GUERRILLA
FORCES REPORTED ACTIVE IN RHODESIA
Guerrilla forces have begun activities in Rhodesia against: the racist Smith regime, according to reports from Dar es Salaam published by Hsinhua, the Chinese news agency.
In the Sinoia area about eighty-five miles north of Salisbury, fighting broke out in the latter part of April. Freedom fighters adhering to the Zimbabwe African National Union [ZANU] killed twentyfive white colonial troops and policemen and wounded. thirty others. They also shot.down two helicopters of the air force.
fhe Smith regime has sent out hundreds of troops and arrested many _ Prominent Africans in an effort to repress the. rebellion.
oA strict censorship has been imposed. on all news relating. to the guerrilla struggle. .
- MORE -ON KUO MO-JO
[In the May 13 issue of World Outlook, we reported that the. 74-year-old Kuo Mo-jo, the outstanding intellectual luminary of the Mao ‘regime, had appeared before the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to confess his failure to grasp ‘the... thought of Mao Tse-tung. °’For-a number of decades," he was reported to have said, "I have written poems, translations and. articles...On | the quantitative side, this represents more than a-million ‘char- 7 acters; but, judged by present standards, my work is devoid of . value and. ought to be burned. " . .
LAs reported by the press in both the: ‘United States and Western Europe, Kuo Mo-jo went even further in self-abasement. and. in praise of the value of Mao's thought. He was quoted, for instance, as saying that he wanted to "roll:in the mud...to. be smeared with oil and blood." The exact meaning of. these ‘phrases |: remained ‘somewhat obscure, but were generally interpreted. as mean- . ing that Kuo's head might be among those marked’ to roll in. the... current internal conflict in the Chinese Communist party and that he was trying. to save his position.
{We have not yet seen a translation of the. ‘full text of. Kuo. Mo-jo's declaration before the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. The Chinese press, however, continues to. publish. reports about his: activities, such as receiving foreign dignitaries. Thus it may be that he is not seriously’ threatened. His kowtowing. to Mao may have been little more than the groveling expected at the moment from all: the leading intellectuals whether they continue to remain in favor or end up among those retired from public. wiew. In any case, this’ deduction would seem to fit better with the account of Kuo Mo-jo's declarations released May 7. by the Hsinhua -
news agency. It is clear from this that Kuo Mo-jo's references to mud, blood, etc., were neither as direct nor as gross as they were made out. to be. by the Western press.
[Below, we have reproduced the full text of the Hsinhua dispatch. |
* oe *
. PEKING, May 6 (Hsinmua) ‘China's intellectuals should feel :” indebted to the workers, peasants and soldiers and regard them'as | their teachers, said Kuo Mo-jo in an article widely publicized in the Peking press.
Entitled "Learn Proia and “Serve “the Worker, “Peasant and : Soldier Masses," the article is the text of the speech made by | Kuo Mo-jo in his capacity of vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, at the committee's’ session on April 14.
He said: "Chairman Mao Tse-tung told us more than twenty years ago that we should serve the workers, peasants and soldiers. But today the situation is not that we are serving them but the other way round. Through the study of Chairman Mao's works, they are now writing better stuff than we are. "
Kuo Mo-jo, “who. is also. chairman of. the China ‘Federation of. Literary and Art Circles, quoted "The Song of Ouyang Hai" as an ... example."He described it as "an epoch-making novel." He said that the author, Chin Ching-mai, had served:as a soldier for many years and was still working in the cultural troupe of the Kwangtung. military command. "It is precisely because he has been a soldier for many years that he has been able to produce this novel," said Kuo Mo-jo. "He has given a truly vivid portrayal of the hero Ouyang Had, creatively infusing Chairman ‘Mao's thinking into the novel. Co:
Ouyang Hai, a soldier in the People's Liberation Army, died in 196% in the course of preventing a railway accident. Kuo Mo-jo said that the novelist had succeeded in bringing into the novel alnost all the party" s policies and Chairman Mao" s ideas up to that year. = 7
"It seems to me," he added, "that such a novel is beyond the capacity of the so-called professional writers and artists today. The author has been able to write such a work. of literature because he personally knew what it meant to be covered in blood and muck in the army. It is clear that the: soldiers are serving us, it is not we who are Serving then.
‘Kuo Mo- jo referred .to-. ‘the ‘set of. life- size clay sculptures featuring ‘the ‘cruelty of the landlords in collecting rent and described it as "a revolution in the art of sculpture." He added: "IT have been'’to see these sculptures. three times and have found -
them very moving... Many visitors wept, because the. sculptures reminded them so vividly of their own past and touched their class — feelings. So popular are these sculptures that hundreds of thou- > sands of people have wisited the exhibition.’ -
oo Hé said that he watched some of the clay“ Seulptures: being. made. by aléroun. “of Szechwan sculptural workers. “In my view, the character of these. clay sculptures is unsurpassed," he declared. "They are more impressive than plaster casts and=marble..sculptures, particularly: when used to portray peasants. Be -
He attributed the success’ ‘of these works of sculpture to the mastery and creative application by the workérs of Chairman Mao's ideas. "This epoch-making achievement in the field of sculpture is the.result of the creative study and application of Chairman Mao's thinking," Kuo Mo-jo ‘stated. "It shows: that the workers are serving and educating us, rather than the other way round. " a.
JAs a matter of fact, many peasants study Chairman Mao's writings - much better than ‘intellectuals like us do. These’ intellectuals, grandiloquent philosophers, historians and what not, are no scholars at all. Workers -and peasants. are. much better — 7 students.
"Last.year.[ made a trip to Shansi and listened to a talk by Comrade Chou. Ming-shan (he is a peasant) on what he had gained from studying Chairman Mao's works. It was a really vivid and °° lively lecture..He is now Communist party. secretary of Chiangshien county and is also a deputy to the National People's Congress.
"Instead of serving the workers, peasants and soldiers, we are being served by them, in the fields of literature, history and philosophy. We should be grateful to them and regard them as our | teachers, because they have done a good job in studying Chairman Mao's ideas and have applied them creatively," Kuo Mo-jo said.
In conclusion, Kuo Mo-jo. said: "Though in my’ seventies, I still. have great aims and high ideals. I an willing to get covered © in muck emong the peasants, in. grease among the vorkers , and.” in blood. among ‘the soldiers. Should the U.S. imperialists’ dare to attack us, then I, too, will lob a few hand-grenades at them.
_ MAKES OUR MOUTH WATER
~ About a year and a half ago, one of the world's most. skilled Ping-Pong players was reported by Peking to have ascribed ~~ his success to his diligent study and application of the thought of Mao Tse-tung. Fruitful results have now been reported in bringing ; Maoism to bear in the distribution. of watermelons. .
~The discovery, obviously a capital one, was made ‘by Chou a
23.
Hsin-li, manager Of: the Chapei District Co., a subsidiary of the Shanghai Municipal Fruit and Sundry. Goods Co, According to a May 17 Peking dispatch, released to the’ world press by Hsinhua May 19, - Chou Hsin-1li wrote an article describing how his study and application of Mao Tse-tung's teachings "On Contradiction" led him to a great success in his own special sector. The article, according 7 to Hsinhua,. "has attracted wide interest and is now being reprinted ~~ in the People ' s Daily and all leading Peking papers, "
It seems that back in 1963 his company retailed 250 to 400 tons of watermelons a day at the height of the season. "The staff were overwhelmed and felt simply helpless. They did their best but could not ‘prevent a high rate of wastage."
This’ was nothing, however, compared to the crisis in 1964 when the staff learned that the crop would be about (fitty percent above the previous year. What to do?
It is not ‘reported what impelled Chou Hsin-li to resort to. the course of action he. took, but_it was the right path. "Chou _. Hsin-li says that he and his comrades derived’ ‘tremendous help at: this juncture from the ideas contained in Mao Tse-tung's 'On ” Contradiction. '"
The bedeviled manager and his staff found the. following sentences: "There is nothing that does not contain contradictions. The interdependence» of the contradictory aspects present in all things and the struggle between these aspects determine the’ life of all things and push their devélopment forward."
With these sentences, the problem was already solved. Only _ the practical side remained to be worked out. "The important thing was to pin, down the contradictions and decide which was the main one. 1] : - . . : an
They proceeded methodically. "Careful analysis led them to the conclusion that the problem lay in the contradiction between che heavy rush of supplies in a limited period’ and:the’ use of the sales force; it expressed itself. ‘in the weakness in the retail network,. staff arrangements, transportation, storage space, and management. " es
In short, it was superficial to view the problem as one of too many watermelons. After all, for Shanghai's population of more than 7,000,000 people, even 600 tons of watérmelon a day meant less than 3 ounces per person, including the rind. Viewed more deeply, it was clearly a question of either inefficiency on the part of the staff or its need to expand. ©
"This, "exposure! of the contradiction helped them to see the size and nature of the problems to. be tackled. They seemed formidable, and some members of the mariagement hesitated and advocated cutting down the volume of buying to suit, their existing structure.
- But the majority decided otherwise. If they could only get themselves set up better... "The question was how?"
Once again, ‘beférence: ‘to the thought: of Mao Tse~ tune proved invaluable. "This was where Mao Tse-tung's idea, ‘concentrate a superior force to destroy the enemy forces one by one,' came in useful. The principlé ‘referred to war tactics, but. Chou Hsin-li and ‘his comrades-adapted it to their own problem of selling melons. “a
The company did not give up pushing other items. During the peak of the watermelon season it merely: made a shift and. "concentrated its forces on melons." Among other things a bold innovation was tried. The staff "set-up stands ‘at convenient places on the streets." Here they | even went so. fer, as to offer watermelons by the slice. Peace Now ub
During the busiest days, they had as many as 300 people selling only watermelons. In contrast to the previous year, the year of the big wastage, they sold "all stocks as rapidly as supplies came." And they prepared for the final rush when it would be necessary to. select a reserve for the autumn. :
They” borrowed storage space from other organizations. bo Instead of relying on a few big trucks supplied by! the City Transportation, : _they used their dwn small: trucks and pedicabs. "This . did away with one of the main causes of waste of time and goods.’
In this way they sold seventy percent more. watermelons then in 1963, lowered expenses by more than thirty percent, reduced waste to less than ‘two percent and increased gross income from watermelons by thirty-five percent.
It was a triumph in every respect. “Shanghai people love to: eat watermelons in the hot summer," explains Hsinhua. "By their new arrangements, the company satisfied demand as never before and, at the same time, encouraged the rural communes in their production. "
How omniscient is the thought of Mao Tse- tung. Already a. , bible at: the Ping-Pong table, it has proved of. “equal relevance Bone the watermelon patch. : tae
Man, watch out! Careful where you | spit sisse seeds?
Under a Havana dateline, an instructive series of articles by Marcel Niedergang dealing with the Cuban Revolution appeared in the Paris daily Le Monde [May 12, 13, 14, 15-16 and 17]. The final article, taking up the