DAILY


April 2, 1948


Our policy must be made known not only to the leaders and to the cadres but
also to the broad masses. Questions concerning policy should as a rule be
given publicity in the Party papers or periodicals. We are now carrying out
the reform of the land system. The policies on land reform should be published
in the papers and broadcast on the radio so that the broad masses all know
them. Once the masses know the truth and have a common aim, they will work
together with one heart. This is like fighting a battle; to win a battle
the fighters as well as the officers must be of one heart. After the troops
in northern Shensi went through training and consolidation and poured out
their grievances against the old social order, the fighters heightened their
political consciousness and became clear on why they were fighting and how
they should fight; every one of them rolled up his sleeves for battle, their
morale was very high and as soon as they went into action they won a victory.
When the masses are of one heart, everything becomes easy. A basic principle
of Marxism-Leninism is to enable the masses to know their own interests and
unite to fight for their own interests. The role and power of the newspapers
consists in their ability to bring the Party programme, the Party line, the
Party's general and specific policies, its tasks and methods of work before
the masses in the quickest and most extensive way.

There are people in our leading organs in some places who think that it is
enough for the leaders alone to know the Party's policies and that there
is no need to let the masses know them. This is one of the basic reasons
why some of our work cannot be done well. For over twenty years our Party
has carried on mass work every day, and for the past dozen years it has talked
about the mass line every day. We have always maintained that the revolution
must rely on the masses of the people, on everybody's taking a hand, and
have opposed relying merely on a few persons issuing orders. The mass line,
however, is still not being thoroughly carried out in the work of some comrades;
they still rely solely on a handful of people working coolly and quietly
by themselves. One reason is that, whatever they do, they are always reluctant
to explain it to the people they lead and that they do not understand why
or how to give play to the initiative and creative energy of those they lead.
Subjectively, they too want everyone to take a hand in the work, but they
do not let other people know what is to be done or how to do it. That being
the case, how can everyone be expected to get moving and how can anything
be done well? To solve this problem the basic thing is, of course, to carry
out ideological education on the mass line, but at the same time we must
teach these comrades many concrete methods of work. One such method is to
make full use of the newspapers. To run a newspaper well, to make it interesting
and absorbing, to give correct publicity in the newspapers to the Party's
general and specific policies and to strengthen the Party's ties with the
masses through the newspapers -- this is an important question of principle
in our Party's work which is not to be taken lightly.

You comrades are newspapermen. Your job is to educate the masses, to enable
the masses to know their own interests, their own tasks and the Party's general
and specific policies. Running a newspaper is like all other work, it must
be done conscientiously if it is to be done well, if it is to be lively.
With our newspapers, too, we must rely on everybody, on the masses of the
people, on the whole Party to run them, not merely on a few persons working
behind closed doors. Our papers talk about the mass line every day, yet
frequently the mass line is not carried out in the work of the newspaper
office itself. For instance, misprints often crop up in the papers simply
because their elimination has not been tackled as a serious job. If we apply
the method of the mass line, then when misprints appear, we should assemble
the entire staff of the paper to discuss nothing but this matter, tell them
clearly what the mistakes are, explain why they occur and how they can be
got rid of and ask everyone to give the matter serious attention. After this
has been done three times, or five times, such mistakes can certainly be
overcome. This is true of small matters, and of big matters, too.

To be good at translating the Party's policy into action of the masses, to
be good at getting not only the leading cadres but also the broad masses
to understand and master every movement and every struggle we launch -- this
is an art of Marxist-Leninist leadership. It is also the dividing line that
determines whether or not we make mistakes in our work. If we tried to go
on the offensive when the masses are not yet awakened, that would be adventurism.
If we insisted on leading the masses to do anything against their will, we
would certainly fail. If we did not advance when the masses demand advance,
that would be Right opportunism. Chen Tu-hsiu's opportunist error consisted
precisely in lagging behind the awakening of the masses, being unable to
lead the masses forward and even opposing their forward march. There are
many comrades who still don't understand these questions. Our papers should
propagate these ideas well so that everyone can understand them.

To teach the masses, newspaper workers should first of all learn from the
masses. You comrades are all intellectuals. Intellectuals are often ignorant
and often have little or no experience in practical matters. You can't quite
understand the pamphlet "How to Analyse the Classes in the Rural Areas"
[1] issued in 1933; on this point, the peasants
are more than a match for you, for they understand it fully as soon as they
are told about it. Over 180 peasants in two districts of Kuohsien County
met for five days and settled many problems concerning the distribution of
land. If your editorial department were to discuss those problems, I am afraid
you would discuss them for two weeks without settling them. The reason is
quite simple; you do not understand those problems. To change from lack of
understanding to understanding, one must do things and see things; that is
learning. Comrades working on the newspapers should go out by turns to take
part in mass work, in land reform work for a time; that is very necessary.
When not going out to participate in mass work, you should hear a great deal
and read a great deal about the mass movements and devote time and effort
to the study of such material. Our slogan in training troops is, "Officers
teach soldiers, soldiers teach officers and soldiers teach each other". The
fighters have a lot of practical combat experience. The officers should learn
from the fighters, and when they have made other people's experience their
own, they will become more capable. Comrades working on the newspapers, too,
should constantly study the material coming from below, gradually enrich
their practical knowledge and become experienced. Only thus will you be able
to do your work well, will you be able to shoulder your task of educating
the masses.

The Shansi-Suiyuan Daily made very great progress following the
conference of secretaries of prefectural Party committees last June. Then
the paper was rich in content, sharp, pungent and vigorous; it reflected
the great mass struggles, it spoke for the masses. I liked reading it very
much. But since January this year, when we began to correct "Left" deviations,
your paper seems to have lost some of its spirit; it is not clear-cut enough,
not pungent enough, has become less informative and does not have much appeal
for the reader. Now you are examining your work and summing up your experience;
this is very good. When you have summed up your experience in combating Right
and "Left" deviations and become more clear-headed, your work will improve.

The struggle against Right deviations waged by the Shansi-Suiyuan Daily
from last June on was completely correct. In that struggle you did a
very conscientious job and fully reflected the actual situation in the mass
movement. You made comments, in the form of editorial notes, on the viewpoints
and materials which you regarded as wrong. There were shortcomings too in
some of your later comments, but the conscientious spirit was good. Your
shortcomings lay chiefly in drawing the bow-string much too tight. If a
bow-string is too taut, it will snap. The ancients said, "The principle of
Kings Wen and Wu was to alternate tension with
relaxation."[2] Now "relax" a bit and the comrades
will become more clear-headed. You achieved successes in your work, but there
were also shortcomings, mainly "Left" deviations. Now you are making an over-all
summing-up and, after correcting the "Left" deviations, you will achieve
greater successes.

When we are correcting deviations, some people look on the work of the past
as utterly fruitless and all wrong. That is not right. These people fail
to see that the Party has led a huge number of peasants to obtain land,
overthrown feudalism, consolidated the Party organizations and improved the
cadres' style of work, and that now it has also corrected the "Left" deviations
and educated the cadres and masses. Are all these not great achievements?
We should be analytical with regard to our work and the undertakings of the
masses, and should not negate everything. In the past "Left" deviations arose
because people had no experience. Without experience it is hard to avoid
mistakes. From inexperience to experience, one must go through a process.
Through the struggles against the Right and "Left" deviations in the short
period since June last year, people have come to understand what struggle
against Right deviations means and what struggle against "Left" deviations
means. Without this process, people would not understand.

After you have examined your work and summed up your experience, I am sure
that your paper will be run even better. You must retain the former merits
of your paper -- it should be sharp, pungent and clear-cut, and it should
be run conscientiously. We must firmly uphold the truth, and truth requires
a clear-cut stand. We Communists have always disdained to conceal our views.
Newspapers run by our Party and all the propaganda work of our Party should
be vivid, clear-cut and sharp and should never mutter and mumble. That is
the militant style proper to us, the revolutionary proletariat. Since we
want to teach the people to know the truth and arouse them to fight for their
own emancipation, we need this militant style. A blunt knife draws no blood.

NOTES


1. See "How to Analyse the Classes in the Rural Areas",
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Vol. I.

2. From the Book of Rites, "Miscellaneous Records",
Part II. "Kings Wen and Wu could not keep a bow in permanent tension without
relaxation. Nor would they leave it in a permanent state of relaxation without
tension. The principle of Kings Wen and Wu was to alternate tension with
relaxation." Wen and Wu were the first two kings of the Chou Dynasty (12th-
3rd century B.C.).

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.