Chapter 45 Women unite[1]

(March 8, 1939) Comrades: A women's conference was held today, and many people participated, including lesbians, gay men, old women, and children. Everyone came to commemorate "March 8" and commemorate this International Women's Day. To commemorate the "March 8th", women all over the world, except those lewd female vampires, are holding meetings whenever possible. Our Chinese women compatriots, except those female traitors, All over the country, whenever possible, commemorations and conferences are being held. To commemorate the "March 8th", hold a meeting, what are you doing? It is to form a group.

What is the purpose of women compatriots forming a group? It is to fight for the freedom and equality of women. Now, our Chinese nation is neither free nor equal, and is bound and oppressed by imperialism; the Chinese people are neither free nor equal, and are bound and oppressed by feudal forces.Therefore, the Chinese nation, the Chinese people, must smash the oppression of imperialism and feudal forces, and strive for the freedom and equality of the nation and the people.In all countries in the world, except the Soviet Union, all common people are not free and unequal. They are fighting heroically now, and it is also for this purpose-freedom and equality.

There are hundreds of millions of oppressed people all over the world, men and women, who are fighting fiercely against their oppressors.In China, there are 450,000,000 male and female compatriots, all of whom are waging a brutal struggle against Japanese imperialism.In these struggles, whether in China or in the world, men certainly have great power, but what about women? Do women have power? Some people say that women have no power.It is also said that women have a little strength, but it is very small.Among the female compatriots, they also expressed the meaning that it seems that their strength is not great.This kind of statement, this kind of thinking, is wrong.In all struggles, if the strength of the man is great, the strength of the woman is also great.Anything in the world can't be done without the participation of women.We can't fight Japan without women participating; we can't fight production without women participating.No matter what you do, you can never succeed without a woman.

Women have strength, and they need to add a group.Without a group, this kind of power is scattered and fragmented, and people's hearts are in charge of their own things.With a group, the hearts will be united, the strengths will be combined, and we will be able to work together to accomplish great things. "With one heart, mountains can be moved", this is the truth about the power of forming a group.Let us see now, have women across the country formed women's groups? Yes, but very few.There are quite a few in our border regions, but in other parts of the country there are very few, and in many places there are even none at all.Therefore, the 225 million female compatriots in the country did not show their due strength in the great national self-defense war.We are now going to hold a conference, make speeches, write articles, do propaganda, call on all women compatriots across the country, join groups of men and women, organize women's own groups, join the self-defense army, etc., and call on all who are willing and determined to fight for communism All women, join the Communist Party, in this way, they will have great power.For example, if one million women among the two million people in the border regions have formed a group, the power will be greater; if the 225 million women compatriots in the whole country have formed a group, the power will be even greater; The hundreds of millions of women in the world have formed a group, and everyone understands the affairs and principles of the world. If they are united, they will become a more majestic force. Whoever dares to bully, whoever perish right before them.In short, we must form a good group, form various groups, from small groups to large groups, and from small groups to form large groups, unite our minds and gather our strength to carry out great struggles.This struggle is sure to be victorious.

Now there are two kinds of people in the world, one is good and the other is bad.Those who help us sympathize with us, such as the Soviet Union, the oppressed peoples of the various colonies and semi-colonies, and the oppressed workers and peasants in the various capitalist countries, are good people.Those who bully us and invade us, such as the Japanese imperialists and other imperialists, are bad people.We also have good people and bad people in China: workers, peasants, and all progressive anti-Japanese elements are good people. They want to resist Japan and make progress; those traitors are bad people. Don't make progress, but oppress the progressive forces.Now the Chinese people, regardless of men or women, are being bullied by the bad guys in the world and China, and they are under heavy oppression.First, it is the oppression of foreign imperialism, especially Japanese imperialism; second, it is the oppression of traitors, diehards, corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry.And our female compatriots have more oppression, which is oppression by men, for example, men beat their wives; look down on women; say women are incapable and prevent them from managing state affairs; hire women workers, do the same as men jobs, and less wages.Naturally, this kind of discrimination is social discrimination, not a problem between the sexes; this kind of oppression is social oppression, not a problem between the sexes.Therefore, we Chinese people, both men and women, must stand up against the oppression of foreign imperialism, against the oppression of traitors, diehards, corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry. discrimination and social oppression.Women should have the same freedom and equality as men.This has been said for hundreds of years all over the world, but how many places have it been practiced? Besides the Soviet Union, is there any other country in the world that has really practiced it? In China, the demand for equality between men and women has been talked about for many years However, apart from the border regions, where else has it been practiced? Obviously, women's liberation is closely related to social liberation, and the women's liberation movement should exist as an integral part of the social liberation movement.Women's liberation cannot be achieved without the social liberation movement; at the same time, social liberation is impossible without the women's movement.Therefore, to truly seek social liberation, it is necessary to mobilize the masses of women to participate; similarly, to truly seek women's own liberation, women must participate in the struggle for social liberation.

The national democratic revolution in modern China was fought with the barrel of a gun from the very beginning, and it has been a hundred years since the struggle.But in the past hundred years, every revolutionary struggle has been fought and fought, and it has failed in the end.So, is this time about to lose again? Will the war with Japan be defeated again? Will the whole of China suffer again? Will it continue to be oppressed by imperialism, oppression by traitors, and diehards? What about the oppression by corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry? In my opinion, this revolution will not fail, and the attack on Japan will not fail.The struggle this time is different from the struggles of the past century. They have all failed in the past, but this time we must win.Why? Because this time, Japanese imperialism came in and occupied a lot of land. If we want China to survive, we must fight it out, and we must persist in the war of resistance to the end.The majority of the people in China are in favor of resisting to the end, but a small number of vacillating elements, who in the past prevented the broad masses of the people from joining the anti-Japanese united front, are now gradually getting out.Therefore, more people participated in the anti-Japanese united front. There was a united front for men and women, a united front for women alone, and a united front for dolls.In short, the number of united fronts is growing day by day, the groups are getting bigger day by day, the hearts of the people are getting together day by day, and the strength is getting stronger day by day.If the struggle goes on like this, there is no question of victory in the end.Also, because the world is now in a new era of war and revolution, an era in which socialist revolutionary forces are rising and capitalist reactionary forces are declining, this is a very good condition for the victory of the Chinese revolution.Therefore, this revolutionary struggle will never be like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the 1911 Revolution, the May 4th Movement, or the Great Revolution of 1925-27, all of which suffered defeat in the end. , but on the contrary, you can definitely win.

In our border region, not only men can hold conferences, but women can also hold conferences alone.Our Communist Party calls on all Chinese men and women to hold meetings and form groups, and now we especially call on women to stand up.Today's meeting to commemorate the "March 8th" is a call, a mobilization, to unite the large groups of female compatriots across the country, and to unite the large groups of male and female compatriots across the country.Let's solve China's problems, overthrow Japanese imperialism, overthrow traitors, overthrow diehards, corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry, so that the Chinese nation and the Chinese people have freedom and equality; solve the women's problem, and break the society that despises and insults women Discrimination and social oppression enable women to gain freedom and equality.We want men to have no pain, women to have no pain, everyone to have no pain, everyone to have food to eat, everyone to have clothes to wear, and everyone to have jobs, so as to bring the Chinese revolution to complete victory.This is the call and proposition of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Communist Party members across the country, regardless of gender, agree with this proposition, support this proposition, and strive for the realization of this proposition.I hope that all men and women across the country will strive to realize this proposition. We Communists will always stand with those who are fighting for freedom and equality.

Our border region, people all over the country say it is a good place, where there is freedom and equality.Then, are there no shortcomings? Of course there will be shortcomings, but compared with the whole country, it is much better. Compared with foreign countries, except the Soviet Union, no other country can compare.However, we are not complacent about this, we still want to make progress, and we have to show it to the whole world, to the whole country, to North China, to central China, and to Xi’an.In Xi'an, ordinary people are not allowed to hold meetings, and ordinary people have neither freedom nor equality.We Communists absolutely disapprove of this matter.Today we have a meeting, send a telegram to the whole country, and show the common people there: how the common people here are running affairs, how the women are running affairs, and how the common people are living.And also show the bad guys there how powerful the common people and women are when they form a group.Bad people should wake up and stop being obsessed with the illusion of "one person eats it alone" and "no one can poison you", and stop treating the common people as "fools".The people are capable, their strength is the greatest, and they form a group, which is an invincible and invincible ever-victorious army.

Comrades, what does it mean for women to have freedom and equality? It means that women have the right to do things, hold meetings, and speak. Without these rights, there can be no freedom and equality.Our Communist Party advocates this kind of rights, and we hope that comrades will unite and unite together.The women of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region unite first, unite first, and then go to the whole country to unite.Students from the Women's University [2] will go to various places in the future, and they must follow the Yan'an method and follow the good method of the Communist Party Central Committee.This will be done for ten or eight years. At that time, the entire Chinese people will be liberated, 225 million men will be liberated, and 225 million women will also be liberated.It is impossible to achieve this goal in a short period of time, and it will take ten or eight years; it is impossible for a small number of people, and the people of the whole country should rise up to do it; it is not easy to achieve, and we should redouble our efforts.With the redoubled efforts of the people in the border regions, the efforts of the people of the whole country, and the time allotted, our goal will surely be achieved.Freedom and equality are before us, comrades, let's work hard!

Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech at the "March 8th" Women's Day Conference in Yan'an. [2] Women's University, short for China Women's University, is a school established by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Yan'an to train women cadres.Founded in 1939, it merged with Shanbei Public School and other schools in 1941 to form Yan'an University.