The Party's Discipline Education in Yan'an Rectification Movement

Strict discipline is a major advantage of the Communist Party of China, and the construction of party discipline is an important aspect of party building. The education of party discipline in the centralized education within the party is a feature of the Yan'an rectification movement. The Yan'an rectification movement takes the party's discipline construction and discipline education as an important content, improves the party members' sense of discipline and strengthens the party's organizational discipline, which is of great significance in the history of party discipline construction and party spirit education.

regard discipline education as an important task of rectification

During the rectification movement, Comrade Mao Zedong proposed that discipline should be used to rectify the party's style of work and improve the party's work. He likened discipline to "overbearing" and "golden hoop". "Overbearing" means that discipline must be rigidly constrained and enforced. In September 1941, he pointed out in "Against Subjectivism and Sectarianism": "The line is'kingway', and discipline is'dominance', both of which are indispensable." (Collected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1993 edition, p. 374) This not only emphasizes the need to form appeal and appeal through the correctness of the political line and the justice of the political stand, so as to convince people, but also emphasizes Discipline enforcement must reflect rigidity and strength. The "golden hoop" is the instrument on Sun Wukong's head that restricts his free behavior. If he makes a mistake, he will be criticized and punished. In April 1942, Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out in his report on the rectification of the three winds at a meeting of the Central Study Group: "Party members have the obligation to obey the Party's decisions ...... As Party members, iron discipline must be enforced. The hoop on Sun Walker's head is gold, and Lenin said on Communist Party discipline that discipline is iron, more powerful and harder than Sun Walker's gold hoop." (Collected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 2, p. 416) Comrade Mao Zedong used these two metaphors to vividly illustrate the important role of serious discipline in rectifying party style, and also enhanced party members' understanding of discipline.
At that time, the phenomenon of unorganized and undisciplined within the Party was mainly manifested in sectarianism. Sectarianism only cares about local interests, ignores all interests, and deviates from the party's democratic centralism. It is a typical manifestation of violating the party's organizational discipline. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out in particular that "sectarianism is a culture that excludes non-Party cadres, that is, exclusionism. At the same time, it is also excluded. The phenomenon of independence, disobedience to resolutions, and lack of discipline must be rectified" (Collected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 2, p. 374). The primary manifestation of sectarianism is independence, "they do not understand the democratic centralism of the Party, they do not know that the Communist Party not only wants democracy, but especially centralization. They forget that the minority is subordinate to the majority, the lower level is subordinate to the higher level, the part is subordinate to the whole, and the whole Party is subordinate to the democratic centralism of the Central Committee". Therefore, it is necessary to prevent and eliminate these erroneous tendencies, and "it is necessary to promote consideration of the overall situation. Every party member, every partial work, every speech or action must take the interests of the whole party as the starting point, and absolutely not allow to violate this principle" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 3, People's Publishing House, 1991 edition, p. 821). comrade mao zedong emphasized that this is the most basic and most important organizational discipline. The Yan'an rectification movement also effectively eliminated other erroneous tendencies in the party through disciplinary education, such as putting the individual first and the party second, causing fame, status, and publicity. Bringing in some people, crowding out some people, blowing and pat among comrades, pulling and pulling, and bringing the vulgar style of bourgeois political parties into the Communist Party. This non-proletarian phenomenon of unorganized and undisciplined goes against the Party's principle of democratic centralism. Comrade Mao Zedong demanded that the whole Party must pay attention to this problem, "we must build a centralized and unified Party, and all unprincipled factional struggles must be eliminated. In order to make our whole Party work in unison and strive for a common goal, we must oppose individualism and sectarianism" (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 3, p. 822). Through the discipline education in the rectification movement, the sectarianism, individualism, and independence in the party have been effectively cleaned up, the party's discipline has been strengthened, and the unity of the party organization has been strengthened.

Adherence to Party Discipline as an Important Content of Strengthening Party Spirit

Party spirit is the inherent nature of a political party and is the highest and most concentrated expression of its class nature. The Yan'an period was a period when the Communist Party of China's concept of party spirit was comprehensively constructed and party spirit education was intensively carried out. Comrade Liu Shaoqi regarded "observing discipline" as one of the eight aspects of Communist Party members' self-cultivation, emphasizing that party members "must adhere to inner-party unity, criticize and self-criticize, and observe discipline" (Selected Works of Liu Shaoqi, Volume 1, People's Publishing House, 1981, p. 109). In the rectification movement, the party emphasized discipline construction and discipline education as the basic party content. In the article "opposing all kinds of unhealthy tendencies in the Party," Comrade Liu Shaoqi further clarified the specific requirements of discipline in party spirit, pointing out: "the party spirit of a Communist Party member is not only manifested in his highest and clearest principles, but also in his highest organization and discipline. All thoughts, speeches, and actions of party members should be principled, organized, and disciplined" ("Liu Shaoqi on Party Building", Central Literature Publishing House, 1991 edition, p. 302). It can be seen that strengthening the party's discipline construction as the starting point, strengthening the party spirit of the proletarian party, that is, enhancing the political, ideological, organizational and disciplinary nature of all party members, and then uniting and consolidating the whole party, has become an important part of party spirit education in the Yan'an rectification movement. content.
In July 1941, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee passed the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening Party Spirit", emphasizing that the purpose of strengthening party spirit is to make the party a Bolshevik party that is completely consolidated ideologically, politically, and organizationally. Subordinate to the interests of the whole party, subordinate the interests of individual party components to the interests of the whole party, to enable the whole party to unite as one person "(Selected Documents Since the Founding of the Party [1921-1949], Volume 18, Central Literature Publishing House, 2011, p. 443). this also fully embodies the requirements of political discipline and organizational discipline in discipline building. The "Decision" specifically pointed out the erroneous tendencies that are incompatible with the party spirit within the party, put forward a number of requirements for correcting violations of the party spirit principle, and focused on the requirements of discipline. Including: in the party, more emphasis is placed on the unity, centralization, and the importance of obeying the leadership of the central government; strictly check the implementation of the party's decisions to eliminate dual phenomena; correct, educate, save, and unite cadres who have made mistakes. Those who repeatedly say that they do not change must be prevented in time and disciplined ";" Discipline education must be strengthened throughout the party, because unified discipline is a necessary condition for the victory of the revolution. we should strictly abide by the basic principle that the individual is subordinate to the organization, that the minority is subordinate to the majority, that the lower level is subordinate to the higher level, and that the whole party is subordinate to the central authorities. This must be the case for both ordinary party members and cadres and party members "(Selected Important Documents Since the Founding of the Party [1921-1949], Volume 18, p. 445). Starting from the purpose of strengthening the party spirit of Party members and maintaining the unity of the party, the decision highlights the important position of discipline consciousness in the cultivation of party spirit, strengthens the discipline education and discipline restraint of Party members and cadres, consolidates the party's organization, strengthens the party's unity, and maintains the party's centralized unity.
Summary of the Experience and Lessons of the Party's Discipline Construction in the Resolution on Certain Historical Issues
In the final stage of the Yan'an rectification movement, the Communist Party of China held the enlarged Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee. The main content and most important achievement of the plenary session was the adoption of the "Resolution on Certain Historical Issues" in principle. The "Resolution" summarizes the history of the party and its basic experiences and lessons since the founding of the party, especially from the fourth Plenary session of the sixth CPC Central Committee to the Zunyi Conference, and highly appraises Comrade Mao Zedong's outstanding contribution to using the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism to solve the problems of the Chinese revolution. it affirms the great significance of establishing Comrade Mao Zedong's leading position in the whole party.
The "Resolution" criticized the "Left" mistakes in the party's history, and also deeply reflected on the serious setbacks that the party's discipline construction has experienced. It pointed out that under the third "Left" wrong line, the party was organized. The above has carried out wrong inner-party struggles, and comrades who doubt, disagree, are dissatisfied, do not actively support, and do not resolutely implement this line, regardless of the situation, they all mistakenly put on the big hats of "right opportunism", "rich peasant line", "Luo Ming line", "reconciliation line" and "double faced". "it undermines the basic principles of democratic centralism within the party, abolishes the democratic spirit of criticism and self-criticism within the party, makes inner-party discipline a mechanical discipline, and develops the tendency of blindly obeying and echoing within the party, as a result, the development of fresh, lively and creative Marxism within the Party is attacked and obstructed". This erroneous intra-party struggle has also led to a sectarian cadre policy, "cracking down on, punishing, and replacing in large numbers all the old cadres at the central and local levels who do not share their scent, do not want to blindly obey and echo, have work experience and contact with the masses", and "rashly promote all new cadres and foreign cadres who are similar to them, only blindly obey and echo, lack work experience, and do not contact with the masses, to replace the old cadres of the central and local governments" (Selected Documents Since the Founding of the Party [1921-1949], Volume 22, Central Literature Publishing House, 2011, p. 101). This not only seriously violated the party's organizational principles and organizational discipline, but also greatly weakened the party's organization and left a profound lesson.
In order to conscientiously sum up these lessons and overcome these erroneous tendencies, the resolution points out that we should carry out in-depth education in Marxism Leninism, improve the whole party's ability to distinguish between proletarian thought and petty bourgeois thought, promote democracy within the party, carry out criticism and self-criticism, carry out patient persuasion and education, analyze the content and harm of mistakes, Explain the historical and ideological roots of mistakes and their correction methods. This is the proper attitude of a Marxist-Leninist in overcoming errors within the Party. The basic and correct policy to overcome the mistakes in the party is to "learn from the past and learn from the future, cure the disease and save people", "not only to clarify the thinking but also to unite comrades". The correct principle is to adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts and the principle of achieving unity through criticism in the struggle within the party. This is also the policy that the whole party's rectification movement and the party's discipline education should follow, and it is also the basic requirement for strengthening party building.
The Yan'an rectification movement has improved the theoretical literacy of the whole party and the party spirit of party members and cadres. In particular, the effective development of the party's discipline education and the solid promotion of discipline construction have effectively strengthened the party's awareness of learning and observing discipline, corrected some wrong tendencies in the struggle within the party, overcome the liberalism, sectarian and mountain phenomena formed over the years, and formed a broad consciousness in the construction of Party style and discipline, The whole party has achieved unity and unity at a new height. The Yan'an rectification movement is a great pioneering work in the history of party building. It laid an important ideological and political foundation for the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and the victory of the democratic revolution. It also provided valuable experience and profound enlightenment for the subsequent development of centralized education and discipline education within the party. (author: Lu Huidong, a researcher at the Central China normal University Branch of the theoretical system Research Center of Socialism with Chinese characteristics in Hubei Province, this article is the phased achievement of the National Social Science Fund Youth Project "Research on the Revolutionary Spirit of the early figures of the Communist Party of China and its Contemporary value")
                                       

Source: Guangming Daily