First. We must carry the great struggle to expose and criticize the "gang of four" through to the end.

This struggle is now the pivot of the struggle between the two classes and the two roads and will be so for some time to come. Grasping it means grasping the key link. We must follow up the struggle to expose and condemn the conspiracy of the "gang of four" to usurp Party and state power and their criminal counter-revolutionary history by intensifying our mobilization of the masses and vigorously waging a people's war to thoroughly expose and criticize the ultra-Right essence of the gang's counter-revolutionary revisionist line in all its manifestations. Not only must we settle accounts with the gang in the sphere of political and organizational line, we must also conduct criticism on the theoretical plane of philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism, so as to eradicate their pernicious influence in every field.

Investigation of the individuals involved and the incidents connected with the conspiracy of the "gang of four" to usurp Party and state power is an integral part of the struggle to expose and criticize the gang and must be carried through by fully mobilizing the masses. In a few areas and departments the leadership still lags behind the masses, a situation which must be speedily changed. At the same time, greater attention should be paid to the Party's policies as the movement develops in depth. In places where the masses have been fully aroused and the struggle is already at high tide, it is all the more necessary for the leading bodies at all levels to keep a cool head, always bear in mind that policy and tactics are the life of the Party, and strictly distinguish contradictions among the people from contradictions between ourselves and the enemy and handle both correctly, so as to help more people by educating them and narrow the target of attack. By the bourgeois factional setup of the "gang of four" and its followers, we mean the gang itself and those backbone elements who participated in their counterrevolutionary conspiratorial activities to usurp Party and state power. Among those involved in such activities in one way or another, only a handful belongs to the factional setup. In screening them, we must pay the utmost attention to doing the following: strictly distinguish between those who said or did something wrong under the gang's influence and those who took part in their conspiratorial activities; strictly distinguish between those who, though implicated in some of these activities, made political mistakes as a result of being used and the backbone elements who were privy to the gang's conspiracy; and even among the backbone elements, strictly distinguish between those who, after being briefed by the Central Committee in October 1976, have expressed their willingness to repent and make amends, exposed the gang's crimes and broken with them, and the diehards who continue to put up an obstinate fight. We must not brush aside all those who have erred but who can be won over, but should strive to help them change their stand through education. Only in this way can we unite more than 95 per cent of the cadres and the masses, isolate to the maximum the "gang of four" and the handful of their sworn followers who are guilty of serious crimes and unwilling to repent, and concentrate our blows on them. Furthermore, we must be sure to deal relentless blows to those landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries, bad elements and Rightists who hate socialism and who, backed and abetted by the "gang of four" and their cohorts, have committed grave crimes involving class retaliation and thus incurred the people's fierce indignation. The screening should go on without letup under the unified leadership of the Party committees, and, in the light of their specific conditions, the provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and the departments under the central authorities should endeavour to have this work basically completed by stages and in groups this year or a little later.

To make a thorough and systematic criticism of the counter-revolutionary revisionist line of the "gang of four" and of their reactionary world outlook and to eliminate their pernicious influence are long-term and more arduous tasks. The confusion the gang created in ideology, theory and political line and their corrosive influence on our ranks must not be underestimated. It is imperative to conduct widespread and intensive education in class struggle and the struggle between the two lines by making full use of the "gang of four" as a teacher by negative example. It is imperative to guide the numerous cadres and the masses to use Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought as their weapon and, in close connection with the realities on the various fronts, to rectify one by one all those points the gang turned upside down with regard to questions of right and wrong in line, ideology and theory. Chairman Mao taught us: "We should do well in summing up experience in our work in industry, agriculture, commerce and culture and education, and within the army, the government and the Party, and work out a complete set of principles, policies and measures so that our work in these seven fields will progress along the correct path." We must rely on the working class, the poor and lower-middle peasants and the revolutionary cadres and intellectuals, sum up experience on all fronts, strengthen and develop new socialist things, work out specific principles, policies and measures, comprehensively and correctly implement Chairman Mao's revolutionary line, and carry out the task of consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat in every grass-roots unit.

Second. We must do a good job of Party consolidation and rectification and strengthen Party building.

In grasping the key link of class struggle and running the country well, we must first of all run the Party well. In line with Chairman Mao's theory on Party building and the basic principles of the "three do's and three don'ts" advanced by him, we must conscientiously try to solve the problem of the impurities in ideology, organization and style of work caused by the sabotage of the "gang of four." This is the central task in successfully consolidating and building our Party.

Ours is a great, glorious and correct Party. It can stand any test, however severe, and the overwhelming majority of its members and cadres are either good or fairly good. But we should also realize that the misdeeds of the "gang of four" have seriously corroded the Party as an organism and the minds of members, gravely undermined its unity and discipline and its relations with the masses, and done grievous harm to its fine style of work, and especially to its traditions of following the mass line and seeking truth from facts. In the course of Party consolidation and rectification, we must thoroughly criticize the "gang of four" and their handful of diehards for their outrageous crimes which were designed to undermine and disintegrate the Party and usurp the Party leadership, and we must combat the evil bourgeois wind they stirred up. Once the key link of class struggle is grasped, Party consolidation and rectification will have a correct orientation.

In the final analysis, the question of Party building under the dictatorship of the proletariat is one of making sustained efforts to arm the entire membership with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, and particularly with Chairman Mao's great theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. In December 1970, Chairman Mao pointed out: "In my opinion, all the 274 members of the Central Committee and the thousand or so senior and middle-ranking cadres at their posts should conscientiously read and study according to their differing levels and get a good grasp of Marxism. Only thus can they stand up to political swindlers like Wang Ming, Liu Shao-chi and Chen Po-ta." We must follow Chairman Mao's teaching, strive to further reform our study throughout the Party and to take a big step forward in building up our Party ideologically and theoretically within a few years.

We must diligently study works by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and by Chairman Mao and have a comprehensive and accurate grasp of Mao Tsetung Thought as a system. While continuing to do well in our study of the first four volumes of the Selected Works of Mao Tsetung, we must now concentrate on Volume V. We must study dialectical materialism and historical materialism and combat idealism and metaphysics. In our style of study we must promote the integration of theory with practice and seeking truth from facts and encourage the practice of going among the masses for investigation and study. We must earnestly endeavour to organize research into Party history and to study and sum up our Party's historical experience, and especially that in the ninth, tenth and eleventh struggles between the two lines. In addition, we must see to it that the Party School under the Central Committee and those at the lower levels are well run, and in various ways we must give full play to the militant role of the theoretical contingents of workers, peasants and soldiers as well as of professionals, and strive to build a powerful army of Marxist theorists. I hope that following this congress there will be an all-Party competition in the study of Chairman Mao's great theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, a competition which will show who has really learnt something and who has learnt more and learnt better. With a higher level of understanding of Marxism-Leninism as the prerequisite, comrades throughout the Party and cadres at all levels must acquire professional or technical skills and become both red and expert. It is all the more necessary for leading cadres at all levels to strive harder and become experts well versed in both political and vocational work.

To enhance our proletarian Party spirit, to strengthen the Party concept and to promote the Party's centralized and unified leadership - these are the major issues for the successful consolidation and building of our Party. We must unswervingly overcome and correct such erroneous tendencies as the negation of proletarian Party spirit and Party discipline and indulgence in bourgeois factionalism, sectarianism and anarchism, all of which ensued from "gang of four" interference and sabotage. No factional activities will be allowed within the Party's ranks. The Party should have a good grip on Party work and the treatment of its cadres. Admission into the Party must conform to the provisions of the Party Constitution and the promotion of cadres must conform to Chairman Mao's five requirements for successors, and we must make it our practice to avoid exclusiveness. We must strengthen the building of our Party, purify its ranks and solidly unite all the forces of our Party on democratic centralist principles of organization and discipline, so as to make it as strong as steel both ideologically and organizationally.

To make a success of Party building ideologically and organizationally, it is necessary to rectify our style of work and broaden and deepen re-education in its fine traditions among the entire membership. Nurtured by Chairman Mao, our Party has created a complete set of principles constituting a fine proletarian style of work. Most essential among these are the mass line and seeking truth from facts. Chairman Mao always urged us to have full faith in the masses, rely on them and heed their voice and he consistently advocated a realistic and scientific attitude and honesty in everything we do. The "gang of four" have certainly fouled up the atmosphere in our Party Such bourgeois styles of work as alienatior from the masses, recourse to deception, trim. ming and political speculation have developed in our Party, and we must steadfastly correct and overcome them. So long as we have full faith in the masses, seek truth frorr facts and restore and carry forward the fine traditions and style of work personally initiated and fostered by Chairman Mao, our Party will be able further to strengthen its ties with the masses and its fighting ability.

The Party must invigorate its leadership over trade unions, the Communist Youth League, women's federations and other mass organizations and must effectively overhaul and build them up and give a free rein to their due role.

After this congress, a movement for Party consolidation and rectification will gradually unfold throughout the country in co-ordination with the great struggle to expose and criticize the "gang of four." It will be another profoundly significant Marxist education movement in the history of our Party. Our Party organizations at all levels will then be better able to play their vanguard role in leading the proletariat and the revolutionary masses in the fight against the class enemy.

Third. We must do a good job of consolidating and building up our Party's leading bodies at all levels.

A key issue in Party consolidation and rectification and in the stepping up of Party building is the consolidation and building of the Party's leading bodies at all levels. In accordance with the five requirements for successors and the principle of the three-in-one combination of the old, the middle-aged and the young set forth by Chairman Mao and through checkups, we must gradually build up the leading bodies at all levels; we can thus make them leading bodies which are able to implement Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line correctly and completely and firmly carry out the decisions and directives of the Party Central Committee, are able to persist in collective productive labour, maintain close ties with the masses, restrict bourgeois right of their own accord and fight in unity, and are compact and competent and enjoy prestige among the masses.

The "gang of four" recruited deserters and renegades and banded them together for selfish purposes, and this has led to a grave impurity in the composition of some leading bodies. It is absolutely necessary to shake up such leading bodies and screen them organizationally. However, for most leading bodies the problem is mainly one of making them stronger ideologically. We must wage a struggle inside the Party to oppose non-proletarian ideologies with the proletarian ideology and eliminate the pernicious influence of the "gang of four" with the aim of raising political consciousness and improving the art of leadership. Emphasis should be laid on education. In ideological struggle we must conscientiously follow Chairman Mao's principle of starting from the desire for unity and arriving at a new unity through criticism and self-criticism.

To strengthen and build up our leading bodies, we must pay attention to the three-in-one combination of the old, the middle-aged and the young. Veteran cadres must ardently help the young and middle-aged cadres and support them in their work. Unless the numerous young and middle-aged cadres work in concert and co-operation with the old cadres, our Party's cause will stop halfway. Mistakes by old as well as new cadres are hardly avoidable. It doesn't matter if one makes mistakes. It is our Party's practice that whoever commits an error should make a self-criticism and be given a chance to make amends. Learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones and cure the sickness to save the patient - this is the consistent policy of our Party towards cadres who have erred. It applies to both the old and the new cadres. Veteran cadres on their part should set an example to young cadres by taking the initiative in rectifying their style of work and should pass on their experience and help and guide the young cadres so that Chairman Mao's theory on the Party and the Party's style of work he initiated can be handed down without fail.

Chairman Mao earnestly enjoined us: "There are several hundred thousand cadres at the level of the county Party committee and above who hold the destiny of the country in their hands. If they fail to do a good job, alienate themselves from the masses and do not live plainly and work hard, the workers, peasants and students will have good reason to disapprove of them. We must watch out lest we foster the bureaucratic style of work and grow into an aristocratic stratum divorced from the people." Members of the leading bodies at all levels, and above all the high-ranking cadres, must conscientiously bear in mind this teaching of Chairman Mao's.

Fourth. We must grasp revolution, promote production and push the national economy forward.

Class struggle, the struggle for production and scientific experiment are the three great revolutionary movements for building a mighty socialist country. Developing the socialist economy is a basic task of the dictatorship of the proletariat. To speed up the development of the productive forces while adhering to the socialist orientation answers the need for reinforcing the material base of the dictatorship of the proletariat and vanquishing the capitalist forces. It answers the need for enhancing our national defence capabilities and getting prepared against aggression by imperialism or social-imperialism. It answers the need for improving the material and cultural life of the people step by step, and, in the long run, also for gradually eliminating the distinctions between town and country, between industry and agriculture, and between physical and mental labour and creating the material conditions for the transition to communist society. The productive forces are the most revolutionary factor. In the final analysis, the expansion of the productive forces demands the continuation of the revolution in the realms of the superstructure and the relations of production under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Changes in the superstructure and the relations of production will, in turn, open the way to the development of the productive forces.

The change in our country's economic situation since the smashing of the "gang of four" proves conclusively that tremendous power can be generated once we grasp the major class struggle to expose and criticize the gang and grasp the revolutionary mass movements to learn from Taching in industry and from Tachai in agriculture. We must combine this struggle and these movements more closely, conduct them in a more deep-going way, build our country independently and with the initiative in our own hands, through self-reliance, hard struggle, diligence and thrift, be prepared against war and natural disasters, do everything for the people and push the national economy forward. We should work hard for several years and, in pursuance of the original plan, turn one-third of our country's enterprises into Taching-type enterprises and one-third of our counties into Tachai-type counties in the period of the Fifth Five-Year Plan, in accordance with the respective requirements set down. If we succeed, our socialist system will be substantially consolidated and our socialist economy will flourish.

To safeguard socialist public ownership and smash the attacks of urban and rural capitalist forces involves intense struggle. With the support and connivance of the "gang of four," capitalism has been rampant in recent years in a number of places and units, inside and outside which the old and new bourgeois elements in town and country worked hand in glove to mount fierce attacks that were injurious in varying degrees to certain economic enterprises owned by the state or the collective and caused degeneration in a few of them. It is necessary to arouse the masses boldly and energetically to deal relentless blows at the appropriate time to embezzlers, speculators and all those engaged in illegal capitalist activities, and put a stop to every action that undermines the national plan. While striking at the activities of the class enemies aiming at restoration, we must also solve the problem of capitalist tendencies within the ranks of the people. The struggle to safeguard socialist ownership will go on for a long time. In the realm of the relations of production this is an important task in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

To push the national economy forward, we must conscientiously carry out the general line of going all out, aiming high and achieving greater, faster, better and more economical results in building socialism and the complete set of policies known as walking on two legs, and we must bring the country's entire economy into the orbit of planned, proportionate and high-speed socialist development, take agriculture as the foundation and industry as the leading factor, and achieve co-ordinated growth and an all-round leap forward in agriculture, light industry, heavy industry and the other sectors. The overthrow of the "gang of four" has fired the numerous cadres and the masses with enthusiasm for work, and the point now is how to really enhance this enthusiasm and make the best use of it in an organized way. It is imperative to streamline administrative structures, cut down the number of non-productive personnel and transfer them to the front line of production. We should encourage genuine enthusiasm, not sham enthusiasm. We must combine zeal in work and the scientific approach in which truth is sought from facts. What are our standards in aiming high? They are Taching and Tachai. Aiming high means going in for revolution and construction in the Taching and Tachai ways and achieving greater, faster, better and more economical results. We must build an independent and fairly comprehensive industrial and economic system in our country by 1980. By then farming must be basically mechanized, considerable increases in production must be made in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, side-line production and fishery, and the collective economy of the people's communes must be further consolidated and developed. In the field of industry, we should make a success of light industry and at the same time try hard to speed up the development of the basic industries by concentrating our forces on several all-out campaigns, so as to create the conditions for further expansion during the Sixth Five-Year Plan.

Scientific research ought to anticipate economic construction, but it now lags behind owing to grave sabotage by the "gang of four." This question has a vital bearing on socialist construction as a whole and must be tackled in earnest. The Central Committee has decided to convene a national conference on scientific work at the appropriate time. We shall exchange experience there, work out plans and commend the pace-setters, especially those scientists and technicians as well as workers, peasants and soldiers who have inventions and innovations to their credit, so as to give full scope to the revolutionary enthusiasm of all the cadres and the masses on the scientific and technological front and spur them on in their march towards the modernization of science and technology.

In building socialism Chairman Mao consistently stressed the major principle that, given the strengthening of unified central leadership, it is necessary to develop the initiative of both the central and the local authorities. This principle must be persistently applied. Similarly all the provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions should pay attention to giving scope to the initiative of the prefectures, counties, districts and people's communes.

Among the broad masses the communist attitude towards labour should be energetically encouraged through ideological education, while in economic policy the socialist principle of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his work" should be upheld and collective welfare gradually expanded. The livelihood of the people should be improved step by step on the basis of increased production. The life of the Chinese people is far better than before liberation, but the standard of living is still low. Our leading comrades at all levels should at all times have the well-being of the masses at heart, and brave wind and frost and defy fatigue to study the problems of everyday life and production among the people diligently and earnestly, night and day. Our people are very reasonable and they are aware that only by building the country through hard struggle, diligence and thrift and increasing production as fast as possible can there be steady improvement in everyone's livelihood.

Fifth. We must make a success of the revolution in cultural and educational spheres and strive to develop socialist culture and education.

In the course of two significant conversations in July 1975 Chairman Mao made a number of pungent remarks. He pointed out: "Model operas alone are not enough. What is worse, one comes under fire for the slightest fault. No longer are a hundred flowers blossoming. Others are not allowed to offer any opinion, that's no good." "People are afraid to write articles or produce plays. There is nothing in the way of novels and poetry." He added: "There should be some readjustments in the Party's policy on literature and art, and the performing arts should gradually enlarge their repertories in a year or in two or three years." "Enliven the atmosphere in a year or two, and if it takes three, four or even five years, that will be all right too." These directives of Chairman Mao's were stern denunciations of the bourgeois cultural autocracy practised by the "gang of four" and at the same time showed the ardent hopes he held for all the workers in the cultural and academic fields. All Communists and other revolutionary comrades. on the socialist cultural front should bestir themselves, aim high and go all out. Following Chairman Mao's behest, they should make a real success of the revolution in all cultural spheres, keep to the orientation of serving proletarian politics and the workers, peasants and soldiers, strive to create a rich variety of works of literature and art that are politically revolutionary in content and artistically as fine as possible in form, and redouble their endeavours in creative academic research under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, so as to bring about an upsurge in the building of our socialist culture.

For socialist culture to prosper, we must conscientiously carry out the policies of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend," of "making the past serve the present and things foreign serve China," and of "weeding through the old to bring forth the new." To counter the interference and sabotage of the "gang of four," Chairman Mao repeatedly emphasized these policies in the last few years and personally called for their implementation in all cultural spheres. Already in 1973 and 1974, he gave several notable instructions concerning the publication of learned journals and the re-evaluation of our cultural heritage. In 1975 in particular, he not only issued the wise and celebrated directives on the film Pioneers and the study of the novel Water Margin but also took a personal interest in what was going on in the writing of novels, plays and the making of films. He himself approved the proposal for research into Lu Hsun's works and their publication, the publication of literary and learned journals such as Poetry and People's Literature and performances to commemorate the people's composers, Nieh Erh and Hsien Hsing-hai, commended and backed the film Song of the Gardener adapted from a Hunan opera, and so on. These wide-ranging directives of Chairman Mao's further clarified the course for a flourishing socialist culture.

The educational front was another crucial front on which our Party bitterly contended for supremacy with the "gang of four." To make China a great, powerful and modern socialist country in the last quarter of the 20th century, we urgently need to educate and train a great many people who are both red and expert. To this end we must first tackle education and really ensure the success of the proletarian educational revolution. The "gang of four" went directly counter to Chairman Mao's educational policy and caused heavy damage to socialist education. They spread the view that it was "better to have workers without culture" and pursued the policy of making the working masses ignorant. We must expose their crimes and criticize them in order to give effect to Chairman Mao's educational policy, according to which "Education must serve proletarian politics and be combined with productive labour" and must "enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture." We must take effective measures to expand education at all levels and of all types, quicken its development and improve its quality in order to match the development of our economy and of science and technology and meet the needs of the socialist revolution and socialist construction. It should be realized that it is an immense and glorious task to establish a proletarian educational system that adequately expresses Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary educational line, suits our conditions and corresponds with the socialist economic base. All Communists and other revolutionary comrades on the educational front must be devoted to the Party's educational cause and work hard to establish this new. educational system.

Despite the serious interference and disruption of Liu Shao-chi, Lin Piao and the "gang of four" in the spheres of culture and education and science and technology since the founding of the People's Republic, the mass of educational, scientific and technical, cultural and medical workers exerting themselves at their posts by the light of Mao Tsetung Thought have done their share for the people and made big contributions to the cause of socialism.