Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 26. October 3 1977
Making Revolution in Production
Making Revolution in Production
The Gang of Four argued that if you make revolution, production would develop automatically. Their famous slogan was "It is better to have late socialist trains than capitalist trains on time". They attacked and accused any persons or groups, who attached any emphasis on increased production as "revisionists and capitalist roaders", who were "placing the theory of productive forces before revolution". The Gang of Four thus confuse two very important concepts and equated the theory of productive forces with efforts to promote production. The Gang of Four twisted Mao's slogan of "Grasp Revolution, promote production" and formulated a theory based on a metaphysical opposition of revolution and production.
All this seriously undemined both production and revolution, and created widespread political and ideological confusion leading to increased factionalism and factional disputes.
Supporting the sabotage and disruption of production charge against the Gang of Four, Choong told me that in Kwangchow serious disruption to Agricultural planning and to the supply system led to shortages in the supply of many basic food items. One of my cousins, who is an electrician at a factory, remarked that as a result of the political and ideological confusion caused by the Gang of Four—workers at the factory where he worked were unsure as to the degree of enthusiasm they should apply in approaching their work. So for fear of being accused as capitalist roaders many workers adopted a very casual attitude to their work—so casual that playing cards during workhours became very common at that factory.