Page 153 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume I.indd

BE CONCERNED WITH THE WELL-BEING
OF THE MASSES,
PAY ATTENTION TO METHODS OF WORK

January 27, 1934

There are two questions which comrades have failed to stress
during the discussion and which, I feel, should be dealt with.
The first concerns the well-being of the masses.
Our central task at present is to mobilize the broad masses to take
part in the revolutionary war, overthrow imperialism and the Kuo-
mintang by means of such war, spread the revolution throughout the
country, and drive imperialism out of China. Anyone who does not
attach enough importance to this central task is not a good revolu-
tionary cadre. If our comrades really comprehend this task and under-
stand that the revolution must at all costs be spread throughout the
country, then they should in no way neglect or underestimate the
question of the immediate interests, the well-being, of the broad
masses. For the revolutionary war is a war of the masses; it can be
waged only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them.
If we only mobilize the people to carry on the war and do nothing
else, can we succeed in defeating the enemy? Of course not. If we
want to win, we must do a great deal more. We must lead the
peasants’ struggle for land and distribute the land to them, heighten
their labour enthusiasm and increase agricultural production, safe-
guard the interests of the workers, establish co-operatives, develop
trade with outside areas, and solve the problems facing the masses —
food, shelter and clothing, fuel, rice, cooking oil and salt, sickness and
hygiene, and marriage. In short, all the practical problems in the

This was part of the concluding speech made by Comrade Mao Tse-tung at
the Second National Congress of Workers’ and Peasants’ Representatives held in
Juichin, Kiangsi Province in January 1934.
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