Chapter 87 About Party Traditions

Is there some kind of wrong tradition in the party? There are two answers: (A) no (just "on the surface it seems to be"); I agree with the latter for the following reasons: During the past fifteen years, the Party has created and shaped the revolutionary and Bolshevik traditions. This is the orthodoxy of our Party, including all good things in politics, organization, and work style. This cannot be denied.Without this tradition, it would be impossible to explain why the Party was able to maintain, unite, consolidate, overcome mistakes within the Party, and fight resolutely against the enemy to achieve revolutionary achievements and become a large political party trusted by the class and the people.

But there are still some bad habits.This is manifested in the "Left" closed-doorism and adventurism and arrogant sectarianism in the tactics of mass struggle; it is also manifested in the arrogant attitude in propaganda and education, the lack of deep and universal connection with reality, the party's stereotyped writing, etc. ; Moreover, it is also manifested in the relationship within the party, and there are also styles of arrogance, second-handism, limelightism, factionalism, commandism, and punishmentism.On these issues, it is true that there are many bad habits in our Party.It is inappropriate to deny this fact, and it is inappropriate and impossible to say that the Party has no bad habits. Facts are still facts.This is the so-called "a certain wrong tradition".On this point, I agree with Comrades Shaoqi, Kaifeng, Luo Mai and Boqu [4].

Why is it only the "Left" tradition? This is due to several reasons: (1) The dual oppression of the nation and society has caused extreme difficulties in the lives of the masses and the environment of the party. source of better opinion). (2) The petty bourgeoisie and young proletarian elements in the party exist and account for a large number. (3) The Party is only fifteen years old, and the traditions of Marxism in theory and practice are not very deep. It is not yet possible to solve problems with the principle of Marxism, and everyone has not yet learned materialist dialectics well. (4) When overcoming the wrong line (mainly when overcoming the Li San line), the mistakes in the three issues of struggle tactics, publicity and education, and inner-party relations were not completely overcome. stand up.Mistakes on these three issues have not been thoroughly raised and resolved over a long period of time.Due to these four reasons, there are still some bad habits or traditions in our Party that express "Left".As for right things, because the environment does not allow the existence of such things, and they have been overcome more thoroughly, they cannot be regarded as wrong traditions or bad habits.

With correct traditional habits, is it permissible to have wrong traditional habits on certain issues? This is permissible.There may be wrong things among the right things, but there are more and less, because there are dark sides in society, and there are often dark sides in the party. Will it be like this for a long time? Not for a long time.As the environment and tasks change, as the understanding of materialist dialectics improves, the existing dark things will be driven out, and the "Left" tradition on these three issues will basically be removed.There will be new wrong things in the future, but it is not necessary to make it a tradition.

Is this tradition shared by all leading organs and all cadres and party members? No.Generally speaking, it belongs to some leading organs (mainly the central government), and some cadres and party members.Why are certain bad habits so common? This is because some people are compelled to do so (and these constitute the majority in the first leading bodies), and others are compelled or half compelled to do so.Some know the mistake and feel dissatisfied, but they can't give a good reason, or they are not allowed to speak, so they dare not speak.This is the real situation.There are also changes among some people. Those who did not make such mistakes in a certain period (such as during the Great Revolution) made mistakes in another period (such as during the reactionary period of the Kuomintang); His condescending attitude, in another period he used a condescending attitude to deal with others; he tended to become cautious when he failed, and easy to become arrogant and indulgent when he succeeded.This is a common occurrence.It is possible to make individual mistakes if the line is correct, and an article at the Zunyi Conference is the proof.A good person may be sick at the same time, as evidenced by scabies and colds.

Comrade Luo Fu's [5] analysis also proves the existence of this bad (on three issues) "Left" tradition.Because Luo Fu pointed out that after the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Committee, the party made six mistakes in individual principles: (1) did not estimate the changes of some bourgeoisie; (2) did not fully estimate the durability, complexity, and imbalance of the revolution; (3) "Left" and Right mistakes in war; (4) Closed-doorism and sectarian mistakes in mass struggles, and insufficient struggle against them; (5) Not taking advantage of the enemy's gaps; (6) Ideological struggle and serious mistakes in cadre policy.These mistakes have not been completely eliminated in the whole party even today. Some of them are not only made by the central government, but also made by many local agencies, cadres and party members. Some of them (for example, not fully understanding China Revolutionary characteristics), nor did the original commit the crime after the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Committee, but it also committed it before.This is because the thought of materialist dialectics has not yet been popularized and deepened within the party.May I ask, with the existence of these mistakes, how can we not form the habit of "Left" deviation? How can we completely overcome the habit of "Left" deviation? To overcome this tradition, it is to popularize and deepen the Marxist methodology (materialist dialectics) to most cadres middle.It should be pointed out that the six errors analyzed by Luo Fu have basically been corrected in the current Central Committee.

Conclusion: There is a certain wrong tradition in our party, which is the "Left" closed-doorism, sectarianism, adventurism, formulaism, commandism, The existence of punitive methods and bad habits has not been completely overcome in the whole party, and some of them are still beginning to be systematically proposed to solve them.New circumstances and tasks demand a radical transformation of the problem, and we are transforming it. Published according to the meeting minutes of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China preserved by the Central Archives.

-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is part of Mao Zedong's speech on "Mass Work Issues" at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.After the National Congress of the Communist Party of China ended in May 1937, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting of representatives of the white areas. The central task of the "summary report".Since the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China had not made a clear and systematic conclusion on the serious "Left" errors in the past work at that time, some comrades had not been able to get rid of the influence of the "Left" thinking in the past, so that some issues appeared when discussing Liu Shaoqi's report. There was a difference of opinion.On June 5 and 6 of the same year, the Politburo meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China discussed these issues. Mao Zedong’s speech above and Zhang Wentian’s summary report on behalf of the Central Committee both affirmed Liu Shaoqi’s report in general and criticized the “Left” closed-door doctrine Adventurism requires the party to implement the anti-Japanese national united front policy in the actual work in the white areas.

[2] When Mao Zedong said here that the party's highest leading body made mistakes in the general line, he did not mention the third "Left" line represented by Wang Ming (Chen Shaoyu). Criticize and summarize the mistakes of the "Left" leaning line.The Zunyi Conference held in January 1935 first focused on solving military and organizational issues of decisive significance at that time, ending the third "Left" line's dominance in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.The Yan'an rectification movement carried out in the 1940s comprehensively criticized the third "Left" line error and made a formal conclusion.

[3] Three persons, referring to Liu Shaoqi, He Kaifeng and Li Weihan.He Kaifeng, namely He Kequan (1906-1955), was born in Pingxiang, Jiangxi.He was an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.Li Weihan (1896-1984), also known as Luo Mai, was born in Changsha, Hunan.At that time, he was the Secretary of the Party Affairs Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.All three of them made speeches at the White Area Work Conference of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. [4] Boqu, namely Lin Boqu (1886-1960), was born in Linli, Hunan.At that time, he presided over the work of the Northwest Office of the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic.

[5] Luo Fu, namely Zhang Wentian, see note [1] on page 373 of this volume.