On Politics

Chen Duxiu wrote and published this article in the journal New Youth (Volume 8, No. 1) on September 1, 1920.

It is one of the landmark documents of the dissemination of Marxism in China in the early period. The full text has more than 7,000 characters and is divided into four parts. In this article, Chen Duxiu made a focused elaboration on the following ideas in response to the challenges encountered in the dissemination of Marxism in China:

(1) How to understand the claims of the "anarchists". Chen Duxiu pointed out that this faction "fundamentally and absolutely claims that human beings should not have all political organizations. They oppose not only the politics of the nobility of the monarch and the politics of power struggle, but also oppose the politics of democracy." Chen Duxiu emphasized: "Not to look at how and why governmental power is used, but to close your eyes and oppose all power is just like refusing to eat for fear of choking and is by no means scientific.” "If one does not claim the use of force, class struggle, but continuously opposes the state, politics and law, and continuously imagines the emergence of a society of free organization, the bourgeoisie will still control the state all the time and take advantage of politics and law all the time. If one dreams about freedom in this fashion, it will take another 10,000 years and the oppressed labour class would not have an opportunity to free itself.

(2) How to understand the parliamentarism claimed by the "New Faction" that is “not against politics”. Chen Duxiu pointed out that although the "New Faction" does not believe in the mysterious authority of politics, law and the state, they know that politics, law and the state are a tool and need not to be abandoned. I take them for granted at this point. Still using old tools to build new businesses is something I strongly disapprove of. The reason is: "They still claim parliamentarism, adopt the means of competing for elections, join (i.e., surrender) the government and parliament on which the bourgeoisie acts evil, and want to use politics and laws on which the bourgeoisie acts evil to implement socialist policies." As a result, not only the doctrine could not be implemented, but it was assimilated with the bourgeoisie, and a policy of oppressing the working class against socialism was implemented. Chen Duxiu asserted: “If we do not go through a class struggle, if we do not go through a period where the working class holds the power, democracy will inevitably and forever be exclusively a thing of the bourgeoisie. This means that the capitalist class will forever use special political power as a weapon to resist the working class.”

(3) About "My conclusion". In this regard, Chen Duxiu talked about "five" recognitions. The most important among them is: “I recognize that it is the top priority in a modern society is to establish a government of the laboring class by revolutionary means and to formulate policies and laws forbidding all exploitative activities both at home and abroad.” The article "On Politics" has strongly exposed and criticized anti-Marxist claims such as anarchism and bourgeois parliamentarism (reformism) and propagated Marxist thoughts on class, state, proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship in many ways, and made important ideological and theoretical preparations for the establishment of the Communist Party of China. Since 2011, this article has been included in the Volume 2 of Selected Important Documents Since the Founding of the Communist Party of China, the 2011 edition of the Central Documents Publishing House, the second volume of Collected Works of Chen Duxiu, People's Press, 2013.