The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

On May 16, 1966, the “Circular of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” was published, and this initiated the ten-year-long struggle of the Chinese workers and peasants to defend their society from capitalist restoration. To commemorate this period, we will describe the theory behind cultural revolutions; we have already explained in sufficient detail how the Cultural Revolution played out in practice in an article praising Chinese socialism.

Socialism is the transitional period between capitalism and communism. Therefore, there will be changes within all of society to get to communism. Obviously, the base would change to be closer to communism; however, the superstructure must also change. The revolutionary changes in the superstructure are the cultural revolutions that will occur under socialism. Cultural revolutions also remove capitalist-roaders from power, push further toward communism, and thereby allow for more-rapid expansion of the productive forces. They seek to reform and change the relations of production.

In socialist economies in which multiple types of property still exist, the contradictions between them get resolved during these qualitative leaps. Under proletarian rule, the state cannot force cooperatives into the state; rather, via these changes in the masses’ ideology, they can come to accept merging cooperatives into the state to create a unified socialist economy. Furthermore, commodity production and the various divisions of labor fade away when the superstructure changes. Disdain for manual labor, as we discussed earlier, comes from class society and the birth of the parasitic ruling class that exploits labor; that is why as classes are abolished, that disdain for manual labor must go as well, so mental laborers also do manual work and vice-versa. This is what happens in cultural revolutions, and it happened during China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution as students and engineers used their knowledge to help manual workers and peasants while the latter received education to gain technical skills.

Cultural revolutions are part of the overall line struggle that occurs. It is one form that line struggle takes; specifically, it is based on the entire working population attacking the bourgeois line, be it in the vanguard party, people’s army, state, and entire society. So long as the superstructure of the old society remained, this struggle was inevitable; the proletariat had to get rid of it and replace it with a new, proletarian superstructure. Mao already knew that class struggle would continue in all spheres of socialist society back in the 1950’s; in “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People”, he said:

The superstructure, comprising the state system and laws of the people’s democratic dictatorship and the socialist ideology guided by Marxism-Leninism, plays a positive role in facilitating the victory of socialist transformation and the socialist way of organizing labour; it is in correspondence with the socialist economic base, that is, with socialist relations of production. But the existence of bourgeois ideology, a certain bureaucratic style of work in our state organs and defects in some of the links in our state institutions are in contradiction with the socialist economic base. We must continue to resolve all such contradictions in the light of our specific conditions. Of course, new problems will emerge as these contradictions are resolved. And further efforts will be required to resolve the new contradictions. …

In China, although socialist transformation has in the main been completed as regards the system of ownership, and although the large-scale, turbulent class struggles of the masses characteristic of times of revolution have in the main come to an end, there are still remnants of the overthrown landlord and comprador classes, there is still a bourgeoisie, and the remolding of the petty bourgeoisie has only just started. Class struggle is by no means over. The class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the class struggle between the various political forces, and the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the ideological field will still be protracted and tortuous and at times even very sharp. The proletariat seeks to transform the world according to its own world outlook, and so does the bourgeoisie. In this respect, the question of which will win out, socialism or capitalism, is not really settled yet.

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In “Hold High the Great Red Banner of Mao Tse-tung’s Thinking; Actively Participate in the Great Socialist Cultural Revolution”, an article in Issue 18 of Volume 9 of Peking Review, the authors say:

The struggle to uphold the proletarian ideology and to eradicate the bourgeois ideology on the cultural front is an important aspect of the class struggle between two classes (the proletariat and the bourgeoisie), between two roads (the socialist road and the capitalist road) and between two ideologies (the proletarian ideology and the bourgeois ideology). The proletariat seeks to change the world according to its world outlook, and so does the bourgeoisie. Socialist culture should serve the workers, peasants and soldiers, should serve proletarian politics, should serve the consolidation and development of the socialist system and its gradual transition to communism. Bourgeois and revisionist culture serves the bourgeoisie, landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements and Rightists, to prepare the way for the return of capitalism. If the proletariat does not occupy the cultural position, it is bound to be occupied by the bourgeoisie. This is a sharp class struggle.

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“From Bourgeois Democrats to Capitalist-Roaders” illustrates how China’s initial reliance on the national bourgeoisie made it predisposed to having revisionists infiltrate the Communist Party:

The New-Democratic revolution and the socialist revolution led by the Chinese Communist Party are two revolutionary stages whose character, targets and tasks are essentially different. The former took place in the old China of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The principal contradiction it aimed to resolve was the contradiction between the masses of the people including, workers, peasants, the petty and national bourgeoisie on one side and imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism on the other. Therefore, it was anti-imperialist and anti-feudal bourgeois democratic revolution in character. Its task was to strive under the leadership of the proletariat to overthrow the rule of imperialism, the feudal landlord class and the bureaucrat-comprador bourgeoisie in China, and to lead the revolution to socialism.

With the victory of the new-democratic revolution, the character and principal contradiction of the Chinese society changed. The contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie became the principal contradiction in our country. This contradiction not only exists in society at large but is also reflected in the Party. The socialist revolution we are carrying out is a revolution waged by the proletariat against the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes. The spearhead of the revolution is directed mainly against the bourgeoisie and against Party persons in power taking the capitalist road. Its task is to replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with the dictatorship of the proletariat, use socialism to defeat capitalism, and through protracted class struggle gradually create conditions in which it will be impossible for the bourgeoisie to exist, or for a new bourgeoisie to arise, and finally eliminate classes and realize communism. The founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 marked the beginning of the socialist revolutionary stage.

If one’s ideology still remains at the old stage and views and treats the socialist revolution from the stand and world outlook of bourgeois democrats, one will become a representative of the bourgeoisie, a capitalist-roader and a target of the socialist revolution.

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The “Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” summarized the tasks of China’s Cultural Revolution:

Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it is still trying to use the old ideas, culture, customs and habits of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds and endeavor to stage a comeback. The proletariat must do the exact opposite: it must meet head-on every challenge of the bourgeoisie in the ideological field and use the new ideas, culture, customs and habits of the proletariat to change the mental outlook of the whole of society. At present, our objective is to struggle against and overthrow those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road, to criticize and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic “authorities” and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes and to transform education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure not in correspondence with the socialist economic base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist system. …

In the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution a most important task is to transform the old educational system and the old principles and methods of teaching.

In this Great Cultural Revolution, the phenomenon of our schools being dominated by bourgeois intellectuals must be completely changed. …

In the course of the mass movement of the Cultural Revolution, the criticism of bourgeois and feudal ideology should be well combined with the dissemination of the proletarian world outlook and of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s thought.

Criticism should be organized of typical bourgeois representatives who have wormed their way into the Party and typical reactionary bourgeois academic “authorities,” and this should include criticism of various kinds of reactionary views in philosophy, history, political economy and education, in works and theories of literature and art, in theories of natural science, and in other fields.

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The “Circular of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” outlined how the bourgeoisie infiltrated the proletarian state, threatening to overthrow it and make it bourgeois; this revelation caused the masses to take action in defense of their proletarian democracy:

The whole party must follow Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s instructions, hold high the great banner of the proletarian Cultural Revolution, thoroughly expose the reactionary bourgeois stand of those so-called ‘academic authorities’ who oppose the party and socialism, thoroughly criticize and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois ideas in the sphere of academic work, education, journalism, literature and art, and publishing, and seize the leadership in these cultural spheres. To achieve this, it is necessary at the same time to criticize and repudiate those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the party, the government, the army, and all spheres of culture, to clear them out or transfer some of them to other positions. Above all, we must not entrust these people with the work of leading the Cultural Revolution. In fact many of them have done and are still doing such work, and this is extremely dangerous.

Those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the party, the government, the army, and various cultural circles are a bunch of counter-revolutionary revisionists. Once conditions are ripe, they will seize political power and turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Some of them we have already seen thorough, others we have not. Some are still trusted by us and are being trained as our successors, persons like Khrushchev, for example, who are still nestling beside us. Party committees at all levels must pay full attention to this matter.

This circular is to be sent, together with the erroneous document issued by the Central Committee on 12 February 1960, down to the level of county party committees, party committees in the cultural organizations, and party committees at regimental level in the army. These committees are asked to discuss which of the two documents is wrong and which is correct, their understanding of these documents, and their achievements and mistake.

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The working masses not only fought reactionary and revisionist cultures and ideologies, but they also fought corrupt party elites, bureaucrats, etc. and the bureaucratic privileges that they had. The corrupt officials wanted to return to capitalism (either consciously or unconsciously; either they knew they were capitalist, or they advocated for policies that they did not know would lead to capitalist restoration). “On the Relationship Between the Working Class and Its Party Under Socialism” covers this in great detail:

To eliminate this material basis which breeds capitalist roaders, we must strictly distinguish between bureaucratic privileges and bourgeois rights; we must create a distributional system that decouples one’s political and economic standing so as to prevent the formation of bourgeois interest groups within bureaucracies built on the basis of bureaucratic privileges. …

Mao did not use the phrase “bureaucratic class” in his later life for a good reason. Bureaucratic mentality is not necessarily a class relation. Before the demise of classes and the state, any class in power needs to have a bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a function, not necessarily a separate class or stratum. Those who committed bureaucratic errors did not necessarily want to go down the capitalist road. Even Mao admitted that he was guilty of bureaucratic errors sometimes.

Thus, the fundamental problem is not whether or not there is a bureaucracy. Instead, the root of the problem is whether this bureaucracy becomes a bourgeois interest group. Therefore, the terms “cadre class” or “bureaucratic class” are inaccurate. “Bureaucrats” and “capitalist roaders” are quite different concepts. Capitalist roaders were the disguised capitalists within the Party during the period of socialism in China; they were an interest group. Mao later defined those disguised capitalists within the Party as “capitalist roaders.” This is a more scientific definition because it requires that we know whether an interest group exists. …

In economically underdeveloped countries that have pursued a socialist road under states of working class rule, bureaucratic privileges enjoyed by the party and government officials have manifested themselves in all aspect of daily life, such as privileges in food, clothing, housing, transportation, as well as in healthcare and children’s education, and so on. Yet these bureaucratic privileges and perks have an essential difference from those other inevitable legacies of privilege from the old society originating in bourgeois rights, such as the three great differences between workers and peasants, cities and countryside, and mental and manual labor, as well as income distribution according to technical level, seniority, work performed, etc. …

These privileges linked pay scale and individual living standards of party and government officials to their rank within the leadership hierarchy. This system of privileges “mixed-up” what was needed for the officials’ work and what was needed for their personal lives. In other words, such privileges blurred the line between what was in fact necessary for the officials to carry-out their duties under conditions of material shortages (such as housing, transportation, communications, security, health care, etc.) based on their levels of responsibility and needs of work on the one hand, and individual pay and family accommodation according to rank within the leadership hierarchy on the other hand. Differences in living conditions according to the rank within leadership hierarchy, however, did not merely reflect a concession. Rather it indicates that the fundamental worldviews among some people within the ruling party were essentially capitalistic.

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Thus, the workers waged their battle to protect their state from capitalist infiltration. It was in this period that class struggle was most intense in the socialist era, and the proletarian dictatorship was powerful with the masses’ use of it. Obviously, problems arose because of both honest mistakes and counter-revolutionary elements within the state sabotaging the movement; it was by no means a “bloodless” period, but class struggle has never been peaceful. Unfortunately, the movement did not succeed in preventing capitalist restoration, even if it postponed that. Nevertheless, the Chinese people are radicalizing, and many are trying to create organizations to wage proletarian revolution; the Cultural Revolution inspired a wave of workers’ uprising that is still alive today!

Support the Cultural Revolution! Down with the bourgeoisie the world over, including in modern China! Let the working masses seize power from the ruling parasites!