On the Dissemination of Party Policy by Newspapers
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of On the Dissemination of Party Policy by Newspapers 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 editions:
- A Talk to the Editorial Staff of the «Shansi-Suiyuan Daily», in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
- Chairman Mao's Talk to the Editorial Staff of «Jinsui Daily», in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 10, Routledge, New York and London, 2023.
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is a talk held by Comrade Mao Zedong with the editorial staff of the Jinsui Ribao in the Shanxi-Suiyuan Liberated Area on the 2nd of April, 1948. It was first published in April 1951.
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#ON THE DISSEMINATION OF PARTY POLICY BY NEWSPAPERS
#TALK TO THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE SHANXI-SUIYUAN DAILY
#Mao Zedong
#2nd of April, 1948
#★
Our policy must be made known, not only to the directors and to the cadres, but also to the broad masses. Not only to the broad masses, but even to Jiang Jieshi, the local tyrants, and the evil gentry. Jiang Jieshi has a shortcoming, namely, that he doesn't dare to openly disseminate his policies. Questions concerning policy should as a rule be given publicity in the Party papers or periodicals. We are now carrying out the reform of the land system. The policies on land reform should be published in the papers and broadcast on the radio, so that the broad masses all know them. Once the masses know the truth and have a common aim, they will work together with one heart. This is like fighting a battle; to win a battle, the fighters as well as the officers must be of one heart. After the troops in northern Shaanxi went through training and consolidation and poured out their grievances against the old social order, the fighters heightened their political consciousness and became clear on why they were fighting and how they should fight; every one of them rolled up their sleeves for battle, their morale was very high, and as soon as they went into action, they won a victory. In the novel Water Margin, when attacking Zhu Village, Song Jiang suffers defeat twice; so, the third time, he explains to his troops why they failed and why they needed to fight, which raised their morale. Thus, the third time they attacked Zhu Village, they triumphed. When the masses are of one heart, everything becomes easy. A fundamental principle of Marxism-Leninism is to enable the masses to know their own interests and unite to fight for their own interests. The role and power of the newspapers consists in their ability to bring the Party programme, the Party line, the Party's general and specific policies, its tasks, and its methods of work before the masses in the quickest and most extensive way.
Communists should be brave and aboveboard in doing things and should not be conspiratorial. There are people in our leading bodies in some places who think that it is enough for the directors alone to know the Party's policies and that there is no need to let the masses know them. This is one of the fundamental reasons why some of our work cannot be done well. For over 20 years, our Party has carried on mass work every day, and for the past dozen years, it has talked about the mass line every day. We have always maintained that the revolution must rely on the masses of the people, on everybody's taking a hand, and have opposed relying merely on a few persons issuing orders. The mass line, however, is still not being thoroughly carried out in the work of some comrades; they still rely solely on a handful of people working coolly and quietly by themselves. One reason is that, whatever they do, they are always reluctant to explain it to the people they lead and that they do not understand why or how to give play to the initiative and creative energy of those they lead. Subjectively, they too want everyone to take a hand in the work, but they do not let other people know what is to be done or how to do it. That being the case, how can everyone be expected to get moving and how can anything be done well? To solve this problem, the fundamental thing is, of course, to carry out ideological education on the mass line, but at the same time, we must teach these comrades many concrete methods of work. One such method is to make full use of the newspapers. To run a newspaper well, to make it interesting and absorbing, to give correct publicity in the newspapers to the Party's general and specific policies, and to strengthen the Party's ties with the masses through the newspapers — this is an important question of principle in our Party's work, which is not to be taken lightly.
You comrades are newspaperpeople. Your job is to educate the masses, to enable the masses to know their own interests, their own tasks, and the Party's general and specific policies. Running a newspaper is like all other work, it must be done conscientiously if it is to be done well, if it is to be lively. With our newspapers, too, we must rely on everybody, on the masses of the people, on the whole Party to run them, not merely on a few persons working behind closed doors. Our papers talk about the mass line every day, yet frequently, the mass line is not carried out in the work of the newspaper office itself. For instance, misprints often crop up in the papers, simply because their elimination has not been tackled as a serious job. If we apply the method of the mass line, then when misprints appear, we should assemble the entire staff of the paper to discuss nothing but this matter, tell them clearly what the mistakes are, explain why they occur and how they can be got rid of, and ask everyone to give the matter serious attention. After this has been done three times, or five times, such mistakes can certainly be overcome. This is true of small matters, and of big matters, too.
To be good at translating the Party's policy into action of the masses, to be good at getting not only the directors and cadres, but also the broad masses to understand and master every movement and every struggle we launch — this is an art of Marxist-Leninist leadership. It is also the dividing line that determines whether or not we make mistakes in our work. If we tried to go on the offensive when the masses are not yet awakened, that would be adventurism. If we insisted on leading the masses to do anything against their will, we would certainly fail. If we did not advance when the masses demand advance, that would be Right-wing opportunism. Chen Duxiu's opportunist error consisted precisely in lagging behind the awakening of the masses, being unable to lead the masses forward, and even opposing their forward march. There are many comrades who still don't understand these questions. Our papers should propagate these ideas well, so that everyone can understand them.
To teach the masses, newspaper workers should first of all learn from the masses. You comrades are all intellectuals. Intellectuals are often ignorant and often have little or no experience in practical matters. You can't quite understand the pamphlet How to Differentiate the Classes in the Rural Areas, issued in 1933; on this point, the peasants are more than a match for you, for they understand it fully as soon as they are told about it. Over 180 peasants in two districts of Guoxian County met for five days and settled many problems concerning the distribution of land. If your Editorial Department were to discuss those problems, I am afraid you would discuss them for two weeks without settling them. The reason is quite simple; you do not understand those problems. To change from lack of understanding to understanding, one must do things and see things; that is learning. Comrades working on the newspapers should go out by turns to take part in mass work, in land reform work for a time; that is very necessary. When not going out to participate in mass work, you should hear a great deal and read a great deal about the mass movements and devote time and effort to the study of such material. Our slogan in training troops is: «Officers teach soldiers, soldiers teach officers, and soldiers teach each other.» This is called mutual aid and mutual learning. The fighters have a lot of practical combat experience. The officers should learn from the fighters, and when they have made other people's experience their own, they will become more capable. Comrades working on the newspapers, too, should constantly study the material coming from below, gradually enrich their practical knowledge, and become experienced. Only thus will you be able to do your work well, will you be able to shoulder your task of educating the masses.
The Jinsui Ribao [Shaanxi-Suiyan Daily] made very great progress following the conference of secretaries of prefectural Party committees last June. From September to December, the main task was to oppose Right-wing deviations. [Someone says: «We also raised the slogan of opposing empty and false reporting in June, during the conference of secretaries.»] Then, the paper was rich in content, sharp, pungent, and vigorous; it reflected the great mass struggles, it spoke for the masses. I liked reading it very much. During the December Meeting of the Central Committee, I praised your newspaper in my report, but since January this year, when we began to correct «Left-wing» deviations, your paper seems to have lost some of its spirit; it is not clear-cut enough, not pungent enough, has become less informative, and does not have much appeal for the reader. It is like thin air with a bit too much of a vacuum, resulting in a «low tide». Now, you can squeeze out some moisture, make the air condense into a solid, and hope for a new «high tide»; then the newspaper will be run better. How can the newspaper be run better from now on? Now you are examining your work and summing up your experience; this is very good. When you have summed up your experience in combating Right-wing and «Left-wing» deviations and become more clear-headed, your work will improve. The «Left-wing» deviations occurred because no one had experience; at the same time, this was a problem in the entire Border Region. From countering Right-wing deviations to countering «Left-wing» deviations, in a very short period of time, people learned how to counter both types of deviations. Without going through this inevitable process, no one would have learned what was going on.
The struggle against Right-wing deviations and against empty and falsified reporting waged by the Shanxi-Suiyuan Daily from last June on was completely correct. If this were to be called incorrect, then what would be correct? Maybe the Nationalist Central News Agency? In that struggle, you did a very conscientious job and fully reflected the actual situation in the mass movement. You made comments, in the form of editorial notes, on the standpoints and materials which you regarded as wrong. This shows that the newspaper is working hard. Jin Shengtan wrote comments on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Some people view these comments negatively, but I view them positively. They make people look for clues, but of course, the comments are not entirely correct. There were shortcomings, too, in some of your later comments, but the conscientious spirit was good. Your shortcomings lay chiefly in drawing the bow-string much too tight. If a bow-string is too taut, it will snap. [Laughter.] The Book of Rites says: «The principle of Kings Wen and Wu was to alternate tension with relaxation.» Now, «relax» a bit and the comrades will become more clear-headed. Committing errors is the result of a lack of experience and understanding. No one wants to commit errors. You achieved successes in your work, but there were also shortcomings, mainly «Left-wing» deviations. Now, you are making an overall evaluation and, after correcting the «Left-wing» deviations, you will achieve greater successes.
When we are correcting deviations, some people look on the work of the past as utterly fruitless and all wrong. That is not right. These people fail to see that the Party has led a huge number of peasants to obtain land, overthrown feudalism, consolidated the Party organizations, and improved the cadres' style of work, and that now, it has also corrected the «Left-wing» deviations and educated the cadres and masses. Are all these not great achievements? We should be analytical with regard to our work and the undertakings of the masses, and should not negate everything. In the past, «Left-wing» deviations arose because people had no experience. Without experience, it is hard to avoid mistakes. From inexperience to experience, one must go through a process. Through the struggles against the Right-wing and «Left-wing» deviations in the short period since June last year, people have come to understand what struggle against Right-wing deviations means and what struggle against «Left-wing» deviations means. Without this process, people would not understand.
After you have examined your work and summed up your experience, I am sure that your paper will be run even better. You must retain the former merits of your paper — it should be sharp, pungent, and clear-cut, and it should be run conscientiously. We must firmly uphold the truth, and truth requires a clear-cut standpoint. We Communists have always disdained to conceal our views. Newspapers run by our Party and all the propaganda work of our Party should be vivid, clear-cut, and sharp, and should never mutter and mumble. That is the militant style proper to us, the revolutionary proletariat. Since we want to teach the people to know the truth and mobilize them to fight for their own emancipation, we need this militant style. A blunt knife draws no blood.
After rectifying erroneous tendencies, some cadres doubt that there was any Marxism in the past and that there is any Marxism now. I say that we still have Marxism, but we must trim our hair a bit, wash our faces, cut our nails, and do a bit of makeup. Could it be that Marxists do not need to cut their hair, wash their faces, cut their nails, or do their makeup? They need to. [Lu Dingyi briefly explains how the Shanxi-Suiyuan Daily conducted research of some questions during this period.] Now, we must implement the guiding principle of summing up experience and checking up on our work, so as to make a correct evaluation. There are many questions about which Comrade Ren Bishi has already written special discussion articles. Now, the comrades working on the newspapers need to obtain clarity. Comrade Ren Bishi researched the conditions in one village, spent some ten days working, and then solved the problem. Under Heaven, crows are generally black and they look the same; you need only research one set of materials to explain the problem, and that is enough. If you insist on distinguishing between big crows, little crows, fat crows, skinny crows, Chinese crows, and foreign crows, if you include a bunch of materials, bury yourself in them, yet still cannot sum up your experience, then you are using an empiricist method of summing up experience, which is very foolish. After you have made evaluations, checked up on your work, made full use of your strong points, and rectified your shortcomings, after you have cut your hair, washed your face, and cut your nails, then you will run the newspaper better.