LET THE WHOLE PARTY UNITE AND
FIGHT TO ACCOMPLISH ITS TASKS!¹

April 24, 1945

Comrades! Now that we understand our tasks and the policies
for accomplishing them, what should be our attitude in carrying
out these policies and performing these tasks?
The present international and domestic situation opens up
bright prospects and provides unprecedentedly favourable conditions for us and the Chinese people as a whole; this is evident
and beyond doubt. But at the same time there are still serious
difficulties. Anyone who sees only the bright side but not the
difficulties cannot fight effectively for the accomplishment of the
Party's tasks.
Together with the Chinese people, our Party has built up
immense strength for the Chinese nation in the twenty-four years
of the Party's history, including the eight years of the War of
Resistance Against Japan; the success of our work is obvious and
beyond doubt. But at the same time there are still defects in our
work. Anyone who sees only the successful side but not the defects
likewise cannot fight effectively for the accomplishment of the
Party's tasks.
In the twenty-four years since its birth in 1921, the Communist
Party of China has gone through three great struggles — the
Northern Expedition, the Agrarian Revolutionary War and the
War of Resistance Against Japan which is still going on. From
its very beginning our Party has based itself on the theory of

Marxism-Leninism, for Marxism-Leninism is the crystallization
of the most correct and most revolutionary scientific thought of
the world proletariat. When the universal truth of Marxism-
Leninism began to be integrated with the concrete practice of the
Chinese revolution, the Chinese revolution took on an entirely
new complexion and the entire historical stage of New Democracy
emerged. Armed with Marxist-Leninist theory and ideology, the
Communist Party of China has brought a new style of work to the
Chinese people, a style of work which essentially entails integrating
theory with practice, forging close links with the masses and
practising self-criticism.

The universal truth of Marxism-Leninism, which reflects the
practice of proletarian struggle throughout the world, becomes an
invincible weapon for the Chinese people when it is integrated
with the concrete practice of the revolutionary struggle of the
Chinese proletariat and people. This the Communist Party of
China has achieved. Our Party has grown and advanced through
staunch struggle against every manifestation of dogmatism and
empiricism, which runs counter to this principle. Dogmatism is
divorced from concrete practice, while empiricism mistakes fragmentary experience for universal truth; both kinds of opportunist
thinking run counter to Marxism. In the course of its twenty-four
years of struggle our Party has successfully fought such wrong
thinking and it is still doing so, thus greatly consolidating itself
ideologically. Our Party now has 1,210,000 members. The overwhelming majority have joined during the War of Resistance,
and there are various impurities in their ideology. The same is
true of some of the members who joined the Party before the war.
The work of rectification in the last few years has been most
successful and has gone a long way towards removing these impurities. This work should be continued and ideological education
within the Party should be developed still more extensively in
the spirit of "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones"
and "curing the sickness to save the patient". We must enable

the Party's leading cadres at all levels to understand that close
integration of theory and practice is a hallmark distinguishing our
Party from all other political parties. Therefore ideological education is the key link to be grasped in uniting the whole Party for
great political struggles. Unless this is done, the Party cannot
accomplish any of its political tasks.

Another hallmark distinguishing our Party from all other
political parties is that we have very close ties with the broadest
masses of the people. Our point of departure is to serve the people
whole-heartedly and never for a moment divorce ourselves from
the masses, to proceed in all cases from the interests of the people
and not from one's self-interest or from the interests of a small
group, and to identify our responsibility to the people with our
responsibility to the leading organs of the Party. Communists
must be ready at all times to stand up for the truth, because truth
is in the interests of the people; Communists must be ready at all
times to correct their mistakes, because mistakes are against the
interests of the people. Twenty-four years of experience tell us
that the right task, policy and style of work invariably conform
with the demands of the masses at a given time and place and
invariably strengthen our ties with the masses, and the wrong
task, policy and style of work invariably disagree with the demands of the masses at a given time and place and invariably
alienate us from the masses. The reason why such evils as
dogmatism, empiricism, commandism, tailism, sectarianism,
bureaucracy and an arrogant attitude in work are definitely
harmful and intolerable, and why anyone suffering from these
maladies must overcome them, is that they alienate us from the
masses. Our congress should call upon the whole Party to be
vigilant and to see that no comrade at any post is divorced from
the masses. It should teach every comrade to love the people and
listen attentively to the voice of the masses; to identify himself
with the masses wherever he goes and, instead of standing above
them, to immerse himself among them; and, according to their

present level, to awaken them or raise their political consciousness
and help them gradually to organize themselves voluntarily and to
set going all essential struggles permitted by the internal and
external circumstances of the given time and place. Commandism
is wrong in any type of work, because in overstepping the level
of political consciousness of the masses and violating the principle
of voluntary mass action it reflects the disease of impetuosity. Our
comrades must not assume that everything they themselves understand is understood by the masses. Whether the masses understand it and are ready to take action can be discovered only by
going into their midst and making investigations. If we do so,
we can avoid commandism. Tailism in any type of work is also
wrong, because in falling below the level of political consciousness
of the masses and violating the principle of leading the masses
forward it reflects the disease of dilatoriness. Our comrades must
not assume that the masses have no understanding of what they
themselves do not yet understand. It often happens that the
masses outstrip us and are eager to advance a step and that
nevertheless our comrades fail to act as leaders of the masses
and tail behind certain backward elements, reflecting their views
and, moreover, mistaking them for those of the broad masses. In
a word, every comrade must be brought to understand that the
supreme test of the words and deeds of a Communist is whether
they conform with the highest interests and enjoy the support of
the overwhelming majority of the people. Every comrade must
be helped to understand that as long as we rely on the people,
believe firmly in the inexhaustible creative power of the masses
and hence trust and identify ourselves with them, we can surmount any difficulty, and no enemy can crush us while we can
crush any enemy.

Conscientious practice of self-criticism is still another hallmark
distinguishing our Party from all other political parties. As we
say, dust will accumulate if a room is not cleaned regularly, our
faces will get dirty if they are not washed regularly. Our com-

rades' minds and our Party's work may also collect dust, and
also need sweeping and washing. The proverb "Running water
is never stale and a door-hinge is never worm-eaten" means that
constant motion prevents the inroads of germs and other organisms. To check up regularly on our work and in the process
develop a democratic style of work, to fear neither criticism nor
self-criticism, and to apply such good popular Chinese maxims
as "Say all you know and say it without reserve", "Blame not
the speaker but be warned by his words" and "Correct mistakes
if you have committed them and guard against them if you have
not" — this is the only effective way to prevent all kinds of
political dust and germs from contaminating the minds of our
comrades and the body of our Party. The reason for the great
effectiveness of the rectification movement, the purpose of which
was "to learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones and to
cure the sickness to save the patient", was that the criticism and
self-criticism we carried out were honest and conscientious, and
not perfunctory and distorted. As we Chinese Communists, who
base all our actions on the highest interests of the broadest masses
of the Chinese people and who are fully convinced of the justice
of our cause, never balk at any personal sacrifice and are ready
at all times to give our lives for the cause, can we be reluctant to
discard any idea, viewpoint, opinion or method which is not
suited to the needs of the people? Can we be willing to allow
political dust and germs to dirty our clean faces or eat into our
healthy organisms? Countless revolutionary martyrs have laid
down their lives in the interests of the people, and our hearts are
filled with pain as we the living think of them — can there be
any personal interest, then, that we would not sacrifice or any
error that we would not discard?

Comrades! When this congress is over, we shall go to the front
and, guided by its resolutions, fight to bring about the final defeat
of the Japanese aggressors and to build a new China. To achieve
this aim, we shall unite with all the people of our country. Let me

repeat: We shall unite with any class, any party, any group or
individual if they are for the defeat of the Japanese aggressors
and the building of a new China. To achieve this aim, we shall
solidly unite all the forces of our Party on democratic centralist
principles of organization and discipline. We shall unite with any
comrade if he abides by the Party's Programme, Constitution and
decisions. In the period of the Northern Expedition our Party had
a membership of less than 60,000, most of whom were later dispersed by the enemy; in the period of the Agrarian Revolutionary
War we had a membership of less than 300,000, most of whom
were likewise dispersed by the enemy. Now we have more than
1,200,000 members; this time we must in no circumstances allow
ourselves to be dispersed by the enemy. If we can profit from the
experience of these three periods, if we are modest and guard
against conceit and are able to strengthen unity among all comrades inside the Party and with all the people outside the Party,
we can rest assured that, far from being dispersed by the enemy,
we shall destroy the Japanese aggressors and their servile running
dogs resolutely, thoroughly, wholly and completely, and thereafter
build a new-democratic China.

The experience of the three revolutions,² and especially that
of the War of Resistance Against Japan, has convinced us and
the whole Chinese people that without the efforts of the Chinese
Communist Party, without the Chinese Communists as the
mainstay of the Chinese people, China can never achieve independence and liberation, or industrialization and the modernization of her agriculture.

Comrades! I firmly believe that with the Communist Party
of China armed with the experience of the three revolutions, we
can accomplish our great political task.

Thousands upon thousands of martyrs have heroically laid
down their lives for the people; let us hold their banner high and
march ahead along the path crimson with their blood!

A new-democratic China will soon be born. Let us hail that
great day!

NOTES

¹ This is the fifth part of the political report "On Coalition Government"
to the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The full
text of "On Coalition Government" is included in the Selected Works of Mao
Tsetung, Eng. ed., FLP, Peking, 1967, Vol. III, pp. 205-70.

² The first revolution, also known as the First Revolutionary Civil War,
was the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal revolutionary struggle waged from 1924
to 1927, whose main content was the Northern Expedition conducted on the
basis of co-operation between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomin-tang. The second revolution was the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese
people waged under the leadership of the Communist Party from 1927 to 1937
after the reactionary clique within the Kuomintang headed by Chiang Kai-shek
betrayed the revolution; its main content consisted of the establishment and
development of Red political power, the unfolding of the agrarian revolution
and armed resistance to the rule of Kuomintang reaction. This revolutionary
war was also known as the Second Revolutionary Civil War or the Agrarian
Revolutionary War. The third revolution was the War of Resistance Against
Japan from 1937 to 1945.