Published: The Workers’ Advocate, Special Issue, Vol. 6, No. 7, September 18, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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On September 9, 1976, Chairman Mao Tsetung died in Peking. Chairman Mao was the great leader of the Chinese people and the beloved teacher and leader of the international proletariat, of the oppressed nations, and of the exploited and oppressed people of the whole world. The Workers’ Advocate feels intense grief and deep shock at his death and expresses its condolences to the great Communist Party of China and the heroic Chinese people. The death of Chairman Mao is an immense loss to the world revolution and the international communist movement.
But although Chairman Mao is dead, his revolutionary work is immortal. After Comrades Marx and Engels died, Marxism continued as the glorious theory of the international working class. After Comrades Lenin and Stalin died, Marx-ism-Leninism continued to win victories all over the world. And today, Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought continues to be the great red banner of the international communist movement. Mao Tsetung Thought will shine forever! The Workers’ Advocate pledges to turn grief into strength, intensify the study and application of the works of Chairman Mao, and to hold still higher the bright red banner of Mao Tsetung Thought.
Chairman Mao led the downtrodden and oppressed Chinese people, comprising one-quarter of humanity, to liberation. Old China was a land of horrors, a hell on earth. Many imperialist powers, including U.S. imperialism, sucked the blood 01 the Chinese people. The Chinese people rose repeatedly in rebellion. But it was not until Chairman Mao charted the path forward that the Chinese revolution was led to victory.
Chairman Mao led the Chinese revolution through decades of the most difficult and complicated struggles in the world. He founded and led the great, glorious and correct Communist Party of China, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Republic of China. He established China’s first red base area and set forth the path of people’s war, of building rural base areas and using the countryside to encircle the cities. He led the epoch-making Long March. After Liberation in 1949, he led the Party and people in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat and in carrying out the unprecedented Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. He constantly fought to preserve the purity of the Chinese Communist Party and defeated numerous right and “left” deviations.
Today, as a result of Chairman Mao’s work, China is the bright red bastion of world revolution. The Chinese people live under socialism, the most advanced social system in the world. They are rid of exploitation and economic crises and are politically free and active. Everywhere around the world, revolution goes forward easier as great People’s China leads the way.
Chairman Mao and invincible Mao Tsetung Thought belong not just to the Chinese people, but to the proletariat the world over. Chairman Mao was the teacher and leader of all oppressed and downtrodden people.
Today the world is divided into two parts, with the forces of socialism and freedom fighting against the forces of imperialism and slavery. The forces of socialism and freedom consist of the socialist countries, the proletarian movements in the capitalist and revisionist countries, and the national liberation movements of the oppressed nations. This great world-historic movement has always had definite leadership. After the death of the great communist, Comrade Joseph Stalin, it was Chairman Mao who took up the glorious task of leading the international communist movement and the forces of socialism and freedom. It was Chairman Mao who initiated and led the criticism and repudiation of modern revisionism and the Soviet revisionist clique which was at its core.
And it was Chairman Mao who personally initiated and led the earth-shaking Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. This was a great political revolution against the bourgeoisie carried out under the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It shattered the counterrevolutionary headquarters of Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao and is now continuing and deepening in the fight against Teng Hsiao-ping’s right-deviationist attempt to reverse correct verdicts. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution brought Mao Tsetung Thought to the entire world. It was a clarion call for all revolutionaries to defeat revisionism in their own countries and it struck a most powerful blow against international opportunism. The Cultural Revolution rejuvenated the international communist movement and all the forces of socialism and freedom.
Chairman Mao made many important statements giving guidance and encouragement to the struggling masses around the world. Thus in 1957 he stated: “... THE EAST WIND IS PREVAILING OVER THE WEST WIND. THAT IS TO SAY, THE FORCES OF SOCIALISM HAVE BECOME OVERWHELMINGLY SUPERIOR TO THE FORCES OF IMPERIALISM.” His famous “Solemn Statement of May 20, 1970, entitled “People of the World, Unite and Defeat the U. S. Aggressors and All Their Running Dogs!”, was a great programmatic call showing the balance of class forces in the world. It said: “A SMALL NATION CAN DEFEAT A BIG”. More recently, he exposed the reactionary nature of the right-deviationist attempt to reverse correct verdicts and of international opportunism by sharply stating: “THE CAPITALIST-ROADERS ARE STILL ON THE CAPITALIST ROAD”. These and numerous other statements have given a clear and correct orientation for the world revolution.
Chairman Mao is the greatest Marxist-Leninist of the contemporary era. Over decades of complex struggles against the class enemies, he integrated the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese and world revolution. He inherited, defended and developed Marxism-Leninism to a new stage, that of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought.
Chairman Mao was the first Marxist-Leninist to show that classes and class struggle still exist after the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production has been in the main completed. He put forward the great theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat and formulated the basic line for the entire historical period of socialism.
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution led by Chairman Mao was a tremendous blow at the capitalist-road-ers inside the Chinese Communist Party and at international opportunism. The Cultural Revolution was a most important sign that Marxism-Leninism had reached the stage of Mao Tsetung Thought. It showed that Chairman Mao had solved in theory and practice the cardinal question in the international communist movement, that of consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and preventing the restoration of capitalism.
Chairman Mao also developed Marxism-Leninism and made magnificent contributions in a number of other spheres, including those of philosophy, economics, people’s war and military affairs, and the general line for revolution in colonial and semi-colonial countries.
Today, as economic crisis deepens, the factors for both war and revolution are increasing. The questions of war and revolution and their interrelationships are agitating the minds of communists everywhere. It is only by firmly following Mao Tsetung Thought, the Marxism-Leninism of the contemporary era, that revolutionary people will be able to stick to the correct orientation and oppose the war preparations of the imperialists and social-imperialists with revolution.
The American working class and people are oppressed and exploited and long for revolution. To overthrow the criminal system of monopoly capitalism, the revolutionary movement must use the most scientific theory of revolution. This theory is Mao Tsetung Thought! Science is international. Scientific truth cannot differ from one country to the next. The dead theories of “American exceptionalism” and the “American road to socialism” lead nowhere. The strategy and tactics of the American revolution must be based on the solid foundation of integrating the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought with the concrete practice of the revolution in the U.S.
In the 1960’s many mass revolutionary storms raged in the U. S. There were massive movements among the youth and students, the Afro-American people, the workers, women, etc. But confusion reigned on all fundamental questions of orientation and direction. The capitalists fostered this confusion in order to divert the revolutionary movement into dead-ends, to foster bourgeois decadent culture and to spread doom and gloom. In this critical situation, it was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that, like the sun breaking through layers of threatening dark clouds, brought the brilliance of Mao Tsetung Thought to the U. S. Thousands of revolutionaries eagerly studied the great Red Book of “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung”. The precious heritage of the revolutionary struggles of the ’60’s and early ’70’s is the recognition on the part of the most serious and thoughtful activists that only a new Communist Party based on Mao Tsetung Thought can lead the revolution to victory in the U.S.
Chairman Mao was a great proletarian internationalist. To the shame of the American people, U.S. imperialism committed countless barbaric acts against China. In the beginning of this century, U.S. imperialism participated in the plunder of China under the “Open Door ” policy, later the U.S. intervened in the Chinese civil war to prop up the corrupt anti-China Chang Kai-shek clique, and today U.S. imperialism is still militarily occupying China�s province of Taiwan, and threatening China with aggression and war. Chairman Mao led the world united front against U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. At the same time he sympathized with, encouraged and supported the revolution in the U.S. In his Solemn Statement of May 20, 1970, he said, “The Chinese people firmly support the revolutionary struggle of the American people. I am convinced that the American people who are fighting valiantly will ultimately win victory and that the fascist rule in the United States will inevitably be defeated.” Throughout his works, Chairman Mao made a number of brilliant observations about the U. S. Chairman Mao also had warm regards for Comrade William Z. Foster, a communist worker and leader of the American proletariat. Chairman Mao gave special attention to the struggle of the Afro-American people. He wrote two important statements, in 1963 and 1968, in support of the Afro-American people’s struggles against racial discrimination and violent repression. These statements were a great encouragement to the Black people. Chairman Mao’s important views on the U.S. must be studied and restudied by all American revolutionaries.
Chairman Mao was the great helmsman who charted the path forward for the world revolution. As we solemnly mourn his death, we must rededicate ourselves to learning from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and to taking up Chairman Mao’s revolutionary teachings! We must oppose opportunism and revisionism and persist in integrating the universal truth of Mao Tsetung Thought with the concrete practice of the revolution. Let us march forward gloriously on the path of proletarian revolution in the cause of Chairman Mao. Mao Tsetung Thought will shine forever!
ETERNAL GLORY TO THE GREAT LEADER AND TEACHER, CHAIRMAN MAO!
LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM-MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT!