Combat Revisionism

Revisionism is a bourgeois ideology in the workers' movement that distorts, falsifies and denies Marxism.

After the death of Engels in 1895, Bernstein published a series of articles titled as "Problems of Socialism" in the journal named Neue Zeit, in which he proposed a revision and modification of Marxism in its complete form, hence the name revisionism.

Revisionism is a total abandonment of the basic principles and universal truth of Marxism. In philosophy, it replaced the revolutionary dialectic with vulgar evolution and sophistry; in political economy, it advocated revising the Marxist theory doctrine of surplus value with Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk’s theory of marginal utility value, arguing that cartels and trusts could eliminate the economic crisis of capitalism, denied the inevitable collapse of capitalism, and concealed the deep contradictions of imperialism; in politics, it advocated "class cooperation" and the "peaceful growth" of capitalism into socialism, and opposed the Marxist doctrine of class struggle, in particular, opposing the idea of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The emergence of revisionism was a reflection of the bourgeois worldview and its influence on the workers' movement, whose social basis was the aristocratic class of workers and the petty bourgeoisie that flowed into the ranks of the working class due to bankruptcy that prevailed in the workers' movements of some European countries at that time. It was characterized by the distortion and falsification of Marxism in the most revolutionary terms and with the most radical gestures, under the banner of Marxism.

After the mid-1950s, in view of the complexity of the situation at home and abroad, Mao Zedong repeatedly emphasized his opposition to revisionism.

In 1957, Mao Zedong pointed out in "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" that “Revisionism, or Right opportunism, is a bourgeois trend of thought that is even more dangerous than dogmatism. The revisionists, the Right opportunists, pay lip-service to Marxism; they too attack ‘dogmatism’. But what they are really attacking is the quintessence of Marxism. They oppose or distort materialism and dialectics, oppose or try to weaken the people's democratic dictatorship and the leading role of the Communist Party, and oppose or try to weaken socialist transformation and socialist construction. Even after the basic victory of our socialist revolution, there will still be a number of people in our society who vainly hope to restore the capitalist system and are sure to fight the working class on every front, including the ideological one. And their right-hand men in this struggle are the revisionists.”

In the same year, Mao Zedong pointed out in his speech at the National Conference of the CPC on Publicity: "It is revisionism to negate the basic principles of Marxism and to negate its universal truth. Revisionism is one form of bourgeois ideology. The revisionists deny the differences between socialism and capitalism, between the dictatorship of the proletariat and the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. What they advocate is in fact not the socialist line but the capitalist line. In present circumstances, revisionism is more pernicious than dogmatism. It is an important task for us to unfold criticism of revisionism on the ideological front now.”

In order to train successors to the cause of socialism, Mao Zedong emphasized many times: "We should educate our cadres to comprehend Marxism-Leninism at a certain degree and know more and better." That is to say, we should practice Marxism-Leninism instead of revisionism. "Be Marxist, not revisionist; be united, not divided; be open and honest, not conspiratorial.”