The June 14 letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is a remarkably lucid and clear exposition of the fundamental tenets of contemporary revolutionary Marxism-Leninism. No one who has carefully read it can fail to be impressed with it. Basically, it is a defense against revisionist distortions and opportunist adaptations by Khrushchev and his collaborators.
As for us, we wholeheartedly support and endorse it. It raises and answers the fundamental question, "Whether or not to accept the fact that the people already on the socialist road, who comprise one third of the world's population, need to carry their revolution forward to the end."
This is precisely the question that divided Lenin and the Bolsheviks from Kautsky and the Social Democratic reformists, who subsequently became renegades and outright enemies of the proletarian revolution.
The letter of the Chinese CP mercilessly castigates those who would "one-sidedly reduce peaceful co-existence, peaceful competition and peaceful transition" in a way which would "discard the historical mission of proletarian world revolution and depart from the revolutionary teachings of Marxism-Leninism."
Of special interest to the American workers is the passage which declares that "It is impassible for the working class in the European and American capitalist countries to liberate itself unless it unites with the oppressed nations and unless those oppressed nations are liberated."
Furthermore, the letter points out that, "Certain persons in the international Communist movement are now taking a passive or scornful or negative attitude toward the struggle of the oppressed nations for liberation."
Moreover, the letter says, "They are, in fact, protecting the interests of monopoly capital, betraying those of the proletariat, and degenerating into social democrats."
For reasons best known to themselves, the Soviet leadership did not see fit to print the letter of the Chinese CP in the USSR and thereby deprived the people of the USSR the opportunity to read this letter and judge for themselves. Meantime, the Chinese have printed all of the important communications from the Soviet CP.
When staff members of the Chinese Embassy in Moscow, in the normal course of their diplomatic duties, made the letter available, the Soviet government took the rash and absolutely unwarranted step of demanding that they be recalled to China and thereby dealt a blow to the socialist relationship between the USSR and the People's Republic of China.
Naturally, the imperialists and their lackeys the world over are gloating over this and doing their best to deepen the growing schism in the international Communist movement and between the socialist countries. In this connection, it must be noted that the leadership of the Chinese CP has conducted itself during all this period with calm dignity and enormous restraint in the face of provocations.
Indeed, in making the decision to send a delegation to Moscow after the Soviet leadership had rudely and without any just cause demanded the withdrawal of the five Chinese Embassy officials, the Chinese CP leadership demonstrated that it stood for the unity of the international communist movement and would not permit such a provocation as that perpetrated by the leaders of the USSR to prevent a discussion as long as any avenues remained open for it.
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Last updated: 16 June 2018