Cadres and Leaders

In order to guarantee that our Party and country do not change their colour, we must:

• have a correct line and correct policies
• train and bring up millions of successors who will carry on the proletarian revolution.

Will there be people who can carry on the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary cause started by the older generation?

It is a matter of life and death for our Party and our country.

We must shatter these imperialist prophecies.

From our highest organizations down to the grass-roots, we must everywhere give constant attention to the training and upbringing of successors to the revolutionary cause.

What are the requirements for worthy successors to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat?

They must be genuine Marxist-Leninists and not revisionists like Khrushchov wearing the cloak of Marxism-Leninism.

They must be revolutionaries who wholeheartedly serve the overwhelming majority of the people of China and the whole world, and must not be like Khrushchov who serves both the interests of the handful of members of the privileged bourgeois stratum in his own country and those of foreign imperialism and reaction.

They must be proletarian statesmen capable of uniting and working together with the overwhelming majority. Not only must they unite withthose who agree with them, they must also be good at uniting with those who disagree and even with those who formerly opposed them and have since been proved wrong in practice.

But they must especially watch out for careerists and conspirators like Khrushchov and prevent such bad elements from usurping the leadership of the Party and the state at any level.

They must be models in applying the Party’s democratic centralism, must master the method of leadership based on the principle of “from the masses, to the masses”, and must cultivate a democratic style and be good at listening to the masses.

They must not be despotic like Khrushchov and violate the Party’s democratic centralism, make surprise attacks on comrades or act arbitrarily and dictatorially.

They must be modest and prudent and guard against arrogance and impetuosity; they must be imbued with the spirit of self-criticism and have the courage to correct mistakes and shortcomings in their work.

They must never cover up their errors like Khrushchov, and claim all the credit for themselves and shift all the blame on others.

Successors to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat come forward in mass struggles and are tempered in the great storms of revolution. It is essential to test and judge cadres and choose and train successors in the long course of mass struggle.

Quoted in On Khrushchov’s Phoney Communism and Its Historical Lessons for the World (July 14,1964), pp. 72-74.

Our Party organizations must be extended all over the country and we must purposefully train tens of thousands of cadres and hundreds of first-rate mass leaders. They must be cadres and leaders versed in Marxism-Leninism, politically far-sighted, competent in work, full of the spirit of self-sacrifice, capable of tackling problems on their own, steadfast in the midst of difficulties and loyal and devoted in serving the nation, the class and the Party.

It is on these cadres and leaders that the Party relies for its links with the membership and the masses, and it is by relying on their firm leadership of the masses that the Party can succeed in defeating the enemy.

Such cadres and leaders must be free from selfishness, from individualistic heroism, ostentation, sloth, passivity, and arrogant sectarianism, and they must be selfless national and class heroes; such are the qualities and the style of work demanded of the members, cadres and leaders of our Party.

Cadres are a decisive factor, once the political line is determined.

Therefore, it is our fighting task to train large numbers of new cadres in a planned way.

“The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War” (October 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 202.

The criterion the Communist Party should apply in its cadres policy is whether or not a cadre is resolute in carrying out the Party line, keeps to Party discipline, has close ties with the masses, has the ability to find his bearings independently, and is active, hardworking and unselfish. This is what “appointing people on their merit” means.

It is necessary to maintain the system of cadre participation in collective productive labour. The cadres of our Party and state are ordinary workers and not overlords sitting on the backs of the people. By taking part in collective productive labour, the cadres maintain extensive, constant and close ties with the working people.

This is a major measure of fundamental importance for a socialist system; it helps to overcome bureaucracy and to prevent revisionism and dogmatism.

We must know how to judge cadres. We must not confine our judgement to a short period or a single incident in a cadre’s life, but should consider his life and work as a whole. This is the principal method of judging cadres.

We must, know how to use cadres well. In the final analysis, leadership involves two main responsibilities: to work out ideas, and to use cadres well.

Such things as drawing up plans, making decisions, and giving orders and directives, are all in the category of “working out ideas”. To put the ideas into practice, we must weld the cadres together and encourage them to go into action; this comes into the category of “using the cadres well”.

There are several ways to take good care of cadres:

1. Give them guidance.

Allow them a free hand in their work so that they have the courage to assume responsibility.

Give them timely instructions so that, guided by the Party’s political line, they are able to make full use of their initiative.

2. Raise their level

This means educating them by giving them the opportunity to study so that they can enhance their theoretical understanding and their working ability.

3. Check up on their work, and help them sum up their experience, carry forward their achievements and correct their mistakes.

To assign work without checking up and to take notice only when serious mistakes are made

• that is not the way to take care of cadres.

4. Use persuasion with cadres who have made mistakes, and help them correct their mistakes.

The method of struggle should be confined to those who make serious mistakes and nevertheless refuse to accept guidance. Here patience is essential. It is wrong lightly to label people “opportunists” or lightly to begin “waging struggles” against them.

5. Help them with their difficulties.

When cadres are in difficulty as a result of illness, straitened means or domestic or other troubles, we must be sure to give them as much care as possible. This is how to take good care of cadres.

A leading group that is genuinely united and is linked with the masses can gradually be formed only in the process of mass struggle, and not in isolation from it.

In the process of a great struggle, the composition of the leading group in most cases should not and cannot remain entirely unchanged throughout the initial, middle and final stages.

The activists who come forward in the course of the struggle must constantly be promoted to replace those original members of the leading group who are inferior by comparison or who have degenerated.

Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership" (June 1, 1943), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 118.

If our Party does not have a great many new cadres working in unity and cooperation with the old cadres, our cause will come to a stop. All old cadres, therefore, should welcome the new ones with the utmost enthusiasm and show them the warmest solicitude.

True, new cadres have their shortcomings. They have not been long in the revolution and lack experience, and unavoidably some have brought with them vestiges of the unwholesome ideology of the old society, remnants of the ideology of petty-bourgeois individualism.

But such shortcomings can be gradually eliminated through education and tempering in the revolution. The strong point of the new cadres, as Stalin has said, is that they are acutely sensitive to what is new and are therefore enthusiastic and active to a high degree - the very qualities which some of the old cadres lack.

Cadres, new and old, should respect each other, learn from each other and overcome their own shortcomings by learning from each other’s strong points, so as to unite as one in the common cause and guard against sectarian tendencies.

“Rectify the Party’s Style of Work” (February 1, 1942), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 47.

Our concern should extend to non-Party cadres as well as to Party cadres. There are many capable people outside the Party whom we must not ignore.

The duty of every Communist is to rid himself of aloofness and arrogance and to work well with non-Party cadres, give them sincere help, have a warm, comradely attitude towards them and enlist their initiative in the great cause of resisting Japan and reconstructing the nation.

The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War" (October 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 202.