Eliminate the Bourgeois Concept of Legal Rights
(May 1967)

No matter how many factions there are, they still fall into two major factions. As long as they are not counterrevolutionaries, we must work with them, and gradually their views will come closer together, not drift further apart.

Implementing the supply system and a communist lifestyle is a Marxist-Leninist style of work, standing in opposition to the bourgeois style. I believe the rural style and guerrilla habits are still good. We fought and won a war for 32 years—why can’t we build communism in the same way? Why introduce a wage system? That was a concession to the bourgeoisie, using the rural style and guerrilla habits to disparage us. As a result, individualism developed, and we forgot the principle of persuasion over coercion. Should the army take the lead in restoring the supply system?

We must eliminate the bourgeois concept of legal rights. For example, vying for position, vying for rank, demanding overtime pay, higher wages for intellectual workers and lower wages for manual laborers—all these are remnants of bourgeois ideology.

"To each according to his value" is stipulated by law, and this too is a bourgeois thing. In the future, should there be distinctions of rank when riding in cars? It is not necessary to have special cars. Some consideration can be given to the elderly and the physically weak, but for the rest, there should be no distinctions of rank. Our Party is one that fought continuously for over 30 years, implementing the supply system for a long period, growing from tens of thousands to millions of people, right up until liberation. In the early period, we lived a life of rough egalitarianism, everyone worked very hard, fought very bravely—not relying on any material incentives, but driven by revolutionary spirit.