Question: Zhang Qian, Professor of Peking University First Hospital, President of Beijing Shijitan Hospital
In his speech at the conference commemorating the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the Communist Party "works for the interests of the vast majority of the people", which is the fundamental difference between Marxist political parties and other political parties. How do you understand its connotation and practical significance?
Interpretation: Niu Xianxian, executive vice president (college) of the Party School of the Party Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Guangxi School of Administration), professor
Marx and Engels believed that "in all stages of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the communists have always represented the interests of the entire movement" and that "they do not have any interests different from those of the proletariat as a whole" but "work for the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people." These three sentences are logically coherent and unified in content, and together they define the nature of a Marxist political party, expound the course of the proletarian movement, and declare the goals pursued by the communists. It is of great practical significance for the Chinese Communists in the new era to stay true to their original aspirations, keep their mission firmly in mind, always maintain the advanced nature and purity of the Party, combine common ideals with lofty goals, and comprehensively promote the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation.
Historical Context
With the development of large-scale industry, by the middle of the 19th century, capitalist relations of production were generally established in Western Europe, and the dominance of the bourgeoisie was consolidated. The bourgeoisie has created more productive forces in less than a hundred years of his reign than all previous generations. At the same time, the inherent contradictions of the capitalist mode of production are increasingly exposed, economic crises are periodically occurring, the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is constantly occurring, and the workers' movement is gradually rising. The working class has stepped onto the stage of history as an independent political force, and the establishment of a political party with clear political demands has been put on the agenda.
At this time, various political forces and social currents of thought were engaged in fierce competition for the leadership of the workers' movement. In order to keep the workers' movement on the right course, Marx and Engels actively participated in workers' activities in practice, fought against various trends of thought in theory, and hoped to arm the workers with communist ideology and establish a Marxist party organization.
In November 1847, the Second Congress of the Communist League was held in London, and Marx and Engels personally attended the congress and were entrusted by the congress to draft a program for the League. In February 1848, Marx and Engels jointly published the program drafted for the League, which was the Communist Manifesto, the first programmatic document of the international communist movement. These three sentences are all from the "Communist Manifesto," which for the first time revealed to the world the nature, purpose, and historical mission of the Communist Party in the form of the party's program.
Stipulate the fundamental attributes of the party
Communists "do not have any interests different from those of the proletariat as a whole" and "seek the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people." This is a stipulation on the nature of the party. In the past, no political party dared to openly declare that it "worked for the benefit of the overwhelming majority of the people", and it was impossible for them to do so, but only the Communists dared to openly state their position. This is not an outpouring of moral sentiments, but has deep historical and economic reasons.
From a historical and economic perspective, private ownership has emerged in society since the dissolution of the original public ownership of land. The appropriators of the means of production, having gained domination, "always subordinated the whole society to the conditions for their enrichment, in an attempt to consolidate the position of life they have acquired". Therefore, the political and economic measures adopted by the rulers, as well as the legal system and ideology they established, were all aimed at maintaining the oppression and expropriation of the proletarians.
In modern bourgeois society, the property in the possession of the bourgeoisie is premised on the proletariat not owning property. With the advent of the era of great industry, the bourgeoisie's mode of appropriation has created a serious polar opposition, one pole is the accumulation of wealth and the other is the accumulation of poverty. The bourgeoisie takes possession of all assets, while the proletarians accumulate only poverty. "The proletarians have nothing of their own that they must protect, and they must destroy everything that has hitherto protected and secured private property."
It is precisely on the basis of a historical and materialistic analysis of the proletarians and the bourgeoisie that Marx and Engels pointed out: "All movements in the past were movements of a small number of people, or movements for the benefit of a small number of people. The movement of the proletariat is an independent movement of the overwhelming majority of the people, for the benefit of the overwhelming majority of the people. The Communist Party, established under the guidance of Marxism, is a proletarian political party and is bound to seek the interests of the "overwhelming majority of the people" in the proletarian society. Therefore, "working for the benefit of the overwhelming majority of the people" is a fundamental attribute that communists possess when they are born.
Demonstrate the development process of the Party
"At all stages of the development of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the Communists have always represented the interests of the movement as a whole." This sentence is not only a description of historical facts, but also a guide for the future, and has important methodological significance.
Judging from the history of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is, first of all, a sporadic conflict between individual workers or individual enterprises and the capitalists, and such conflicts often revolve around economic interests, and basically all end in defeat under the suppression of the bourgeoisie. At this time, the workers' movement was still in the stage of spontaneity, and the working class was still at ease. When the working class realizes that only by forming a united political organization and overthrowing the political rule of the bourgeoisie can it fundamentally change its own destiny, the workers' struggle has developed to the stage of consciousness, and the working class has become a class of its own.
From the point of view of guidance for the future, Marx and Engels divided the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in stages and defined the tasks of each stage of development. "The first step of the workers' revolution is to raise the proletariat to the ruling class and win democracy", that is, to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie, to smash the bourgeois state apparatus, and to realize the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The second is that "the proletariat will use its political rule to seize all the capital of the bourgeoisie step by step, concentrate all the means of production in the hands of the state, that is, the proletariat organized as the ruling class, and increase the total amount of productive forces as quickly as possible", that is, to turn the private capital of the bourgeoisie into state capital, and develop the productive forces to meet the needs of society. The third is to move forward to a higher stage of social development.
From a methodological point of view, Marx and Engels proceeded from the actual situation of economic development and class struggle to put forward the idea of the unity of the thoroughness and stages of the proletarian revolution, and realized the organic integration of "permanent revolution" and "staged revolution." The thoroughness of the revolution requires that the Communists must always bear in mind that they "always represent the interests of the entire movement," and the phased nature of the revolution requires that the Communists should neither draw the ground nor rush forward, but should accomplish the phased goals in a down-to-earth manner and advance step by step.
Indicate the party's goals of struggle
The Communist Party is not a sectarian organization, it is not a special party in opposition to other workers' parties. The greatest advantage of the Communists is that they are the most resolute in their struggle against the bourgeoisie in practice and in their theoretical understanding of the conditions, process and general aims of the proletarian movement.
It is precisely on the basis of these two advantages that, on the one hand, the Communists are able to set short-term goals and phased goals in the course of the movement in the light of concrete realities, unite the entire proletariat in the most resolute struggle against the bourgeoisie, seize political power, develop the social productive forces as soon as possible, and seek benefits for the entire proletariat. On the other hand, we can clearly see the general trend of historical development and constantly advance toward the lofty goal of a communist society in which "the free development of each person is the condition for the free development of all people."
Communism is both a movement to eliminate the reality of the existing situation and a lofty ideal of the communists. The idea of combining the short-term goals of the proletarian movement with lofty ideals, and resolutely fighting for short-term goals while always striving for lofty ideals, laid the theoretical foundation for the Communists to formulate development strategies and advance directions.
It is of great epochal significance
The expositions of Marx and Engels have a history of more than 170 years, but they are not outdated and still have strong guiding significance for the construction of the Communist Party of China in the new era.
"Seeking the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people" is the stipulation of the party spirit of communists and the theoretical source of maintaining the advanced nature and purity of a Marxist political party. It requires us to stay true to our original aspirations, keep our mission in mind, always put the people in the highest position in our hearts, better enhance people's well-being, promote all-round human development and all-round social progress, and constantly move towards common prosperity for all people.
The basic principle of the phased development of the proletarian revolution requires us to correctly judge the historical position in which we are located, firmly grasp the main contradictions and main aspects of the contradictions in the initial stage of socialism, strive to solve the problems of inadequacy and imbalance, establish a new development concept, build a new development pattern, promote high-quality economic and social development, constantly meet the people's growing needs for a better life, and comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization.
The proletarian revolution must uphold the basic principle of combining short-term goals with lofty goals, and requires us to establish a lofty ambition that the revolutionary ideal is higher than the sky, and not lose confidence because of the lofty ideal, but also to solve practical problems in the face of reality, and not to be impatient and rash and do things that go beyond the stage. It is necessary to unify the lofty ideals of communism with the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics and with what we are doing, strengthen our confidence in the road, theory, system, and culture, not be afraid of any risks, not confused by any interference, always adhere to the ideals and beliefs of communists, and live up to the glorious title of communists.