VIII. Requirements for Party Members and Primary Party Organizations

On the basis of the Party Constitution adopted by the Tenth Congress some additions and changes are made in the draft with regard to the requirements for Party members and the tasks of primary Party organizations.

As the ruling party, our Party exercises leadership over every sphere of life in our country. Party members, and especially Party cadres who are in leading posts at all levels in the Party, the government and the army, are shouldering heavy responsibilities. Therefore, the Party must set strict demands on its members, particularly those in positions of leadership. Of the more than 35 million members of our Party, nearly half have joined the Party since the Cultural Revolution and over 7 million have joined since the Tenth Congress. Hence, new Party members make up a substantial proportion of the total membership. The overwhelming majority of Party members, both old and new, are good or fairly good. But it must be realized that there is the serious problem of impurity in ideology, organization and style of work among Party members as a result of the rather extensive confusion created by the "gang of four" who in recent years vitiated the Party's line, undermined the Party's organizational principle and set their own standards for Party membership. Chairman Mao once said, "There are many Party members who have joined the Communist Party organizationally but have not yet joined the Party wholly or at all ideologically. Those who have not joined the Party ideologically still carry a great deal of the muck of the exploiting classes in their heads, and have no idea at all of what proletarian ideology, or communism, or the Party is." There are definitely quite a few such Party members. Except for the bad types who have sneaked into the Party and must be cleared out, those who have not yet joined the Party ideologically must be given further education. Even good and fairly good Party members face the task of enhancing their political consciousness with the development of the revolutionary situation. Generally speaking, many new Party members lack basic knowledge about the Party and an adequate understanding of the Party's fine tradition and of its Constitution and discipline, so that it is absolutely necessary to educate them in these respects. It is in the light of this situation that the provisions on requirements for Party members are revised.

The draft makes eight demands on Party members. These demands are based on the five requirements set by Chairman Mao for revolutionary successors and on his consistent teachings as to how to be a Communist. It is of obvious advantage to stipulate the demands on Party members more specifically so as to facilitate their fulfilment by the members and supervision and examination by Party organizations.

The draft has a provision on the probationary period for Party members. Without exception, no probationary member may become a full member until after the prescribed period of one year. This provision is made so as the better to educate, observe and understand Party members and ensure their political quality. In recent years the "gang of four" set their own standards for Party membership and practised "crash admittance," and as a result some political speculators and bad types have sneaked into the Party. Hence, such a provision is necessary.

Primary Party organizations are in the forefront of the three great revolutionary movements of class struggle, the struggle for production and scientific experiment and are nearest to the masses outside the Party. It is incumbent on primary Party organizations to give Party members constant ideological and political education so that they may play an exemplary vanguard role. It is also incumbent on primary Party organizations to fulfil the tasks of grasping revolution and promoting production and other work and preparedness against war. In order to accomplish their criminal plot to usurp power in the Party and state, the "gang of four" opposed deep-going education in the Party's basic line among the masses both inside and outside the Party and opposed the consolidation of primary Party organizations, slandering such work as "directing the spearhead of attack downwards" and "the big bourgeois criticizing the petty bourgeois." In the struggle against the "gang of four," quite a number of primary Party organizations resisted their sinister wind and rebuffed their interference, thus fulfilling the role of a fighting bastion. Drawing on the experience of the Party organizations of Taching, Tachai, the Hard-Bone Sixth Company and other advanced units, the draft includes more specific and explicit provisions on the tasks of primary Party organizations designed to facilitate their being carried out. We must strengthen the building of primary Party organizations so that they may become fighting bastions of our Party leading the masses inside and outside the Party in carrying on the socialist revolution and construction, consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and waging struggles against the class enemy.

In a word, the requirements for Party members and primary Party organizations prescribed in the draft are all aimed at raising the political quality of the Party membership, purifying the Party organizations, strengthening the Party's relations with the masses and increasing its fighting power.

Comrades! The draft of the revised Party Constitution, holding high the great banner of Chairman Mao, fully embodies his teachings on Party building and the theory and line of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, and reflects the fruits of victory in the great struggle to smash the "gang of four." The new Party Constitution to be adopted by this congress will be an important weapon for strengthening our Party building ideologically and organizationally. In accordance with the provisions of the new Party Constitution, we must make our Party stronger and more vigorous so that it may most effectively play its role in leading the socialist revolution and construction. Party organizations at all levels and all Party members must conscientiously study the Party Constitution, abide by it strictly, implement it resolutely, and fight against any words and deeds running counter to it.

Our Party and our country are now at an important point in history when we are carrying forward the revolutionary cause pioneered by our predecessors and forging ahead into the future. The great victory we have won in smashing the "gang of four" marks the successful conclusion of the first Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in our country and the start of a new period in China's socialist revolution and construction. The struggle between the two classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the struggle between the two roads, socialist and capitalist, and the struggle between the two lines, Marxist and revisionist, will continue for a long time. Political revolutions in the nature of the Cultural Revolution will be carried out many times in the future. The tasks that face us in the socialist revolution and construction are great and most arduous. Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua, the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all nationalities must unite as one and strive to perform the eight fighting tasks involved in grasping the key link of class struggle and bringing about great order across the land which have been put before the 11th National Congress of the Party, make China a powerful and modern socialist country by the end of the century and carry through to the victorious end our proletarian revolutionary cause pioneered by Chairman Mao.

(NO. 36 SEPTEMBER 2, 1977)