AGGRESSION!


November 1948

[This article was written by Comrade Mao Tse-tung in commemoration of the
thirty-first anniversary of the October Revolution for the organ of the
Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties of Europe, For
A Lasting Peace, For A People's Democracy. It appeared in the 21st issue
of the publication in 1948. ]


At this time, when the awakened working class and all genuine revolutionaries
of the world are jubilantly celebrating the thirty-first anniversary of the
Great October Socialist Revolution of the Soviet Union, I recall a well-known
article by Stalin, written in 1918 on the first anniversary of that revolution.
In that article Stalin said:

  The great world-wide significance of the October Revolution chiefly consists
  in the fact that:


  1) It has widened the scope of the national question and converted it from
  the particular question of combating national oppression in Europe into the
  general question of emancipating the oppressed peoples, colonies and
  semi-colonies from imperialism;


  2) It has opened up wide possibilities for their emancipation and the right
  paths towards it, has thereby greatly facilitated the cause of the emancipation
  of the oppressed peoples of the West and the East, and has drawn them into
  the common current of the victorious struggle against imperialism;


  3) It has thereby erected a bridge between the socialist West and the
  enslaved East, having created a new front of revolutions against
  world imperialism, extending from the proletarians of the West, through
  the Russian revolution, to the oppressed peoples of the
  East.[1]


History has developed in the direction pointed out by Stalin. The October
Revolution has opened up wide possibilities for the emancipation of the peoples
of the world and opened up the realistic paths towards it; it has created
a new front of revolutions against world imperialism, extending from the
proletarians of the West, through the Russian revolution, to the oppressed
peoples of the East. This front of revolutions has been created and developed
under the brilliant guidance of Lenin and, after Lenin's death, of Stalin.


If there is to be revolution, there must be a revolutionary party. Without
a revolutionary party, without a party built on the Marxist-Leninist
revolutionary theory and in the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary style, it
is impossible to lead the working class and the broad masses of the people
to defeat imperialism and its running dogs. In the more than one hundred
years since the birth of Marxism, it was only through the example of the
Russian Bolsheviks in leading the October Revolution, in leading socialist
construction and in defeating fascist aggression that revolutionary parties
of a new type were formed and developed in the world. With the birth of
revolutionary parties of this type, the face of the world revolution has
changed. The change has been so great that transformations utterly inconceivable
to people of the older generation have come into being amid fire and thunder.
The Communist Party of China is a party built and developed on the model
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. With the birth of the Communist
Party of China, the face of the Chinese revolution took on an altogether
new aspect. Is this fact not clear enough?

The world revolutionary united front, with the Soviet Union at its head,
defeated fascist Germany, Italy and Japan. This was a result of the October
Revolution. If there had been no October Revolution, if there had been no
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, no Soviet Union and no anti-imperialist
revolutionary united front in the West and in the East led by the Soviet
Union, could one conceive of victory over fascist Germany, Italy, Japan and
their running dogs? If the October Revolution opened up wide possibilities
for the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed peoples of the
world and opened up realistic paths towards it, then the victory of the
anti-fascist Second World War has opened up still wider possibilities for
the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed peoples of the world
and has opened up still more realistic paths towards it. It will be a very
great mistake to underestimate the significance of the victory of World War
II.

Since the victory of World War II, U.S. imperialism and its running dogs
in various countries have taken the place of fascist Germany, Italy and Japan
and are frantically preparing a new world war and menacing the whole world;
this reflects the utter decay of the capitalist world and its fear of imminent
doom. This enemy still has strength; therefore, all the revolutionary forces
of each country must unite, and the revolutionary forces of all countries
must likewise unite, must form an anti-imperialist united front headed by
the Soviet Union and follow correct policies; otherwise, victory will be
impossible. This enemy has a weak and fragile foundation, he is disintegrating
internally, he is alienated from the people, he is confronted with inextricable
economic crises; therefore, he can be defeated. It will be a very great mistake
to overestimate the enemy's strength and underestimate the strength of the
revolutionary forces.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, tremendous victories
have now been won in the great Chinese people's democratic revolution directed
against the frenzied aggression of U.S. imperialism in China and against
the traitorous, dictatorial and reactionary Kuomintang government that has
been slaughtering the Chinese people by civil war. During the two years from
July 1946 to June 1948, the People's Liberation Army led by the Communist
Party of China beat back the attacks of 4,300,000 troops of the reactionary
Kuomintang government and went over from the defensive to the offensive.
During those two years of fighting (not including developments since July
1948), the People's Liberation Army captured and wiped out 2,640,000 Kuomintang
troops. China's Liberated Areas now cover 2,350,000 square kilometres, or
24.5 per cent of the country's 9,597,000 square kilometres; they have a
population of 168 million, or 35.3 per cent of the country's 475 million;
and they contain 586 cities and towns, or 29 per cent of the 2,009 in the
whole country. Because our Party has resolutely led the peasants to carry
out the reform of the land system, the land problem has been thoroughly solved
in areas with a population of about 100 million, and the land of the landlords
and old-type rich peasants has been more or less equally distributed among
the peasants, primarily among the poor peasants and farm labourers. The
membership of the Communist Party of China has grown from 1,210,000 in 1945
to 3,000,000 today. The task of the Communist Party of China is to unite
the revolutionary forces of the whole country to drive out the aggressive
forces of U.S. imperialism, overthrow the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang
and establish a united, democratic people's republic. We know that there
are still many difficulties ahead. But we are not afraid of them. We believe
that difficulties must be and can be overcome.

The radiance of the October Revolution shines upon us. The long-suffering
Chinese people must win their liberation, and they firmly believe they can.
Always isolated in the past, China's revolutionary struggle no longer feels
isolated since the victory of the October Revolution. We enjoy the support
of the Communist Parties and the working class of the world. This point was
understood by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, forerunner of the Chinese revolution, who
established the policy of alliance with the Soviet Union against imperialism.
On his deathbed he wrote a letter to the Soviet Union as part of his testament.
It is the Chiang Kai-shek bandit gang of the Kuomintang that is betraying
Sun Yat-sen's policy, standing on the side of the imperialist
counter-revolutionary front and opposing the people of their own country.
But before long, people will witness the complete destruction of the whole
reactionary regime of the Kuomintang by the Chinese people. The Chinese people
are brave, so is the Communist Party of China, and they are determined to
liberate all China.

NOTES


1. From "The October Revolution and the National Question",
Section III, "The World-wide Significance of the October Revolution", J.
V. Stalin, Works, Eng. ed., Moscow, 1953, Vol. IV, pp. 169-70.

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.