Basics,
Part 1a
How to be a Good
Communist
In today’s document (attached)
Liu-Shaoqui discusses how members of a Communist Party should “cultivate and temper themselves” and “why communists must undertake self
cultivation.”
Liu says “…the
proletariat must conscientiously go through long periods of social
revolutionary struggles and in such struggles change society and change
itself.”
The linked
document is the first chapter. The remainder of the book can be found on the Marxists Internet Archive.
This text
is quite in demand, possibly because of its title, and because of the simple
didactic certainties that it offers. Let it speak for itself.
But we
should in any case note that Liu Shaoqi’s political career ended with his
arrest in 1969 during the “cultural revolution”. He was expelled from the Party
in 1968, accused of being a “capitalist-roader”. His death followed in 1969.
So in life,
being a good communist, or being recognised as such, turned out to be
problematic for Liu Shaoqui.
- The above is to
introduce the original reading-text: Liu Shaoqi, How to be
a good Communist, 1939.
