production cooperatives.In short, it is necessary to do it step by step, so as not to make people feel sudden.Production relations and lifestyles must be changed step by step, not suddenly, and will eventually change, but arrangements must be made to make these people live well.A job position and a political status must be arranged.The national bourgeoisie is different from the bureaucratic bourgeoisie and the landlord class.Landlords must be deprived of their political rights for a certain period of time, and their citizenship rights can only be restored after changing their composition. If they join a cooperative, they will not be called landlords but peasants at that time.For the landowners, this was in fact liberating.There are a total of 30 million of them in the country, and they will become prosperous together with everyone in the future.The livelihood of the peasants in the future will be better than that of the rich peasants today.If the capitalists are hungry in the future, this system will not be good.If everyone's standard of living does not improve, there will be no need for revolution, so living welfare must be gradually improved.In short, it must be arranged line by line.The socialist transformation is completed, everyone receives a salary, the bourgeoisie is gone, and everyone has become a working class. I think this is a good thing.I always persuade people to support communism. Maybe it feels bad at the moment, but I will say yes in the future.Socialism will have shortcomings, and it will develop to communism in the future, and communism will also be divided into stages.When the old system is no longer working, a new system must rise up to replace it.The productive forces always have to move forward, and there are conflicts with the relations of production, which pushes the society forward.Looking at Marx thousands of years later is like looking at Confucius now[3].

Now China is in an era of great change, social turmoil, farmers' individual ownership is about to become collective ownership, and capitalists are also changing their private ownership. Many people can't control their own destiny.In fact, it is possible to master it, that is, to understand the trend of social development, stand on the side of socialism, and gradually transform to the new system consciously.What people consider is nothing more than a job and a vote. If you have food, you will not die.Landlords only give jobs, but temporarily do not give votes. This is a sudden change for the landlords, and they are not mentally prepared.It is different for the bourgeoisie.Marx said: If the proletariat wants to emancipate itself, it must emancipate the whole of mankind. [4] If the landlords, the bourgeoisie, and the petty bourgeoisie are not emancipated, the proletariat itself cannot be emancipated. All mankind must be emancipated and become a new system before the proletariat can finally emancipate itself.

The purpose of the center is to prepare mentally through a group of foresights, so that everyone can control their own destiny.In the old society, even Generalissimo Jiang himself could not control his own destiny. Fifteen buckets were used to fetch water, and there were ups and downs.Now we want everyone to gradually reduce the number of buckets and use water pumps instead of buckets.I am a propagandist of communism. To move towards communism, we must go through decades of hard work to build our country into a truly prosperous and powerful country. Just now Deputy Director Hu Ziang [5] said that in public-private joint ventures, there are cases where female bosses are treated as family members and not arranged for work.In my opinion, women's liberation and equality between men and women are just the beginning, and real equality will not come until socialism, decades later.There is a huge potential labor force among women that has not been brought into play, and it is only during the process of building socialism that they have the opportunity to make use of it.Things that discriminate against women and ignore women must be corrected in the process of building socialism.In China, there are 300 million women. Women's issues must be properly arranged, and men must be paid equally for equal work. The same must be true in cooperatives and factories.It is very difficult for women to win a proper position, so they should talk about it whenever they have the opportunity, and make overall arrangements and equal pay for equal work.

It was published according to the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is a conversation between Mao Zedong and representatives of the industrial and commercial circles. [2] The "communism" mentioned in this article refers to the nationalization of capitalist industry and commerce. [3] Confucius, that is, Confucius, a thinker, statesman, educator, and founder of Confucianism in the late Spring and Autumn Period. [4] See Engels' Preface to the 1883 German Edition of the Communist Manifesto.Engels said: The struggle between the exploited class and the exploiting class, between the ruled class and the ruling class, has now reached such a stage, "that is, if the exploited and oppressed class (the proletariat) does not at the same time make the whole society forever Freedom from exploitation, oppression, and class struggle can no longer liberate oneself from the class (the bourgeoisie) that exploits it and oppresses it—this basic idea belongs entirely to Marx alone.” (Volume 1 of Selected Works of Marx and Engels, People's Publishing House, 1995 edition, p. 252)

[5] Hu Ziang (1897-1991), a native of Chongqing.At that time, he was a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.