The Little Red Book

V. War and Peace

War, this monster of mutual slaughter among men, will finally be eliminated by the progress of human society, and in the not too distant future too. But there is only one way to eliminate it and that that is to oppose war with war, to oppose national counter-revolutionary war with national revolutionary war, and to oppose counter-revolutionary class war with revolutionary class war… When human society advances to the point where classes and states are eliminated, there will be no more wars, counter-revolutionary or revolutionary, unjust or just; that will be the era of perpetual peace for mankind. Our study of laws of revolutionary war springs from the desire to eliminate all wars; herein lies the distinction between us Communists and the exploiting classes.

“Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War” (December 1936) Selected Works, Vol. I, pp. 182-83

The Little Red Book

V. War and Peace

"War is the continuation of politics." In this sense war is politics and itself is a political action; since ancient times there has never been a war that did not have a political character…

But war has its own particular characteristics and in this sense it cannot be equated with politics in general. “War is the continuation of politics by other…means.” When politics develops to a certain stage beyond which it cannot proceed by the usual means, war breaks out to sweep the obstacles from the way… When the obstacle is removed and our political aim attained, the war will stop. But if the obstacle is not completely swept away, the war will have to continue till the aim is fully accomplished… It can therefore be said that politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.

"On Protracted War" (May 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, pp. 152-53.*

The Little Red Book

XXVII. Criticism and Self-Criticism

Conscientious practice of self-criticism is still another hallmark distinguishing our Party from all other political parties. As we say, dust will accumulate if a room is not cleaned regularly, our faces will get dirty if they are not washed regularly. Our comrades' minds and our Party's work may also collect dust, and also need sweeping and washing. The proverb "Running water is never stale and door-hinge is never worm-eaten" means that constant motion prevents the inroads of germs and other organisms. To check up regularly on our work and in the process develop a democratic style of work, to fear neither criticism nor self-criticism, and to apply such good popular Chinese maxims as "Say all you know and say it without reserve", "Blame not the speaker but be warned by his words" and "Correct mistakes if you have committed them and guard against them if you have not" – this is the only effective way to prevent all kinds of political duct and germs from contaminating the minds of our comrades and the body of our Party.

"On coalition Government" (April 24, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. III, pp, 316-17.

The Little Red Book

This picture below was created by Indo Dreamin' using PhotoShop Elements and a variety of brushes designed by various artists on www.brusheezy.com.

XXXI. Women

In order to build a great socialist society, it is of the utmost importance to arouse the broad masses of women to join in productive activity. Men and women must receive equal pay for equal work in production. Genuine equality between sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole.

Introductory note to "Women Have Gone to the Labour Front" (1955), The Socialist Upsurge In China's Countryside, Chinese ed., Vol. I.

The Little Red Book

Last week a friend of mine got hold of a couple of these little red books. The 'Quotations from Mao Tse-Tung'. She was kind enough to think of me and gave me a call to see if I wanted one. These are extremely hard to come by as they are original first edition prints from 1966, in English. Without hesitation I asked her to secure a copy for me. This is not something I am eager to breeze through but rather study over time, one quotation at a time. I am also starting to read a biography of Mao's that my father recently passed on to me. So the plan is that every now and then I am going to post up a couple of these quotes into a new category called 'The Little Red Book'. From what little I know of Mao he was a pretty fascinating character, and after travelling through the smaller cities of China, seeing how he set in motion a plan for development that clearly paved the way for Chinas present success, I am eager to learn more about him. I hope there are other readers who will find this collection equally edifying. The quotations are separated into 33 categories; I will pick out quotations randomly but include the title of the chapter they are from. Enjoy...

XXV. Unity

The Unification of our country, the unity of our people, and the unity of our various nationalities - these are the basic guarantees of the sure triumph of our cause.

On the correct handling of Contradictions Among the People (February 27th, 1957) 1st pd., pp. 1-2.