Analysis:
To be precise, it is "* * * to talk to the editor of Jinsui Daily".
Since June 1947, Jinsui Daily has carefully examined the right-leaning tendency in news reports and the existing problems of inaccurate news, adopted the methods of public comments and self-criticism, mobilized the masses to expose false reports, safeguarded the principle of news authenticity, and opposed "Airbus" ("Airbus" is synonymous with some untrue news);
In the early days of land reform, landlords supported land reform, and the illusory scene of "peaceful" land reform was publicized in practical work. Jinsui Daily first recognized the mistakes and corrected them. Jinsui Daily uses the public criticism and self-criticism in the newspaper to mobilize the masses to expose false reports, safeguard the principle of news authenticity and oppose Airbus. Xinhua News Agency published the monograph "Exercise Our Stand and Style-Study and Check Work" signed by the editorial department of the head office. On September 1 day, Xinhua News Agency published an editorial "Learn to Self-criticize. After that, the press in the liberated areas generally launched a campaign against Airbus. This movement carried forward the fine tradition of criticism and self-criticism, checked and corrected the inaccuracy of news reports, and safeguarded the principle of news authenticity; It overcame the right-leaning tendency in the propaganda of land reform, reformed the position and style of journalists and improved their political quality.
1April, 948, * * * received the editorial staff of Jinsui Daily, and made an important conversation after listening to the work report of the newspaper, that is, the famous conversation with the editor of Jinsui Daily. * * * *' s speech comprehensively summed up the experience of the struggle on two fronts in the news work in the liberated areas, including Jinsui Daily, and brilliantly expounded several basic problems in the theory of proletarian party newspapers:
(1) Regarding the role and task of the proletarian party newspaper, * * * pointed out: "The role and strength of the newspaper lies in that it enables the party's program, line, principles and policies, tasks and working methods to reach the masses most quickly and widely."
(2) Regarding the line and policy of running a newspaper, * * * pointed out: "Our newspaper should first be run by everyone, by all people and by the whole party, not by a few people behind closed doors."
(3) Regarding the style of proletarian party newspapers, * * * pointed out: "The newspapers run by our party and all the propaganda work carried out by our party should be action-oriented, clear-cut, sharp and without hesitation. This is the fighting style that our revolutionary proletariat should have. "
(4) Regarding the study and training of party newspaper workers, * * * believes that "in order to educate the masses, newspaper workers must first learn from the masses".
The following is the full text of this dialogue:
A talk with the editor of Jinsui Daily
(1April 2, 948)
Our policies should be known not only to leading cadres, but also to the broad masses. Policy issues should generally be publicized in party newspapers and periodicals. We are reforming the land system. All policies related to land reform should be published in newspapers and broadcast on the radio to let the masses know. When people know the truth and have the same purpose, they will come to Qixin to do it. This is the same as fighting. To fight well, we need not only the new cadres, but also the new soldiers. After training and complaining, the troops in northern Shaanxi have improved their consciousness and understood why and how to fight. They are all rubbing their hands and fighting spirit, and they will win the battle as soon as they start. Everything will be easy when the masses come to Qixin. The basic principle of Marxism-Leninism is to let the masses know their own interests and unite to fight for their own interests. The function and strength of the newspaper lies in that it can make the party's program, line, principles and policies, tasks and working methods contact the masses most quickly and extensively.
In some places, the leading bodies believe that as long as the leaders know the party's policies, the masses don't have to know them. This is one of the basic reasons why we can't do some work well. For more than 20 years, our party has been doing mass work every day. 10 has been talking about the mass line every day for more than 20 years. We have always advocated that the revolution should rely on the masses of the people, and everyone should start work, and we are opposed to relying only on a few people to give orders. However, in the work of some comrades, the mass line has still not been implemented, and a few people still do their work coldly. One of the reasons is that when they do something, they are always unwilling to explain it clearly to the people who are led, and they don't know how to give full play to the enthusiasm and creativity of the leaders. Subjectively, they also want everyone to do it, but they don't let everyone know what they want to do and how to do it. So how can everyone move and do things well? To solve this problem, of course, we should educate comrades of the mass line ideologically and teach them many specific methods at the same time. One way is to make full use of newspapers. Running newspapers well, making them fascinating, correctly propagating the Party's principles and policies in newspapers and strengthening the ties between the Party and the masses through newspapers are issues of great principled significance that cannot be underestimated in the Party's work.
Comrades run newspapers. Your job is to educate the masses and let them know their own interests, their own tasks and the party's principles and policies. Running a newspaper, like doing other things, must be done seriously in order to run it well and survive. Our newspapers should also be run by the whole people, run by the whole people and run by the whole party, not by a few people behind closed doors. Our newspaper talks about the mass line every day, but it often fails to implement the mass line in its own work. For example, typos often appear in newspapers because they are not taken seriously. If the mass line method is adopted, if there are typos in the newspaper, the staff of the whole newspaper will * * *, if nothing else, just talk about it, make clear the wrong situation, the wrong reasons and the ways to eliminate it, and everyone should pay serious attention to it. If you say this three times and five times, you will definitely correct your mistakes. Small things are like this, and so are big things.
It is Marxism–Leninism's art of leadership to be good at translating the Party's policies into the actions of the masses, so that every movement and struggle of ours can be understood not only by leading cadres, but also by the masses. This is also the boundary of whether we make mistakes in our work. It is adventurism to attack before the masses realize it. If we insist on leading the masses to do what they don't want to do, the result is bound to be failure. The masses demand progress, but we don't. This is right opportunism. The mistake of Chen Duxiu's opportunism (1) lies in that it lags behind the level of the masses' consciousness, cannot lead the masses forward, and opposes them. Many comrades still don't understand these problems. Our newspaper should publicize these ideas so that everyone can understand them.
In order to educate the masses, journalists must first learn from them. Comrades are all intellectuals. Intellectuals are often ignorant and have little or no experience in practical things. You don't quite understand 1933' s pamphlet How to Analyze the Rural Class. Farmers are better than you in this respect. Just tell them and you will understand. More than 80 farmers from/kloc-0 in two districts of Ma County held a five-day meeting, which solved many problems in land distribution. If your editorial department comes to discuss those problems, I'm afraid it won't be solved in two weeks. There is a simple reason. You don't understand those questions. Do it if you don't know. This is learning. It is necessary for newspaper comrades to take turns to go out to participate in mass work and land reform for a period of time. When you don't go out to participate in mass work, you should also listen to and read more materials about mass movements and study them hard. The slogan of our training is: "Officials teach soldiers, soldiers teach instructors, and soldiers teach soldiers." Soldiers have a lot of practical experience in combat. Officials should learn from soldiers and turn other people's experience into their own, and their skills will be great. Newspaper comrades should always learn from the materials reflected below, gradually enrich their practical knowledge and become experienced people. In this way, you can do your work well and you can undertake the task of educating the masses.
Since the meeting of prefectural party committee secretaries in June last year, Jinsui Daily has made great progress. Rich in content, sharp and powerful, it reflects the great mass struggle and speaks for the masses. I really want to see it. However, since the "Left" rectification movement in January this year, your newspaper has been a little discouraged, not clear enough, not inflammatory enough, and there is less material, which makes people unwilling to read it. It's good that you are checking your work and summing up your experience now. Summing up the experience of opposing right and "Left", the work will improve if you have a clear mind.
The anti-Rightist struggle launched by Jinsui Daily after June last year is completely correct. In the struggle against Right Deviation, you did it very seriously, which fully reflected the actual situation of mass movements. Opinions and materials that I think are wrong will be annotated in the form of editors' notes. Your later comments also have shortcomings, but the spirit of seriousness is good. Your shortcoming is mainly that the bowstring is too tight. If you pull it too tightly, the bowstring will break. The ancients said: "The way of civil and military affairs is to be lenient with others." (3) Relax now and comrades will wake up. There were achievements and shortcomings in the past, mainly "Left" deviations. Now, if we comprehensively sum up and correct the "Left" deviation, we will achieve greater results.
When we correct the deviation, some people regard the past work as nothing and think it is completely wrong. This is not right. These people fail to see that the Party has led so many peasants to acquire land, overthrew feudalism, reorganized the Party organization and improved the style of cadres, and now it has corrected the "Left" deviation and educated cadres and the masses. Isn't this a great achievement? We should adopt an analytical attitude towards our work and the cause of the masses and should not deny everything. In the past, "Left" deviations occurred because everyone had no experience. Without experience, mistakes are inevitable. There is a process from inexperience to experience. In the short period from last June to now, after the struggle against right and "Left", everyone knows what anti-right and "Left" means. Without such a process, no one would know.
After investigation and summing up experience, I believe your newspaper will do better. You should keep the advantages of your newspaper in the past, be sharp, inflammatory, distinctive and conscientious. We must uphold the truth, and the truth must have a clear-cut stand. We * * * people never think it is shameful to hide our opinions. The newspapers run by our party and all the propaganda work carried out by our party should be vivid, vivid, sharp and without hesitation. This is the fighting style that our revolutionary proletariat should have. We need this fighting style if we want to educate the people to know the truth and mobilize them to fight for liberation. Cutting meat with a blunt knife will not bleed for a long time.
To annotate ...
[1]: See Note [4] on the Strategic Issues of China's Revolutionary War, Volume I of this book.
[2]: Ma County, now Yuanping County, Shanxi Province.
[3]: See Miscellaneous Notes on the Book of Rites. The original text is: "Zhang doesn't relax, civil and military can do it. Easy and not open, both civil and military. The first is to relax, and the way of civil and military affairs is also. " Wu Wen refers to Zhou Wenwang and Zhou Wuwang.