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© China enriches socialist theory

By ALAN
WINNINGTON

FULL gale of debate is

blowing through China,
flattening what seemed to be
the sturdiest of plants and
leaving unsuspected blossoms
standing in their place.

Bureaucracy is under fire
and bureaucrats are in retreat,
together with people who con-
sider dogma an alternative to
argument, slogans an alterna-
time to thinking, and issuing
orders’an alternative to solv-
ing problems.

This is the biggest menial
Shake-up I have seen, full of
lessons for socialists and oth-
ers all over the world.

Most of the _ discussion
centres on two speeches. by
Mao Tse-tung early this year,
and the curious fact is that
these have not yet been pub-
lished.

This is not because they are
in. any way. secret, but, I be-
lieve, because they contain
theoretical propositions of the
greatest importance and that
Mao is still working to verfect
them.

Anyway the speeches were
made, as it were, “off the
cuff’ and not from prepared
texts. They were made to the
Supreme State Council and a
Special enlarged meeting call-
ed by the Communist. party,
and in them Mao was “th:nk-
ing aloud” about some of the
Major issues which face China
in building socialism.

Tape recordings of these
Speeches have been heard by
Millions of people here and
have given impetus to the cur-
rent discussions.

I have not heard these re-
cordings, but have found it
possible, by carefully examin-
ing the press and in discus-
Sions. with people who have
heard them, to reach what !
think is a fairly accurate esti-
mation of what. they contain.

*

The main issues involved, in
Which Mao is making a con-
tribution to Communist theory
of the greatest importance,

are:

+ How to solve problems

arising from differing inter-
ests and views among the
Chinese people.
_ * How to encourage the
‘frée development of arts and
Seiences under socialism.

+ How to ensure the mu-

'Wal.supervision of the Com-

Mao s

spea

off the cuf

fe

China’s Chairman Mao Tse-tung

munist party and other parties
by each other, and of both by

the people.

+ How to the

tendency of

overcome

the Communist

party — as the party in power =

— to become bureaucratic, di-
vorced from the people and
prone to act from broad prin-
ciples rather than reality.

In approaching. these ques-
tion, Mao has drawn the con-
clusion — of profound im-
portance to Communist theory
— that the 1949 revolution and

Prayer

ROM high noon -till 3 o’-
clock on May 7, some 27,-
000 American men, women
and children, > observed the
third anniversary of the U.S.
Supreme Court ruling against
racial segregation in public
schools.

Converging on Washington
from all points of the country
as parcicipants in the Prayer
Pilgrimage for Freedom, they
came to pray for freedom.
They left resolved to demand
and fight for it through poli-
tical action. ’

For three hours a powerful
battery of loud speakers at
the base of the Lincoln Mem-
orial delivered a medley of
prayer and speech and song

with that single theme —
freedom through prayer and
ballot.

High up the steps of the

the “transformation of farming,
handicrafts and capital in 1956,
have brought to an end fun-
damental class struggles in
China.

Although remnants of coun-

. & ° .
ter-revolutionary forces still
exist, there is no longer any

‘basic clash of interest among

the mass of the pecple.

The shedding of the>view—
never entirely subscribed to
here—that the class struggle
intensifies under socialism,
raises new questions.

The end of the basic clash
of interests between the peo-
ple and their enemies does not
mean the end of conflicting
views and interests among the
people themselves. Where
there is life there is conflict.

When the people have de-
cisively defeated their enemies
and this conflict disappears,
the conflicts that come to the
front are wuch as differences
of opinion or interests between
the people and their govern-
ment; different sections of the
people; mental .and manual
workers; individual and col-
lective needs; correct. and. in-
correct policies, and“ questions

ein the realm of ideas.

Since the basic interests of,
all are identicaf — the build-
ing. of socialism: and a_ better
life for all — such conflicting
issues have to be settled -by
democratic means. It is not
only incorrect’ but impossible
to solve them by using the
method of power which it is
correct to use against enemies.

For the people to dictate to
themselves is an obvious ab-
surdity.

If the attempt is made to
solve such conflicts — «which
are not fundamental or an-
tagonistic — by the methods
suited to the class struggle,
this will have the’ effect of
sharpening the conflict and
making it antagonistic.

*

This question of how to solve
the “contradictions in the
ranks of the “people” is now
placed as the central theoreti-
cal question here,

It’s a complex question,

The Communist party led
the Chinese’ people to the con-
quest of power by armed strug-
gle. It enjoys. tremendous
prestige, but this itself is a
grave danger. A minority of
Communist party members
have become conceited, seek-
ing position and fame.

‘It is easy for our members
to get begrimed with bureau-
cracy when the party is in
power,” said Lu Ting-yi, one
of the party’s leading theore-
ticians, recently.

Moreover,-Chinese Commun-
ists, long accustomed to strug-
gle and to the support of the
people, can all too easily fall

into the error of treating -op-
posing minorities as “enemies”
and of trying to solve develop-
ing problems by uing orders
based on out-of-date experi-
ence and methods.

why, side by side
democratic devel-
opments, a big movement is
starting in the Communist
party to improve its style of
work, get rid of bureaucracy
and help members to under-
stand how to solve problems
democratically and realistical-
hig

This is
with other

A leading Communist party
member told the foreign press
in Peking last week that the
most dangerous fault for China
was bureaucracy. Next
dogmatism (in the form of
overstressing principles
ignoring the actual conditions);
and thirdly, divorcement from
the real interests of the 600
million Chinese people.

was

and
and

This was why the-Commun-
ist party would concentrate on
shedding bureaucracy, subjec-

tivism and_ sectarianism. .

Inside the Communist party,

as outside, the stress is on
democratic methods.

The starting point is unity
and the desire for unity, and
then to proceed by discussicn
and criticism — “gentle as a
zephyr or a light shower”

to reach a higher degree of
unity... Nobody unwilling to
accept criticism should have

it thrust on him.

What is perhaps most im-
portant for the future is the
decision that all Communists,
leaders and rank and _ file
alike, must find out how to
blend manual work with men-
tal work.

Every tendency to look down
on manual work“in a society
where equality is based on the
ending of exploitation must
be rooted out. :

By* bringing into existence
a permanent system in which
leaders go to work, alongside
workers and peasants for part
of their time it.is believed that
problems will be discovered
more quickly and solved more
realistically.

© This is the first of two

articles by Alan Win-
nington. The second will
appear in our next issue.

Pilgrimage for Freedom

Memorial, where the giant

_ figure of Lincoln sits. brooding

out through massive marble
columns . past the reflecting
pool: toward® the Washington

Monument and Capitol Hill
beyond, speaker after speak-
er stepped to the microphone
to repeat this theme.

The sound flowed down the
steps of the shrine, drenched
thes great throng spread in a
vast semi-circle at its base,
mingled with their sighs and
cries, their laughter and ap-
plause. \ ;

“We call upon every Negro
especially, not only to regis-
ter and vote himself, but to
serve as a missionary to get
his neighbors in every house,
in every block, in every ham-
let, village, city and state of
our country to register and
vote,” said A. Philip. Rap;

dolph, AFL-CIO vice presi-
dent and one of the three co-
chairmen of the Pilgrimage,
as he opened the great cere-
mony.

“If a civil rights bill that has

“some meaning is not. passed,

voters in 1958 and 1960 will
know where to place the re-
sponsibility,” declared Roy
Wilkins, executive secretary
of the National Association
for the Advancement of Color-
ed. People, also co-chairman of
the Pilgrimage.

“Our most urgent request
to the president of the United
States and every member of
Congress is to give us the right
to vote. Give us the ballot and
we will. no longer have to
worry the federal government
about our basic rights,’’ said
the third vice- chairman, the

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., president of the Southern
Leadership and
the Montgomery Improvement
Association.

Conference

“We are sick and tired of
the two-party hypocrisy,” de-
clared Democratic Represen-
tative Adam Clayton Powell,
Jr., himself a pastor of Abys-
sinia Baptist Church of New
York and one of three Negroes
in the House of Representa-
tives. “We must.form a third
force in American politics.”

“It's not enough to pray and
shout,” said Democratic Rep-
resentative Charles Diggs. “If
that’s all you intend to do,
you might just as well have
stayed home and kneeled at
the family altar. The right to
vote must be fought for, won
and used.”

MAY 31, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 1} |