Chapter 22 On the Tiananmen Gate Towers, Democrats Discuss the Rectification Movement

Before the "Instructions" were issued, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was the busiest, holding propaganda work meetings at various levels to convey Mao Zedong's speech. After the "Instructions" were issued, the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was the busiest: this time the rectification movement was different from the first rectification movement—the Yan'an rectification movement.That time, the rectification movement was carried out within the CCP; this time, Mao Zedong invited democrats (that is, non-CCP people) to help the CCP carry out the rectification movement.

On April 30th, the third day after the "Instructions" were issued, Mao Zedong asked the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee to invite the leaders of the democratic parties and important figures without party affiliation to the Tiananmen Gate.Mao Zedong greeted them: "Tomorrow is May 1 International Labor Day. The "People's Daily" will publish the "Instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Rectification Movement." Party rectification." Mao Zedong talked and laughed. He said that some people say that the democratic party is nothing but a hair, and it doesn't matter whether a hair is there or not.In fact, this is very wrong.Democratic parties and democrats are connected with the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie. It is not a hair, but a handful of hair with a piece of scalp attached to it. It cannot be despised!

Mao Zedong's words made the democrats present smile comfortably. Mao Zedong spoke of the situation in a very general way: "Now is a new era and new tasks, class struggle is over, war on nature is declared!" Mao Zedong said that the Communist Party of China is going to carry out a rectification movement, and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the United Front Work Department should take the initiative to hold seminars with non-Party people to solicit opinions. Mao Zedong's words warmed the hearts of the democrats present on the Tiananmen Gate Tower.

Mao Zedong always attached great importance to the united front work, and regarded the united front as one of the "three magic weapons", as he said in "(Communist) Introductory Words" in 1939: “Ten years of experience have taught us that the united front, armed struggle, and party building are the three magic weapons, the three main magic weapons, for the Chinese Communist Party to defeat the enemy in the Chinese revolution.”① Regarding the importance and necessity of the united front, Mao Zedong stated in 1935: "Organizing tens of thousands of people and mobilizing a mighty revolutionary army is the need of today's revolution to attack counter-revolution. It is an obvious truth that Japanese imperialism and traitors and traitors can be defeated only by the power. Therefore, only the strategy of the united front is the strategy of Marxism-Leninism. The strategy of closed-doorism is the strategy of solitary. , to drive the sparrows out of the clumps', drive the 'thousands' and 'mighty' to the enemy's side, and only win the applause of the enemy." ①

If we go back to the source, the "Old Veteran" of the CCP's United Front is Marin, the executive member of the Communist International and Dutchman.Marin was the representative of the Communist International sent to China by Lenin himself. He helped establish the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 and attended the "1st Congress" of the Chinese Communist Party.He deeply felt that the CCP was too weak at that time, and suggested that CCP members join the Kuomintang in their personal capacity, implement cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and establish a united front.Marin's proposal was strongly opposed by many CCP leaders, but Mao Zedong firmly supported it.Because of this, Mao Zedong was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (there were only five members of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China at that time) and served as the secretary of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China at the "Three Great Congresses" of the Communist Party of China in 1923.Soon, he was elected as an alternate executive member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang and acting director of the Central Propaganda Department. In this way, Mao Zedong formed the concept of "united front" very early.

The CCP’s initial united front target was the Kuomintang.The first KMT-CCP ​​cooperation was the first united front established by the CCP.The "April 12" coup in 1927 split this united front. After Mao Zedong established his leadership position in the CCP at the Zunyi Conference in January 1935, he formulated the policy of establishing an anti-Japanese national united front. He proposed that the CCP establish a "United Front Work Department", also known as the "United Front Work Department" , in charge of united front affairs.Since then, the CCP has a "United Front Work Department" - except for the CCP, other Communist parties in the world have not set up a "United Front Work Department".

The original head of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was Wang Ming, and the deputy head was Ke Qingshi. From the end of 1948, Li Weihan served as the head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee. In the Anti-Japanese War, after the Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated again and formed a united front to jointly fight against the Japanese invaders. After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party broke down, and the two parties went to war to compete for the ruling power of China.At this time, the CCP used the "magic weapon" of the united front to shift from the establishment of the anti-Japanese national united front to the establishment of a united front against the Kuomintang government.Many Chinese non-CCP intellectuals participated in this united front. They opposed Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship and autocracy, and put forward the slogan of "struggling for democracy". From this, they won the name of "democrats"-this name has been used to this day. "Democrats" has become a synonym for non-CCP people, and non-CCP parties participating in this united front are also called "democratic parties", and this name is still used today.

From 1945 to 1949, during the struggle to overthrow the Kuomintang government, the democratic parties and democrats shared weal and woe with the CCP. In Mao Zedong’s words, there are eight words: "we stand together through thick and thin, and we share weal and woe." On October 1, 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed, there were eleven democratic parties standing alongside the CCP: the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, the China Democratic League, the China Democratic Construction Association, the China Association for the Promotion of Democracy, China Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, Chinese People's Salvation Congress, Three People's Principles Comrades Federation, Chinese Kuomintang Democracy Promotion Association, China Zhi Gong Party, Jiu San Society, Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League.

In addition to these eleven democratic parties, there are quite a few people who do not join any party, known as "non-partisan democrats."These "non-partisan democrats" are also regarded as "one faction".In the words of Li Weihan, head of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: “Since the preparation of the new CPPCC, we have included democrats without party affiliation in the party unit because they have participated in the democratic revolution struggle for a long time. There are partisan political forces." ① In this way, "non-partisan democrats" are also considered a "partisan".Thus, there are twelve democratic parties in China.

Soon, in November 1949, the Chinese Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, the Three People's Principles Comrades Federation and the Chinese Kuomintang Democracy Promotion Association merged, still named the Chinese Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee. In December 1949, the Chinese People's Salvation Congress was dissolved. In this way, there are nine democratic parties in China (including "democrats without party affiliation"). These "democrats" were called "people outside the party" after liberation. After the "Cultural Revolution", some people suggested that the Democratic Party is also a party, and the term "non-Party person" is unscientific, so it was recently renamed "non-CCP person".

Immediately after Mao Zedong issued the "Instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Concerning the Rectification Movement", he immediately invited representatives of the democratic parties to a meeting at the Tiananmen Gate Tower and asked them to help the CCP rectify the movement. .Mao Zedong made the following explanation in "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People": "The so-called mutual supervision is of course not unilateral. The Communist Party can supervise the democratic parties, and the democratic parties can also supervise the Communist Party. Why should the democratic parties supervise the Communist Party? This is because a party is like a person, and it needs to hear different opinions. Voice. Everyone knows that the main supervisors of the Communist Party are the working people and the masses of party members. But it is more beneficial for us to have a democratic party.” In other words, he invited the democratic parties to help the CCP rectify in order to "hear different voices." According to Mao Zedong's opinion, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China immediately issued an internal party document on May 4, 1957, namely "Instructions of the Central Committee on Continuing to Organize Non-Party People to Criticize the Mistakes and Shortcomings of the Party Government".This article is very important, and the full text is included below: In the past two months, the analysis of the contradictions among the people and the criticism of the mistakes made by the party and the government have been carried out at various meetings and newspapers attended by non-Party people. Improving prestige is extremely beneficial, and we should continue to expand and criticize in depth without stopping or discontinuing.Some of them are criticized incorrectly, or some points of view in a piece of criticism are incorrect. Of course, they should be counter-criticized, and wrong ideas should not be allowed to prevail without answering (we must study the timing of the answer and adopt an analytical attitude. full explanatory power), but most of the criticisms are pertinent, which is extremely beneficial for strengthening unity and improving work.Even wrong criticism exposes the face of some people, which will help us to help them carry out ideological remolding in the future.Now that the rectification movement has begun, the central government has negotiated with the democratic parties and people without party affiliation. They should not express their attitude for the time being (at least for a few months), and they should not hold a rectification movement within the democratic parties and society, but continue to carry out the investigation of our party's shortcomings. Wrong criticism is beneficial to our party's rectification, otherwise it will be detrimental to our party's rectification (without social pressure, the rectification will not be effective).They agree with this approach.As long as our party's rectification is successful, our party will take the full initiative, and then it will be able to promote the rectification of all sectors of society (here refers to the intellectual circles first).Please pay attention to this point. Non-Party people who participate in the rectification group of our party's rectification forum are to ask them to give us their opinions and criticize, not to ask them to criticize themselves. Please also pay attention to this point.If there is any inconvenience, it is appropriate not to invite non-Party people to participate in the rectification movement, but to hold a forum for non-Party people to ask them to express their opinions on the shortcomings of the work freely.Please handle it according to your local conditions. This document of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly stated the intention of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China at that time: the CCP will carry out the rectification movement for at least a few months. During this period, democrats should be organized to help the CCP carry out the rectification movement. After the CCP completes the rectification movement, it will be "completely active" and "can promote the rectification movement in all sectors of society." However, history is asynchronous with the process planned by this CPC Central Committee document.Just ten days later, the CPC Central Committee issued another important instruction.In the words of Mao Zedong: "Things are changing" - of course, this is ten days later...