Joint Statement of the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of New Zealand – CPC
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Joint Statement of the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of New Zealand 1
1963
Joint Statement of the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of New Zealand
Comrade V. G. Wilcox, General Secretary of the Communist Party of New Zealand, visited China from May 19 to May 25 on the invitation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
During the visit, Comrade Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, met Comrade Wilcox, and they had warm and friendly discussions.
Comrade Wilcox, General Secretary of the Communist Party of New Zealand, and Comrade Teng Hsiao-ping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held talks. Those taking part for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also included Comrade Kang Sheng, Alternate Member of the Political Bureau and Member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Comrade Liu Ning-I, Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The results of the talks show that the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of New Zealand completely agree in their stand and views on the important questions now confronting the international communist movement.
The Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of New Zealand reaffirm their loyalty to the Moscow Declaration of 1957 and the Moscow Statement of 1960 and hold that these two documents, unanimously agreed upon by the Communist Parties of various countries, are the common program of the international communist movement.
Both Parties emphasize that in the present situation it is most important and urgent to uphold and strengthen the unity of the international communist movement on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and on the basis of the Declaration and the Statement.
Both Parties maintain that at the present time revisionism is the main danger in the international communist movement. In the last few years many events have further confirmed the conclusion of the Declaration of 1957 and the Statement of 1960 in this respect.
The modern revisionists emasculate the revolutionary soul of Marxism-Leninism, cast away the revolutionary principles of the Declaration and the Statement, paralyze the revolutionary will of the working class and working people and serve the needs of imperialism and the reactionaries of various countries. They do not want revolution themselves, and they do not allow others to make it; they do not support revolution themselves nor do they allow others to support it. The sharp struggle now being waged against the modern revisionists has a vital bearing on the future of the revolutionary cause of the world proletariat and working people and the fate of mankind. The task of all Marxist-Leninists is to unite more closely and defeat the onslaught of modern revisionism.
The Yugoslav revisionists are renegades from Marxism-Leninism and are representative of modern revisionism. They have been facilitating the restoration of capitalism in Yugoslavia and are providing imperialism with means to carry out its policy of “peaceful evolution” which aims at restoring capitalism in the socialist countries. They serve as a special detachment of the U.S. imperialists, undermine the socialist camp, disrupt the international communist movement, wreck the revolutionary cause of the oppressed nations and peoples, and sabotage the struggle of the people of the world against imperialism. The Yugoslav revisionists cling to their revisionist program which they counterpose to the common program of the Communist Parties of all countries, and they are going further and further down the road of revisionism and have not in any way modified either their theory or their practice. It is the sacred duty of Communists in all countries to continue to wage an uncompromising struggle against Yugoslav revisionism in accordance with the 1960 Statement. To side with the Yugoslav revisionists is nothing but betrayal of Marxism-Leninism.
While fighting against revisionism, we must also combat dogmatism. Dogmatists have no understanding of how to integrate the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the revolution in their own countries. They are divorced from reality, alienate themselves from the masses, disregard all facts and turn round and round to follow those who attack the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism as “dogmatism” while claiming to be completely correct themselves. This can only bring harm to the revolutionary cause.
Both Parties hold that the present international balance of class forces is most favorable to the revolutionary cause of the people in all countries and most unfavorable to imperialism and reaction. The parties of the proletariat must correctly understand and make use of this favorable situation and vigorously promote the revolutionary struggles of the people of all countries. It is absolutely wrong to consider that because of the change in the international balance of class forces the nature of imperialism has changed, that the basic contradiction in the contemporary world can be reconciled or has disappeared and that Marxist-Leninist theories on class struggle, the national-liberation movement and the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat are already “outmoded.”
Events in recent years have further proved that U.S. imperialism is the main bulwark of modern colonialism, the center of world reaction, the main force of aggression and war and the common enemy of the people of the whole world. It is of the greatest importance to establish and expand the broadest united front against imperialism, headed by the United States, and its lackeys. The destiny of mankind and the hope of world peace cannot be left to the “wisdom” of U.S. imperialism or to the illusion of co-operation with U.S. imperialism.
It is possible to safeguard world peace and prevent a new world war and nuclear war by relying on the joint struggle of the people of all countries and by resolutely opposing the policies of aggression and war pursued by imperialism headed by the United States.
Confronted with the U.S. imperialists’ policy of nuclear blackmail, we must organize the people to wage resolute struggles. On this matter, any act of adventurism or of capitulationism is extremely wrong and harmful.
Both Parties are concerned about peace and security in the Asian and Pacific region and resolutely oppose the efforts of U.S. imperialism to revive the forces of Japanese militarism and its use of the SEATO and ANZUS groupings to carry out activities of aggression and war.
Both Parties hold that the national-liberation movements are an important and organic part of the present-day world revolution and are an immense force for the defense of world peace. Both Parties warmly support the national democratic revolutionary struggles of the peoples of all the Asian, African and Latin American countries, their struggles against imperialism and old and new colonialism, and especially their struggles against the new colonialism of the United States.
Both Parties rejoice at the constant growth and development of the working-class movement in the capitalist countries of Western Europe, North America, Oceania and elsewhere. Both Parties maintain that in the working-class movement, the political parties of the proletariat should give active leadership to the struggle against monopoly capital, the struggle to defend democratic rights and the various other kinds of day-to-day political and economic struggles, and link these struggles with the general goal of proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
In the struggle to realize this general goal, the party of the working class invariably wishes to achieve the transition to socialism peacefully, but it must at all times devote major attention to the arduous work of gathering revolutionary strength and must fully prepare itself for non-peaceful transition. Thus, it will be able to hit back hard at the ruling classes if they refuse to accept the will of the people and resort to armed suppression of the revolution. If a political party of the proletariat pins all its hopes on a peaceful transition having the complete and willing approval of the reactionary ruling classes, this will inevitably dampen the revolutionary will of the people and bury the cause of the proletarian revolution. The illusory view that the reactionary ruling classes may hand over power voluntarily is, in fact, a modern version of social democracy.
Social democracy is a bourgeois ideological trend and an important pillar upholding the reactionary rule of imperialism and monopoly capital. Lenin pointed out long ago that social democratic parties are a variant of bourgeois political parties. In the day-to-day struggle of the working-class movement as well as in the struggle to safeguard world peace, Communists must in every possible way carry out extensive joint activities with the social democrats and the masses of the workers under the influence of the social democratic parties. At the same time, the Marxist-Leninist Parties must draw a strict and clear ideological line of demarcation between themselves and the social democratic parties and make efforts to win over the honest working-class elements in social democratic parties so as to enable these elements to free themselves from the ideological influence of social democracy, to understand Marxism-Leninism and to change to the stand of waging consistent class struggle against capitalism and for the victory of socialism.
The Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of New Zealand hold that the internationalist unity of the Communist and Workers’ Parties of all countries should be built on the principles of independence, equality and the attainment of unanimity through consultation. In order to resolve the present ideological differences in the international communist movement, it is necessary to convene a meeting of representatives of all the Communist and Workers’ Parties in the world. The Communist Party of New Zealand was an initiator of such a meeting. For more than a year now, the Communist Party of China has actively supported this proposal. Both Parties emphasize that the common desire of all Marxist-Leninists and all progressive people is to safeguard unity and oppose a split, have a genuine unity based on principle and oppose a sham unity which discards Marxism-Leninism and the Declaration and the Statement.
Both Parties hope that the forthcoming talks between the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union will contribute to the convening of a meeting of representatives of the Communist and Workers’ Parties of all countries.
Both Parties also hope that the proposed talks between the Communist Party of New Zealand and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union will be helpful to the convening of a meeting of the fraternal Parties.
Both Parties point out with satisfaction that Comrade Wilcox’s visit and the talks between the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of New Zealand have strengthened the Marxist-Leninist unity of the two Parties and the friendship of the two peoples.
The Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of New Zealand firmly believe that Marxism-Leninism is invincible and that the international communist movement and the people’s revolutionary cause through the road ahead and win complete victory.
Long live Marxism-Leninism!
Long live proletarian internationalism!
Peking, May 25, 1963
(Signed)
| TENG HSIAO-PING | V. G. WILCOX |
| General Secretary | General Secretary |
| Central Committee | Communist Party |
| Communist Party of China | of New Zealand |
Speech at the Higher Party School of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
V. G. WILCOX
General Secretary of the Communist Party of New Zealand
(May 25, 1963)
We in New Zealand and in our Party have a great admiration for the mighty and glorious Chinese Communist Party. We know your record in the past. We know your record now in the building of socialism. We know the great role you are playing in the upholding of the banner of Marxism-Leninism in our world movement.
In New Zealand, a big ideological struggle took place in the years from 1949 to 1956 against Right opportunism, against the concept that our Communist Party of New Zealand was basically a Left-wing of social democracy, a force to struggle for a more progressive policy within the social democratic party, but not the party whose objective was the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism — the achievement of a socialist New Zealand. So, for us in New Zealand, we emerged vigilant — watchful against such harmful trends as would turn a Communist Party into a social democratic party again arising in the future. This recent experience also made us vigilant against such developments on a world scale in our Marxist-Leninist world movement.
The modern revisionists are in practice, by their actions and influence, siding the class enemy — imperialism — on a world scale. The balance of class forces on a world scale today greatly favors the international revolutionary movement and favors our Marxist-Leninist Parties. But imperialism, in its dying era, retains its basic content. It acts in practice in the same way as in the past. It uses all means both inside the socialist camp and in the capitalist world to disrupt our Parties and turn them away from the revolution, away from the path of October 1917. The nature of imperialism has not changed.
The modern revisionists hide their betrayal of Marxism-Leninism by accusing others of dogmatism; in practice they themselves are the dogmatists of the bourgeoisie. They say that imperialism will peacefully die. They say that it will capitulate before socialist strength. In practice they act on this theory. The imperialists do not worry too much who is in their bourgeois parliaments, because the real power rests not with parliament but with the state apparatus which in practice the dominant capitalist class controls.
The serious thing is that today some people believe in the alleged peaceful intentions of imperialism, believe that because of the existence of the socialist world camp and its undoubted strength, everywhere there can be a peaceful path to socialism. It is true that under special circumstances it may occur in some places, but even on this the first historical example has yet to come. To think that it can be done on a world scale is but to adopt the same position in our “new era,” as the modern revisionists are so fond of referring to it, as the revisionists of the earlier period — the Kautskys, the Bernsteins and the Plekhanovs — the people that Comrade Lenin had to combat so vigorously. You see, if this attitude is adopted, our Marxist-Leninist Parties would become in fact social democratic parties — bulwarks of imperialism.
The modern revisionists have overstressed the possibilities of peaceful transition to socialism. They have made Lenin’s concept of peaceful coexistence between countries of different social systems in practice a policy that asks for the holding back of the revolutionary forces in the colonial and capitalist world because these forces would disturb the “calm” period of relations with imperialism that they so desire. They capitulate to imperialist threats in order to maintain that “calm” period.
These people prattle about world peace. But is it not a fact that world peace is preserved not by talks between leaders but by the masses in opposition to imperialism? This opposition may take many forms according to the local conditions — the struggle for national liberation and the battle against monopoly inside the capitalist countries are all part of that fight for world peace. The modern revisionists do not accept this. As with the earlier revisionists, they have no faith in the masses. They say, leave it to us, don’t disturb things and we will reach agreement with imperialism. At that point, they are saying that the class struggle is outdated as a basic factor in society.
They speak as though the concept of peaceful coexistence is a new one, a great thought of theirs. In fact, it is Lenin who developed the concept of peaceful coexistence between states, but Lenin did not say that this would make it necessary to hold back the revolutionary movement in all non-socialist countries. It is true that it cannot be held back, but the acceptance of that kind of anti-Marxist-Leninist lead by the world’s Communist Parties could act as a brake for a time. This is serious and is why they must be challenged.
The modern revisionists speak of peace, of the necessity of preserving peace. Of course, we stand to preserve world peace in spite of the fact they say we stand for war. But they reach the conclusion that to preserve peace we must in fact drop revolutionary struggle. They are now approaching a position where they say that today there can be no such thing as a just war because modern weapons, the nuclear bombs in the hands of the imperialists, make the concept that war is a continuation of politics by other means “outdated” and anyone who upholds such a view is now a dogmatist. They say that war will mean the total destruction of humanity.
Nuclear war would be highly destructive, but it does not alter the nature of war — just and unjust from a Marxist-Leninist approach. They say that if we act, if we move, the imperialists will throw the bomb. We can only capitulate to the imperialist blackmail on this issue if we follow the line of the modern revisionists. How quickly if one starts on a revisionist road does degeneration set in! The imperialists know this. They will threaten to use the bomb on all occasions, if we follow the revisionist line. Therefore, if we agree with the revisionists, we must give up all revolutionary struggle.
It is necessary to preserve and strengthen in the socialist countries the dictatorship of the proletariat and be vigilant against the regrowth of capitalist trends in a socialist society. A classic example of what happens when this approach is not made is Yugoslavia where we see the gains of the revolution lost and capitalism basically restored.
Marxism-Leninism will not be killed by the modern revisionists. The struggle against modern revisionism in our movement on a world scale will strengthen the ideological outlook of all Marxist-Leninists. Comrades, read the struggle against revisionism in the past in our world movement, restudy it, consider it from the angle of our present struggle to preserve the ideological correctness of Marxism-Leninism and yes, too, read what the modern revisionists say. Read, too, about how the imperialist propagandists praise and help the lies of the modern revisionists. Study all possible known facts and work the problem out in a dialectical, Marxist-Leninist way.
The battle for a correct Marxist-Leninist approach as set out in the Moscow Declaration of 1957 and the Moscow Statement of 1960 will be victorious not only in words but in practice. But, comrades, this will be so only if we fight fearlessly now against modern revisionism and for a correct Marxist-Leninist approach to all problems.
Long live proletarian internationalism!
Long live Marxism-Leninism!
[footnotes]
Footnotes
- Prepared by the Maoism Library from the text original. ↩