THE STRENGTH OF THE WORLD ANTIIMPERIALIST CAMP HAS SURPASSED
THAT OF THE IMPERIALIST CAMP*
(December 25, 1947)
When the reactionary Chiang Kai-shek clique launched the country-wide
civil war against the people in 1946, the reason they dared take this risk was
that they relied not merely on their own superior military strength but mainly
on the U.S. imperialists with their atom bombs, whom they regarded as
"exceptionally powerful" and "matchless in the world." On the one hand,
they thought U.S. imperialism could meet their military and financial needs
with a stream of supplies. On the other hand, they wildly speculated that "war
between the United States and the Soviet Union is inevitable" and that "the
outbreak of a third world war is inevitable." This dependence on U.S.
imperialism is the common feature of the reactionary forces in all countries
since World War II. It reflects the severity of the blows world capitalism
received in World War II; it reflects the weakness of the reactionary forces in
all countries, their panic and loss of confidence; and it reflects the might of
the world revolutionary forces—all of which makes reactionaries in all countries feel that there is no way out except to rely on U.S. imperialist support.
But, in fact, is U.S. imperialism after World War II as powerful as Chiang
Kai-shek and the reactionaries of other countries imagine? Can it really pour
out a stream of supplies for them? No, that is not so. The economic power of
U.S. imperialism, which grew during World War II, is confronted with
unstable and daily shrinking domestic and foreign markets. The further
shrinking of these markets will cause economic crises to break out. The war
boom in the United States of America was only temporary. The strength of
the United States of America is only superficial and transient. Irreconcilable
domestic and international contradictions, like a volcano, menace U.S. imper-
* This is part of "The Present Situation and Our Tasks," a report delivered by Mao
Zedong to a meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
ialism every day. U.S. imperialism is sitting on this volcano. This situation
has driven the U.S. imperialists to draw up a plan for enslaving the world, to
run amuck like wild beasts in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world, to
muster the reactionary forces in all countries, the human dregs cast off by their
peoples, to form an imperialist and anti-democratic camp against all the
democratic forces headed by the Soviet Union, and to prepare for war in the
hope that in the future, at a distant time, some day, they can start a third
world war to defeat the democratic forces. This is a preposterous plan. The
democratic forces of the world must and certainly can defeat this plan. The
strength of the world anti-imperialist camp has surpassed that of the imperialist
camp. It is we, not the enemy, who are in the superior position. The
anti-imperialist camp headed by the Soviet Union has already been formed.
The socialist Soviet Union is free from crises, in the ascendant and cherished
by the world's broad masses; its strength has already surpassed that of the
imperialist United States, which is seriously menaced by crises, on the decline
and opposed by the world's broad masses. The People's Democracies in Europe
are consolidating themselves internally and are uniting with each other. In the
European capitalist countries the people's anti-imperialist forces are developing, with those in France and Italy taking the lead. Within the United States,
there are people's democratic forces which are getting stronger every day. The
peoples of Latin America are not slaves obedient to U.S. imperialism. In the
whole of Asia a great national liberation movement has arisen. All the forces
of the anti-imperialist camp are uniting and forging ahead. The Communist
and Workers' Parties of nine European countries have established their
Information Bureau and issued a call to the people of the world to rise against
the imperialist plan of enslavement. This call to battle has inspired the
oppressed people of the world, charted the course of their struggle and
strengthened their confidence in victory. It has thrown world reaction into
panic and confusion. All the anti-imperialist forces in the countries of the East,
too, should unite together, oppose oppression by imperialism and by their
domestic reactionaries and make the goal of their struggle the emancipation of
the more than 1,000 million oppressed people of the East. We certainly should
grasp our own destiny in our own hands. We should rid our ranks of all
impotent thinking. All views that overestimate the strength of the enemy and
underestimate the strength of the people are wrong. If everyone makes
strenuous efforts, we, together with all the democratic forces of the world, can
surely defeat the imperialist plan of enslavement, prevent the outbreak of a
third world war, overthrow all reactionary regimes and win lasting peace for
mankind. We are soberly aware that on our way forward there will still be all
kinds of obstacles and difficulties and that we should be prepared to deal with
the maximum resistance and desperate struggle by all our enemies, domestic
and foreign. But so long as we can grasp the science of Marxism-Leninism,
have confidence in the masses, stand closely together with the masses and lead
them forward, we shall be fully able to surmount any obstacle and overcome
any difficulty. Our strength will be invincible. This is the historic epoch in
which world capitalism and imperialism are going down to their doom and
world socialism and people's democracy are marching to victory. The dawn is
ahead, we must exert ourselves.
(From Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. IV)