Lin Biao -- On the Preparation for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution - Page 8

All these warnings and struggles did not and could not in the least change the reactionary class nature of Liu Shao-chi and his gang. In 1964, in the great socialist education movement, Liu Shao-chi came out and repressed the masses, shielded the capitalist-roaders in power and openly attacked the Marxist scientific method of investigating and studying social conditions initiated by Chairman Mao, branding it as "outdated." He raved that whoever refused to carry out his line to was "not qualified to hold a leading post." He and his gang were working against time to restore capitalism. At the end of 1964, Chairman Mao convened a working conference of the Central Committee and, under his direction, the document Some Current Problems Raised in the Socialist Education Movement in the Rural Areas (i.e., the 23 point document) was drawn up.

He denounced Liu Shao-chi bourgeois reactionary line which was "Left" in form but Right in essence and repudiated Liu Shao-chi's absurdities, such as "the intertwining of the contradictions inside and outside the Party" and "the contradiction between the 'four cleans' and the 'four uncleans.'" And for the first time Chairman Mao specifically indicated: "the main target of the present movement is those Party persons in power taking the capitalist road." This new conclusion drawn by Chairman Mao after summing up the historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat, domestic and international, set right the course of the socialist education movement and clearly showed the orientation for the approaching Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Reviewing the history of this period, we can see that the current Great Cultural Proletarian Revolution with the participation of hundreds of millions of revolutionary people has occurred by no means accidentally. It is inevitable result of the protracted and sharp struggle between the two classes, the two roads and the two lines in socialist society. The Great Cultural Proletarian Revolution is "a great political revolution carried out by the proletariat against the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes; it is a continuation of the prolonged struggle waged by the Chinese Communist Party and the masses of revolutionary people under its leadership against the Kuomintang reactionaries, a continuation of the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie." The heroic Chinese proletariat, poor and lower middle peasants, People's Liberation Army, reactionary cadres and revolutionary intellectuals who were all determined to follow the great leader Chairman Mao closely in taking the socialist road, could no longer tolerate the restoration activities of Liu Shao-chi and his gang, and so a great class battle was unavoidable.