Reliance On Poor Peasants

Economically, the new democratic revolution aimed at the nationalisation of all big capitalist enterprises and the capital of the imperialists and bureaucrat capitalists. It did not encroach on either the holdings of the national bourgeoisie or upon industrial or commercial enterprises run by landlords and rich peasants.

Land reform aimed at the system of feudal exploitation by the landlords and old-type rich peasants, but it did not eliminate the rich peasant economy in general. This revolutionary process was accomplished by relying on the poor peasants (the firmest allies of the working class) allied with the middle peasants. This consolidates the worker-peasant alliance and helps lay the foundation for the new state power.

Politically, the new democratic revolution aimed at the establishment of the people's democratic dictatorship. "The people's democratic dictatorship is based on the alliance of the working class, the peasantry and the urban petty-bourgeoisie, and mainly on the alliance of the workers and peasants." Such a state combines "democracy for the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries." (On the People's Democratic Dictatorship).

Lead by the working class through the Communist Party, this form of state power ensures that the proletariat establishes its ascendancy in all social fields: economic, political, ideological, cultural and military. With political power in its hands, the proletariat can complete the bourgeois democratic revolution and ensure the transition to the socialist revolution when the time is right.

Chaiman Mao Tsetung was not content with just interpreting the world, as do some so-called "Marxists" in the West. In studying and formulating theories, his sole purpose was to put them to the task of revolutionising nature and society. A short article like this, even allowing for defects in my understanding, cannot adequately reveal the richness of Mao Tsetung's thinking. There is no substitute for reading the works of Mao Tsetung. As Jan Myrdal once said, "If you want to get a clear picture of the political thought of Stuart R. Schram, then of course you ought to read The Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung' by Stuart R. Schram. If you are interested in the political thought of Mao Tsetung and find him more important than Schram, then of course you read Mao Tsetung. His works are available in editions he has published himself."