Page 268 - SELECTED WORKS OF CHEN YUN Volume I

264 CHEN YUN

two elements here. One is the nature of their work. Each field of endeavour
has its own distinctive features. It would not serve any purpose if military
work were performed in the same way as cultural work or vice versa. In
cultural work there is a greater need for individual activities. This point is
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clearly explained in Lenin’s “Party Organization and Party Literature.” It
would be wrong to overlook it. The other element to be considered is that a
number of cultural workers have certain failings. Most of them used to work
separately, so they had relatively little access to Party education and failed
to integrate themselves with workers, peasants and soldiers. As a result, their
ideology is flawed. They are always asking others to be charitable and to make
allowances for their shortcomings. That’s not very nice, is it? That’s my first
argument against seeking special treatment.
If this first argument is clear, there are two other questions that must be
addressed.
The first is: should discipline be observed? Discipline is no problem for
the majority of Party members, but it has sometimes been a problem among
cultural workers. Since our Party members are not guests who have been
invited here to help out—and it’s no good inviting guests to help out, they
would only add to our problems—they must without exception abide by
Article 44 of the Party Constitution: “Strict observance of Party discipline
is the supreme obligation of all Party members and Party organizations at all
levels.” If we did away with discipline the inevitable result would be, in
Chairman Mao’s words, “the extinction of the Party, national subjugation
and self-destruction.” Ours is a fighting Party, and in our struggle the only
weapon at our disposal is discipline. You may say that the machine-gun is
also our weapon, but where did the machine-gun come from? It was obtained
in struggle by the masses led by a well disciplined Party. In fact, the more
machine-guns we acquire, the more we must rely on discipline. When a
company of soldiers are fighting a battle, how can they help losing if one
wants to charge this way and another that way and nobody obeys the
company commander? If our Party lacks discipline, if controversy drags on
endlessly, how can we achieve unity politically, organizationally and in
action? How can we avoid the extinction of the Party, national subjugation
and self-destruction? Discipline does not mean coercion. Basically, our
discipline is observed voluntarily. But what is to be done if, on a given
occasion, a Party member chooses to disregard discipline? In that case,
coercion of some sort has to be applied. Won’t that place restraints on
people’s ability? I don’t think so. Our discipline is meant to restrain only
what is non-proletarian and harmful to the revolution, much as the art of
swimming restrains a swimmer’s motions so that he doesn’t drown. Genuine