Half a century ago on this day, on May 16, 1966, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the Circular which is marked as the beginning of Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China. GPCR was an unprecedented mass movement targeting the capitalist roaders inside the leadership of the Communist Party of China and was aimed at preventing capitalist restoration in socialist China. GPCR enriched the Marxist-Leninist understanding of the class struggle after capture of political power by the working class and is an important part of Mao Zedong Thought which is further development of Marxism-Leninism, elevating it to new level of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.
It was an established understanding of Marxism-Leninism that class struggle does not end with conquest of political power by the working class rather it is increased manifold under the new conditions. Remnants of the disempowered exploiting classes, petty bourgeois production which furnishes the class basis for the reversal of socialist construction and the capitalist elements in the superstructure in which they continue to exercise influence for a long period need be combated to fight against restoration of capitalism. Com. Mao showed that besides these, bureaucrats inside the party and state in socialism too are representatives of the capitalism. All these bases against which working class needs to wage struggle, are protected and defended by the revisionists inside the leadership who are backed by these anti-proletarian forces in their struggle against socialist construction. Thus revisionist leaders who worm their way into leadership and who serve the interests hostile to working class, work to restore capitalism and are thus capitalist roaders inside the leadership of the communist party.
While working class under the leadership of the Communist Party tries to advance socialist construction, tries to capture what had been the preserve of bourgeois influence in society, these capitalist roaders try to halt this advance. These capitalist roaders move very tactically and try to blunt the cutting edge of the class struggle in the society. Once they are able to blunt the class struggle, stop the advance of proletarian revolution, they gradually overturn the victories scored by revolutionary working class, try to overturn the correct verdicts of the past and restore capitalism. Revisionists don different garbs and colours to dupe the revolutionary people. While in Russia it was under the leadership of Khruschev that modern revisionists reversed socialism built under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin and restored capitalism, in China the revisionists led by Deng Xiaoping undid the socialist construction and restored capitalism. Deng revisionism became the vehicle of capitalist restoration in China.
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was great mass movement targeting these capitalist roaders in the leadership of the Communist Party and in the higher echelons of superstructure.
Development of class struggle under the dictatorship of proletariat amply proved correctness of the GPCR. Though revisionists in China could capture the leadership of CPC soon after Com. Mao’s death, the victories scored by Chinese working class and people during GPCR prove that it was in the correct direction. Revisionists who captured power soon after Mao’s death first declared “mistakes” during GPCR which was an attempt to overturn the correct verdicts and soon they termed the whole GPCR as a “disaster” thereby completely halting and reversing the gains made during GPCR. Subsequent development in China proved the correctness of GPCR. Revisionist capitalist roaders who captured power soon displayed their true colours, reverse the process of socialist construction, dismantle the socialist base in industries and agriculture and restore capitalism in China. As revisionists bring about reversal gradually, targeting some spheres first and the rest later while all along moving in counter-revolutionary direction, communist revolutionaries have to be very vigilant to detect the rise of revisionism in the Communist Party and fight it all along the way. Communist Revolutionaries should not wait till revisionists display their full colours which they do only when they consolidate themselves in the leadership but should fight whenever they try to smuggle in their anti-revolutionary ideas. Reversal in China is a clear example that revisionist leadership at every step tried to portray their retrograde policies as correct application of Marxism-Leninist-Mao Zedong Thought while all along building capitalism in China.
There is continuous struggle inside the revolutionary movement and Communist Party between revolutionary and anti-revolutionary orientation represented by revolutionaries and revisionists. At times this struggle becomes particularly sharp but it always remains. When Com. Stalin and Com. Mao were waging struggles against revisionism in their parties they termed it a life and death struggle. As told by the great teachers of the world proletariat this reflects the ongoing class struggle in society. Having a good grasp of class struggle is necessary to detect the revisionist trends when they raise their head in the movement. It is of utmost importance to wage this struggle as victory of revisionism leads to restoration of capitalism in countries under the rule of working class and to communist parties degenerating into appendages of ruling classes where they are not in power. Hence struggle against revisionism is essential for defending and developing revolutionary orientation of the party.
GPCR was a continuation of the struggle against modern revisionism waged by the Communist Party of China under the leadership of Com. Mao Zedong. When leadership of CPSU(B) was seized by the revisionist clique led by Khruschev and they came up with their modern revisionism collaborating with imperialism and opposing Marxism-Leninism, socialism and revolutionary movements throughout the world, CPC opposed modern revisionism waging a consistent and principled struggle in defense of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. The critique of the modern revisionist theories and actions of Khruschev revisionist clique are known as Great Debate which drew a sharp line of demarcation between modern revisionism and Marxism-Leninism.
Great Debate continues to illuminate the path of communist revolutionaries of different countries. Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was the continuation of this struggle against modern revisionism further developing this struggle and enriching the understanding about construction of socialism. GPCR took this struggle to a higher stage and it led to break of revolutionary communists with modern revisionism throughout the world. In our country the break with neo-revisionist CPM leadership occurred after Naxalbari peasant uprising and communist revolutionaries who were expelled from CPM or came out of it in support of Naxalbari struggle, supported GPCR from the beginning and took Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought as their ideological guide. GPCR is an integral part of Mao Zedong Thought. Political Resolution of our 2004 Congress summarized it, “Mao Zedong Thought has universal application and is a further development of Marxism-Leninism to the new stage of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. … Mao Zedong Thought is further all round development of the theory and practice of dictatorship of proletariat. It teaches us how to bring about dictatorship of proletariat in oppressed and backward countries through New Democratic Revolution by launching protracted people’s war and how to consolidate and develop socialism by continuing the revolution under the conditions of dictatorship of proletariat i.e. by launching GPCR.”
By observing beginning of GPCR we acknowledge the great contribution it made to the general armoury of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, we underscore the importance of struggle against revisionism for communist revolutionary movement, we uphold the historic break of revolutionary Marxism with revisionism of all hues and we dedicate ourselves to advance the revolutionary movement to the victory of New Democratic Revolution in India.
Central Committee
CPI(ML)-New Democracy
May 16, 2016