File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1996/96-11-02.234, message 48


Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 01:43:04 +0100 (MET)
From: rolf.martens-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Rolf Martens)
Subject: M-G: UNITE! Info #22en: 7/12 The 4-Gang in China, 1976 


UNITE! Info #22en: 7/12 The 4-Gang in China, 1976 
[Posted: 03.11.96]

[Continued from part 6/12]

In this part is reproduced the original series posting (8).

"The Four" & events in China 1976 (8): PR on Oct Blow [Sent 18.05.96]        
     


This is part of a discussion on the Jefferson Village Virginia
Marxism list and is also sent to newsgroups.


[In this posting on the role of the Gang of Four in the struggle 
which eventually led to the overtrow of socialism in China, I bring 
the 25 October 1976 editorial of "Renmin Ribao", "Hongqui" and 
"Jiefangjung Bao", in which the - temporary or apparent - victory 
over revisionism in China was publicly announced, namely, the 
big blow against the phoney"leftist" Gang of Four, together - at least 
at the time and at least in words - with continued criticism of the
openly-Rightist deviation of Deng Xiaoping.]

[My source is Peking Review No. 44 / 1976, 29.10.76, pp 14-16.]

[Should the statements in this article concerning the preceding 
struggle be judged to be correct or should they be doubted? As I
pointed out in postings (2), (4) and (5) on this subject, there clearly
were some horrendous lies in the article in PR No. 15 / 1976 on the
anti-"Gang" demonstrations at Tiananmen Square on 05.04.76.]

[The circumstances however point to the *correctness*, in the main,
of what is being stated in the below article. Why? Because the 
general line being advocated here is correct and is being supported 
most enthusiastically by the Chinese people. Concerning the latter
fact, there is massive and very clear evidence stemming not only 
>from "official" Chinese reporting. (See, for instance, my postings 
(6) and (7), and many other sources could be quoted on this, too. 
They all are in agreement on what were the actions of the masses 
at that point in time.) Furthermore, the Marxist-Leninists in other 
countries likewise massively supported the October big blow
against the Gang of Four. Concerning this, see later postings.] 

[Even if the Hua group as early as at that time in reality had been 
planning that open treason which they started perpetrating only weeks 
later, in November - something which is difficult to ascertain - they 
could at this point hardly publicly have brought flargant lies about 
things which, after all, were known to many people in more or less 
leading positions. And at least at that stage there had *not* been any 
significant "weeding out" of such persons by the openly-Rightist, 
pro-Deng Xiaoping forces, who in the ensuing months edged into one 
position after the other. The Peking Review issues from some weeks 
later and onwards, facts show, you need to be more and more sceptical 
about. Those of late October '76, the same facts indicate, should be 
fairly reliable.]

[Here's the leading article of the three publications mentioned, all 
knowledge of which, needless to say, has been suppressed for years 
and years, as far as their serf-kingdoms stretched, by those arch-
agents of reaction the Avakian-Quispe-ist swindlers - and I'll not 
make any further comments on that document here but save this for 
later postings:]



        G R E A T   H I S T O R I C   V I C T O R Y

- Editorial by "Renmin Ribao", "Hongqui" and "Jiefangjun Bao"

Red flags are flying over the mountains and rivers, everywhere in the
motherland, and the faces of our 800 million people glow with joy.
Hundreds of millions of people in all parts of our country have held
mammoth demonstrations in the last few days. One million armymen 
and civilians yesterday met in a grand rally in Peking, the capital. 
They warmly celebrated Comrade Hua Kuo-feng's assuming the posts of
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
and Chairman of the Military Commission of the C.P.C. Central
Committee, hailed the great victory in smashing the plot of the anti-
Party clique of Wang Hung-wen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching
and Yao Wen-yuan to usurp Party and state power, and denounced
with great indignation the towering crimes of the "gang of four".

The whole Party, the whole army and the people of all nationalities
throughout the country are determined to rally most closely round the
Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua Kuo-feng, carry out 
Chairman Mao's behests, and carry the proletarian revolutionary
cause through to the end. 

Comrade Hua Kuo-feng was selected by the great leader Chairman
Mao himself to be his successor. Chairman Mao proposed Comrade
Hua Kuo-feng for the posts of First Vice-Chairman of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China and Premier of the 
State Council in April 1976. Then, on April 30, Chairman Mao wrote
to Comrade Hua Kuo-feng in his own handwriting *"With you in
charge, I'm at ease"*. 

In accordance with the arrangements Chairman Mao had made 
before he passed away, the October 7, 1976 resolution of the 
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China appointed
Comrade Hua Kuo-feng Chairman of the Central Committe of the
Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Military Commission
of the C.P.C. Central Committee. This represents the common
aspiration of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of the
whole country and was a great victory in smashing the plot of the
"gang of four" to usurp Party and state power.

It was a joyous event of immense historic significance. Comrade
Hua Kuo-feng, in whom Chairman Mao had boundless faith and
whom the people throughout the country deeply love, is now the
leader of our Party, and our Party and state have a reliable
helmsman to continue their victorious advance along Chairman
Mao's proletarian revolutionary line.

The Party Central Committee headed by Comrade Hua Kou-feng
crushed the plot of the "gang of four" for a counter-revolutionary
restoration and got rid of a big evil in our Party. Wang-Chang-
Chiang-Yao had long formed a cabal, the "gang of four", engaged 
in factional activities to split the Party. The great leader Chairman
Mao was aware of this long ago and severely criticized and tried
to educate them again and again. And he made some arrangements to 
solve this problem.

Chairman Mao criticized them on July 17, 1974, saying: *"You'd
better be careful; don't let yourselves become a small faction of
four."* Again, on December 24, Chairman Mao criticized them:
*"Don't form factions. Those who do so will fall."* In November and
December of the same year, as the central leading organs were
preparing to convene the Fourth National People's Congress, 
Chairman Mao said: *"Chiang Ching has wild ambitions. She
wants Wang Hung-wen to be Chairman of the Standing Committee
of the People's National Congress and herself to be Chairman of
the Party Central Committee."*

On May 3, 1975, at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party
Central Committee, Chairman Mao reiterated the basic principles
of "three do's and three don'ts", and warned them: *"Practice
Marxism-Leninism, and not revisionism; unite, and don't split; be
open and aboveboard, and don't intrigue and conspire. Don't
function as a gang of four, don't do it any more, why do you keep
doing it?"*

That very day Chairman Mao, on this question, gave the instruction
that *"if this is not settled in the first half of this year, it 
should be settled in the second half; if not this year, then next 
year, if not next year, then the year after."*

Towards Chairman Mao's criticism and education, the "gang of four"
took the attitude of counter-revolutionary double-dealers who comply
in public but oppose in private. Not only did they not show the 
slightest sign of repentance, but on the contrary they went from bad
to worse, further and further down the wrong path. During the period
when Chairman Mao was seriously ill and after he passed away, 
they became more frantic in attacking the party and speeded up 
their attempts to usurp the supreme leadership of the Party and
state. We faced the grave danger of the Party turning revisionist 
and the state changing its political colour.

At this critical moment in the Chinese revolution, the Party Central
Committee headed by Hua Kuo-feng, representing the fundamental
interests and common aspiration of the whole Party, the whole army
and the people of the whole country and with the boldness and 
vision of the proletariat, adopted resolute measures against the
"gang of four" anti-Party clique, smashed their plot to usurp Party
and state power, and saved the revolution and the Party. Thus the
proletariat won a decisive victory in counter-attacking the onslaught
of the bourgeoisie.

The "gang of four", a bane to the country and the people, committed
heinous crimes. They completely betrayed the basic principles of
"three do's and three don'ts" that Chairman Mao had earnestly 
taught, wantonly tampered with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung 
Thought, tampered with Chairman Mao's directives, opposed
Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line on a whole series of
domestic and international questions, and practiced revisionism 
under the signboard of Marxism. 

They carried out criminal activities to split the Party, forming a 
factional group, going their own way, establishing their own system
inside the Party, doing as they wished, lording it over others, and
placing themselves over Chairman Mao and the Party Central
Committee. They were busy intriguing and conspiring and stuck
their noses into everything to stir up trouble everywhere, interfere
with Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and strategic plans and
undermine the socialist revolution and socialist construction.

They confounded right and wrong, made rumours, worked in a big 
way to create counter-revolutionary opinion, fabricated accusations
against others and labelled people at will, and attempted to
overthrow a lagre number of leading Party, government and army 
comrades in the central organs and various localities and seize
Party and state leadership. They worshipped things foreign and
fawned on foreigners, maintained illicit foreign relations, betrayed
important Party and state secrets, and unscrupulously practised
capitulationism and national betrayal. Resorting to various
manoeuvres, they pursued a counter-revolutionary revisionist
line, an ultra-Right line.

Chairman Mao pointed out: *"You are making the socialist
revolution, and yet don't know where the bourgeoisie is. It is right
in the Communist Party - those in power taking the capitalist road.
The capitalist-roaders are still on the capitalist road."* Wang Hung-
wen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching and Yao Wen-yuan are typical 
representatives of the bourgeoisie inside the Party, unrepentant 
capitalist-roaders still travelling on the capitalist road and a 
gang of bourgeois conspirators and careerists.

Our struggle against the "gang of four" is a life-and-death struggle
between the two classes, the two roads and the two lines. By 
forming a narrow self-seeking clique to usurp Party and state
power, the "gang of four" sought to change fundamentally the
proletarian nature of our Party, change its basic line for the entire  
historical period of socialism and restore capitalism in China. If
thie scheme had succeeded, it would have meant serious 
disaster for the Chinese people. 

The crushing of this anti-Party clique has removed from the Party
a bunch of hidden traitors, rid the country of a big scourge and
redressed the grievances of the people. The Party, the army and
the people are all jubilant.  This is a great example of putting into
practice Chairman Mao's great theory of continuing the revolution
under the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is of tremendous
immediate importance and far-reaching historic significance to
our adhering to the Party's basic line, combating and preventing
revisionism, consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat,
preventing the restoration of capitalism, building socialism, 
upholding the principles of proletarian internationalism and carrying
out Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and policies in foreign
affairs. It is a great victory for the Great Proletarian Cultural 
Revolution and for Mao Tsetung Thought.

Chairman Mao pointed out in 1971: *"Our Party already has a
history of 50 years and has gone through ten major struggles on
the question of Party line. There were people in these ten struggles
who wanted to split our Party, but none were able to do so. This is
a question worth studying: such a big country, such a large
population, yet no split. The only explanation is that the people,
the Party and the entire Party membership are of one mind in
opposing a split. In view of its history, this Party of ours has a
great future."*

Summing up our Party's experience in the ten struggles on the
question of Party line, Chairman Mao pointed out: *"The correctness
or incorrectness of the ideological and political line decides
everything"* and put forward the three basic principles *"Practise
Marxism, and not revisionism; unite, and don't split; be open and
aboveboard, and don't intrigue and conspire."*

These principles are our criteria for distinguishing correct from
erroneous lines and our sharp weapon for identifying the 
bourgeoisie inside the Party. The whole history of our Party
shows that only by adhering to the three basic principles can the
Party march in step, win wholehearted support from the masses
of the people and organize a mighty revolutionary contingent, and
only by doing so can our revolutionary cause thrive.

Whoever goes against the three basic principles betrays the cause
of the proletarian revolution and the vital interests of the people 
and brings ruin and shame upon himself.  On ten occasions in the past, 
the chieftains of opportunist lines tried to split the Party, but 
they all failed. The present Wang-Chang-Chiang-Yao "gang of four" anti-
Party clique, too, has come to an ignominious end because it 
practised revisionism and splittism, engaged in conspiracies to 
usurp Party and state power, and thus completely forfeited the confidence of 
the people and became extremely isolated. 

Historical experience has time and again shown that our Party
cannot be easily destroyed.  Our Party is worthy of its reputation
as a Party founded, tempered and nurtured by Chairman Mao
himself, as a  politically mature Marxist-Leninist Party and as a
great, glorious and correct Party.

While acclaiming our Party's great historic victory, the whole Party,
the whole army and the people of all nationalities throughout the
country, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee
headed by Chairman Hua Kuo-feng, are determined to hold high
the banner of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, persist in
taking class struggle as the key link, adhere to the Party's basic
line and and persevere in continuing the revolution under the
dictatorship of the proletariat. 

We must thoroughly expose the vile crimes of the Wang-Chang-
Chiang-Yao anti-Party clique, penetratingly criticize their counter-
revolutionary revisionist line and eradicate its pernicious influence.
It is imperative to draw a strict distinction between the two
different types of contradictions and handle them correctly, 
earnestly implement Chairman Mao's principles *"Learn from past
mistakes fo avoid future ones and cure the sickness to save the
patient" and *"Help more people by educating them and narrow
the target of attack,"* so as to unite with all those that can be
united with. We should continue to criticize Teng Hsiao-ping and
repulse the Right deviationist attempt to reverse correct verdicts.

We should enthusiastically support socialist new things, consciously
restrict bourgeois right and consolidate and develop the 
achievements of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. We
should *grasp revolution, promote production and other work and
preparedness against war*, go all out, aim high and achieve
faster, better and more economic results in building socialism, and
continue to develop the excellent situation.

Having eliminated the "four pests", our Party has become even more 
united, even stronger and even more vigorous, and the dictatorship
of the proletariat in this country is more consolidated. The masses 
of the people are in high spirits and militant; everywhere in our
motherland, orioles sing and swallows dart. Before us arises *"a
political situation in which there are both centralism and democracy,
both unity of will and personal ease of mind and liveliness."* Since
we have such a great Party, army and people, no difficulty whatever
can stop our triumphant advance.

Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee headed by
Chairman Hua Kuo-feng, we are able to continue our advance in the
socialist revolution in accordance with Chairman Mao's line and
policies and, in accordance with the grand plan Chairman Mao
mapped out, accomplish the comprehensive modernization of
agriculture, industry, national defence and science and technology
and build China into a powerful socialist country before the end of 
the century, so as to make a greater contribution to mankind and
work for the final realization of communism.

[So far the Peking Review No. 44 / 1976.]

[Continued in part 8/12]

       



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