This article, by the Editorial Departments of Renmin Ribao, Hongqi, and Jiefangjun Bao was published on March 18^th, 1971. We are reproducing the 1971 Foreign Languages Press Translation.

“Working men’s Paris, with its Commune, will be for ever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society. Its
martyrs are enshrined in the great heart of the working class.”

-Karl Marx

“If the Commune should be destroyed, the struggle would only be postponed. The principles of the Commune are eternal and indestructible; they will present themselves again and again until the working class is liberated.”

-Karl Marx

Contents:
1. The Principles of the Paris Commune Are Eternal
2. It Is of the Utmost Importance for the Revolutionary People to Take Hold of the Gun
3. Revolution Is the Cause of the Masses in Their Millions
4. It Is Essential to Have a Genuine Marxist-Leninist Party
5. The Modern Revisionists Are Renegades from the Revolutionary Principles of the Paris Commune
6. Persist in Continuing the Revolution Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Strive for Still Greater Victories
Notes

The Principles of the Paris Commune Are Eternal

March 18 this year marks the centenary of the Paris Commune. Full of profound feelings of proletarian internationalism. the Chinese Communists and the Chinese people under the teaching of their great leader Chairman Mao warmly celebrate this great “festival of the proletariat”¹ together with the proletariat and the revolutionary people throughout the world.

One hundred years ago the proletariat and the broad masses of the people of Paris in France staged a heroic armed uprising and founded the Paris Commune. This was the first proletarian regime in the history of mankind, the first great attempt of the proletariat to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish the dictatorship of the
proletariat.

The Paris Commune abolished the army and police of the reactionary bourgeois government and replaced them with the armed people; the gun was in the hands of the working class. The Paris Commune broke the bourgeois bureaucratic apparatus enslaving the people, founded the working class’s own government, adopted a series of policies to safeguard the interests of the working people and organized the masses to take an active part in running the state.

In the fight to found and defend the proletarian regime, the heroes of the Paris Commune displayed extraordinary revolutionary initiative, soaring revolutionary enthusiasm and self-sacrificing heroism, winning the admiration of the revolutionary people generation after generation.

Although the Paris Commune failed as a result of the military onslaught and bloody suppression carried out by butcher Thiers in league with Bismarck, its historical contributions are indelible. As Marx said: The glorious movement of March 18 was “the dawn of the great social revolution which will liberate mankind from
the regime of classes for ever”.²

While the battle was still raging in a Paris darkened by the smoke of gunfire, Marx declared: “If the Commune should be destroyed, the struggle would only be postponed. The principles of the Commune are eternal and indestructible; they will present themselves again and again until the working class is liberated.”³

What are the revolutionary principles that Marx and Engels, the great teachers of the proletariat, summed up on the basis o{ the practice of the Paris Commune? In a word, “the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes”.⁴ The proletariat must use revolutionary violence to “break” and “smash”⁵ the old state machinery and carry out the dictatorship of the proletariat.⁶

In expounding this principle, Marx stressed: The first premiss of the dictatorship of the proletariat “is an army of the proletariat. The working class must win the right to its emancipation on the battlefield”.⁷ Only by relying on revolutionary armed force can the proletariat overthrow the rule of reactionary classes and go on to fulfil its whole historical mission.

Marx also said: The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat will “be a working, not a parliamentary, body, executive and legislative at the same time”.⁸

As Lenin said: “One of the most remarkable and most important ideas of Marxism on the subject of the state” is “the idea of the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ (as Marx and Engels began to call it after the Paris Commune)”⁹. To persist in revolutionary violence to smash the bourgeois state machine and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, or to maintain the bourgeois state machine and oppose the dictatorship of the proletariat-this has been the focus of repeated struggles between Marxism on the one hand and revisionism, reformism,’ anarchism and all kinds of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideology on the other, the focus of repeated struggles between the two lines in the international communist movement for the past hundred years. It is precisely on this fundamental question of the dictatorship of the proletariat
that all revisionism, from the revisionism of the Second International to modern revisionism with the Soviet revisionist renegade clique as its centre, has completely betrayed Marxism.

A century’s history has proved to the full that the Marxist theory of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat is invincible.

Forty-six years after the Paris Commune uprising, the proletariat of Russia, led by the great Lenin, won victory in the October Socialist Revolution through armed uprising, opening up a new world era of proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship. Lenin said: On the path of breaking the old state machine, the Paris Commune “took the first world-historical step. . . The Soviet Government took the second”.¹⁰

Seventy-eight years after the Paris Commune uprising, the Chinese people, led by the great leader Chairman Mao, won victory in the revolution. Chairman Mao blazed a trail in establishing rural base areas, encircling the cities from the countryside and finally taking the cities. He led the Chinese people through protracted revolutionary wars in overthrowing the reactionary rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism, in breaking the old state machine and bringing about in China the people’s democratic dictatorship, that is, the dictatorship of the proletariat. Since then Chairman Mao has been leading the Chinese people in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat and advancing triumphantly along the socialist road.

Fighting bravely, advancing wave upon wave and supporting and encouraging each other in the past century, the proletariat, the oppressed people and oppressed nations of the world have been promoting the socialist revolution and the national democratic revolution and have won most brilliant victories. As Comrade Mao Tsetung points out: “This is the historic epoch in which world capitalism and imperialism are going down to their doom and world socialism and people’s democracy are marching to victory.”¹¹ The cause of the Paris Commune is spreading far and wide at a higher stage in the new historical conditions. The world has undergone an earthshaking change.

In commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Paris Commune, Marx and Engels, with jubilant revolutionary feeling, told the European working class: “Thus the Commune which the powers of the old world believed to be exterminated, lives stronger than ever, and thus we may join you in the cry: Vive la Commune!”¹²

Today, the flames of the revolutionary torch raised by the Paris Commune are ablaze throughout the world, and the days of imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction are numbered. In celebrating the centenary of the Paris Commune at such a time, the Marxist-Leninists, the proletariat and the revolutionary people the world over have all the more reason to shout with unbounded confidence: Long live the Commune! Long live the victory of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat!

In commemorating the Paris Commune, we should study the Marxist-Leninist theory of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, learn from historical experience, criticize modern revisionism with the Soviet revisionist renegade clique as its centre, adhere to the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary line, and unite with the people of the world to win still greater victories.

It Is of the Utmost Importance for the Revolutionary People to Take Hold of the Gun

The historical experience of the Paris Commune has fully demonstrated that taking hold of revolutionary arms is of the utmost importance to the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Explaining the experience of the Paris Commune, Lenin referred to Engels’ important thesis that the workers emerged with arms from every revolution in France and that, therefore, the disarming of the workers was the first commandment for the bourgeois, who were at the helm of the state. On this conclusion of Engels’, Lenin commented: “The essence of the matter-also, by the way, on the question of the state (has the oppressed class arms?) -is here remarkably well grasped.”¹³

The Paris Commune was born in the fierce struggle between armed revolution and armed counter-revolution. The 72 days of the Paris Commune were 72 days of armed uprising, armed struggle and armed defense. The very fact that the proletariat of Paris had taken hold of the gun struck the greatest terror into the hearts of the bourgeois reactionaries. And a fatal error of the Paris Commune lay precisely in the fact that it showed excessive magnanimity towards counter-revolution and did not march on Versailles immediately, thus giving Thiers a breathing space to muster his reactionary forces for an onslaught on revolutionary Paris. As Engels said: “Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeois? Should we not, on the contrary, reproach it for not having used it freely enough?”¹⁴

Comrade Mao Tsetung has concisely summed up the tremendous importance of armed struggle and the people’s army and advanced the celebrated thesis “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”¹⁵ He points out: “According to the Marxist theory of the state, the army is the chief component of state power. Whoever wants to seize and retain state power must have a strong army.”¹⁶

Violent revolution is the universal principle of proletarian revolution. A Marxist-Leninist party must adhere to this universal principle and apply it to the concrete practice of its own country. Historical experience shows that the seizure of political power by the proletariat and the oppressed people of a country and the seizure of victory in their revolution are accomplished invariably by the power of the gun; they are accomplished under the leadership of a proletarian party, by acting in accordance with that country’s specific conditions, by gradually building up the people’s armed forces and fighting a people’s war on the basis of arousing the broad masses to action, and by waging repeated struggles against the imperialists and reactionaries. This is true of the Russian revolution, the Chinese revolution, and the revolutions of Albania, Viet Nam, Korea and other countries, and there is no exception.

On the other hand, a proletarian party suffers setbacks in the revolution if it fails to go in for or gives up revolutionary armed force, and there have been serious lessons: Some parties failed to take hold of the gun and were helpless in the face of sudden attacks by imperialism and its lackeys and of counter revolutionary suppression, and as a result millions of revolutionary people were massacred. In some cases where the revolutionary people had already taken up arms and their armed forces had grown considerably, certain parties handed over the people’s armed forces and forfeited the fruits of the revolution because they sought official posts in bourgeois governments or were duped by the reactionaries.

In the past decades, many Communist Parties have participated in elections and parliaments, but none has set up a dictatorship of the proletariat by such means. Even if a Communist Party should win a majority in parliament or participate in the government, this would not mean any change in the character of bourgeois political power, still less the smashing of the old state machine. The reactionary ruling classes can proclaim the election null and void, dissolve the parliament or directly use violence to kick out the Communist Party. If a proletarian party does no mass work, rejects armed struggle and makes a fetish of parliamentary elections, it will only lull the masses and corrupt itself. The bourgeoisie buys over a Communist Party through parliamentary elections and turns it into a revisionist party, a party of the bourgeoisie – are such cases rare in history?

The proletariat must use the gun to seize political power and must use the gun to defend it. The people’s army under the leadership of a Marxist-Leninist party is the bulwark of the dictatorship of the proletariat and among the various factors for preventing the restoration of capitalism it is the main one. Having a people’s army armed with the Marxist-Leninist ideology, the proletariat can deal with any complicated situation in the domestic or international class struggle and safeguard the proletarian state.

Since World War II, imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism headed by the United States have incessantly launched wars of aggression and resorted ever more frequently to such means as military intervention, armed subversion and invasion by mercenary troops to suppress the countries and people that are fighting for or have already gained independence. Incomplete statistics show that U.S. imperialism has engineered and launched armed intervention and armed aggression on more than 50 occasions in the past 25 years. As for U.S.-engineered armed subversion, examples are too numerous to be counted. Therefore, in order to win liberation and safeguard their national independence and state sovereignty and effectively combat aggression and subversion by imperialism and its lackeys, all the oppressed nations must have their own anti-imperialist armed forces and be prepared at all times to counter wars of aggression with revolutionary wars. The war against U.S. aggression and for national salvation waged by the people of the three countries of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia has set a brilliant example to the oppressed nations and people all over the world. The struggles against aggression and subversion waged by the people of many other countries and regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America have likewise provided valuable experience.

In his solemn statement “People of the World, Unite and Defeat ] the U.S. Aggressors and All Their Running Dogs!”, Chairman Mao points out: “A weak nation can defeat a strong, a small nation can defeat a big. The people of a small country can certainly defeat aggression by a big country, if only they dare to rise in struggle, dare to take up arms and grasp in their own hands the destiny of their country. This is a law of history.”¹⁷

As Comrade Lin Piao says, “people’s war is the most effective weapon against U.S. imperialism and its lackeys”.¹⁸ The proletariat and the oppressed people and nations the world over will all change from being unarmed and unskilled in warfare to taking. up arms and being skilled in warfare. U.S’ imperialism and all its lackeys will eventually be burned to ashes in the fiery flames of the people’s war they themselves have kindled.

Revolution Is the Cause of the Masses in Their Millions

The historical experience of the Paris Commune tells us that to be victorious in the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat it is imperative to rely on the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses in their millions and give full play to their great power as the makers of history. Lenin said: “The autocracy cannot be abolished without the revolutionary action of class-conscious millions, without a great surge of mass heroism, readiness and ability on their part to ‘storm heaven’, as Marx put it when speaking of the Paris workers at the time of the Commune.”¹⁹

Marx, the great teacher of the proletariat, highly valued the revolutionary initiative of the masses of the people and set us a brilliant example of the correct attitude to adopt towards the revolutionary mass movement.

In the autumn of 1870, prior to the founding of the Paris Commune, Marx pointed out that the conditions were not ripe for an uprising by the French workers. But when the proletariat of Paris did rise in revolt with heaven-storming revolutionary heroism in March 1871, Marx, regarding himself as a participant, promptly and firmly supported and helped this proletarian revolution. Although he perceived the mistakes of the Commune and foresaw its defeat, Marx considered the revolution the most glorious exploit of the French working class. For he regarded this movement “as a historic experience of enormous importance, as a certain advance of the world proletarian revolution, as a practical step that was more important than hundreds of programmes and arguments”.²⁰ In a letter to L. Kugelmann at that time, Marx expressed his fervent praise: “What elasticity, what historical initiative, what a capacity for sacrifice in these Parisians!” History has no like example of like greatness!”²¹ Lenin saw in this letter a gulf between the proletarian revolutionaries and the opportunists and hoped that it would be “hung in the home… of every literate Russian worker”.²²

Contrary to the Marxists, all the opportunists and old and new revisionists oppose the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat and they inevitably have a mortal fear of and bitter hatred for the masses, and they deride, curse and sabotage the revolutionary mass movement. When the Russian armed uprising of December 1905 failed, Plekhanov stood aloof and accused the masses, saying: “They should not have taken to arms.” Lenin indignantly criticized Plekhanov’s aristocratic attitude towards the revolutionary mass movement and denounced him as an infamous Russian renegade from Marxism. Lenin pointed out that without the “general rehearsal” of 1905, victory in the October Revolution in 1917 would have been impossible.

In 1959, when our great teacher Chairman Mao denounced the Peng Teh-huai Right-opportunist anti- Party clique for slandering and opposing the revolutionary mass movement, he sharply told these anti-Marxist renegades:

“Please look and see how Marx and Lenin commented on the Paris Commune, and Lenin on the Russian revolution!” “Do you see how Lenin criticized the renegade Plekhanov and those ‘bourgeois gentlemen and their hangers-on’, ‘the curs and swine of the moribund bourgeoisie and of the petty-bourgeois democrats who trail behind them’? If not, will you please have a look?”²³ Chairman Mao used this historical experience as a profound lesson to educate the whole Party and urged our Party members and cadres to follow the example of Marx and Lenin and take a correct attitude towards the revolutionary mass movement.

“Revolution is the main trend in the world today.”²⁴ All around the globe, the people are thundering: Down with the U.S. aggressors and all their running dogs! The strategic rear areas of imperialism have become front-lines in the anti-imperialist struggle. The victorious two super-powers is gaining momentum’ The national liberation movement in Asia and Africa is shooting forward as violently as a raging fire. The struggle of the people of Korea, Japan and other Asian countries against the revival of Japanese militarism by the U’S’ and Japanese reactionaries is daily surging ahead. The Palestinian and other Arab people are continuing their advance in the fight against the U.S.-Israeli aggressors. Revolutionary mass movements on an unprecedented scale have broken out in North America, Europe and Oceania. The workers, students, black people and other minority peoples in the United States are daily awakening and rising in a revolutionary storm against the reactionary rule of the Nixon government and its policy of aggression. In Latin America, the “backyard” of U.S. imperialism, the long-suppressed anti-U.S. fury in the hearts of the people has now burst forth, and a new situation has emerged characterized by joint struggle for the defence of their national interests and state sovereignty. The revolutionary struggle of the people in certain East European countries against social-imperialism is in the ascendant. The spring thunder of revolution is sounding even in hitherto relatively quiescent areas. Reacting on and encouraging each other, these struggles have merged into the powerful torrent of the world people’s revolutionary movement.

In the face of the present great revolutionary movement, every revolutionary party and every revolutionary will have to make a choice. To march at the head of the masses and lead them? To trail behind them, gesticulating and criticizing? Or to stand in their way and oppose them? Genuine Marxist-Leninist parties and all revolutionaries must warmly support the revolutionary actions of the masses, firmly march at the head of the mass movement and lead the masses forward.

The political parties of the proletariat and all revolutionaries “ought to face the world and brave the storm, the great world of mass struggle and the mighty storm of mass struggle”.²⁵ They must share weal and woe with the masses, modestly learn from them, be their willing pupils, be good at discovering their revolutionary initiative and draw wisdom and strength from them. Only by plunging into the mighty storm of the mass movement can a political party of the proletariat temper itself and grow in maturity. And only through the practice of the masses in class struggle can a correct programme or line be formulated, developed, tested and carried out.

The mainstream of the revolutionary mass movement is always good and always conforms to the development of society. In the mass movement various trends of thought exert their influence, various factions emerge and various kinds of people take part. This is only natural. Nothing on earth is absolutely pure. Through their practice in struggle and repeated comparison, the broad masses of the people will eventually distinguish between what is correct and what is erroneous; they will eventually cast aside revisionism and all that is erroneous and accept and grasp the revolutionary truth of Marxism-Leninism. A proletarian party must go deep among the masses and work patiently, painstakingly and for a long time, so as constantly to raise their political consciousness and lead the mass movement forward along the correct road.

The question of first importance for the revolution is to distinguish between enemies and friends, to unite with our real friends and attack our real enemies. The development of the revolutionary mass movement calls for the constant strengthening of unity within the revolutionary forces and the smashing of the plots to split and sabotage hatched by the imperialists, revisionists and reactionaries. The people, who constitute over 90 per cent of the population – the workers, peasants, students and all those who refuse to be oppressed by imperialism – invariably want to make revolution. In order to defeat U.S. imperialism and all its running dogs, it is imperative to form a broad united front, unite with all forces that can be united, the enemy excepted, and carry out arduous struggle.

Comrade Mao Tsetung points out: “Direct reliance on the revolutionary masses is a basic principle of the Communist Party.”²⁶ We must rely on the masses and launch mass movements when we fight for political power. We must likewise rely on the masses, launch mass movements and adhere to the mass line in all our work when we engage in the socialist revolution and socialist construction after the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. “As long as we rely on the people, believe firmly in the inexhaustible creative power of the masses and hence trust and identify ourselves with them, no enemy can crush us while we can crush every enemy and overcome every difficulty.”²⁷

It Is Essential to Have a Genuine Marxist-Leninist Party

In summing up the experience of the Paris Commune, Marx and Engels explicitly stated: “In its struggle against the collective power of the propertied classes, the working class cannot act as a class except by constituting itself into a political party, distinct from, and opposed to all old parties formed by the propertied classes.”²⁸ This is a condition indispensable to seizing victory in the proletarian revolution, establishing and consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, and realizing the ultimate goal of abolishing classes.

The fundamental cause of the failure of the Paris Commune was that, owing to the historical conditions, Marxism had not yet achieved a dominant position in the workers’ movement and a proletarian revolutionary party with Marxism as its guiding thought had not yet come into being. On the other hand, Blanquism and Proudhonism which were then dominant in the Paris Commune could not possibly lead the proletarian revolution to victory.

Historical experience shows that where a very favourable revolutionary situation and revolutionary enthusiasm on the part of the masses exist, it is still necessary to have a strong core of leadership of the proletariat, that is, “a revolutionary party . . built on the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and in the Marxist- Leninist revolutionary style”.²⁹ Only such a party can lead the proletariat and the broad masses in defeating imperialism and its running dogs and winning victory in the revolution.

A revolutionary situation appeared in many countries at the time of World War I. However, since almost all the political parties of the Second. International had degenerated into revisionist, social chauvinist parties, it was out of the question for them to lead the proletariat in seizing political power. Only in Russia, under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party founded by Lenin, was revolution, the Great October Socialist Revolution, crowned with success.

During and after Wor1d War II, the revolution triumphed in China thanks to the leadership of the Communist Party of China with Chairman Mao as its leader; in some other countries, also under the leadership of Marxist-Leninist parties, the revolution was victorious or protracted revolutionary struggles were persevered in. But in certain countries, the revolution failed because the opportunist, revisionist line had got the upper hand in the parties.

For world revolution the situation today is better than ever before. The objective situation urgently demands strong leadership by genuine Marxist-Leninist parties, and the building of proletarian revolutionary parties which completely break with the revisionist line, which are consolidated ideologically, politically and organizationally and which have a broad mass character.

To be able to lead the revolution, it is of fundamental importance for a proletarian party to take Marxism-Leninism as its guiding thought, integrate the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the revolution in its own country, and formulate and implement a correct line suited to the conditions of that country. With a correct line, a weak force can grow strong, armed forces can be built up from scratch, and political power can be attained. With an erroneous line, the revolution will suffer setbacks and the gains already won will be forfeited.

In leading the Chinese people’s revolution through protracted struggles, Comrade Mao Tsetung repeatedly pointed out: “As soon as it was linked with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution, the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism gave an entirely new complexion to the Chinese revolution”³⁰ and “it has been the consistent ideological principle of our Party to closely integrate Marxist-Leninist theory with the practice of the Chinese revolution.”³¹

Comrade Mao Tsetung further expounded this fundamental principle in his important inscription written for Japanese worker friends: “The Japanese revolution will undoubtedly be victorious, provided the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism is really integrated with the concrete practice of the Japanese revolution.”³²

A proletarian party should, in accordance with the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism, use the Marxist-Leninist stand, viewpoints and methods to carry out deep-going investigations and study of the class relations in society, make concrete analyses of the present conditions and the history of its own country and the characteristics of the revolution in that country, and solve the theoretical and practical problems of the revolution independently. It is necessary to learn from international experience, which, however, should not be copied mechanically; a proletarian party should creatively develop its own experience in the light of the realities of its own country. Only thus can it guide the revolution to victory and contribute to the cause of the proletarian world revolution.

To keep on integrating theory with practice, a proletarian party must maintain close ties with the masses, go deep among them and adopt the method of leadership, “from the masses, to the masses,”³³ so that the party’s correct line and principles can be translated into mass action. At the same time it should be good at summing up experience and lessons, carry out criticism and self-criticism, persist in doing what is right and correct what is wrong in the interests of the people, and find out the laws of development through practice in struggle and then use them to guide the practical struggle.

Comrade Mao Tsetung says: “Opposition and struggle between ideas of different kinds constantly occur within the Party; this is a reflection within the Farty of contradictions between classes and between the new and the old in society.”³⁴ To ensure that its political line is correct and its organization consolidated, a proletarian party must conduct uncompromising struggles against opportunism and revisionism of every description, against the ideologies of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes.

The struggle between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism, the struggle between the two lines in the international communist movement, is a protracted one. For more than a decade, the Chinese Communist Party, the Albanian Party of Labour and all the genuine Marxist-Leninists of the world have together waged a resolute ideological, theoretical and political struggle against modern revisionism with Soviet revisionism as its centre and have won great victories. But the struggle is by no means over. To keep on promoting the proletarian world revolution, the Marxist Leninist parties and the revolutionary people in various countries have an important task to fulfil, namely, to continue criticizing modern revisionism with Soviet revisionism as its centre and carry this struggle through to the end.

The ideologies of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes have long dominated society. The bourgeoisie invariably does its utmost to influence, corrupt -and “corrode” the Communist Party ideologically by every means and through every channel, whether in developed capitalist countries or in economically backward countries; whether the status of the Communist Party is legal or not; whether before the seizure of political power by the proletariat or after the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. If a proletarian party fails to wage resolute struggles against the inroads of bourgeois ideology, it cannot possibly maintain its ideological, political and organizational independence and will turn into an appendage of the bourgeoisie and its political parties. The proletarian party can bring its fighting strength into play and achieve victory in the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat only by using Marxism-Leninism as its weapon of criticism and sticking to class struggle in the realm of ideology to defeat the reactionary bourgeois world outlook with the proletarian world outlook.

The Modern Revisionists Are Renegades from the Revolutionary Principles of the Paris Commune

At the time when the proletariat and the revolutionary people of the world are marking the grand centenary of the Paris Commune, the Soviet revisionist renegade clique is putting on an act, talking glibly about “Loyalty to the principles of the Commune”³⁵ and making itself up as the successor to the Paris Commune. It has no sense of shame at all.

What right have the Soviet revisionist renegades to talk about the Paris Commune ? It is these renegades who have usurped the leadership of the Soviet party and state, and as a result the Soviet state founded by Lenin and defended by Stalin has changed its political colour. It is they who have turned the dictatorship of the proletariat into the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and put social imperialism and social-fascism into force. This is gross betrayal of the revolutionary principles of the Paris Commune.

From Khrushchov to Brezhnev, all have tried to mask their dictatorship of the bourgeoisie as the “state of the whole people”. Khrushchov used to say that the Soviet Union had been “transformed. . . into a state of the whole people”.³⁶ Now Brezhnev and his ilk say that theirs is a “Soviet socialist state of the whole people”³⁷ and that what they practise is “Soviet democracy”. All this is humbug.

The Soviet, a great creation of the Russian proletariat, embodied the fact that the working people were masters in their own house, and it was a glorious title. However, the name “Soviet”, like the name “Communist Party”, can be used by Bolsheviks or Mensheviks, by Marxist-Leninists or revisionists. What is decisive is not the name but the essence, not the form but the content. In the Soviet Union today, the name “Soviet” has not changed, nor has the name of the state, but the class content has changed completely. With its leadership usurped by the Soviet revisionist renegade clique, the Soviet state is no longer an instrument with which the proletariat suppresses the bourgeoisie, but has become a tool with which the restored bourgeoisie suppresses the proletariat. The Soviet revisionist renegades have turned the Soviet Union into a paradise for a handful of bureaucrat monopoly- capitalists of a new type, a prison for the millions of working people. This is the whole content of what they call a “Soviet socialist state of the whole people” and “Soviet democracy”. It is by no means the fact that “the state of the whole people is a direct continuation of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat”,³⁸ but rather that Brezhnev’s line is a “direct continuation” of Khrushchov’s line. This is essentially why Brezhnev and his like are clinging desperately to the slogan of the “state of the whole people”.

Their frenzied opposition to violent proletarian revolution is another concentrated expression of the betrayal principles of the Paris Commune by the Soviet renegade clique. Brezhnev and his company clamorously demand of “the leaders of the proletariat to reduce violence to the minimum at every stage of the struggle and employ milder forms of compulsion”; they bleat that “armed struggle and civil war are accompanied by colossal sacrifices and sufferings on the part of the masses of the people, by destruction of the productive forces, and by the annihilation of the best revolutionary cadres”. To find a pretext for their fallacy of “peaceful transition”, this group of renegades wantonly distort history, even preaching that the Paris Commune was “initially” an “almost completely bloodless revolution”.³⁹

The revolution of the Paris Commune was from beginning to end a life-and-death fight between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, a struggle of violence between revolution and counter-revolution. In less than six months before the Paris Commune uprising, the people of Paris had staged two armed uprisings, and both were bloodily suppressed by the reactionaries. And in the battles following the Paris Commune uprising, tens of thousands of workers and other working people laid down their lives. How can this revolution be described as an “initially” “almost completely bloodless revolution”? Marx pointed out: “Working men’s Paris, with its Commune, will be for ever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society. Its martyrs are enshrined in the great heart of the working class. Its exterminators history has already nailed to that eternal pillory from which all the prayers of their priests will not avail to redeem them.“⁴⁰ The Soviet revisionist renegade clique has now come out into the open and is playing the part of the priests saying prayers for the exterminators. This is a monstrous insult to the martyrs of the Paris Commune!

The Soviet revisionist renegades try in a hundred and one ways to justify counter-revolutionary violence, but they curse revolutionary violence with clenched teeth. Under the rule of violence by imperialism and the reactionaries, the working people suffer unending pain and large numbers of them die every day, every hour. It is precisely to put an end to this man-eating system so as to free the people from exploitation and enslavement that the oppressed people carry out violent revolution. But the Soviet revisionist renegades level so many criminal charges against the revolutionary armed forces and their revolutionary wars, making allegations about the “sufferings of the people”, the “annihilation of cadres” and “destruction of the productive forces”, and so on and so forth. Doesn’t this logic of theirs mean that the first law under heaven is for the imperialists and reactionaries to oppress and massacre the people, whereas it is a hellish crime for the revolutionary people to take up arms and rise in resistance?

The Soviet revisionist renegades want the people of all countries to reduce revolutionary violence “to the minimum”, but they themselves keep on increasing counter-revolutionary violence to the maximum. Indifferent to the life or death of Soviet people, Brezhnev and his gang are going all out for militarism and the arms race, spending more and more rubles on more and more planes, guns, warships, guided missiles and nuclear weapons. It is by means of this monstrous apparatus of violence that these new tsars oppress the broad masses at home and maintain their colonial rule abroad, trying to bring a number of countries under their control. It is this apparatus of violence that they are using as capital for bargaining with U.S. imperialism, pushing power politics and dividing spheres of influence.

The Soviet revisionist renegades want the revolutionary people to employ “milder forms of compulsion” against counter-revolution, while they themselves use the most savage and brutal means to deal with the revolutionary people.

May we ask:

Is it a “milder” form when you send large numbers of armed troops and police to suppress the people of different nationalities in your country?

Is it a “milder” form when you station large numbers of troops in some East European countries and the Mongolian People’s Republic to impose a tight control over them, and even carry out the military occupation in Czechoslovakia, driving tanks into Prague?

And is it a “milder” form when you engage in military expansion everywhere and insidiously conduct all manner of subversive activities against other countries?

What the Soviet revisionist renegades have done fully shows that they not only oppose violent revolution but use violence to oppose revolution. They put on benevolent airs, but actually they are “the worst enemies of the workers – wolves in sheep’s clothing”.⁴¹

And there is a Miyamoto revisionist clique in Japan, which, too, zealously opposes violent revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat and urges that it is “necessary to make every effort”⁴² to take the parliamentary road. Racking their brains, they allege that according to the dictionary the word “violence” means “brute force” or “lawless force”, and the people should not make such a revolution.⁴³ They also say that some people are “frightened” by the phrase – the dictatorship of the proletariat – which is a “very inappropriate” translation, and it is necessary to “make a really accurate translation” in the future.”⁴⁴ In order to maintain U.S. imperialist and Japanese militarist violance and to oppose the Japanese people making revolution, the Miyamoto clique even seeks help from the dictionary, falls back on semantics and juggles with words. How modern revisionism has degenerated ideologically!

Comrade Mao Tsetung points out: “The socialist system will eventually replace the capitalist system; this is an objective law independent of man’s will.”⁴⁵ Khrushchov, the arch representative of modern revisionism, has long been swept into the rubbish heap of history. Novotny and Gomulka, who followed Khrushchov’s revisionist line, have also toppled in their turn. There can be no doubt that whoever runs counter to the laws of history, betrays the revolutionary principles of the Paris Commune and turns traitor to the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat will come to no good end.

Persist in Continuing the Revolution Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Strive for Still Greater Victories

Historical experience since the Paris Commune, especially since the October Revolution, shows that capture of political power by the proletariat is not end but the beginning of the socialist revolution. To consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat and prevent the restoration of capitalism, it is necessary to carry the socialist revolution through to the end.

The world proletarian revolutionary movement has gone through twists and turns on its road forward. When capitalism was being restored in the homeland of the October Revolution, for a time it seemed doubtful whether the revolutionary principles of the Paris Commune, the October Revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat were still valid. The imperialists and reactionaries were beside themselves with joy. They thought: Since the Soviet Union has changed through “peaceful evolution”, won’t it be possible to overthrow the dictatorship of the proletariat in China in the same way? But, the salvoes of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution initiated and led by Chairman Mao himself have destroyed the bourgeois headquarters headed by the renegade, hidden traitor and scab Liu Shao-chi and exploded the imperialists’ and modern revisionists’ fond dream of restoring capitalism in China.

Chairman Mao has comprehensively summed up the positive and negative aspects of the historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat, inherited, defended and developed the Marxist Leninist theory of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, advanced the great theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat and solved, in theory and practice, the most important question of our time – the question of consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and preventing the restoration of capitalism. Thus he has made a great new contribution to Marxism-Leninism and charted our course for carrying the proletarian revolution triumphantly to the end. In China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Mao Tsetung Thought and Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line are being integrated more and more deeply with the revolutionary practice of the people in their hundreds of millions to become the greatest force in consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Socialist society covers a considerably long historical period. Throughout this period, there are still classes, class contradictions and class struggle. The struggle still focuses on the question of political power. The defeated class will still struggle; these people are still around and this class still exists. They will invariably seek their agents within the Communist Party for the purpose of restoring capitalism. Therefore, the proletariat must not only guard against enemies like Thiers and Bismarck who overthrew the revolutionary political power by force of arms; it must in particular guard against such careerists and schemers as Khrushchov and Brezhnev who usurped party and state leadership from within. In order to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat and prevent the restoration of capitalism, the proletariat must carry out the socialist revolution not only on the economic front, but also on the political front and ideological and cultural front and exercise all-round dictatorship over the bourgeoisie in the superstructure, including all spheres of culture. It is essential to enable the Party members, the cadres and the masses to grasp the sharpest weapon, Marxism-Leninism, and to distinguish between the correct and erroneous lines, between genuine and sham Marxism, and between materialism and idealism, so as to ensure that our Party and state will always advance along Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line.

Chairman Mao says: “The final victory of a socialist country not only requires the efforts of the proletariat and the broad masses of the people at home, but also involves the victory of the world revolution and the abolition of the system of exploitation of man by man over the whole globe, upon which all mankind will be emancipated.”⁴⁶

The revolutionary movement of the proletariat is always international in character. Therefore, the victory of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat calls for the realization of the great slogans: “Working men of all countries, unite!”⁴⁷ and “Workers and oppressed nations of the world, unite!”⁴⁸ The proletariat of the capitalist countries should support the struggle for liberation of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples, the people of the colonies and semi-colonies should support that of the proletariat of the capitalist countries, and the people who have triumphed in their own revolution should help the people who are still fighting for liberation. This is the principle of proletarian internationalism.

The Chinese revolution is part of the world revolution. The revolutionary cause of the Chinese people is closely bound up with that of the other peoples of the world. We always regard the revolutionary struggles of the people of other countries as our own and as helping the Chinese people. We should learn from other revolutionary peoples, firmly support their struggles and fulfill our bounden duty. We should carry forward the proletarian internationalist spirit, further strengthen our militant unity with all genuine Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations, and strengthen our militant unity with the proletariat, the oppressed people and oppressed nations of the world for the seizure of still greater victories.

A hundred years ago, Marx said of the Paris Commune: “Whatever . . . its fate at Paris, it will make le tour de monde.”⁴⁹ This great prediction of Marx’s is more and more becoming glorious reality. Reviewing the past and looking into the future, we declare with increasing conviction: The final destruction of imperialism, modern revisionism and all reaction is inevitable, and so is the complete emancipation of the proletariat, the oppressed people and the oppressed nations!

The Internationale written by Eugene Pottier, the poet of the Paris Commune, is today reverberating through the world. “No more tradition’s chain shall bind us.” “We shall be all.” “Let each stand in his place; The Internationale shall be the human race!” Let the imperialists, social-imperialists and all reactionaries tremble in the great storm of the world people’s revolution! “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”⁵⁰

Notes

1. Engels, “Message of Greetings to the French Workers on the 21st Anniversary of the Paris Commune”, Marx and, Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 22, p. 331 ↩︎
2. Marx, “Resolutions of the Meeting in Honour of the First Anniversary of the Paris Commune”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 18, p. 61. ↩︎
3. Marx, “The Record of a Speech on the Paris Commune”, Marx and. Engels, Collected’ Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 17, p. 677. ↩︎
4. Marx, “The Civil War in France”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 17, P. 355, ↩︎
5. Marx, “The Civil War in France”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 17, p. 360.
   Marx, “To L. Kugelmann”, April 12, 1871, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin on the Paris Commune, second Chinese ed., People’s Publishing House, 1971, p. 215. ↩︎
6. Marx, “On the Seventh Anniversary of the International”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 17, p. 468. ↩︎
7. ibid. ↩︎
8. Marx, “The Civil War in France”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 17, p. 358. ↩︎
9. Lenin, “The State and Revolution”, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol 25, p. 389. ↩︎
10. Lenin, “First Congress of the Communist International”, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 28, p. 443. ↩︎
11. Mao Tsetung, “The Present Situation and Our Tasks”, Selected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 4, p. 1260. ↩︎
12. Marx and Engels, “To the Chairman of the Slavonic Meeting in London in Celebration of the Anniversary of the Paris Commune”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 19, p. 271. ↩︎
13. Lenin, “The State and Revolution” , Collected, Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 25, p. 436. ↩︎
14. Engels, “On Authority”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 18, p. 344. ↩︎
15. Mao Tsetung, “Problems of War and Strategy”, Selected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 2, p. 535. ↩︎
16. Ibid. ↩︎
17. Mao Tsetung, People of the World. Unite and Defeat the U.S. Aggressors and, All Their Running Dogs, May 20, 1970. ↩︎
18. Lin Piao, Long Live the Victory of People’s War!, September 3, 1965. ↩︎
19. Lenin, “The Agrarian Programme of Social-Democracy in the Russian Revolution”, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 15, p.152. ↩︎
20. Lenin, “The State and Revolution”, Collected Works, Chinese
    ed., Vol. 25, p. 401. ↩︎
21. Marx, “To L. Kugelmann”, April 12, 1871, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin on the Paris Commume, second Chinese ed., People’s Publishing House, 1971, p. 215. ↩︎
22. Lenin, “Preface to the Russian Translation of the Letters of K. Marx to L. Kugelmann”, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 12, p. 101. ↩︎
23. Chairman Mao’s instruction on “The Correct Attitude Marxists Should Take Towards the Revolutionary Mass Movement”, August 15, 1959, where he quotes Lenin’s “A Great Beginning” and “Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution”, Lenin, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 29, p. 386 and Vol 33, p. 35. ↩︎
24. See note 17. ↩︎
25. Mao Tsetung, “Get organized!”, Selected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 3, p. 936. ↩︎
26. From “Absorb Proletarian Fresh Blood”, editorial of the journal Hongqi (Red Flag), No. 4, 1968. ↩︎
27. Mao Tsetung, “On Coalition Government”, Selected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 3, p. 1097. ↩︎
28. Marx and Engels, “Resolutions of the General Congress of the International Working Men’s Association Held at The Hague”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 18, p. 165. ↩︎
29. Mao Tsetung, “Revolutionary Forces of the World Unite, Fight Against Imperialist Aggression!”, Selected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 4, p. 1360. p. 165. ↩︎
30. Mao Tsetung, “Reform Our Study”, Selected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 3, p. 795. ↩︎
31. Mao Tsetung, “Opening Address at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China”, September 15, 1956. ↩︎
32. Chairman Mao’s important inscription for Japanese worker friends, September 18, 1962, Renrnin Ribao (People’s Daily), September 18, 1968. ↩︎
33. Mao Tsetung, “Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership”, Selected Works, Chinese ed., Vol 3, p. 901.  ↩︎
34. Mao Tsetung, “On Contradiction”, Selected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 7, p. 294. ↩︎
35. “The Paris Commune and the Present”, article in Soviet revisionist Kommunist, No. 2, 1971. ↩︎
36. N. S, Khrushchov’s report on the “Programme of the C.P.S.U.” at the Soviet revisionist “22nd Congress”, October 18, 1961. ↩︎
37. L. I. Brezhnev’s report at the meeting in “commemoration” of the centenary of Lenin’s birth, April 21, 1970. ↩︎
38. “The State of the Whole People and Democracy”, article in the Soviet revisionist Pravda, June 7, 1970. ↩︎
39. Sinister anti-China book compiled by F. Konstantinov and others, Russian ed., the “Mysl” Publishing House, U.S.S.R., published in August 1970, pp. 119-120. ↩︎
40. Marx, “The Civil War in France”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 17, p. 384. ↩︎
41. Engels, “Preface to the Seconr1 German Edition of ‘The Condition of the Working Class in England’, 1892”, Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 22, p. 373. ↩︎
42. Sanzo Nosaka’s talk, Akahata, January 3, 1971. ↩︎
43. Korehito Kurahara’s speech at a Japanese revisionists’ meeting in “commemoration” of the centenary of Lenin’s birth, Akahata, April 2, 1970.  ↩︎
44. Kenji Miyamoto’s speech at a meeting convened by the Japanese revisionist Kyoto committee, Akahata, March 20, 1970.  ↩︎
45. Mao Tsetung, “speech at the Meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. in Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution”, November 6, 1957.  ↩︎
46. From Comrade Lin Piao’s report to the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China. ↩︎
47. Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Chinese ed., People’s Publishing House, 1964, p. 58. ↩︎
48. Lenin, “Speech at the Meeting of Activists of the Moscow Organizations of the R.C.P.(B.)”, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vo1. 31, p. 412. ↩︎
49. Marx, “The First Draft of ‘The Civil War in France” Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 17, p. 587. ↩︎
50. See note 47. ↩︎