When revolutionary committees first made their appearance in Red China, they were officially described as "provisional" power organs. But now that they have been set up in all of the major administrative units on the Chinese mainland, and the situation is being pronounced favorable for the overall victory of the "cultural revolution", there have been no further references to their provisional nature. Nevertheless, the current program officially imposed on the revolutionary committees, calling for (1) their consolidation and development, (2) revolutionary great repudiation, (3) cleansing of the class ranks and (4) Party rectification, is aimed at progressive reconstitution on the Chinese Communist Party apparatus at all levels.
While the official media continue to stress the magnitude of this task, warning that savage opposition from the "enemy" is sure to be encountered, the successful completion of this program is sought to restore the nationwide power of the Party, which has been so badly damaged by the "cultural revolution". In that event, the revolutionary committees could hardly continue to be "supreme organs of power", unless, of course, they became new Party committees at each level.
The tasks and plans for Kweichow province recently outlined by its provincial revolutionary committee show plainly that the main objective is that of rebuilding the provincial Party structure and, at the same time, they detail how this is to be done.
The program for Kweichow was contained in the resolution of an enlarged meeting of the Standing Committee of the Kweichow Provincial Revolutionary Committee held from August 30 to September 6.
Consolidation and development of the revolutionary committees and the cleansing of the class ranks appear in proper perspective in this program as prerequisites for "Party rectification".
For example, the instructions for consolidating and developing the revolutionary committees contain the following:
"Augment the representatives of the three sides in the revolutionary committees and put the committees on a sound basis. The revolutionary committees at all levels must have representatives of revolutionary cadres and give play to the leading and backbone role of revolutionary cadres. In accordance with Chairman Mao's teaching, it is essential to treat cadres correctly and continue to do a good job of the work of liberating cadres. Revolutionary cadres who have joined the alliance must be supported in their work."
Recently overridden by the provincial military powerholders in the higher level revolutionary committees, the leftist "revolutionary rebel" faction apparently continues to occupy some of the lower-level revolutionary committees formed through a "two-way alliance" of PLA and representatives of revolutionary organizations. The rebels in Kweichow have long refused to associate with former Party or administration cadres, whether they are "revolutionary" or not, much less to allow them to assume a "leading and backbone role".
Now the emphasis is on Party, and those who set themselves in opposition to the Party in Kweichow, that is, those who until their recent overthrow dominated the province, are now put into the category of "class enemies". The following instruction from the section dealing with "cleansing of the class ranks" speaks for itself.
"Strictly distinguish between the two kinds of contradiction, bring into full play the power of Party policy and deal steady, accurate and hard blows at a handful of class enemies... It is essential to distinguish between the bad chieftains of an organization and the broad masses of that organization, between a handful of class enemies and those masses who have made mistakes, between persons who have done wrong things or written erroneous articles and elements opposed to the Party, socialism and Mao Tse-tung's thought and between persons who have ordinary problems in their political history and traitors, spies and counterrevolutionaries. The influence of diehard capitalist-roaders and bourgeois technical authorities is very great, but only a very few of them need to be struck down. Even these people must be given a way out; the policy of not giving them a way out is not proletarian policy."
This formula would make it possible to reinstate practically all the former provincial Party and government cadres who have been made to "stand aside", provided of course they are still living.
Having thus provided for the resuscitation of former Party cadres who still remain inactive, the resolution of the enlarged meeting of the Standing Committee of the Kweichow Revolutionary Committee proceeds to discuss the "organizational life of the Party" and how this may be most expeditiously revived. The Party organization in Kweichow, it discloses, has been "initially rectified". This has been done "on the basis of repudiating the counterrevolutionary revisionist line in Party-building of China's Khrushchev", which in the context of the provisions which follow, could hardly have amounted to anything more than a formal recantation by the cadres concerned. As a result of this, "many places and units have revived Party life", it is stated. "However, some areas and units do not have sufficient understanding of the significance of rectifying the Party and have not grasped the work firmly". If they have not, one can be sure that it is not the Party members, if any, in those "areas and units" who have been to blame.
To put this situation right, the resolution lays down a guideline under the heading "On Rectifying the Party". It begins:
"In accordance with Chairman Mao's teaching, the revolutionary committees at all levels must seriously grasp the work of rectifying the Party organization and reviving Party life. Reviving Party life certainly does not mean reviving the old stuff which prevailed before the great proletarian cultural revolution. All areas and units where the establishment of revolutionary committees has been approved must gradually from top to bottom set up Party Leadership Nucleus Groups and revive the organizational life of the Party.
"The heads and members of these Nucleus Groups must be outstanding Party members who are vigorous, filled with the proletarian spirit of making thorough revolution and act as vanguards in the class struggle...
"Those traitors and spies against whom proof is certain and those diehard persons who behaved extremely badly in the great proletarian cultural revolution must not again live the organization all life of the Party. Suspected traitors and spies should not be allowed to take part in the organizational life of the Party for the time being." But this still leaves a wide scope, as the resolution shows in continuing:
"Those Party members who have made serious mistakes and behaved extremely badly in the great proletarian cultural revolution, but have confessed their errors and gained the trust of the revolutionary masses, should boldly take part in the organizational life of the Party."
After stating that the acceptance of new Party members in Kweichow must be based on Mao's "five yardsticks for heirs to the cause of proletarian revolution and Vice Chairman Lin's three yardsticks for selecting cadres", there is the bald command: "Pay attention to their class backgrounds. Where this is not known, pay attention to their political behavior. Develop boldly, without letting a single bad element get in". As selection of these new members is to be the duty of the Party Leadership Nucleus Groups, it will be extremely unlikely that any of the "leftist" elements who until recently were attacking the whole former Party membership will be allowed to get in. In fact, the resolution explicitly states that those who are to be accepted into the Party first are those "outstanding workers, poor and lower-middle peasants, PLA fighters and revolutionary young generals who are filled with the proletarian spirit of revolution, have been steeled in the great proletarian cultural revolution and are resolved to carry through to the end, in order to strengthen the new forces of the Party".
The following regulations on the right to approve the acceptance of new Party members are made "in accordance with current conditions in our province".
"The acceptance of new Party members in all the units subordinate to the Provincial Revolutionary Committee must be approved by the various leadership groups.
"The acceptance of new Party members in districts, factories and enterprises must be approved by the approved Party leadership groups of revolutionary committees of county level and above their equivalent. In units which have not set up Party leadership nucleus groups, the acceptance of new Party members can be discussed and examined by Party members of standing committees of the revolutionary committees and referred for approval to the Party leadership nucleus groups of higher-level revolutionary committees."
The process set forth here ensures a "top-to-bottom" screening which permits the Kweichow Provincial Revolutionary Committee to exercise control of Party matters throughout the province. Like other provincial and regional revolutionary committees on the mainland where the provincial military powerholders are in control, the Kweichow Revolutionary Committee is not likely to give the "leftist" revolutionary rebels (now known as the "class enemy") much breathing space.
As those now in the ascendant are warning that the task ahead will be an arduous one, the process of rebuilding the Party is likely to take some time. As a Ninth Party Congress can scarcely be expected before the process is complete, it follows that one is unlikely to be held in the near future.
Perhaps the situation will be clear enough to permit the Peiping authorities to make a firm announcement by January 1.
At all events, the task of (1) consolidation and development of revolutionary committees, (2) great repudiation, (3) cleansing of the class ranks and (4) Party rectification is to be imposed on the revolutionary committees throughout the mainland. Kweichow's detailed program makes it clear that 1, 2 and 3 are merely progressive steps towards the final aim of Party rebuilding, and there is no reason why this should not be the Maoists' nationwide aim as well.
Senior army officers are 'great problem'
In contrast with the hubristic claims Lin Piao made from Peiping's Gate of Heavenly Peace on October 1 was an editorial note which appeared in Liberation Army Daily a few days before the celebration and which revealed official concern over the attitude of senior officers of the armed forces toward Mao Tse-tung and the cultural revolution.
This editorial note introduced an article recommending to "all comrades of the armed forces, and especially the old cadres", the example of old cadre Yu Chun.
Yu Chun was introduced in the following words: "To lead a great revolution, there must be a great Party and many of the best cadres. The invincible thought of Mao Tse-tung has nurtured thousands and tens of thousands of good cadres, loyal to the Party, loyal to the people and loyal to Chairman Mao. Comrade Yu Chun is an outstanding one among them." Having "taken part in revolution" at the time of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Yu Chun, after the victory and in conformity with Mao's teaching, "did not claim merit, did not become arrogant and consistently preserved his lively revolutionary vigor". "At a time when cancer threatened his life, he even more painstakingly studied and propagated the thought of Mao Tse-tung in the revolutionary spirit of 'fighting only for the day', and even more selflessly worked for the Party and the people."
Mao Tse-tung laid down five conditions for the raising of revolutionary successors "in the new period when the Socialist Revolution had developed intensely", and at the same time brought up the problem of old cadres "preserving their proletarian revolutionary integrity", according to the editorial note. This was in 1964 at the latest. In 1965, Tao Chu was to express himself on the same theme in an article which threatened old cadres with retribution if they did not abandon their practice of "resting on old merits".
Now, after at least four more years, the problem still remains. But as it is mainly the senior cadres in the armed forces who are under discussion in the note, the problem would seem to have become one of insubordination, if not mutiny. Even allowing for hyperbole, the authorities evidently regard the attitude of certain old army cadres as a distinct threat to the fulfillment of their aims.
As the editorial note puts it, "Revolutionary old cadres are leadership backbone of proletarian dictatorship bearing the heavy responsibility of leading the new cadres forward. Old cadres' preservation of revolutionary integrity is a great problem having to do with the country's preservation of its red countenance, and is also a great problem having to do with whether our army will or will not change in quality".
"Vice Chairman Lin Piao instructs us that to preserve our revolutionary integrity, 'What is most important is that we should observe these five conditions laid down by Chairman Mao for successors'. Expressed simply, these are that we must trust Chairman Mao, must trust the masses and must comport ourselves correctly."
The editorial note ends with an enjoinder to learn from Yu Chun, and quotes Mao's words: "Do not rest on your laurels. Gain new merit".
Workers take over the school system
Since last summer, the authorities on the mainland have dispatched millions of industrial workers into higher, middle and primary schools to control and suppress the student Red Guards, who are ambiguously referred to as "young intellectuals".
One of the concrete measures used in suppressing students of all ages is that of forcing them to the countryside so that they will be scattered among myriads of rural villages and thousands of "farms of the Liberation Army" to work at hard labor while repenting their opposition to the military authorities.
The students recognize this measure for what it is and have resisted it by all available means. Yet in the present circumstance in which military power is being employed to back up the workers' militancy, any coordinated resistance on a large scale would be suicidal. For this reason, no doubt, students have resorted to other means of resisting, including argument and noncooperation.
The students are bound to be defeated. Peiping's policy of sending them to the countryside is fundamental and permanent. As for the provincial military authorities, they would not be likely to regret it even if the entire student body, from university down to higher primary level, were banished forever. They can see that only in this way can the major present and future threat to their power be countered.
Students' awareness of imminent rustication was expressed in an editorial of the New Anhwei Daily.
It quoted students as saying: "In the past we were influential; today we are no longer fragrant. The workers come, we go".
The editorial commented:
"During the cultural revolution and under the leadership of the working class, the revolutionary Red Guards and revolutionary intellectuals played some kind of role as pioneers. Today, when the ranks of the working class are marching into the educational front which has been monopolized by the bourgeois intellectuals for a long time, certain persons' 'independent kingdoms' are touched, some intellectuals who cherish a bourgeois world outlook become full of grudges, or are passive and vacillating, or resist and antagonize. The stubborn elements among them will naturally degenerate into enemies of the revolution. The majority of revolutionary Red Guards and revolutionary intellectuals, under the leadership of the working class, will undergo painstaking steeling and transformation and finally integrate with the worker-peasant masses."
The menacing tone of this official pronouncement testifies to the tremendous pressure now being put on the students.
A description of how the student Red Guards are being "persuaded" by the invading and occupying worker-soldier propaganda team was provided by Kweichow Radio:
''The worker-peasant-soldier Mao Tse-tung's thought propaganda teams which have entered universities and middle schools in the Kweiyang area are leading the revolutionary teachers and students, Red Guards and all intellectuals who are willing to be reformed to unfold the revolution in education in a rip-roaring way.
"On August 26, news ran through the Kweiyang No. 6 Middle School that all the graduates of Form Senior 2D had demanded to go down to the countryside and up to the mountains. In only two or three days, some 200 to 300 students in the school put their names down for this. Very few had put their names down before a workers' propaganda team entered the school. Many students influenced by a long period of the feudalist, capitalist and revisionist line in education and poisoned by China's Khrushchev, harbored bourgeois ideas. They thought that after studying over 10 years it would be all wasted if they went off to be peasants. Some of them did not go to school for a long time."
Workers in charge of Senior 2D had visited the students' homes to carry out "ideological mobilization" all day and night. All the students of this class had soon returned to school. One of these workers had said to the students: "Some of these students shouted about 'daring to climb a mountain of knives and plunge into an ocean of flame'. Now when Chairman Mao tells them to go up the mountains and down to the countryside, they don't even dare to speak!"
These words "hit the young generals on a sore spot", and all of them quickly applied to go to the countryside, Kweichow Radio said.
The "New China News Agency" reported that in Kiangsi province, more than 450 workers' propaganda teams marched into universities, colleges, middle and primary schools and into offices, research institutes, hospitals and other establishments to lead and participate in struggle-criticism-reform. "So far several thousand cadres from offices at provincial level and more than 10,000 teachers and students from universities, colleges and middle schools formed the first group which already has gone to the agricultural forefront. Large numbers of cadres as well as teachers and students are ready to go. This facilitates the thorough reform of the intellectual ranks."
From Shenyang, provincial capital of Liaoning in Northeast China, 120,000 graduates of junior and senior middle school rushed to the countryside to settle down there and undergo "re-education" by workers, peasants and soldiers, NCNA said.
University and college graduates in Kwangtung province are being sent to farms run by the army. Radio Kwangtung reported:
"Most 1967 graduates of universities and colleges in Kwangtung have gone to rural areas, frontier districts, factories, mines and basic levels to receive re-education from the workers, peasants and soldiers. More than 60 per cent of the graduates who have been assigned in Kwangtung have gone to Liberation Army farms. The assignment of work for 1967 graduates from universities and colleges in Kwan3tung has been completed.
Middle school graduates in Sian, provincial capital of Shensi, Northwest China, were sent to rural and mountain areas. Radio Shensi reported that Sian Municipal Revolutionary Committee recently convened a conference on the work of resettling middle school graduates. "The participants pledged resolutely to fulfill the task of making arrangements for Sian middle school graduates of Sian No. 1 and No. 33 Middle Schools, and the middle school attached to the Shensi Normal College went to rural areas ahead of schedule.
By September 10, 240,000 senior and junior middle school graduates of Honan province in Central China had gone to the frontline of agricultural production in the mountains and rural areas, Radio Honan said.
"With the vigorous help of the workers' propaganda teams, the province's Red Guards, who scored remarkable achievements in the cultural revolution, attended various categories of Mao-thought study courses. They all sent in pledge notes, expressing their determination to integrate with workers and peasants", the radio said.
"In Shangchiu, Hsinhsiang, Choukou, Anyang, Chumatien and Chiaotso (cities in Honan), over 80 per cent of the 1966 and 1967 senior and junior middle school graduates have gone to the rural areas."