DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND STRONG ECONOMY ARE INTERDEPENDENT

DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND STRONG ECONOMY ARE INTERDEPENDENT

1. FREEDOM IS NECESSARY FOR SOUND ECONOMY

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. ON COALITION GOVERNMENT, 1967, p. 70.

Without independence, freedom, democracy and unity it is impossible to build industry on a really large scale without industry there can be no solid national defense, no well-being for the people, no prosperity or strength for the nation. This history of the 105 years since the Opium War of 1840, and especially of the eighteen years since the Kuomintang came to power, has brought this important point home to the Chinese people.

2. STRONG ECONOMIC BASE NECESSARY FOR DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. ON COALITION GOVERNMENT, 1967, p. 71.

When the political system of new democracy is won, the Chinese people and their government will have to adopt practical measures in order to build heavy and light industry step by step over a number of years and transform China from an agricultural into an industrial country. The new democratic state cannot be consolidated unless it has a solid economy as its base, a much more advanced agriculture than at present, and a large-scale industry occupying a predominant position in the national economy, with communications, trade and finance to match.
3. CANNOT SEPARATE CULTURAL VALUES AND POLITICS AND ECONOMY

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. ON NEW DEMOCRACY, 1954, p. 3-4.

Any given culture (culture as an ideological form) is a reflection of the politics and economy of a given society, while it has in turn a tremendous influence and effect upon the politics and economy of the given society; economy is the basis, and politics are the concentrated expression of economy. This is our fundamental view on the relation of culture to politics and economy and the relation between politics and economy. Hence, in the first place given forms of politics and economy determine a given form of culture, and only then does the given form of culture have any influence and effect upon the given forms of politics and economy.

VALUE SYSTEM MUST SOLVE OPPRESSION

1. VALUE SYSTEM MUST PROVIDE OPPORTUNITY TO SOLVE OPPRESSION

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. ON COALITION GOVERNMENT, 1967, p. 87.

The universal truth of Marxism-Leninism, which reflects the practice of proletarian struggle throughout the world, becomes an invincible weapon for the Chinese people when it is integrated with the concrete practice of the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese proletariat and people. This the Communist Party of China has achieved. Our Party has grown and advanced through staunch struggle against every manifestation of dogmatism and empiricism which runs counter to this principle.

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. FOUR ESSAYS ON PHILOSOPHY, 1968, p. 84.

Our socialist democracy is democracy in the broadest sense such as is not to be found in any capitalist country. Our dictatorship is the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance. That is to say democracy operates within the ranks of the people, while the working class, uniting with all others enjoying civil rights, and in the first place with the peasantry, enforces dictatorship over the reactionary classes and elements and all those who resist socialist transformation and oppose socialist construction. By civil rights, we mean politically the rights of freedom and democracy.

MAJORITARIANISM SHOULD BE THE CORE GUIDE FOR SOCIAL ACTION

1. VALUE SYSTEM MUST EMANATE FROM THE MASSES

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. ON COALITION GOVERNMENT, 1967, p. 88-9.

Our point of departure is to serve the people whole-heartedly and never for a moment divorce ourselves from the masses to proceed in all cases from the interests of the people and not from the interests of individuals or groups, and to understand the identity of our responsibility to the people and our responsibility to the leading organs of the party. Communists must be ready at all times to stand up for the truth, because truth is in the interests of the people; Communists must be ready at all times to correct their mistakes, because mistakes are against the interests of the people. Twenty-four years of experience tell us that the right task, policy and style of work invariably conform with the demands of the masses at a given time and place and invariably strengthen our ties with the masses, and the wrong task, policy and style of work invariably disagree with the demands of the masses at a given time and place and invariably alienate us from the masses.

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. ON COALITION GOVERNMENT, 1967, p. 89.

The reason why such evils as dogmatism, empiricism, commandism, tailism, sectarianism, bureaucracy and an arrogant attitude in work are definitely harmful and intolerable, and why anyone suffering from these maladies must overcome them, is that they alienate us from the masses.
3. MAJORITY RULE SHOULD GUIDE POLITICAL SYSTEMS

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. ON COALITION GOVERNMENT, 1967, p. 90.

In a word, every comrade must be brought to understand that the supreme test of the words and deeds of a Communist is whether they conform with the highest interests and enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the people. Every comrade must be helped to understand that as long as we rely on the people, believe firmly in the inexhaustible creative power of the masses and hence trust and identify ourselves with them, no economy can crush us while we can crush every enemy and overcome every difficulty.
4. MUST CARE FOR THE RIGHTS OF EVERYONE

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG, VOLUME ONE: 1926-1936, 1954, p. 113.

To care only about the interests of one’s own small group and ignore general interests--although apparently not concerned with personal interests, this contains in reality individualism of an extremely narrow kind and likewise has an exceedingly corrosive and centrifugal effect. In the Red Army, cliquism has all along been rampant; although it has now become less serious as a result of criticism, its remnants still exist and further efforts is needed to overcome it.
5. MUST AWAKEN AND UNDERSTAND THAT PEOPLE’S VALUES COME FIRST

Mao Tse-Tung, Former Chairperson-Chinese Communist Party. ON NEW DEMOCRACY, 1954, p. 22-23.

These classes (proletariat, peasantry, intelligentsia) some already awakened and others on the point of awakening, will necessarily become the basic component parts of the state structure and of the structure of political power of the democratic republic of China with the proletariat as the leading force. The democratic republic of China which we now want to establish can only be a democratic republic under the joint dictatorship of all anti-imperialist and anti-feudal people led by the proletariat, that is, a new democratic republic, or a republic of the genuinely revolutionary new Three People’s Principles with three cardinal policies.
6. MAOISM CELEBRATES THE VALUES OF THE PEOPLE

A WORLD TO WIN, April, 1991, p. 26.

The only correct solution for the liberation of the masses of the oppressed countries is to wage a protracted people’s war, relying upon the masses and based mainly in the countryside, to go from weak to strong while destroying the enemy bit by bit, applying the principle of self-reliance and hard struggle. These are lessons summed up by Mao Tse Tung.