Both Unity and Struggle[1]

(February 5, 1939)

How do we consolidate the united front to achieve the goal of "certain victory in the War of Resistance and certain success in national construction"? We must wage a struggle on two fronts.

One is to oppose closed-doorism; we must speak of affection to former foes and unite with the landlords, the capitalists, and the petty bourgeoisie, so long as they are willing. Some people here are constantly afraid of being contaminated by the filth of the bourgeoisie, saying they are no good, that we should not speak of affection or unity with them, believing that if we shut the door and study Marxism by ourselves, victory in the War of Resistance will follow. The thinking of such people is truly no good, and we must oppose it, because closed-doorism hinders unity and hinders the united front. There are also some other people whose thinking is very muddled, fellows who "feather their own nests at the nation's expense" and "feed on friction"; we must oppose such people too. The enemies of unity are those who undermine unity and those who do not speak of unity. Struggle is like fighting on the firing line; striking down the closed-doorism that does not speak of unity, and striking down the diehards who feed on friction—this is one front.

There is another front, on which we must also strike at one thing, and that thing is the attempt to abolish the Communist Party in the name of "unity" and merge it into the Kuomintang; they often speak of "the way to incorporate the Communist Party into the Kuomintang." But abolishing the Communist Party is detrimental and not beneficial to the implementation of the Three People's Principles. We are most resolute in implementing the Principle of Nationalism (the War of Resistance Against Japan), and we also implement the Principle of Democracy most thoroughly.

[1] Part of a speech by Mao Zedong at the Central Party School.

The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is an example. Recently an American journalist attended the Border Region's consultative council for a few days, and he said the democracy here is far superior to that in the United States. In the whole country, it is only here that we have implemented the Principle of Democracy and the Principle of People's Livelihood; in other places, they talk about implementing the Three People's Principles, but in reality there is only one People's Principle (resistance to Japan), and even that is not implemented very well. We are faithful followers of the Three People's Principles, and we have an indomitable spirit to carry them through to the end. When others say they do not want the Principle of Democracy and the Principle of People's Livelihood, if you say "all right, all right," that is wrong, that is capitulationism; when others say they do not want communism, if you say "yes, yes, yes," that is also capitulationism. At present, we are resolute implementers of the Three People's Principles; in the future, we will be unconditional implementers of communism.

The united front on the one hand speaks of affection and unity, and on the other hand requires struggle—is this not self-contradictory? In your schools, within a single person there is also unity and struggle; when one makes a mistake, to overcome the mistake, is that not struggle? Confucius said, "The gentleman is harmonious but not conformist; the petty man is conformist but not harmonious," which also means that within unity there is struggle. The relationships between father and son, between ruler and minister, also contain unity and struggle. On the one hand, the father loves and the son is filial, the ruler is enlightened and the minister is worthy—this is affection and unity, this is unity; on the other hand, the son remonstrates with the father's faults, the minister admonishes the ruler's errors—this is struggle, which is also what we now call persuasion and education. All this shows that within unity there is struggle, and this is true of all things under heaven. If anyone thinks there is only unity and no struggle, then he has not yet thoroughly studied Marxism. Unity and struggle are the two basic principles of the united front; then are these two things half a catty and eight taels? Or is struggle more important than unity? The answer to both is no! The first basic principle of the Anti-Japanese National United Front is unity, which means speaking of affection, unity, mutual help, and so on with friends; but there is another principle, which is struggle, that is, remonstration, persuasion, education, and so on—this is an indispensable principle. Then why not add the word "struggle" to the term "Anti-Japanese National United Front" and make it the "Anti-Japanese National United Struggle Front"? I think comrades all know the reason: some people do not understand the meaning of the word "struggle" as we do; the moment they see struggle, they will

be frightened away; at the same time, so-called struggle does not mean struggling at every moment; it is by no means the case that the first thing we say when we meet a friend is "I unite with you," and the second thing is "I struggle with you"—in fact, this is unnecessary. But in any case, struggle is a principle that no one can or should forget. This is so during the War of Resistance, but what about after the War of Resistance? That depends on how others behave. If others point machine guns at us and hold knives to our necks, should we still say "I unite with you," "I have affection for you"? Comrades, at that time we can only take up machine guns and knives to wage struggle, a struggle that can never be undertaken merely by persuasion and education. At that time, struggle comes first. Marxism holds that there is nothing that does not contain struggle, and the forms of struggle are not limited to one kind but are many and varied.