Marxism consists of thousands of truths, but they all boil down to one sentence, It is right to rebel! For thousands of years it has been said that it was right to oppress, it was right to exploit and it was wrong to rebel. This old verdict was only reversed with the appearance of Marxism. And from this truth there follows resistance, struggle, the fight for socialism.

Mao Tsetung

Other URLs for that full quote can be found by google of the text.

I think this slogan is really pivotal in the discussion about the pseudo-left and what it means to adopt a left-wing outlook. Indeed, the discussion of a definition of pseudo-left is necessary but it really needs to be put in the context of something positive, not just a definition of what is a clear reactionary outlook. I think the notion of rebellion being something to celebrate, support, and actually do, hits the nail on the head. The bit about "thousands of years" is also worth considering. Isn't it amazing to think that we are part of such a relatively brief period of human history in which the notion of the human beings determining the future, let alone rebellion, has been consciously discussed for the first time. It literally took thousands of years before dudes realized they could shape the future but had to rebel against the old ways, the heavy traditions and the 'common-sense' of the present, to do so.

Also, the idea of rebellion is inherently optimistic. Why would one do it unless there is a sense of the future being better than the present and past? Again, this is a point of differentiation from the pseudo-left. The other night on Radio National, a few weeks ago, I heard Phillip Adams make a remark about "all this awful optimism that's going around". I'm sure that's the exact quote. Apparently, the leftwing position is a pessimistic one. We're meant to be the people smugly sitting back, observing the world fall apart, wisely pointing out to the ignorant masses that doom is inevitable. Sounds a lot like those C19th Christians who paraded the streets with placards declaring "The end is nigh".

The pseudo-left also hate and despise Mao - "the monster". I don't think one needs to call oneself a Maoist, or be one, to appreciate the truth in the spirit and politics of Mao's line in that regard. That is, if one wants to see capitalism finally buried and a better society created for the future.

Imagine having lived in the times when most people really were scared of those in power (and the 'God' whom they believed justified the authority of the rulers). Today, in this era, we can rebel and 'they' find it difficult to stop us. Problem is: right now, who is actually rebelling in Australia?!

Barry

The history of mankind is one of continuous development from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. This process is never-ending. In any society in which classes exist class struggle will never end. In classless society the struggle between the new and the old and between truth and falsehood will never end. In the fields of the struggle for production and scientific experiment, mankind makes constant progress and nature undergoes constant change, they never remain at the same level. Therefore, man has constantly to sum up experience and go on discovering, inventing, creating and advancing. Ideas of stagnation, pessimism, inertia and complacency are all wrong. They are wrong because they agree neither with the historical facts of social development over the past million years, nor with the historical facts of nature so far known to us (i.e., nature as revealed in the history of celestial bodies, the earth, life, and other natural phenomena).

*Quoted in "Premier Chou Enlai's Report on the Work of the Government to the First Session of the Third National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China" (December 21-22, 1964).


 From Chapter 22 of the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung on Methods of thinking and methods of work   which also has lots of other great quotes.

I would cite it as "Widely quoted by Red Guards during Cultural Revolution" and just authenticate this by a reference to a Peking Review from the period by adding "(eg see Peking Review number xx .../.../...)"

I had a copy on a collection of cards with quotes (set to music) officially published and translated from similar circulating in Chinese. Would have got them in Peking, May 1967. You can probably "authenticate" it from a quote in Peking Review around 1966-7 but you may find it very difficult to track down the original statement which I think was from 1930s as they tended to just use Mao quotes as "scripture" rather than with proper citations and this was definately from one of the "unpublished" works so it would not have been cited anyway. I vaguely remember reading some reference in a translated Red Guard publication to an original citation but am not even certain that I ever did. The main such collection I have is "Miscellany of Mao Tse-tung Thought" published by the US Joint Publications Research Service and distributed via NTIS which has microfiche subs in Aust research libraries.

If wikipedia really needs an original date rather than just authentication I would suggest asking Chinese speaking people such as those who could be contacted via the China Study Group to track it down rather than putting much time into it yourself.

Sadly this google search shows only one independent web page with the whole paragraph online (a rather sad page but the identical text of the quote suggests it probably came from an RCP publication like "And Mao Makes Five" by Raymond Lotta, which would in turn have been based on Peking Review).

A search for shorter versions has a few more including one from CNN but I didn't notice any citation to original.

You probably won't find it in Peking Review much earlier than 1966 or later than 1967 as it was deliberately displaced by the phrase "It is right to rebel against reactionaries" from Mao's Letter To The Red Guards Of Tsinghua University Middle School (the emphasis on "against reactionaries" being necessary to counter the left in form but right in essence tactic of "overthrow everybody" resorted to by China's pseudos).

PS As you can see I am enthusiastic about you having added it to the wikipedia page

PPS Another curioristy, while googling around for (distressingly few) references to "It is right to rebel against reactionaries" I came across Barry's article Not in your name at a Greek Orthodox web site.

Revisionist pseudos suck. Orthodoxy rules!

Found a citation in a window I had opened but not yet looked at before posting previous entry.

Mao Tse-tung, "Speech at a Meeting of All Circle in Yenan in Celebration of Stalin's Sixtieth Birthday" (December 21, 1939).

Since any reference to Stalin would only be seen as ironic I would cite as:

December 21, 1939, cited in CCP journal Hongqi (Red Flag) No 4, 1967

(Or lookup and cite corresponding issue of Peking Review)

You should be able to find an issue with the longer version around the same period - February 1967)

Have just come accross this (yes, I know I should have been paying attention earlier) and it reminded me of Gerard Winstanley, a man very much before his time.

Winstanley was the most radical voice of the English Revolution. While insights such as the quote which follows resulted from the economic and social developments that produced the Revolution, I suppose they were also insufficiently mature for Winstanley's ideas to become a genuine force.

 "Freedom is the man who turns the world upside down; and therefore he maketh many enemies."

I came accross this in Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down which came out over 30 years ago and which is a very good read (as was most of Hill's material written on 17th C England).

What is exceptional about Winstanley's insight is how closely it mirrors Mao's. Indeed the periods of history which provided the inspiration for both quotes have significant parallels - the feudal order in both countries being overthrown, with the role of the New Model Army and the People's Liberation Army being cenral in both cases. (Political power grows out of the barrel of a blunderbus, or whatever it was they were using at the time).

The first  part in both quotes provide the punch, the second part provides the context. Both have the great ability to identify the problem and the solution pithily in the one sentence.