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II. Classes and Class Struggle
Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated.
Such is history, such is the history of civilization for thousands
of years. To interpret history from this viewpoint is historical
materialism; standing in opposition to this viewpoint is historical
idealism.
--- "Cast Away Illusions, Prepare for Struggle" (August 14, 1949),
Selected Works, Vol. IV, p 428.
In class society everyone lives as a member of a particular class,
and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the
brand of a class.
--- "On Practice" (July 1937), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 296.
Changes in society are due chiefly to the development of the internal
contradictions in society, that is, the contradiction between the
productive forces and the relations of production, the contradiction
between classes and the contradiction between the old and the new;
it is the development of these contradictions that pushes society
forward and gives the impetus for the supersession of the old society
by the new.
--- "On Contradiction" (August 1937), Selected Works, Vol. I, p.
314.
The ruthless economic exploitation and political oppression of
the peasants by the landlord class forced them into numerous uprisings
against its rule. . . . It was the class struggles of the peasants,
the peasant uprisings and peasant wars that constituted the real
motive force of historical development in Chinese feudal society.
--- "The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party" (December
1939), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 308.
In the final analysis, national struggle is a matter of class struggle.
Among the whites in the United States it is only the reactionary
ruling circles who oppress the black people. They can in no way
represent the workers, farmers, revolutionary intellectuals and
other enlightened persons who comprise the overwhelming majority
of the white people.
--- "Statement Supporting the American Negroes in Their Just Struggle
Against Racial Dis- crimination by U.S. Imperialism" (August 8,
1963), People of the World Unite and Defeat the U.S. Aggressors
and All Their Lackeys, 2nd ed., pp. 3-4.
It is up to us to organize the people. As for the reactionaries
in China, it is up to us to organize the people to overthrow them.
Everything reactionary is the same; if you don't hit it, it won't
fall. This is also like sweeping the floor; as a rule, where the
broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish of itself.
---"The Situation and Our Policy After the Vic- tory in the War
of Resistance Against Japan" (August 13, 1945), Selected Works,
Vol. IV, p. 19.
A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting
a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely
and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous.
A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one
class overthrows another.
--- "Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in
Hunan" (March 1927), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 28.
Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? This is a question of
the first importance for the revolution. The basic reason why all
previous evolutionary struggles in China achieved so little was
their failure to unite with real friends in order to attack real
enemies. A revolutionary party is the guide of the masses, and no
revolution ever succeeds when the revolutionary party leads them
astray. To ensure that we will definitely achieve success in our
revolution and will not lead the masses astray, we must pay attention
to uniting with our real friends in order to attack our real enemies.
To distinguish real friends from real enemies, we must make a general
analysis of the economic status of the various classes in Chinese
society and of their respective attitudes to wards the revolution.
--- "Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society" (March 1926), Selected
Works, Vol. I, p. 13.
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