Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
1964
[SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard Publication.]
It is because they have resolved contradictions among the people, the relationship between leaders and those who are led, and has organized strength. Man is the foremost factor among such factors as productive forces. Man, means of labor (including animal labor, farm implements, fertilizers), and objects of labor constitute the three great elements of productive forces. By implementing the “Sixty Articles” and “Double Ten Articles,” it is possible to bring about vastly different results with the same manpower, animals, farm implements, land, and so forth.
(After talking about rural socialist education, “if the poor and lower-middle peasants are righteous, landlords and rich peasants will be convinced”): This may not be necessarily so. If poor and lower-middle peasants are righteous, there may be such a possibility later, and they must also not be righteous. When you say that landlords and rich peasants will be convinced, it does not imply that they will all be convinced.
(On a spurious labour model at Hsiao-chan who did not work, but earned 15,000 wage points in a year, worth 2,000 yuan): That makes him an exploiter, and we must dismiss him. The accounts must be cleared, and he must be made to return what he has earned.
There are also some little despots who should also be rectified.
In cases of corruption and violation of laws, there are both bourgeoisie and proletariat. Things are so complex that it would be strange if there were no such cases. It is better to have some opposite sides.
(On Ch’en Yu-mei of Ch’en-chia-chuang, Ch’u-fo, whose per mou production dropped from 500 catties to 300 catties after she was struggled against but last year, her per mou yield recovered from 300 catties to 600 catties: One must still rely on self-help. Things can always change. To strike down good people is like striking down Molotov, from 500 catties to 300 catties. When Molotov rises, it increases from 300 to 600 catties. It is possible for people like Ch’en Yu-mei, who never attended primary school, not to mention college, to do remarkable things.
The advent of revisionism, marks the ascent of the bourgeoisie onto the [political] stage. That is the dismal truth. It is like what has happened to Ch’en-chia-chuang where they chopped the trees and destroyed the vineyards. They even took away tables and chairs from the house. But good people regained power, everything changed. Khrushchev would also change the Soviet Union into such a dismal place where trees would be chopped down and the vineyards would be destroyed. Were it profitable, he would even borrow money from the devil. We won’t take such a road. The devil won’t give us loans, and even if he did we wouldn’t accept them. We will rely on Ch’en-chia-chuang’s Ch’en Yu-met and Tachai’s Wang Yung-kuei.
Don’t just look at the dark side. Anything can be divided from one into two. Ten percent of the models can mobilize the majority, and rectify some 10 to 20 percent of bad elements.
Some of the party branches have been usurped by wayward veteran party members. They have a way of harassing the county committee members. They ask you how many Central Committee members you know and what are their names. If you cannot answer, they say your problems are insoluble. People at the upper echelons basically won’t go down; they don’t understand the situation.