( August 16, 1959 )
Yesterday morning I said, regarding that document titled "How Should a Marxist-Leninist Treat the Revolutionary Mass Movement," "I wonder which xiucai comrade was responsible for it; he has managed to find a few machine guns and several mortars, and has fired a great volley of rapid-fire shells ping-ping-pang-pang at the rightist friends of the Lushan Conference." This question was clarified last night: it was not a xiucai comrade from Lushan, but Comrade Liu Lantao from Beijing and his two assistants, who, with great enthusiasm and high aspiration, produced it.
(2) This struggle that has emerged at Lushan is a class struggle, a continuation of the life-and-death struggle between the two antagonistic classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, during the socialist revolution over the past decade. In China, and within our Party, it appears that such struggles will have to continue, at least for another twenty years, possibly for half a century. In short, only when classes are completely extinguished will the struggle cease. When old social struggles cease, new social struggles will arise. In sum, according to materialist dialectics, contradictions and struggle are eternal; otherwise, the world would not be what it is. Bourgeois politicians say that the philosophy of the Communist Party is the philosophy of struggle. That is not in the least bit wrong. However, the forms of struggle differ according to the era, that is all. As far as the present is concerned, the socio-economic system has changed, but the reactionary ideas bequeathed by the old era and still persisting in the minds of a considerable portion of people, namely bourgeois ideology and upper petty-bourgeois ideology, cannot be changed all at once. Change requires time, and a very long time at that. This is the class struggle in society. Inner-Party struggle reflects the class struggle in society. This is not in the least surprising. It would be inconceivable if there were no such struggle. This principle was not thoroughly explained in the past, and many comrades still do not understand it. Once problems arise—for instance, the Gao-Rao issue in 1953, and the current Peng, Huang, Zhang, Zhou issue—many people feel astonished. Such astonishment is understandable, because social contradictions evolve from the hidden to the manifest. People's understanding of class struggle in the socialist era will only gradually deepen through their own experience and practice. In particular, certain inner-Party struggles, such as the Gao-Rao and Peng-Huang types of struggle, possess a complex and tortuous nature. Yesterday's meritorious officials become today's chief culprits. "How did this happen? Could it be a mistake?" People do not know their historical changes, do not know the complexity and tortuousness of their history. Is this not very natural? We should gradually and correctly explain to comrades the complex and tortuous nature of this. Furthermore, in handling such incidents, we cannot use simplistic methods, nor can we treat them as contradictions between the enemy and ourselves; we must treat them as contradictions among the people. We must adopt the policies of "unity—criticism—unity," "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, curing the sickness to save the patient," "strict criticism, lenient handling," and "first observe, second help." Not only must they be retained within the Party, but they must also be retained within the provincial committees and the Central Committee; individual comrades should even be retained within the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. Is there danger in this? Possibly. As long as we adopt correct policies, it may be avoided. Their errors boil down to two possibilities: first, they will correct them; second, they will not correct them. The conditions for correcting them are ample. First, they have a dual character. One side is revolutionary; the other side is reactionary. Up to now, they are distinct from the renegades Chen Duxiu, Luo Zhanglong, Zhang Guotao, and Gao Gang—the former being a contradiction among the people, the latter a contradiction between the enemy and ourselves. A contradiction among the people can transform into a contradiction between the enemy and ourselves if the attitudes and policies adopted by both sides are inappropriate. It may not transform into a contradiction between the enemy and ourselves, but can consistently be treated as a contradiction among the people and be thoroughly resolved, if we can resolve this contradiction in a timely and appropriate manner. The following conditions are important. Supervision by the entire Party and the entire people. The political level of the majority of cadres at the central and local levels has greatly improved compared to the period of the Gao-Rao incident in 1953; they are much more knowledgeable. Is not this successful struggle at the Lushan Conference evidence of that? Also, our attitude and policy toward them must be a Marxist attitude and policy suited to the circumstances, and we already possess such an attitude and policy. The possibility that they will not correct their errors also exists. It simply means they will continue to make trouble and bring about their own destruction. That would not be so terrible either. What harm would adding a few members to the ranks of Chen Duxiu, Luo Zhanglong, Zhang Guotao, and Gao Gang do to our great Party and our great nation? However, we believe that all comrades who have made mistakes, with the exception of a very small minority such as Chen, Luo, Zhang, and Gao, can always change under certain conditions and with the passage of time. On this point, we must have firm confidence. The thirty-eight-year history of our Party provides ample evidence of this, as everyone knows. To help comrades who have made mistakes correct their errors, we must still treat them as comrades, treat them like brothers, give them warm-hearted help, and provide them with time to correct their mistakes and a way out to continue engaging in revolutionary work. Room for maneuver must be left. There must be warmth, there must be spring; we cannot let them live forever in winter. I consider all these to be extremely important.

Mao Zedong
August 16