K. This is the 1st working draft of vol. VI. It still ... - From Marx to Mao

MAO’S INTERVIEW WITH
AN AMERICAN JOURNALIST,
GUNTHER STEIN
!($$
FROM MARX
TO MAO
“Communists in all countries have only one thing in common”,
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Mao Tse-tung said in reply to my question whether there was really
no possibility of a change of “that awful word Communist” in the
name of the Party. “What they have in common is their method of
political thinking along the lines of Marxism.
“Communists everywhere have to distinguish between this system
of thought and an entirely different matter: the Communist system
of social organization which is the final political aim of their
system of thought.
NOT FOR
COMMERCIAL
“Especially we in China must strictly distinguish between the
Communist method of observing, studying, and solving social problems
on the one hand, and the practical policies of our New Democ-
racy on the other, which during the present stage of China’s social
development must constitute our immediate aim. Without the Communist
method of thinking we would be unable to direct the present,
democratic stage of our social revolution. And without the political
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system of the New Democracy we would not apply our Communist
philosophy correctly to the realities of China.
“Our present New Democracy will have to be continued under
any conditions and for a long period to come. For the concrete conditions
existing in China dictate to us the continuation of that policy.
“What China needs now is democracy and not socialism. To be
more precise, China’s needs at present are three: (1) to drive the
Japanese out; (2) to realize democracy on a nation-wide scale by
giving the people all the forms of modern liberty and a system of
national and local governments elected by them in genuinely free
general elections, which we have already done in the areas under
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