Be a True Revolutionary

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Be a True Revolutionary has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following edition: Be a True Revolutionary, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 5, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1977.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is the concluding speech delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at the Second Session of the First National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing, China on the 23rd of June, 1950. It was first published in the Renmin Ribao (24th of June, 1950).

The Second Session of the First National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was held in Beijing, China between the 14th and 23rd of June, 1950.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#BE A TRUE REVOLUTIONARY

#CONCLUDING SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE SECOND SESSION OF THE FIRST NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE'S POLITICAL CONSULTATIVE CONFERENCE

#Mao Zedong

#23rd of June, 1950

#★

The present session has summed up our experience in the past period and laid down various guiding principles.

We have done this work jointly at this gathering of representatives of all the nationalities, democratic classes, democratic political parties, people's organizations, and democratic figures from every walk of life. Not only have the members of the National Committee of the People's Political Consultative Conference taken part in the discussions, many cadres of the Central People's Government and of the people's governments (or military and administrative commissions) of the greater administrative areas,¹ provinces, and municipalities, as well as representatives from the consultative committees of the provincial and municipal conferences of people from all circles² and many specially invited patriotic personages have also sat in and joined the discussions. Thus, we have been able to draw together opinions from all quarters, review our past work, and put forward guiding principles for the future. I hope that we will continue to use this method and that the people's governments (or military and administrative commissions) of the greater administrative areas, provinces, and municipalities will adopt it too. So far, our committee sessions have been advisory in nature. But in practice, the Central People's Government will as a matter of course adopt and put into effect the decisions made at our sessions, as it should.

We have unanimously approved the report on the work of the National Committee and the various reports on the work of the Central People's Government. These are the reports on land reform, on political, military, economic, and financial work, on taxation, culture, and education, and on the work of the Judiciary. All of them are good. In these reports, the experience of our work in the past has been properly summed up and the guiding principles for our work in the future have been laid down. There were many items on the agenda of our session, because work has started or expanded in every held since the founding of our New State. Throughout the country, the people are vigorously unfolding a great and genuine people's revolutionary struggle on all fronts, a struggle that is as great as it is unprecedented on the military, economic, ideological, and land reform fronts, and the work in every field awaits summing up and needs guiding principles. That is why we had so many items on the agenda. We shall hold two sessions yearly as required by law, one with a full and the other with a less full agenda. This is what we are called on to do, for China is a large country with a population actually exceeding 475'000'000 and, what is more, it finds itself in a historic period of people's revolution. And this is what we have been doing, and I think we have done right.

Our present session had many subjects for discussion, the central one being the question of transforming the old land system. We have endorsed the Draft Land Reform Law³ proposed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, to which we have made a number of useful amendments and supplements. This is fine. I am glad and wish to congratulate the hundreds of millions of New China's rural population on winning the opportunity for emancipation and the nation on winning the fundamental condition for industrialization. The peasants form the bulk of China's population. It was with their help that victory was won in the revolution, and it is again their help that will make the industrialization of the country possible. Therefore, the working class should actively help the peasants carry out the land reform; the urban small bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie should also give their support, and still more so should all the democratic political parties and people's organizations. War and land reform are two tests everyone and every political party in China must go through in the historical period of New Democracy. Whoever sides with the revolutionary people is a revolutionary. Whoever sides with imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism is a counter-revolutionary. Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in word only, but not in deed, is a revolutionary in word. Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed, as well as in word, is a true revolutionary. The test of war is fundamentally over, and we have all come through well, to the satisfaction of the people of the whole country. Now it is the test of land reform that we have to pass, and I hope we shall acquit ourselves just as well as we did in the test of war. Let us give this matter more thought, have more consultation, straighten out our thinking, march in step, and form a great anti-feudal united front, and then we shall be able to lead the people and help them pass this test successfully. When the tests of war and land reform are passed, the remaining test will be easy to pass, that is, the test of socialism, of countrywide socialist transformation. As for those who have made contributions in the revolutionary war and in the revolutionary transformation of the land system and who continue to do so in the coming years of economic and cultural construction, the people will not forget them when the time comes for nationalizing private industry and socializing agriculture (which is still quite far off), and they will have a bright future. This is how our country steadily advances; it has passed through the war and is undergoing new-democratic reforms, and in the future, it will enter the new era of socialism unhurriedly and with proper arrangements when our economy and culture are flourishing, when conditions are ripe, and when the transition has been fully considered and endorsed by the whole nation. I think it is necessary to make this point clear, so that people will have confidence and stop worrying: «Don't know when I'll no longer be wanted and be given the chance to serve the people even if I wish to.» No, that won't happen. The people and their government have no reason to reject anyone or deny them the opportunity of making a living and rendering service to the country, provided they are really willing to serve the people and provided they really helped and did a good turn when the people were faced with difficulties and keep on doing good without giving up halfway.

With this great aim in mind, in the international sphere, we must firmly unite with the Council Union, the People's Democracies, and the forces of peace and democracy everywhere, and there should not be the slightest hesitation or wavering on this question. At home, we must unite all the nationalities, democratic classes, democratic political parties, people's organizations, and patriotic democrats and consolidate the great, prestigious revolutionary united front already in existence. Whoever contributes to the consolidation of this revolutionary united front is doing right, and we welcome them; whoever harms this consolidation is doing wrong, and we oppose them. To consolidate the revolutionary united front, we must use the method of criticism and self-criticism. The main criterion in the application of this method is our present fundamental law — the Common Programme. We have carried out criticism and self-criticism at this session, basing ourselves on the Common Programme. This is an excellent method, which impels every one of us to uphold truth and rectify error, and it is the only correct method for all revolutionary people to educate and remould themselves in a people's State. The people's democratic dictatorship uses two methods. Toward the enemy, it uses the method of dictatorship, that is, for as long a period of time as is necessary, it does not permit them to take part in political activity and compels them to obey the law of the People's Government, to engage in labour, and, through such labour, be transformed into new human beings. Toward the people, on the contrary, it uses the method of democracy and not of compulsion, that is, it must necessarily let them take part in political activity and does not compel them to do this or that, but uses the method of democracy to educate and persuade. Such education is self-education for the people, and its fundamental method is criticism and self-criticism. I hope that this method will be used by all the nationalities, democratic classes, democratic political parties, people's organizations, and patriotic democrats in the country.