Socialist Society Ushers in a New Era in Human History
12. Socialist Society Ushers in a New Era in Human History
Socialist Society and Proletarian Dictatorship 1
More than a hundred years ago, Marx and Engels, the teachers of the worldwide proletarian revolution, analyzed the emergence, development, and decline of capitalist production relations and concluded scientifically that the proletariat would certainly overthrow the bourgeoisie and all exploiting classes, that proletarian dictatorship would certainly replace bourgeois dictatorship, that socialism would certainly replace capitalism, and that communism would certainly be realized in the end. They called on the proletariat of the world to unite with the broad laboring masses and take up arms to struggle fearlessly for the demolition of bourgeois state machinery, the establishment of proletarian dictatorship, and the realization of socialism and communism. In the past hundred years and more, the proletariat of the world has marched forward persistently under the brilliance of Marxism without fearing sacrifice. They have turned the scientific socialist ideal into a shining reality over a large area of the world. “The socialist system will finally replace the capitalist system. This is an objective law not subject to the change of human will.” 2 The socialist society under proletarian dictatorship and established through violent revolution is a fundamental negation of the exploitative capitalist system and all exploitative systems. It ushers in a new era of human history.
Proletarian Revolution and Proletarian Dictatorship Are the Preconditions for the Emergence of Socialist Production Relations
Socialist Production Relations Cannot Emerge within the Capitalist Society
The transition from one societal form to another in human society is impelled by the basic social contradiction, namely, the contradiction between the production relations and the productive forces and between the superstructure and the economic substructure. Marx pointed out:
“Once the material productive force of a society develops to a certain stage, it comes into conflict with the existing production relations or property relations (this is merely legal terminology for production relations). These relations become fetters impeding the productive forces because of the form in which the productive forces have developed. Then the time for socialist revolution has arrived. With the change in the economic substructure, the whole massive superstructure will undergo changes at varying speed.” “The newer and higher production relations will never emerge before the material conditions suitable for their existence fully ripen in the embryo of the old society.” 3
The material conditions for socialist production relations — socialized production and the proletariat acting as the gravediggers of capitalism — steadily develop under capitalist conditions. When capitalism develops into imperialism, the death knell of capitalism is sounded, and the time for proletarian socialist revolution has come.
We already know that in human history, slavery, feudalism, and capitalism are all exploitative systems based on private ownership of the means of production. The replacement of one of these three social and economic systems by another always takes the form of a new private ownership system replacing an old private ownership system. Under these conditions, new production relations can gradually emerge within the old society. For example, capitalist production relations emerged gradually at the end of the feudal society. Even under these conditions, a new private ownership system, in order to become a dominant economic basis of society, must rely on the newly emerging exploitative class which represents this private ownership system to launch revolutions, seize political power, and engage in life and death class struggle. This is a time-tested law.
Socialist production relations are production relations based on public ownership. They cannot possibly emerge within the capitalist society. The socialist public ownership system is fundamentally opposed to the capitalist ownership system in which the means of production are privately owned. To implement the socialist public ownership system of the means of production implies the expropriation of the bourgeoisie’s means of production. This cannot be carried out in the capitalist society under bourgeois dictatorship. The bourgeois state machinery and its whole superstructure exist for the protection of the capitalist private ownership system. The bourgeoisie will never allow socialist production relations to emerge from within the capitalist society. All fallacious arguments that “capitalism can peacefully pass into socialism” championed by new and old revisionists are totally contrary to the facts. These are “theories “which serve to preserve the capitalist system and forbid the proletariat to rise up and rebel. With the development of capitalism, the path to complete societal revolutionary transformation is clear. It is: “The proletariat seizes political power in the state and first of all converts the means of production into state property.” 4
The fundamental issue of revolution is political power. Chairman Mao pointed out that “political power comes from the barrel of a gun.” 5 Only by over throwing the bourgeois state machinery and establishing proletarian dictatorship through revolutionary violence can the proletariat establish and develop production relations based on socialist public ownership after socialist nationalization of the capitalist economy and socialist transformation of the individual economy. Thus, proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship become the preconditions for the emergence of socialist production relations.
The Paris Commune of 1871 was the historically significant debut of the proletariat overthrowing the capitalist system with revolutionary violence. Although the Paris Commune failed, the principle of a commune survived. The Paris Commune experience demonstrated that the proletariat must destroy the bourgeois state machinery, that is to say, “it is impossible to simply grasp the existing state machinery and use it to achieve one’s purpose.” 6
Lenin’s leadership in the October Revolution was a brilliant implementation of the Marxist theory of violent revolution. The October Revolution experience demonstrated that in the period of imperialism and proletarian revolution, as long as there is a sizable proletariat, as long as there are masses suffering under oppression, and as long as there is a mature proletarian party which is capable of formulating a Marxist line based on the national revolutionary conditions and which is able to correctly lead the proletariat, the poor, and the suffering peasants by uniting all forces that can be united to wage a persistent struggle against the class enemy, it is possible to overthrow bourgeois rule through armed revolution even in the most backward capitalist country and thereby establish a socialist country under proletarian dictatorship.
The cannon fired in the October Revolution has brought the Chinese people Marxism-Leninism. The great Chairman Mao formulated a general line for China’s new democratic revolution by combining the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism and China’s revolutionary situation. The general line was: “It will be a revolution led by the proletariat, of the people, and opposed to imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism.” 7 Under the guidance of this revolutionary line, the path of establishing strongholds in the countryside and the rural areas and besieging, and finally seizing, the urban areas was followed. After a prolonged period of revolutionary war, the Chinese people overthrew the reactionary rule of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism, demolished the old state machinery, and established the People’s Republic of China under democratic dictatorship, that is, proletarian dictatorship. The birth of the People’s Republic of China was another great event in world history after the October Revolution.
The experience of the Chinese revolution demonstrated that in the period of imperialism and proletarian revolution, if the proletariat of the colonial and semi-colonial countries could only seriously combine the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the actual revolutionary conditions of their countries, firmly grasp the leadership power of democratic revolution, and lead the people to victory in this revolution, it was entirely possible to enter the stage of socialist revolution immediately after completing the anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism task.
The triumphs of the October Revolution and the socialist revolution in China are the great victories of the Marxist theory of armed revolution. New 162 and old revisionists always maliciously attack armed revolutions. They champion the fallacy of “peaceful transition,” which is nothing but a replica of the “principles of magnanimity” preached by the philosopher Confucius, a spokesman for the then decadent slave-owning class in China. [Editor’s note: Confucius’s principles of magnanimity simply phrased means: “True to the principles of our nature and the benevolent exercise of them toward others.”] The “principles of magnanimity” have never been magnanimous at all, and the bourgeoisie has always used reactionary forces to oppress the proletariat. The so-called “way of loyalty and reciprocity” was merely a hoax which the exploiting class used to paralyze the revolutionary spirit of the laboring people. The present-day bona fide disciple of Confucius, Lin Piao, even picked up such dust-covered weapons as “one who wields virtue prospers, one who wields force perishes,” vainly attempting to restrict the freedom of the proletariat and to oppose the use of revolutionary violence against the reactionary class. With respect to the consistent fallacy opposing revolutionary violence championed by domestic and foreign revisionists, Chairman Mao solemnly pointed out: “The central task and the highest form of revolution is armed seizure of political power and the resolution of issues by armed struggle. This Marxist-Leninist revolutionary principle is universally correct. Whether it is in China or abroad, it is always correct.” 8 This is a universal law of proletarian revolution. The Crux of the “Productivity First Theory” Is Its Opposition to Proletarian Revolution and Proletarian Dictatorship
The most fundamental betrayal of Marxism by the new and old revisionists is their opposition to proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship. The tattered banner hoisted in their opposition to proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship is often the reactionary “productivity first theory.”
The revisionists Bernstein and Kautsky of the Second International tried very hard to champion the idea that owing to the development of the productive forces, capitalist countries with highly developed industries would “gradually give rise to” the socialist economic system. It was not necessary to resort to violent revolution. Capitalist countries with underdeveloped industries, colonies, and satellite countries must first “develop” their productive forces. Without highly developed productive forces, the proletariat could not wage revolution. This was an early version of the “productivity first theory” in the international communist movement. This fallacy treated social transformation purely as an issue of the development of the productive forces. It completely ignored the effect of the production relations on the development of the productive forces and the effect of the superstructure on the economic basis. It ignored the fact that in a class society, social transformation must go through violent class struggle before this theory of historical materialism can be realized.
The founder of Marxism dealt a firm blow to the “productivity first theory” of the revisionists. Engels pointed out:
“According to historical materialism, the determining factor in the historical process must ultimately be production and reproduction of actual living conditions. Neither Marx nor I have ascribed greater importance to any other factor. If some people have deliberately distorted this, saying that economic factors are the only determining factors, then they have converted this issue into an empty, abstract, and ridiculous verbal exercise.” 9
In the proletarian revolution of Russia, people like Trotsky and Bukharin again picked up this worn “productivity first theory” in a vain attempt to oppose the Russian proletariat’s triumphant advance against the capitalist system. They insisted that economically backward Russia was not qualified to establish socialism. This type of nonsense was soundly criticized by Lenin. Lenin asked:
“Why can’t we first use revolutionary means to attain the preconditions for achieving this certain level and catch up with the people of other countries on the basis of worker-peasant political power and the Soviet system?” 10
In the course of China’s democratic and socialist revolutions, successive leaders of the revisionist line, from Ch’en Tu-hsiu to Liu Shaoch’i and Lin Piao, all borrowed the reactionary “productivity first theory” from the Second International revisionists and Trotskyites. They said that China’s economy was backward and that the proletariat could seize political power only after capitalism was highly developed. This in effect would eliminate China’s revolution and keep China in her semi-colonial and semi-feudal status. Chairman Mao has countered this position with this observation: “Without political reform, all productive forces are doomed to be destroyed. It is true for agriculture and also true for industry.” 11 Referring to the semi-colonial and semi-feudal status of China’s old society, Chairman Mao pointed out: China’s revolution must proceed in two steps. The first step is the new democratic revolution. The second step is the socialist revolution. These are two different, and yet related, revolutionary processes. The democratic revolution is the necessary preparation for the socialist revolution. The socialist revolution is an inevitable trend of the democratic revolution. This totally and thoroughly demolishes the conspiracy of people like Ch’en Tu-hsiu who vainly attempted to obstruct the revolutionary flood by resorting to the reactionary “productivity first theory.”
Chairman Mao said:
“True enough, productive forces, practice, and economic substructure generally appear to play the determining role. Whoever denies this fact is not qualified to be a materialist. But under certain conditions, production relations, theory, and superstructure also revolve and show their important and determining role. This must also be accepted.” 12
The history of the international communist movement has demonstrated that the line of demarcation between Marxism and revisionism in the proletarian struggle for political power lies in whether one persistently follows the dialectical materialist theory of the unity of the production relations and the productive forces and the unity of the superstructure and the economic substructure or whether one pushes the reactionary “productivity first theory.”
The Socialist Society Is a Fairly Long Historical Stage
the Socialist Society Is a Period of Struggle between Declining Capitalism and Emerging Communism
What kind of a society is the socialist society that is established through proletarian revolution? What are its basic characteristics?
Marx pointed out:
“Between capitalist society and communist society, there is a revolutionary period of transformation from the former to the latter. Corresponding to this period is a political transition period. The state in this period can only be one under proletarian revolutionary dictatorship.” 13
The period described by Marx as “a period of revolutionary transformation from the former to the latter” and “a political transition period” is the historical period of socialism. The society in this period is the socialist society under proletarian dictatorship.
In the socialist society, the public ownership system of the means of production replaces the private ownership system. The laboring people control the fate of the socialist economy and become the masters of society. Marxist ideological education gradually liberates millions of laboring people from the influence of the old society to progress along the socialist and communist paths. From this aspect, socialist society already possesses some elements of communist society. But socialist society is merely a preliminary stage of communist society, not a completely communist society. Just as Marx pointed out: “What we describe here is such a communist society. It is not fully developed on its own basis. On the contrary, it has just emerged from the capitalist society. Therefore, traces of the old society from which it was born can still be seen in its economic, moral, and ideological aspects.” 14 This is to say, in various aspects of socialist society, there still remain some capitalist traditions and influences: the bourgeoisie and all exploiting classes have been overthrown, but their influence on economics, politics, and ideology will exist for a long time. The disparities between the worker and the peasant, the urban and the rural areas, and mental labor and physical labor which are left over from the old society and the remaining legal rights reflecting these disparities will persist for a long time. Consequently, the whole historical stage of socialist society “has to be a period of struggle between declining capitalism and emerging communism.” 15
This nature and characteristic of socialist society determine that socialist society will not be a short and temporary period, but a fairly long historical stage.
Before the socialist revolution, the revolutions to replace slavery with feudalism and feudalism with capitalism merely constituted the substitution of a new exploitative system for an old exploitative system. The proletarian socialist revolution is fundamentally different. It will thoroughly eliminate all exploitative systems among men, all classes and class disparities, and the remaining bourgeois legal rights reflecting these disparities. This revolution is richer, wider, and more complex than any other revolution in history. The goal of communism can be realized in the end only through long-term struggle and by gradually creating favorable conditions.
To eliminate classes, the socialist society must make a thoroughly clean break from all customary influences of the traditional concept of private ownership and the old society. The specter of Confucius, who stubbornly defended slavery in China more than two thousand years ago, has been used by the exploiting classes of various historical periods to consolidate their reactionary rule. Today, the reactionary thought of Confucius is still used by the bourgeoisie and revisionists as an ideological weapon to restore capitalism. It is a long and complex task to solve the issue of whether socialism or capitalism will win out in the sphere of political ideology. Chairman Mao pointed out:
“In the sphere of political ideology, the struggle for triumph between socialism and capitalism requires a long time to resolve. It will not be completed in a few decades. It may take centuries.” 16
“The final triumph of building a socialist country not only depends on the efforts of its own proletariat and the broad people, but also on the triumph of world revolution, the global elimination of exploitative systems among men, and the liberation of the human race.” 17
We are still in the period of imperialism and proletarian revolution. The final triumph of the socialist revolution will be won only after a series of difficult, complex, and long-term class struggles in the world.
Correctly understanding the nature and characteristics of socialist society, correctly understanding that socialist society is a fairly long historical stage, and drawing a line between scientific socialism and all kinds of fake socialism has great significance for the success of the proletariat of all countries in their socialist revolution and for the struggle to prevent capitalist restoration after the victory of the revolution. The victory of socialism over a large area of the world will force its enemies to disguise themselves as socialists. They will hoist various “socialist” banners to deceive the world and win fame for themselves. In the contemporary period, there is the “developed socialism” served up by Brezhnev, the “real socialism” peddled by Lin Piao, and so forth. People like Brezhnev vainly hope to hide themselves behind “developed socialism” in order to increase their exploitation and oppression of the laboring people in their own country and unscrupulously restore capitalism. Abroad, they step up aggression and expansion in their futile attempt to achieve world supremacy. The so-called “developed social166 ism” is a new form of bureaucratic monopoly capitalism, that is, social imperialism. The “real socialism” peddled by people like Lin Piao was merely a disguise. His reactionary program was Confucius’ “restraining oneself and restoring the rites. “He clamored that “of all things, this is the most important.” His intention was to conspire to sabotage China’s socialist system under the proletarian dictatorship and to restore capitalism. The so-called “real socialism” was in fact real capitalism. This company of renegades vainly attempted to mix the genuine with the fictitious in order to paralyze the revolutionary spirit of the broad masses of people. But Marxist scientific socialism cannot be faked. Once it is compared with the nature and characteristics of the socialist society as explained by Marxism, it is easy to expose the various brands of fake socialism.
The Theory of the Basic Contradictions in the Socialist Society Is the Theoretical Basis for Continuing Revolution under Proletarian Dictatorship
After proletarian dictatorship was established in China, Chairman Mao laid down a general line for the Party in the transition period, “Within a fairly long period of time, socialist industrialization is to be gradually realized in the country, and socialist transformation of agriculture, the handicraft industry, and capitalist industry and commerce by the state is to be gradually realized.” 18 According to this general line, China had basically completed the socialist transformation of the ownership system of the means of production in 1956. In this situation, is socialist society still a historical process of the motion of contradictions? What are the basic contradictions in socialist society? Are these contradictions mainly manifested in the contradiction and the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie? It is exactly in these questions that fundamental differences exist between Marxism and modern revisionism.
The Soviet revisionist renegade clique flatly denies that contradictions exist in socialist society from beginning to end. It flatly denies that these contradictions are mainly manifest in the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. It flatly denies that it is exactly the unity and struggle between opposites that propels the development of socialist society. Its intent is to conceal its evil countenance of totally restoring capitalism and implementing fascist dictatorship. The company of Liu Shaoch’i and Lin Piao followed in the footsteps of the Soviet revisionists. After the great victory achieved in China’s socialist transformation of the ownership system of the means of production, they fabricated nonsense claiming that “there was a contradiction between the advanced socialist system and the backward social productive forces.” They vainly attempted to use this nonexistent “contradiction” to negate the ever-present contradiction between the production relations and the productive forces, between the superstructure and the economic substructure. To cover up their conspiracy to restore capitalism in China, they denied that the main contradiction in Chinese society was the contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie. Faced with this revisionist countercurrent, Chairman Mao has advanced the great theory about the basic contradictions in socialist society based on the fundamental principles of Marxism and the accumulated experience of the international communist movement. Chairman Mao pointed out that the universal law of unity and struggle between opposites in Nature, human society, and human thought is equally applicable to the socialist society.
“In the socialist society, the basic contradictions are still the contradictions between the production relations and the productive forces, and between the superstructure and the economic basis.” 19
Chairman Mao’s theory about the basic contradictions in socialist society succeeds, defends, and develops Marxism-Leninism. It has dealt a fatal blow to modern revisionism and has effectively armed the proletariat and the broad laboring people.
The socialist production relations correspond to the development of the productive forces. It permits the productive forces to develop rapidly at a speed that is not possible in the old society. The state system and law under proletarian dictatorship and superstructures such as the socialist ideology which are guided by Marxism also conform to the socialist economic basis, namely socialist production relations. This is the fundamental aspect. But there is another aspect of the contradictions in socialist society between the production relations and the productive forces and between the superstructure and the economic basis. The correspondence and contradiction with one another among the various aspects of the basic contradictions of socialist society propels socialist society forward.
In order to correctly understand how the production relations correspond to and contradict the productive forces in socialist society, it is necessary to make a concrete analysis of the production relations in socialist society.
During a certain period of time in socialist society, there still exist non-socialist production relations. With regard to the ownership system, for example, the joint state and private enterprises in China were basically socialist in nature. But during a certain period of time, the capitalist could still obtain a fixed interest. In other words, exploitation and remnants of capitalist private ownership still existed. After the fixed interest was abolished, there were still remnants of individual economy in the urban and rural areas for a fairly long period of time in the socialist society. In the aspect of interpersonal relations, opposition between classes representing the capitalist production relations and the laboring people still existed. With regard to the distribution of personal consumption goods, high salaries were still paid to the capitalist and bourgeois experts whose services were retained for a period of time. These high salaries did not embody the socialist principle of 168 from each according to his ability and to each according to his labor, but were in fact a form of redemption. All these non-socialist production relations were not only in conflict with the development of the productive forces, but also with socialist production relations. In the development process of socialist construction, these non-socialist production relations must gradually be transformed.
On the other hand, the socialist production relations themselves also undergo a development process from an imperfect state to a more perfect state. In socialist society, “communism is still not completely mature economically. It still cannot completely free itself from capitalist tradition and influence.” 20 The establishment of the socialist public ownership system was a fundamental negation of the private ownership system. But this does not imply that the issue of ownership is completely settled. The consolidation and perfection of the socialist state ownership system and the socialist collective ownership system by the laboring masses must undergo a long process during which the proletariat and the bourgeoisie fight for economic leadership. The socialist collective ownership system must also undergo a process of transition from a small collective ownership system to a large collective ownership system and finally to a socialist state ownership system. With regard to interpersonal relations in socialist production, there still exist disparities between the worker and the peasant, the urban and rural areas, and mental and physical labor and also bourgeois legal rights left over from the old society which reflect these disparities. Distribution of consumer goods according to labor is still a bourgeois legal right. These bourgeois legal rights will exist for a long time in the socialist stage. The proletariat must accept them and at the same time create favorable conditions for their retirement from the historical stage.
At the same time, with the rapid development of the productive forces, conditions in which some aspects of socialist production relations are no longer compatible with the development of the productive forces must be adjusted and streamlined in time.
But, in the final analysis, the central problem of perfecting socialist production relations cannot but be a process of struggle in which the emerging communist factors gradually triumph over the declining capitalist tradition and influence.
To understand how the superstructure of the socialist society corresponds to and contradicts the economic substructure, it is also necessary to conduct a concrete analysis of the superstructure in socialist society. In socialist society, there exists a bourgeois ideology. In the superstructure of socialist society, for example, the existence of certain representatives of the bourgeoisie in the state organization, certain bureaucratic styles of work, and certain imperfections in the state system are all in conflict with the socialist economic substructure. Only by continually resolving these contradictions can the superstructure further meet the need to consolidate and develop the socialist economic foundation.
The basic contradictions in socialist society are fundamentally different in nature and condition from the contradictions between the production relations and the productive forces, between the superstructure and the economic substructure in the old society. The basic contradictions of the capitalist society are manifested as violent oppositions and thrusts. These contradictions can only be resolved through violent revolution by the proletariat, the overthrow of the bourgeois dictatorship, and the elimination of capitalist production relations. The contradictions between socialist production relations and the productive forces, between the superstructure and the economic substructure are an entirely different matter. The process of continual emergence and resolution of these contradictions are also the process of transition from the socialist society to the communist society. In this process, workers, peasants, and other laboring people, who are the ruling class, are not overthrown by any opposition power. They still remain the masters of society. The public ownership system is not destroyed, but is developed to a higher stage. In this sense, the contradictions of socialist society “are not antagonistic contradictions, and can be resolved continually through the socialist system itself.” 21
The conformity and contradiction between socialist production relations and the productive forces, between the superstructure and the economic substructure constitute a continuous dialectical process which propels socialist society continuously forward.
Chairman Mao’s theory on the basic contradictions in the socialist society is the theoretical basis for the continuous revolution under proletarian dictatorship. Chairman Mao pointed out: “In China, although socialist transformation in ownership is basically completed,” “remnants of the overthrown landlord and comprador classes still exist. The bourgeoisie still exists, and the petty bourgeoisie is just in the process of transformation.” “The issue of whether socialism or capitalism will win out has not really been resolved.” “Class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, class struggle between political forces, and class struggle in ideology between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie are still prolonged, tortuous, and sometimes even violent.” 22 This, then, is the first clear-cut conclusion drawn from the theory and practice of the international communist movement: After the socialist transformation of the ownership system of the means of production is basically completed, there still exist classes and class struggle. The proletariat must continue revolution and pursue the socialist revolution on the political, economic, ideological, and cultural battlefronts to the very end.
Firmly Adhere to the Basic Line of the Party for the Whole Socialist Historical Stage
Chairman Mao teaches us that “everything depends on whether or not the ideological and political line is correct.” To insist on continuous revolution under proletarian dictatorship, the proletariat needs a correct line.
Based on a detailed analysis of the basic contradictions in socialist society and his theory of continuous revolution under proletarian dictatorship, Chairman Mao formulated for our Party a basic line for the whole socialist historical stage:
“The socialist society is a fairly long historical period. In the socialist historical stage, there still exist classes, class contradictions, class struggle, the struggle between the socialist and the capitalist roads, and the danger of capitalist restoration. We must be fully aware of the protracted and complex nature of these struggles. We must be on the alert. We must conduct socialist education. We must correctly understand and handle class contradictions and class struggle, correctly distinguish contradictions with our enemies from contradictions among the people and handle them accordingly. Otherwise, our socialist country will go the wrong way and deteriorate, and restoration will appear. From now on, we must talk about it every year, every month, and every day so that we can have a clearer appreciation of this issue and a Marxist-Leninist line.” 23
This proletarian revolutionary line formulated by Chairman Mao reveals the objective law governing class struggle in the socialist period and is the only correct line for realizing the basic program of the Party. This basic line is a brilliant beacon that shines over the historical route of continuous revolution for the whole Party, the whole country, and the whole people under proletarian dictatorship, the protracted nature of class struggle in the socialist society is due to the inevitable reflection of the struggle between emerging communist factors and declining capitalist tradition and influence on the class relations. The overthrown exploiting class still survives and continues to contest the proletariat in their every possible attempt to recover their lost “heaven.” Spontaneous forces among the petty bourgeoisie can also lead to a new bourgeoisie. Because of the influence of the bourgeoisie and the encirclement and corrosive influence of the petty bourgeoisie, some degenerate elements, persons in power taking the capitalist road, and spokesmen for the bourgeoisie may emerge in the working class, Party and government organizations, and in cultural and educational departments. At the same time, imperialism and social imperialism always try hard to convert socialist countries into capitalist countries or even colonial or semicolonial countries. International class struggle will inevitably be reflected in the socialist countries. In the process of continually perfecting the socialist production relations and superstructure, communist factors in production relations and the superstructure will be gradually strengthened and capitalist tradition and influence will gradually be swept away. This will certainly promote the continual consolidation of the socialist economic substructure and the continuous development of the productive forces.
The proletariat and the broad laboring people under its leadership are the representatives of socialist production relations. They firmly adhere to the socialist road and always firmly adhere to the Marxist theory of continuous revolution and the stage theory of revolutionary development. They promote the continuous consolidation and perfection of socialist production relations and the superstructure. The bourgeoisie and its agents inside the Communist Party are the representative of capitalist production relations. They insist on taking the capitalist road and always try hard to transform socialist production relations into capitalist production relations. Therefore, in the whole socialist historical stage, the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and the struggle between the socialist and the capitalist roads always exist objectively and cannot be changed by human will. This is to say, the struggles are inevitable. Though people may want to avoid them, it is not possible. The proletariat can only gain victory by taking advantage of favorable conditions.
Class struggle in the socialist society develops in wavelike motions with peaks and troughs. This is due to a difference in the conditions of class struggle and not to whether there is class struggle or not. The history of the socialist society tells us that class enemies and all monsters and freaks will show themselves. Chairman Mao pointed out: “Total disorder is followed by total order. This cycle repeats itself once every seven or eight years. Monsters and freaks will show themselves of their own accord. Their class nature
determines that they must show themselves.” 24 The law of class struggle requires that there be a big struggle every few years. Only after repeated contests and with the gradual wane of the reactionary class can the proletariat finally complete the great historical task of eliminating the bourgeoisie and all exploiting classes.
Class struggle in society must of necessity be reflected in the Party and is manifested as a struggle between the two lines inside the Party. The substance of the basic Party line is “to apply Marxism and not apply revisionism.” The basic Party line tells us that the struggle against revisionism is a long-term struggle. In the last twenty and more years, the struggle between our Party and the four anti-Party cliques headed by Kao Kang, Jao Shu-shih, P’eng Te-huai, Liu Shaoch’i, and Lin Piao was a struggle against revisionism. Chairman Mao personally launched and led the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It was a great revolution in the superstructure, a great political revolution under the condition of proletarian dictatorship. It could also be called the second revolution of China. In the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao led the whole Party, the entire armed forces, and the whole people to destroy the two bourgeois command headquarters head172 ed by Liu Shaoch’i and Lin Piao. This bunch of renegades and traitors conspired to usurp the supreme power of the Party and the state and sought to fundamentally transform the basic Party line and policy for the whole socialist historical stage in order to transform the Marxist-Leninist Party into a revisionist fascist party, sabotage proletarian dictatorship, and restore capitalism. The substance of their revisionist line is extreme Right. Their counterrevolutionary conspiracy has been crushed by the hundreds of millions of revolutionary people of China. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has won a great victory. Revolution is still developing, and struggle is still continuing. In the historical stage of socialist society, the struggle between the two lines inside the Party which reflects class struggle will long exist. Chairman Mao pointed out:
“The present Great Cultural Revolution is merely the first one. There will be many more afterward.” “Who will win out in revolution can be determined only after a fairly long period of time in history. If it is not handled well, capitalist restoration is possible at any time. All the Party members and the whole people should not think that things will be all right after one or two, or three or four, great cultural revolutions. Make doubly sure that vigilance will not be relaxed.” 25
Socialist Society Constitutes the Beginning of People Consciously Creating History
The Great Soaring Leap in the History of Human Development
The proletariat and the laboring people continue revolution under the proletarian dictatorship in order to make the superstructure serve the socialist economic substructure, to make production relations conform to the development of the productive forces, and to consciously transform society and Nature according to the economic law of socialism. This is a giant stride in human history.
There are several thousand years of written human history. But, before the birth of socialist society, this long period of history was merely a “prehistorical period” in human society. The producer was enslaved not only by Nature but also by the means of production which he manufactured. “It was not the producer who controlled the means of production, but the means of production which controlled the producer.” 26 That is to say, the exploiting class, which controlled the basic means of production and thus state political power, maliciously oppressed and exploited the broad laboring people and reduced them to dark and miserable lives. The proletarian socialist revolution is a spring thunder that has shaken human history. It has brought an end to the “prehistorical period” and has ushered in a new era in history in which people consciously create history.
This material basis for the great leap in human history lies in the transformation of private ownership of the means of production into socialist public ownership after the proletariat and the laboring people have seized political power. In socialist society, public ownership of the means of production makes the laboring people, who are the majority of the people, the masters of the state and enterprises. Only when the laboring people have become the masters of social relations can they become the masters of nature and consciously transform the world and create history under the guidance of Marxism.
Naturally, compared with an advanced communist society, the socialist society is only the beginning of an era in which people consciously create history. In addition to the limits imposed on the developmental level of the productive forces and on our knowledge of the physical world, the main obstacle lies in the continuing existence in socialist society of the bourgeoisie and its ideological influence and of disparities between the worker and the peasant, the urban and rural areas, and mental and physical labor. Therefore, although the proletariat and the broad laboring people control state political power and the basic means of production, their conscious activities in transforming the world and creating history are still restricted by history. Nevertheless, “the most important thing is that solid ice is crushed, the route is cleared, and the road clear.” 27 The proletariat will finally shape a communist new world through the socialist society and in its own image.
Fully Exploit the Initiating Role of the Superstructure. Consciously Make Use of the Objective Law
In socialist society, people begin to consciously create their own history. This does not mean that people can create history at will. It simply means that for the first time people of the entire society can consciously identify and make use of the objective law to serve the interests of the proletariat and the broad laboring people.
“Freedom is Knowledge of Necessity and the Transformation of the World” 28 Economic laws are objective laws governing the development of social economy and are not subject to change according to human will. People cannot “transform” or “create” objective laws. But people are not entirely helpless before objective laws. In socialist society, people can correctly identify them, rely on them, make use of them, and lead the destructive forces of certain laws into another direction or restrict their scope of operation. On the other hand, a larger scope of operation is given to laws that are constructive in order to achieve the purpose of transforming the objective world.
Under different social systems, the forms to which economic laws apply possess different characteristics. In capitalist society, because the means of production are privately owned, production is carried on under blind competition and chaotic conditions. Therefore, economic laws always play an alien role in the capitalist society. The socialist society is based on public ownership 174 of the means of production. The laboring people are the masters of social economic relations. This makes it possible for people to consciously practice economic laws. Just as Engels once prophesied,
“Up to now, the laws governing the people’s social behavior, like the natural laws which are alien to the people but nevertheless control them and oppose them, will be skillfully mastered by the people and subject to their control by that time.” 29
The establishment of a system of public ownership of the means of production makes it possible for people to identify and consciously operate according to the economic laws. But, to turn this possibility into reality, struggle is inevitable. The efforts of the proletariat to operate according to economic laws and of society to accelerate the transformation of the socialist society into a communist society will certainly meet violent resistance from the bourgeoisie and other decadent social forces, especially interference and sabotage from the revisionist line. The process of conscious application of socialist economic laws is the process of struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between the Marxist line and the revisionist line. At the same time, people must also resolve “the contradiction between the objective laws of economic development of a socialist society and our subjective cognition of them — which needs to be resolved in the course of practice” 30 This represents another process. It is necessary to start from practice, conduct investigations and research, go from no experience to experience and from a little experience to a lot of experience, and gradually overcome impulses and raise consciousness. This process of understanding cannot be divorced from the transformation process of people’s world outlooks. People with the proletarian world outlook can more correctly identify the laws of development governing socialist economy. Firm adherents to the bourgeois outlook can never correctly identify the laws of development governing socialist economy. Therefore, this process of understanding is also a process of destroying the bourgeois world outlook and establishing the proletarian world outlook. Those viewpoints which regard the conscious application of economic laws in socialist society as an easy matter that requires neither hard work, nor the overcoming of resistance from the bourgeoisie and from interference from the revisionist line, nor struggle between the two world outlooks are wrong. These are viewpoints which advocate: Let nature takes its own course, or let us extinguish class struggle.
In the socialist society, to consciously apply objective economic laws, it is necessary to fully exploit the active aspect of the superstructure.
The immense capability of the socialist superstructure is manifested mainly in the leadership of the proletarian political party. The proletarian political party is established according to Marxist revolutionary theory and revolutionary style. It is good at comprehending objective laws governing historical development, assimilating the wisdom of the masses, grasping the general trend of historical development, and formulating correct theory, programs, lines, and general and specific policies based on actual conditions in the various stages of social development. These correct theories, programs, lines, and general and specific policies come from the masses and return to the masses, leading them to victory in their struggle. The Communist Party of China uses Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought as a theoretical basis for its guiding thought. That the Party’s theory of revolution, especially its theory about continuous revolution under proletarian dictatorship, and the Marxist line and general and specific policies formulated by the proletarian political party can be so invincible is because the theories correctly reflect the objective laws governing the economic development of society. “Without revolutionary theory, there will never be revolutionary action.” 31 It is therefore important to seriously study the Marxist theory concerning continuous revolution under proletarian dictatorship in order to guide us to correctly identify, and operate according to, the economic laws governing socialist society.
Party leadership is ultimately leadership by the Marxist line. Only by grasping revolution in the superstructure, including the ideological sphere, and making sure that the ideological and political lines are correct, can a Marxist party lead the proletarian revolutionary enterprise from victory to still greater victory.
The state political power of proletarian dictatorship under the leadership of the Communist Party plays an immense role in guaranteeing the thorough implementation of the basic Party line and in organizing and leading the socialist economy. By exercising its own state political power, the proletariat can unfold socialist revolution on the economic battlefront, establish and develop socialist production relations, plan, organize, and lead the whole national economy, develop social productive forces, and unfold socialist revolution on the political, ideological, and cultural battlefronts in order to consolidate the socialist economic basis by continually perfecting the socialist superstructure. Continuous revolution under proletarian dictatorship requires full exploitation of this initiating role of the state political power of proletarian dictatorship. These conditions cannot be created under bourgeois dictatorship. Bourgeois revolution comes to an end as soon as the bourgeoisie seizes political power. Although the bourgeoisie tried hard to use political power and other parts of the superstructure to protect capitalist production relations, the steady deterioration of capitalist production relations led to a corresponding reaction in bourgeois political power. This kind of protection was merely a moribund struggle. As far as the socialist revolution is concerned, the seizure of political power by the proletariat is merely the beginning of revolution. Socialist production relations undergo a regenerating process with the development of the productive forces. The state political power under proletarian dictatorship, promoting such a regeneration and propelling the development of the productive forces, is, in the end, the most powerful weapon by which the proletariat continues socialist revolution. With this weapon, the proletariat can now crush the resistance of the bourgeoisie and other reactionary forces, unite the whole laboring people around itself, triumphantly unfold the Three Great Revolutionary Movements of class struggle, production struggle, and scientific experiment, promote the rapid development of social productive forces, and promote the steady consolidation and perfection of the socialist economic basis and superstructure in order to make socialist society advance along the basic Party line until the realization of the highest ideal of communism.
Major Study References
Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program.
Lenin, “Economics and Politics in the Period of Proletarian Dictatorship.”
Chairman Mao, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People.”
Review Problems
- Why do we say violent revolution is the universal law of proletarian revolution? What is the crux of the “productivity first theory”?
- How do we understand socialist society? How do we interpret Chairman Mao’s theory about the basic contradiction of socialist society as being the theoretical basis for continuous revolution under proletarian dictatorship?
- Why do we say that the focal point of the struggle between the proletariat and the revisionist leaders in the whole socialist historical stage lies in whether the basic Party line is firmly adhered to or whether it is changed? How can the activating role of the superstructure be fully exploited and the objective economic laws be consciously applied?
31 Footnotes
