Proletarians of all countries, unite!

Long Live the 60th Anniversary of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution!¹

The International Communist League in its May Day Declaration for 2026 has called for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the initiation of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution led by Chairman Mao Tsetung, which “represents a grand milestone in the historical experience of the World Proletarian Revolution.” The Declaration also outlines the significance and importance of this celebration:

”Bombard the headquarters of revisionism!

Chairman Mao taught us that only by combating revisionism it is possible to develop the forces of Revolution. This is why, facing new tasks of world Revolution, it is necessary to elevate the struggle between Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and revisionism in all its forms. Today, when we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the GPCR,² we must reaffirm our struggle against capitalist restoration in China, raising our struggle against revisionism of the false ‘CPCh’. The revisionism of Xi Jinping represent one of the main variations of revisionism, one of the main dangers of the international proletarian movement and the national liberation movement and it must be fiercely combated on all fronts.”

And it establishes the following guidelines: “Bombard the headquarters of revisionism! Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism! Long live the International Communist League! Down with imperialism! Long live the People’s War!” Long live the 60th anniversary of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution!

The MPP³ joins the call issued in the ICL’s May 1, 2026 Declaration by publishing, in successive installments, selected excerpts from the Communist Party of Peru’s materials on the GPCR.

Peru People’s Movement
May 2026

“5. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in a historical perspective is the most transcendental development of Marxism-Leninism made by Chairman Mao; it is the solution to the great pending problem of the continuation of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat: “constitutes a new stage in the development of the socialist revolution in our country, a deeper and more extensive stage.”

What was the situation that presented itself? As stated in the Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: ‘Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it is still trying to use the old ideas, culture, customs and habits of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds and endeavor to stage a comeback. The proletariat must do the exact opposite: it must meet head-on every challenge of the bourgeoisie in the ideological field and use the new ideas, culture, customs and habits of the proletariat to change the mental outlook of the whole of society. At present, our objective is to struggle against and overthrow those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road, to criticize and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic ‘authorities” and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes and to transform education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure not in correspondence with the socialist economic base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist system.’

It was in these conditions that the most Earth-shaking political process and the greatest mass mobilization the world has ever seen broke out, and whose objectives were thus outlined by Chairman Mao: ‘The current Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is absolutely necessary and most timely for consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, preventing capitalist restoration and building socialism.’

We also emphasize two questions: 1) The GPCR implies a landmark in the development of the dictatorship of the proletariat towards the proletariat’s securing power, concretely expressed in the Revolutionary Committees; and 2) The restoration of capitalism in China after the 1976 counter-revolutionary coup is not a negation of the GPCR but is plainly part of the contention between restoration and counter-restoration, and, on the contrary, it shows us the transcendental historical importance of the GPCR in the inexorable march of humanity towards communism.”⁴ (Extract from Fundamental Documents, On Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, First Congress of the PCP,⁵ 1988)

2. COMMENTARIES FROM CHAIRMAN GONZALO:

“the Chinese revolution has demonstrated the necessity of the Cultural Revolution, that the revolution demanded resolute struggle but was necessary to continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Obviously, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is an epic chant of the revolution in the world, a milestone of victory for the communists and revolutionaries worldwide, an indelible fact. Although it is a process we must face, this revolution has left us great lessons that we already apply, such as the need to change ideology as a fundamental step for the class to seize Power; today, generating an ideological leap to conquer Power.”⁶ (Extract from Chairman Gonzalo’s intervention in a meeting of leaders and cadres on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Chinese Revolution, September 30, 1989.)

“The proletarian cultural revolution is not the order of the day; what is the order of the day is the question of defining our ideology: whether it is Maoism or something else; what is the order of the day is the democratic revolution, the socialist revolution, but principally the democratic one, given the weight of the masses in history. That is why we say, ‘In historical perspective, is the most transcendental.” Is it already done? Of course, but it is not something we need right now; today, we already have it, we know what we have to do when the opportunity arises.

‘it is the solution to the great pending problem of the continuation of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat” Yes, the pending problem is already solved because if it had not been solved then we would have been unarmed in front of the peaceful restoration. The Chairman, years before, already told us: ‘we know how to seize power with arms, nobody takes it away from us with arms, but we do not know how to prevent the restoration, we do not know how to prevent capitalism from dominating again, from usurping the leadership of the Party, we do not know that’; well, we already know it, he already solved it. That does not mean that we do not have to deal with restorations and counter-restorations; hopefully the historical perspective will allow us to prevent it in the end, and it is feasible, because if we start from the 70s of the last century, 1871, we already have more than 100 years, then the power of the class has to take root, and it will take root, in these coming decades it will take root, and that is part of our work. But the question is already solved, comrades. The continuation is already there, and this is a new problem of transcendental perspective.

‘constitutes a new stage in the development of the socialist revolution in our country, a stage which is both broader and deeper’, the Chairman says, ‘new stage in the development of the socialist revolution in our country, a stage which is both broader and deeper’.

We have considered that including the text of the Decision clearly conveys what the Cultural Revolution was aiming for; that is why we have transcribed the resolution of the Communist Party of China. I believe it is specific, and they knew exactly what it was about. It is very good that it is included there.

We say that two issues must be considered: ‘The GPCR implies a milestone in the development of the dictatorship of the proletariat towards the consolidation of the proletariat in power.” What has been its concretion?: Revolutionary Committees. Yes, it is a development of how to further unfold and advance the dictatorship of the proletariat, since in the proletarian cultural revolution it was not on the agenda to establish a Commune, as Avakian believes — who in this way asserts that the Chairman prevented Chang Chung-chiao⁷ from establishing the Commune; that, in short, is slandering Chairman Mao Tsetung. The People’s Commune was attempted in the 1950s in Shanghai and was actually established, but it did not last; it failed because the time was not ripe. When the proletarian cultural revolution took place in Shanghai, they returned to the same idea; Comrade Chang Chung-chiao — and this is not, in my view, a demerit for him, he is not Chairman Mao Zedong; it does not detract from his great status as a revolutionary, and the fact that he did not kneel is an honor — but the comrade, just like Wang Hung-wen,⁸ proposed the Commune, yet the Commune was not yet ripe, and the key problem — the reason it was not yet ripe — was how the Party was leading.

In early 1967, the January Storm erupted in Shanghai. The working class mobilized, while the reaction attempted to paralyze this major industrial center of China and cut off communications in order to provoke a backlash from the people of Shanghai — consider that we are talking about a city that at the time had 13 million inhabitants, a small city — there, the working class, led by communists, rebelled and seized Power, overthrowing the usurpers and establishing a government. The problem that arose was that the comrades in Shanghai proposed the formation of a commune; Chairman Mao opposed this — the commune had already been established in Shanghai in the 1950s and had proven impractical, impossible to implement — the Chairman maintained that the commune was not feasible, that the time was not right, that it required further progress, and the central issue he raised regarding the commune was the Party’s leadership — attention! — the Party’s leadership. The problem was not simply mobilizing the millions of masses who make up the world, that is very good, but it needs political leadership. Without that political leadership of the Party, the long-term transformation under the dictatorship of the proletariat cannot continue in order to move toward communism, as Marx himself conceived it in the Gotha Program — there it is; Marx already raised that point. And the Chairman maintained that what needed to be created were Revolutionary Committees of Triple Integration. What does that entail? Prominent revolutionary representatives of the masses forged in that struggle; then, members of the army who had also been called upon to support what was already beginning to be called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution—previously it was simply called the Cultural Revolution and later the Socialist Cultural Revolution, but the name that stuck in this process was GPCR to highlight its proletarian character… — Thus, a major step is taken toward the recapture of Power.

All of this has been going on for several years. Years that have witnessed the most powerful mass movement politically led by a Communist Party; never before has there been such a mobilization or such a capacity for organization and leadership. Thus, a major step has been taken toward the recapturing of power. (Extracts from Chairman Gonzalo’s intervention in the First Congress of the PCP)

3. CHAIRMAN MAO ON THE GOAL OF THE GPCR

In his speech during the visit of the Albanian military delegation on May 1, 1967, which first appeared in an unofficial Red Guard publication during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong addressed the audience, saying: “Now I would like to ask you a question: What would you say is the goal of the Great Cultural Revolution? (Someone answered on the spot: It is to struggle against power holders within the party who take the capitalist road.)”

Then, the Chairman clarified: “To struggle against power holders who take the capitalist road is the main task, but it is by no means the goal. The goal is to solve the problem of world outlook: it is the question of eradicating the roots of revisionism. The Central Committee has emphasized time and again that the masses must educate themselves and liberate themselves. This is because world outlook cannot be imposed on them. In order to transform ideology, it is necessary for the external causes to function through inner causes, though the latter are principal. If the world outlook is not transformed, how can the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution be called a victory? If the world outlook is not transformed, then although there are 2,000 power holders taking the capitalist road in this Great Cultural Revolution, there may be 4,000 next time. The cost of this Great Cultural Revolution has been very great, and even though the question of the struggle between the two classes and the two roads cannot be resolved by one, two, three or four Great Cultural Revolutions, still, this Great Cultural Revolution, should consolidate things for a decade at least. In the course of one century, it may be possible to launch such a revolution two or three times at most. Thus we must focus our attention on eradicating the roots of revisionism in order to strengthen our ability to guard against and oppose revisionism at any time.”

In another post, we’ll take a look at the history of the GPCR.