Chapter 102 Relying on the masses to do a good job in railway construction [1]

(July 9, 1949) China used to be a country ruled by imperialism. The construction of railways was mostly borrowed from imperialist countries. Every railway built by imperialist countries was in line with the aggressive goals of those imperialist countries.The railway has become a tool for imperialism to oppress and extract us.Of course, it was impossible to build the railway well at that time.Now that we are free from imperialist domination, we can and should do well to restore and develop the railways. During the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, we did not believe that it could run the railway well.Thirty-eight years have passed since the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway was planned before the Revolution of 1911, and there was a movement to protect the road in the year of 1911.The Kuomintang government only built a short section of this railway.This shows that it is impossible to rely on the Kuomintang government to run the railway well.We are different from it, we can restore the railroad and build a good railroad.In the past, we were the proletariat and had no "property", so how could we build railways? Today, we have no "property" personally, but we have the state, the masses, cadres, and engineers... as long as When we rely on the masses, we have strength and can repair the railway.

Comrades! You all know that twenty-two years ago we had nothing, and twenty-eight years ago there was not even a Communist Party.Why do things exist today that did not exist in the past? It is because the people need them.When I was a primary school teacher in the past, I only made a living by teaching. I never thought of establishing the Communist Party. The Communist Party was established because of the needs of the people.Twenty-two years ago when Chiang Kai-shek oppressed us, we went to Jinggangshan to form our own army—the Red Army.There were few people and few guns.At the beginning, everyone said no, the enemies at home and abroad opposed us and called us "bandits".The bandit is wrong, that is to say, "it shouldn't be there."But we now have 4 million People's Liberation Army, can we do it? We can do it very well.Taking the railway as an example, we have to compare it with the Kuomintang to see who can run the railway better, the Kuomintang or ours? This has not yet been fully proved.But I believe that within a year or so, especially in the Northeast, the railway industry will be on track.In the future, if we continue to improve and develop gradually, we will definitely be able to run the railway better than the Kuomintang in the whole country.

In a country as big as ours, there are only more than 20,000 kilometers of railways, which is too little.We need hundreds of thousands of kilometers of railways.To build hundreds of thousands of kilometers of railways, we mainly rely on the masses, that is, workers, engineers and other useful people.We must rely on the masses, the masses at the lowest level. This is fundamental; but at the same time we must also rely on leaders at all levels, and we cannot do without leaders.We depend on both. We are about to form a coalition government and implement a people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class.In the future, there will definitely be difficulties before us, but no matter how great the difficulties are, as long as we pay attention to relying on and uniting with the broad masses, that is, relying on the working class and uniting with the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, and the liberal bourgeoisie[2], whether they are members of the Communist Party Even if you are not a member of the Communist Party, as long as you want to make China a better place, you must unite with them, so that difficulties can be overcome, and our people's railway construction can develop step by step from less to more, from more than 20,000 kilometers.

Chiang Kai-shek has so many troops, cannons, and workers are much more than our workers in the valley.In the past, we had nothing, but now we have everything. Don’t we rely on the masses? Since November last year, we have turned from a disadvantage to an advantage. Doesn’t this transformation also rely on the power of the masses? Relying on the masses means that you To be a commander or a squad leader, you must have a team. This team is the masses. Without a team, how can you be a commander or a squad leader? My surname is Mao, and I am only one person. It is impossible to be a squad leader. It is even more important to be a commander. It is not acceptable.Therefore, we must rely on the masses, on cadres, and on useful people such as engineers.At this meeting, I proposed to you that whether you are a veteran cadre or a new cadre, you must know how to rely on the masses and value the masses, so that the railway trade union you want to organize will be able to run well.

Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech to all representatives of the National Railway Workers' Temporary Representative Conference and the National Machinery Affairs Conference, as well as some staff members of the Ministry of Railways, Railway Corps, and Pingjin Railway Administration. [2] Liberal bourgeoisie refers to the national bourgeoisie.