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PROBLEMS OF WAR AND STRATEGY

November 6, 1938

I. CHINA’S CHARACTERISTICS AND
REVOLUTIONARY WAR

The seizure of power by armed force, the settlement of the issue
by war, is the central task and the highest form of revolution. This
Marxist-Leninist principle of revolution holds good universally, for
China and for all other countries.
But while the principle remains the same, its application by the
party of the proletariat finds expression in varying ways according
to the varying conditions. Internally, capitalist countries practise bour-
geois democracy (not feudalism) when they are not fascist or not at
war; in their external relations, they are not oppressed by, but them-
selves oppress, other nations. Because of these characteristics, it is
the task of the party of the proletariat in the capitalist countries to
educate the workers and build up strength through a long period
of legal struggle, and thus prepa e for the final overthrow of cap-
italism. In these countries, the question is one of a long legal struggle,
of utilizing parliament as a platform, of economic and political strikes,
of organizing trade unions and educating the workers. There the
form of organization is legal and the form of struggle bloodless
(non-military). On the issue of war, the Communist Parties in the
capitalist countries oppose the imperialist wars waged by their own

This article is part of Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s concluding speech at the Sixth
Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Party. In his “Problems of
Strategy in Guerrilla War Against Japan” and “On Protracted War”, Comrade Mao
Tse-tung had already settled the question of the Party’s leading role in the War of
Resistance Against Japan. But some comrades, committing Right opportunist errors,
denied that the Party must maintain its independence and initiative in the united
front, and so doubted and even opposed the Party’s line on the war and on strategy.

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