TO MEDDLE IN OUR INTERNAL AFFAIRS


May 26, 1943

[Extracted from. a speech explaining the dissolution of the Communist
International, delivered on 26 May 1943, to the cadres of Communist Party.
'Chieh-fang jih-pao', 28 May 1943.]


. . . Comrade Mao Tse-tung first pointed out that the dissolution of the
Communist International was exactly as an American press agency had reported,
'a great event marking the dividing line between two epochs'...

Comrade Mao Tse-tung asked: 'Why should the Communist International be disbanded?
Did it not devote all its efforts to the emancipation of the working class
of the whole world and to the war against fascism?'

Comrade Mao Tse-tung said: 'It is true that the Communist International was
created by Lenin himself. During its entire existence it has rendered the
greatest services in helping each country to organize a truly revolutionary
workers' party, and it has also contributed enormously to the great cause
of organizing the anti-fascist war.' Comrade Mao Tse-tung pointed particularly
to the great services of the Communist International in aiding the cause
of the Chinese revolution...

Comrade Mao Tse-tung further pointed out: 'Revolutionary movements can be
neither exported nor imported. Despite the fact that aid was accorded by
the Communist International, the birth and development of the Chinese Communist
Party resulted from the fact that China herself had a conscious working class.
The Chinese working class created its own party - the Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese Communist Party, although it has a history of only twenty-two
years, has already undertaken three great revolutionary movements' . . .

Since the Communist International has rendered such great services to China
and to various other countries, why should it be necessary to proclaim its
dissolution? To this question Comrade Mao Tse-tung replied: 'It is a principle
of Marxism-Leninism that the forms of revolutionary organizations must be
adapted to the necessities of the revolutionary struggle. If a form of
organization is no longer adapted to the necessities of the struggle, then
this form of organization must be abolished.' Comrade Mao Tse-tung pointed
out that at present the form of revolutionary organization known as the Communist
International is no longer adapted to the necessities of the struggle. To
continue this organizational form would, on the contrary, hinder the development
of the revolutionary struggle in each country. What is needed now is the
strengthening of the national Communist Party [min-tsu kung-chan tang]
of each country, and we no longer need this international leading centre.
There are three main reasons for this. (1) The internal situation in each
country and the relations between the different countries are more complicated
than they have been in the past and are changing more rapidly. It is no longer
possible for a unified international organization to adapt itself to these
extremely complicated and rapidly changing circumstances. Correct leadership
must grow out of a detailed analysis of these conditions, and this makes
it even more necessary for the Communist Party of each country to undertake
this itself. The Communist International, which is far removed from the concrete
struggle in each country, was adapted to the relatively simple condition
of the past, when changes took place rather slowly, but not it is no longer
a suitable instrument. (2) .... The anti-fascist states are of all kinds:
socialist, capitalist, colonial, semi-colonial. Among the fascist states
and their vassals there are also great differences; in addition, there are
also the neutral countries, which find themselves in varying circumstances.
For some time it has been felt that a centralized organization of an
international character was not very appropriate for organizing rapidly and
efficiently the anti-fascists of all these states, and this has become
particularly obvious recently. (3) The leading cadres of the Communist Parties
of the various countries have already grown up and attained political maturity.
Comrade Mao Tse-tung explained this point by using the example of the Chinese
Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party has been through three revolutionary
movements. These revolutionary movements have been continuous and uninterrupted
and extraordinarily complex, even more complex than the Russian Revolution.
In the course of these revolutionary movements, the Chinese Communist Party
has already acquired its own excellent cadres endowed with rich personal
experience. Since the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International
in 1935 the Communist International has not intervened in the internal affairs
of the Chinese Communist Party. And yet, the Chinese Communist Party has
done its work very well, throughout the whole Anti-Japanese War of National
Liberation…


Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.