From: The Selected Writings of Deng Xiaoping, Volume III
(October 12, 1983)
The main topic of discussion at this central plenary session is the consolidation of the party. The decision of the Central Committee on the whole party was discussed and adopted by everyone. It's a good document, and I totally agree. After the meeting, we should also discuss the party's leadership over the ideological front. I would like to make some comments on the two issues of the party as a whole not being able to go through the motions and the ideological front not engaging in spiritual pollution.
The first problem: the whole party cannot go through the motions.
Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, our Party has re-established the Marxist ideological, political, and organizational line, formulated correct policies suited to the situation in all aspects, achieved remarkable results, and gradually opened up a new situation in all fields of work. The broad masses support our party's line and leadership. In the course of realizing the great historical transformation and through the tests of many major struggles, it has been proved that the mainstream of our party is good, has combat effectiveness, and has the ability and methods to solve problems.
But the present situation in our Party is far from satisfactory. There are still many serious problems in the Party that have not been cleared up and resolved in time. There are negative things left over from a decade of civil strife, as well as negative things that have arisen and developed under the new historical conditions. The decision lists "three kinds of people", serious economic crimes and other criminal offenders, people who abuse their power for personal gain and seriously damage the relationship between the Party and the masses, those who have been consistent with the central authorities for a long time, or who have been superficially consistent but have actually engaged in a different set, and so on. All these are dangerous factors and corrupt factors within the party, and they are serious manifestations of impure thinking, impure work style, and impure organization within the party.
One of the most dangerous is the "three kinds of people". A number of these people have been identified and dealt with, and some have been corrected in thought and action. But there are indeed quite a few whose positions have not changed and have been hidden within the Party. They are said to be most dangerous because: first, they adhere to the original gang ideology and have a set of inciting and subversive political ideas; second, they have cunning political tricks, they disguise themselves when they are unfavorable, they deceive trust, and when the time comes, they will fan the flames and create new turmoil; third, they have transferred, spread, and hidden in many parts of the country, and the secret factional ties have not been completely eliminated; fourth, they are relatively young and more educated. Some of them have long threatened to see you in ten or twenty years. In short, they are an ambitious political force that cannot be underestimated, and if they are not resolved in the whole party, they will leave a curse and become a time bomb.
Of course, the problems of other types of people are also dangerous and the root cause if they are not solved.
Many of our old Communist Party members are very worried about these situations, and the broad masses of Party members and the masses of the people are also worried and dissatisfied. The Twelfth National Congress decided to carry out a comprehensive reorganization of the party, which was unanimously supported by the whole party and the people of all nationalities throughout the country, and great expectations were placed on the whole party. This requires our party to make up its mind to carry out this party consolidation with a resolute, serious, and serious attitude, to earnestly resolve the above-mentioned serious problems that must be solved, and absolutely not to go through the motions and disappoint the comrades of the whole party and the people of the whole country.
Since the Third Plenary Session, we have devoted great efforts to correcting the mistakes of the "Left" in the "Cultural Revolution" and some of the political movements and ideological struggles that preceded it, and we are absolutely correct. Such "Left" mistakes must not be repeated. However, many comrades one-sidedly sum up the lessons of history, holding that when we talk about ideological struggle and serious handling, we mean "left" and only mention "left" and do not mention anti-right, which leads to the other extreme of weakness and slackness. On the issue of ideological struggle and organizational handling of erroneous tendencies and bad people and bad deeds, over the past few years the Party has indeed fostered the feelings of excessive tolerance, indecision, fear of difficulties and softness, and calming down, which has relaxed the Party's discipline and even protected some bad people.
Recently, the nationwide concentrated crackdown on serious criminal offenders in accordance with the law has won the enthusiastic support of the broad masses and has won the hearts of the people. The masses are only worried that the future will be handled too leniently, and the tiger will return to the mountain, and the criminals will come to take revenge. The masses also believe that it is long overdue to crack down severely, and criticize us for being late. These reflections and criticisms deserve great attention. In the past two years, we have pointed out that there is a weak and scattered situation in the leadership at all levels, and the inability to deal with serious criminal offenders is also a manifestation. Lessons should be drawn from this, and the weakness and sluggishness of leadership must be resolutely overcome. In the whole party, the above-mentioned "three kinds of people" and other people who have made serious mistakes and caused serious harm must be seriously organized and dealt with. Those who should be expelled from the party will be expelled from the party, those who should be dismissed from their posts or other sanctions will be given these sanctions, and those who commit crimes must be punished. Those with less serious circumstances should be seriously criticized, and they should be asked to make serious rather than perfunctory reviews and make practical guarantees for correcting their mistakes. This is one of the most important signs that the whole party does not go through the motions.
The whole Party needs to be dealt with organizationally, but only a very small number in the whole Party. For most Party members, it is through ideological education that party spirit is strengthened. It is necessary to make remarkable progress in the ideological, political, and mental state of the whole party, to significantly enhance the consciousness of party members to serve the people without seeking selfish interests, and to markedly improve the relationship between the party and the masses. It is necessary to carry out criticism and self-criticism within the Party on a regular basis through the whole Party. No matter who is in the Party, no matter how high or low the position is, it must be able to accept criticism and carry out self-criticism. It is necessary to strengthen party building through the consolidation of the party and bring about a fundamental improvement in the party's work style. Every Party member, every Party member cadre, and every Party organization must conduct inspections in light of the Party Constitution and, according to their own specific conditions, make an effort to meet and adhere to the qualification standards stipulated in the Party Constitution, and ensure their realization. Leading cadres at all levels, especially senior cadres, should strictly abide by the party constitution and the "Several Guidelines on Political Life within the Party" and play an exemplary role. This is another important sign that the whole party does not go through the motions.
In short, we must do a good job in rectifying the party this time, build our party into a Marxist political party with combat effectiveness, and become a strong core leading the people of the whole country to carry out the building of socialist material and spiritual civilization. If the whole party makes this determination, things will certainly be handled well.
The second problem: The ideological front must not engage in spiritual pollution.
The ideological front is very broad, and I am now mainly talking about the theoretical and literary and artistic fronts. There have been great achievements in these two areas over the past few years. Discussions on the fact that practice is the only criterion for testing truth, on the scientific summing up of the party's history, especially since the founding of the People's Republic, on building socialism with Chinese characteristics, on the reform of the economic and political system, on building socialist spiritual civilization and strengthening communist and patriotic ideological education, around these, the theoretical circles have done a lot of research, argumentation, and propaganda work, and have played a positive role. In all fields of theory and scholarship, many comrades have worked hard and done a great deal of useful work. Literature and art have seen unprecedented prosperity, and there have been remarkable progress in reflecting the depth and breadth of real life and in the expressiveness of art. Novels, reportage, movies, television dramas, dramas, operas, poetry, music, art, dance, qu art and other aspects have produced a number of excellent works. The achievements are the main ones, and there is no doubt about them.
However, there are still many problems in the literary and artistic circles in the theoretical circles, and there is still quite serious confusion, especially the phenomenon of spiritual pollution. Today I would like to revisit this aspect.
The warriors on the ideological front should all be engineers of the human soul. In the current period of change, their responsibility in ideological education is particularly heavy in the building of socialist spiritual civilization and in the cause of socialist construction as a whole. The negative consequences of the decade of civil strife and the various factors left over from history, as well as the new and complex problems that have emerged in the new situation, have aroused various reactions in people's thinking, including some vague and erroneous understandings. As soul engineers, we should hold high the banner of Marxism and socialism, use our own articles, works, teachings, speeches, and performances to educate and guide the people to correctly treat history, understand reality, firmly believe in socialism and the party's leadership, encourage the people to work hard, be positive, truly have ideals, morality, culture, and discipline, and struggle heroically for the great and magnificent cause of socialist modernization. Most people do exactly that to varying degrees. However, some people run counter to the demands of their contemporaries and the people, polluting people's souls with their unhealthy thoughts, unhealthy works, and unhealthy performances. The essence of spiritual pollution is the spread of decadent ideas of the bourgeoisie and other exploiting classes in all its forms, and the distrust of socialism, the cause of communism and the leadership of the Communist Party. former
The Central Committee of the Party held a symposium on the question of the ideological front and criticized certain bourgeois liberalization tendencies and the weakness and slackness of leadership, which had some effect but did not solve the problem completely. A state of weakness and slackness in leadership remains; the tendency to liberalize the bourgeoisie has either been overcome, some have not been overcome, and some have developed even more severely.
A considerable number of theoretical workers lack interest in the various major theoretical issues raised in the practice of socialist modernization, are unwilling to investigate and study practical problems, and indicate that they should keep a distance from reality so as not to make mistakes or think that they have no academic value. In the study of practical problems, it is also true that some cases have departed from the direction of Marxism. There are comrades who are keen to talk about human values, humanism and so-called alienation, whose interest is not in criticizing capitalism but in criticizing socialism. Humanitarianism, as a theoretical and moral question, can certainly be discussed and discussed. But there are all kinds of humanism, and we must carry out Marxist analysis, propagate and practice socialist humanism (in the revolutionary years we call it revolutionary humanism), and criticize bourgeois humanism. The bourgeoisie often flaunts how they speak of humanitarianism and attack socialism as anti-humanitarian. I did not expect that some comrades in our Party would also abstractly propagate humanitarianism, human values, and so on. They do not understand that not only in capitalist society, but also in socialist society, we cannot talk about human values and humanism in the abstract, because there are still bad people in our society, old social scum and new social scum, anti-socialist elements, and foreign and Taiwanese spies. The living standards and cultural level of our people are not yet high, and this cannot be solved by talking about human values and humanitarianism, but mainly by actively building material and spiritual civilization. Talking about people without these specific conditions and specific tasks is not talking about real people but about abstract people, and it is not a Marxist attitude, which will lead young people astray. As for "alienation", Marx, after discovering the law of surplus-value, went on to use this term to describe the wage labor of the workers in capitalist society, meaning that this labor of the workers is alien and opposes the workers themselves, and the result is only to make the capitalists rich and impoverish themselves. At present, some comrades go beyond the scope of capitalism, and even do not even aim at the remnants of capitalist labor alienation and its consequences, but say that there is alienation in socialism, in the economic, political and ideological fields, and that socialism is constantly generating dissident forces in its own development due to the activities of the social subjects themselves. They also explain the reforms with the idea of overcoming this so-called alienation. In this way, it is not only impossible to help people correctly understand and solve the problems that arise in the current socialist society, but also to help people correctly understand and carry out the reforms that need to be carried out continuously in socialist society for technological progress and social progress. In fact, this will only lead people to criticize, doubt and negate socialism, and make people lose confidence in the future of socialism and communism, believing that socialism is as hopeless as capitalism. If this is the case, what is the point of doing socialism! Marxism must develop, socialist theory must develop, and it must develop along with the development of human social practice and the development of science. But the above view is not a forward development, but a backward step backwards, a regression to the pre-Marxist period. Humanitarianism and alienation are the more prominent issues in the current ideological circles. There are many other similar problems. For example, propagating abstract democracy, even advocating that counter-revolutionary speech should also have freedom of expression; opposing democracy to the leadership of the Party, proposing statements contrary to Marxism on the question of Party and people's nature, and so on. Some comrades are still skeptical about the Party's proposal to adhere to the Four Cardinal Principles. For a time, a small number of comrades thought that whether our society was a socialist society, whether socialism should or could not be practiced, and whether our Party was a proletarian party or not, were still questions. Some comrades also believe that since this is now the stage of socialism, "everything is looked at by money" is inevitable and correct. Most of these erroneous views were written in articles published openly in the press, and some of them remained unscientified. It can be seen to what extent the thinking of some comrades in the theoretical circles is confused.
In terms of literature and art, in recent years, there have been more literary works reflecting the new life of socialist construction, which is welcome. However, there are many works that can arouse the revolutionary spirit of the people and young people and promote their courageous dedication to the construction and struggle of the motherland in all fields, and have a strong and inspiring force, in addition to the reportage, there are also many other aspects, but it cannot be said that there are many. Some people express indifference to the slogan put forward by the Party Central Committee that literature and art serve the people and serve socialism, indifferent to the socialist orientation of literature and art, lack enthusiasm for the revolutionary history of the party and the people and their heroic deeds in the struggle for socialist modernization, and rarely stand on the party's positive revolutionary stand to raise the masses' understanding, arouse their enthusiasm, and strengthen their confidence in the problems that need to be solved in the socialist cause. On the contrary, they are zealous in writing about the dark, gray, and even the fabrication and distortion of the history and reality of the revolution. Some people vigorously advocate the so-called "modernist" trend of thought in the West, openly preach that the highest purpose of literature and art is to "express oneself", or propagate abstract human nature theory and humanism, believing that the alienation of people under the so-called socialist conditions should become the theme of creation, and individual works also promote pornography. Although there are not many such works, their impact on some young people cannot be ignored. Many literary and art workers neglect to study Marxism and do not go deep into the struggle of the masses to build a new life, and some party members do not actively participate in the life of the party.
The unhealthy trend of "looking at money for everything" has also spread in the literary and art circles, and from the grassroots level to the central level of performance groups, some actors have run around and performed randomly, and many people have used some vulgar and low-level content and forms to make money. It is a pity that some famous actors and some literary and artistic fighters of the People's Liberation Army have also been swept inside. For those who only cater to the low-level tastes of a certain audience and do not hesitate to ruin the glorious title of socialist literary and art workers, it is natural for the broad masses to express indignation. This tendency to "look at money in everything" and to commodify spiritual products is also manifested in other aspects of spiritual production. Some people who are mixed in the art world, the publishing world, and the cultural relics world have simply become mercenary businessmen.
What attitude should we adopt towards modern Western bourgeois culture? The principle of opening up to the outside world economically is correct and must be adhered to for a long time. Foreign cultural exchanges should also develop for a long time. In the economic aspect, we should adopt a two-handed policy, which should be open to the outside world, and we must not blindly introduce it without planning or choosing, still less can we not resolutely resist and struggle against the corrosive influence of capitalism. Why is it that communication on a cultural scale allows what is harmful to us in capitalist culture to flow freely? We want to learn from the capitalist developed countries advanced science, technology, management methods, and all other knowledge and culture that are beneficial to us. However, things that belong to the cultural field must be analyzed, identified and criticized by Marxism in terms of their ideological content and methods of expression. There are still many upright and progressive scholars, writers, and artists in the West who are carrying out all kinds of serious and valuable works and creations, and our works we must of course focus on. However, at present, some comrades do not analyze, distinguish, or criticize the various philosophical, economic, socio-political, literary and artistic trends in the West, but blindly promote them in droves. The introduction of Western academic culture is so chaotic that even some books, movies, music, dances, video recordings, and audio recordings that are also considered vulgar or harmful in Western countries have been imported a lot in recent years. This kind of corrosion of the youth with the degenerate culture of the Western bourgeoisie can no longer be tolerated.
It must be pointed out that whether in the theoretical circles or in the literary and artistic circles, the mainstream is still good or relatively good, and only a small number of people are engaged in spiritual pollution. The problem is the lack of strong criticism of the erroneous words and deeds of this minority and the necessary measures to stop them. The harm of spiritual pollution is very great, enough to harm the country and the people. It confuses the boundaries between right and wrong among the people, creates a passive and scattered mood of detachment from morality, corrupts people's souls and wills, encourages the proliferation of individualistic ideas of all kinds, and encourages some people to doubt or even negate socialism and the leadership of the Party. The core of the four cardinal principles is the socialist system and the party's leadership, which are the foundation for our nation-building and unity in the struggle of the people of the whole country. At present, all kinds of negative phenomena, unhealthy tendencies, criminal acts, and some people's anti-socialist hostile activities in society have many reasons, and of course they cannot all be attributed to the confusion on the ideological front. However, it is true that the impact of confusion on the ideological front cannot be underestimated. Don't we all embrace practice as the only test of truth? Some comrades should see what impact and consequences their erroneous remarks, harmful works, and low-level performances have had on the people and among the youth. Some honest and friendly foreigners are worried about us for this. Of course, there are also people who applaud. Some people applauded on the mainland, as well as in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and some foreign countries. I would like to advise these comrades to think about what people are applauding: Who stands on what stand and what is applauded, for what purpose, and also test it with practice. Don't think that a little mental pollution is nothing, it's worth making a fuss about. Some phenomena may not see much harm in the short term. However, if we do not pay attention in time and take firm measures to stop it, and let its freedom run rampant, it will affect more people to embark on the evil road, and the consequences may be very serious. In the long run, this issue has a bearing on what kind of generation will succeed our cause, and on the fate and future of the party and the country.
We must vigorously strengthen the party's leadership over the ideological front. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, especially the Twelfth National Congress, the guidelines for the ideological front have been correct and clear, and the problem lies in the ineffective implementation of them. From the central to the local levels, the principal responsible persons of party committees at all levels must attach importance to the situation, problems, and work of the literary and artistic circles in the theoretical circles and the entire ideological front. First of all, we must understand the seriousness of the current problems and the urgent necessity of changing the situation of weak and scattered leadership on the ideological front. Some comrades pay no attention to spiritual pollution and adopt a liberal attitude, even believing that it is lively and lively, which is the embodiment of the "double hundred" policy. Some comrades know that something is wrong, but they are unwilling or afraid to criticize, for fear of hurting harmony. It won't work. Just as the whole party must adopt a resolute, serious, and serious attitude toward erroneous tendencies and bad people and bad deeds, we must also adopt a resolute, serious, and serious attitude toward all kinds of serious problems that cause ideological confusion and spiritual pollution, and we must grasp them to the end. The main way to solve the problem of confusion on the ideological front is still to carry out criticism and self-criticism. We should admit that some Marxist criticisms of some erroneous tendencies have been carried out in the theoretical and literary circles, but the effect is not remarkable enough. The quality and weight of criticism itself are not enough, and the momentum of resistance to criticism is very strong. There is not much criticism, but it is often called "siege" and is said to be "beating sticks". In fact, critics are besieged, but those who are criticized are often sympathized and protected. We must thoroughly reverse this abnormal situation so that Marxist and socialist and communist propaganda, especially the correct viewpoints on all major theoretical and principled issues, can truly play a leading role in the ideological circles. At present, some erroneous views claim to be Marxist, while others openly challenge Marxism. Marxists should speak out in this regard. Communists on the ideological front, especially those who bear leadership responsibilities and influential Communists in this regard, must stand in the forefront of the struggle. If you make mistakes, you must seriously self-criticize and correct them. Whoever persists in making mistakes and refuses to correct them cannot assume the leadership responsibility for ideological work. All Communist Party members must strengthen their Party spirit and abide by the Party's constitution and discipline. No matter what experts, scholars, writers, or artists, as long as they are party members, they are not allowed to regard themselves as special, think that they are politically superior to the party, and can do their own thing. Resolving these problems is the most important demand of the whole party on the party organizations and party members on the ideological front this time. So long as our Party truly strengthens the leadership of Marxism, resolutely overcomes the state of weakness and slackness and the liberal attitude, and conscientiously wages an active ideological struggle, all the above-mentioned problems on the ideological front can be solved, and it will not be difficult to resolve.
When we do this, some people will say, has the party's policy changed, or should a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend? The party's policy has not changed, and the "double hundred" policy is still to be achieved. However, to oppose the development of criticism against the "double hundred" policy is a serious misunderstanding or misinterpretation. The purpose of the "double hundred" policy is to promote the prosperity of socialist culture. Comrade Mao Zedong said: "Truth develops in the course of the struggle against error. This is how Marxism developed. Some people understand the "double hundred" policy as absolute freedom, and even only let the wrong things go, and do not let Marxism fight. What else is this called a hundred schools of thought? This distorts the "double hundred" policy, the Marxist policy of the proletariat, into the liberal policy of the bourgeoisie. Comrade Mao Zedong's "Against Liberalism" is a good marxist article. It is recommended that leading comrades at all levels, especially comrades on the ideological front, conscientiously study it and act in accordance with the spirit of the article.
When we emphasize waging a positive ideological struggle, we must still pay attention to preventing the mistakes of the "Left." The simple, one-sided, crude and overheated so-called criticism of the past, as well as the method of dealing with cruel struggle and ruthless blows, must not be repeated. Whether it is a meeting to speak or write an article, it is necessary to carry out a full reasoning and realistic scientific analysis. Those who participate in the discussion and criticism must first clearly study the issues of discussion and criticism, and must not use partial generalizations, grass and trees are soldiers, and they must not use force to suppress people and use strong words to seize reason. Comrades who have made mistakes should adopt an attitude of being kind to others, give them time to seriously consider them, let them reply that is reasonable and clarify the arguments and facts, and in particular welcome and encourage them to carry out sincere self-criticism. With this kind of self-criticism, don't hold on. Criticism or self-criticism must stand on the Marxist standpoint, not on the "Left" standpoint. The erroneous views of the "Left" in ideological theory still need to continue to be criticized and corrected. However, it should be clearly pointed out that the first problem to be focused on on the current ideological front is to correct the rightist tendency to be weak and scattered.
In short, strengthening the party's leadership over the ideological front and overcoming the state of weakness and slackness has become an urgent task for the whole party. There are similar or other problems that urgently need to be solved not only in the theoretical circles of literature and art, but also in education, press, publishing, radio, television, mass culture, and mass ideological and political work. The work of the entire ideological front needs to be strengthened. We must solemnly raise this issue before the whole Party and the important agenda of the Central and Local Party committees at all levels. After the focus of work shifts to economic construction, the whole party should study how to adapt to the new conditions, strengthen the party's ideological work, and prevent the tendency to immerse oneself in economic work and neglect ideological work. Party committees at all levels, first and foremost the principal responsible comrades of party committees, must pay close attention to and thoroughly study the situation and problems on the ideological front and adopt practical and effective methods to improve the work on this front. I propose that the Politburo or the Secretariat of the Central Committee conduct special discussions on the work of the Party's ideological front and systematically resolve the relevant issues of principles, tasks, measures, steps, and so on. I believe that as long as the whole party attaches importance to this work from top to bottom, grasps this work, and carries out the comprehensive rectification of the party, the current situation in this regard will certainly be greatly improved, and a new situation of greater prosperity and prosperity of socialist ideology and culture will certainly emerge.
(This is Comrade Deng Xiaoping's speech at the Second Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.) ）
