Page 46 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume III.indd

44 MAO TSE-TUNG
stress on that part of the work for which they themselves are respon-
sible and always wish to subordinate the interests of the whole to
the interests of their own part. They do not understand the Party’s
system of democratic centralism; they do not realize that the Com-
munist Party not only needs democracy but needs centralization even
more. They forget the system of democratic centralism in which the
minority is subordinate to the majority, the lower level to the higher
level, the part to the whole and the entire membership to the Central
Committee. Chang Kuo-tao asserted his “independence” of the
5
Central Committee of the Party and as a result “asserted” himself
into betraying the Party and became a Kuomintang agent. Although
the sectarianism we are now discussing is not of this extremely
serious kind, it must still be guarded against and we must do away
completely with all manifestations of disunity. We should encourage
comrades to take the interests of the whole into account. Every Party
member, every branch of work, every statement and every action
must proceed from the interests of the whole Party; it is absolutely
impermissible to violate this principle.
Those who assert this kind of “independence” are usually wedded
to the doctrine of “me first” and are generally wrong on the question
of the relationship between the individual and the Party. Although
in words they profess respect for the Party, in practice they put them-
selves first and the Party second. What are these people after? They
are after fame and position and want to be in the limelight. When-
ever they are put in charge of a branch of work, they assert their
“independence”. With this aim, they draw some people in, push others
out and resort to boasting, flattery and touting among the comrades,
thus importing the vulgar style of the bourgeois political parties into
the Communist Party. It is their dishonesty that causes them to
come to grief. I believe we should do things honestly, for without
an honest attitude it is absolutely impossible to accomplish anything
in this world. Which are the honest people? Marx, Engels, Lenin
and Stalin are honest, men of science are honest. Which are the
dishonest people? Trotsky, Bukharin, Chen Tu-hsiu and Chang
Kuo-tao are extremely dishonest; and those who assert “indepen-
dence” out of personal or sectional interest are dishonest too. All sly
people, all those who do not have a scientific attitude in their work,
fancy themselves resourceful and clever, but in fact they are most
stupid and will come to no good. Students in our Party School must
pay attention to this problem. We must build a centralized, unified