If the Communist Party in a new-democratic state such as the People’s Republic of China does not fulfill its historic task of forcibly expelling the representatives of the capitalist class the state and so transforming this into a state of the working people, led by the working class, THE INEVITABLE SEQUEL IS THAT THE CAPITALIST CLASS PREPARES ALL ITS STRENGTH TO STRIKE AT THE NEW-DEMOCRATIC STATE IN ORDER TO DESTROY IT AND REPLACE IT BY THE STATE OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS, THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE BOURGEOISIE.
China is a huge country of 700 million people, the majority workers and peasants with a very high political level and a history of revolutionary struggle unequalled in the world. Its workers have a powerful trade union movement; its peasants are – in the overwhelming majority – members of co-operative farms. Its people have been educated for nearly a generation in Marxism-Leninism, in the spirit of taking the road to socialism and communism. It has the largest Communist Party in the world, with cadres steeled in revolutionary struggle.
Were it possible to establish the rule of the capitalist class, the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over the working people of such a country, what form could this take?
Clearly, any form of “parliamentary democracy,” with the “civil liberties” appropriate to it, would be out of the question.
The rule of the capitalist class, the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over the working people of such a country as China could take the form only of a repressive MILITARY-FASCIST DICTATORSHIP.
But how could the capitalist class manage to impose such a military-fascist dictatorship over the working people of such a country as China?
Clearly it would be possible only by combining fascist violence with unparalleled demagogy and deceit.
IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE ONLY BY PRESENTING CAPITALIST COUNTER-REVOLUTION AS “SOCIALIST REVOLUTION UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY” following seizure of control of the leadership of the Party.
IT W0ULD BE POSSIBLE ONLY BY PRESENTING THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY FIGHT OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS TO MAINTAIN AND DEVELOP THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM AS A FIGHT “AGAINST THE RESTORATION OF CAPITALISM”.
IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE ONLY BY THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES POSING AS “MARXIST-LENINISTS” AND TURNING MASS VIOLENCE AGAINST THE MARXIST-LENINISTS, DENOUNCING THEM AS “COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES” AND AS “REVISIONISTS SEEKING TO TURN CHINA ALONG THE CAPITALIST ROAD”.
IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE ONLY BY DESTROYING THE GREAT COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA, TOGETHER WITH THE STATE ORGANS OF THE NEW-DEMOCRATIC STATE, UNDER THE PRETEXT OF “PURGING THEM OF REVISIONISTS AND COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES”.
IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE ONLY BY PRESENTING THE FASCIST STORM-TROOPERS OF THE CAPITALIST COUNTER-REVOLUTION AS “YOUNG REVOLUTIONARIES” AND “RED GUARDS”.
IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE ONLY BY TRANSFORMING THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY – the instrument of the liberation of the Chinese masses, from imperialism and feudalism – INTO THE INSTRUMENT OF THEIR OPPRESSION ON BEHALF OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS.
IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE ONLY BY TURNING THE STUDY OF MARXISM-LENINISM INTO THE SEMI-RELIGIOUS CHANTING OF ISOLATED QUOTATIONS FROM THE WORKS OF THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY LEADER, PRESENTED AS “THE GREATEST MARXIST-LENINIST GENIUS OF ALL TIME”.
IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE ONLY BY PUTTING FORWARD AS THIS COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY LEADER – IN WHOSE NAME THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS COULD BE IMPOSED (JUST AS THE GERMAN MONOPOLY CAPITALISTS IMPOSED AND MAINTAINED THEIR FASCIST DICTATORSHIP IN THE NAME OF HITLER) – A LEADING COMMUNIST TRUSTED BY THE WORKING PEOPLE BUT, IN REALITY, A TRAITOR OF A DUPLICITY UNPARALLELLED IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT.
At the end of 1958 leading Marxist-Leninists in the People’s Republic of China had begun to see clearly the character of “the thought of Mao Tse-tung” as revisionism serving the interests of the capitalist class. They had removed Mao Tse-tung himself from effective leadership of the Communist Party of China. It was at this moment that Mao Tse-tung accepted the offer of the Chinese capitalist class to return to his former position of “leader of the Chinese people” by lending to their counter-revolution the still enormous influence of his name. It was at this moment that Mao Tse-tung made the transition – and it was not as great a transition as it might appear – from serving the interests of the Chinese capitalists as the leader of a revisionist political faction to serving those interests as a direct counter-revolutionary.