Polemic on General Line of International ... - From Marx to Mao

The proletarian party must be flexible as well as highlyprincipled, and on occasion it must make such compromisesas are necessary in the interests of the revolution. But it mustnever abandon principled policies and the goal of revolutionon the pretext of flexibility and of necessary compromises.The proletarian party must lead the masses in waging strugglesagainst the enemies, and it must know how to utilize thecontradictions among those enemies. But the purpose of usingthese contradictions is to make it easier to attain the goal ofthe people’s revolutionary struggles and not to liquidate thesestruggles.Countless facts have proved that, wherever the dark ruleof imperialism and reaction exists, the people who form over90 per cent of the population will sooner or later rise inrevolution.If Communists isolate themselves from the revolutionarydemands of the masses, they are bound to lose the confidenceof the masses and will be tossed to the rear by the revolutionarycurrent.If the leading group in any Party adopt a non-revolutionaryline and convert it into a reformist party, then Marxist-Leninistsinside and outside the Party will replace them and leadthe people in making revolution. In another kind of situation,the bourgeois revolutionaries will come forward to lead therevolution and the party of the proletariat will forfeit itsleadership of the revolution. When the reactionary bourgeoisiebetray the revolution and suppress the people, an opportunistline will cause tragic and unnecessary losses to the Communistsand the revolutionary masses.If Communists slide down the path of opportunism, they willdegenerate into bourgeois nationalists and become appendagesof the imperialists and the reactionary bourgeoisie.There are certain persons who assert that they have madethe greatest creative contributions to revolutionary theorysince Lenin and that they alone are correct. But it is verydubious whether they have ever really given consideration to23