Red Guards Destroy the Old and Establish
the New
Peking Review, No. 36 (9/2/1966), p. 17
Red Guards Destroy the Old and Establish the New
Since August 20, the young Red Guards of Peking, detachments
of students, have taken to the streets. With the revolutionary rebel spirit
of the proletariat, they have launched a furious offensive to sweep away
reactionary, decadent bourgeois and feudal influences, and all old ideas,
culture, customs and habits. This mounting revolutionary storm is sweeping
the cities of the entire nation. "Let Mao Tse-tung's thought occupy
all positions; use it to transform the mental outlook of the whole of
society; sweep away all ghosts and monsters; brush aside all stumbling-blocks
and resolutely carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through
to the end!" This is the militant aim of the young revolutionary
fighters. Their revolutionary actions have everywhere received the enthusiastic
support of the revolutionary masses.
In Peking. During the past week and more Red Guards have
scored victory after victory as they pressed home their attack against
the decadent customs and habits of the exploiting classes. Beating drums
and singing revolutionary songs detachments of Red Guards are out in the
streets doing propaganda work, holding aloft big portraits of Chairman
Mao, extracts from Chairman Mao's works, and great banners with the words:
We are the critics of the old world; we are the builders of the new world.
They have held street meetings, put up big-character posters and distributed
leaflets in their attack against all the old ideas and habits of the exploiting
classes. As a result of the proposals of the Red Guards and with the support
of the revolutionary masses, shop signs which spread odious feudal and
bourgeois ideas have been removed, and the names of many streets, lanes,
parks, buildings and schools tainted with feudalism, capitalism or revisionism
or which had no revolutionary significance have been replaced by revolutionary
names. The service trades have thrown out obsolete rules and regulations.
Support for the revolutionary actions of the Red Guards has been expressed
in countless big-character posters which the masses of revolutionary workers
and staff have put up in the newly renamed major thoroughfares of the
capital. They have also expressed their support with street demonstrations.
Draping the many-storied front of the newly renamed Peking Department
Store are gigantic banners with the words: "Resolute support for
the revolutionary students' revolutionary actions!" and "Salute
to the young revolutionary fighters!" Workers of the Peking Steel
Plant, encouraged by the actions of the revolutionary students, have launched
vigorous attacks on old ideas, styles of work, methods and systems that
hamper the revolution and production in their plant. They have put forward
many revolutionary proposals and already begun reforms. Workers at the
Peking No. 2 Cotton Textile Mill are emulating the revolutionary rebel
spirit of the Red Guards and are attacking all old influences. The workers
hold that everyone has the right to sweep away the influences of the old,
not only outside, in the streets, but also in the factories and all other
enterprises and in government offices. In this way, by sweeping together,
the great proletarian cultural revolution will be carried through to complete
victory.
Commanders and fighters of the People's Liberation Army in the capital
have unanimously expressed support for the revolutionary students' revolutionary
actions, and the carrying of the great proletarian cultural revolution
through to the end. They say that the great revolutionary actions of the
revolutionary students in attacking bourgeois ideology, customs and habits
is another instance of the great material strength that is generated by
Mao Tsetung's thought once it grips the revolutionary masses. Speaking
at a discussion meeting of the 12th company of a garrison unit in Peking
commanders and fighters said that the revolutionary actions of the young
fighters are smashing the old world and buirding a new world. Pao Hsi-ming,
of a P.L.A. Navy Air Force unit who won a combat citation, second class,
for shooting down a U.S. made plane of the Chiang gang, told a Hsinhua
correspondent that the revolutionary actions of the Red Guards were thoroughgoing
revolutionary actions as the result of their following the teachings of
Chairman Mao and acting according to his instructions. "They are
doing right and doing fine," he said.
In Shanghai. In this huge city which has the largest
concentration of capitalists in the country and which, until the liberation,
had long been under the rule of the imperialists and domestic reactionaries,
the.revolutionary students and the broad masses of workers and staff have
taken up their iron brooms to sweep away all old habits and customs. The
show windows of the Wing On Co., one of the biggest department stores
in the city, are plastered with big-character posters put up by the Red
Guards and workers and staff of the store, proposing that "Wing On"
(Eternal Peace) should be changed into "Yong Hong" (Red For
Ever) or "Yong Dou" (Struggle For Ever). The posters point out
that in the old society the boss of the store chose the name "Wing
On" because he wanted to be left in peace for ever to exploit the
working people. "For a long time now the store has been in the hands
of the people and we are certainly not going to tolerate this odious name
a day longer," say the posters.
In "The Great World," the biggest amusement centre of Shanghai,
workers and staff together with the Red Guards took down the old name
sign which was several metres long. When the last character of the sign
was brought down, thousands of revolutionary people in the streets and
in the windows of neighbouring buildings applauded and cheered: "Long
live Chairman Mao!" and "Long live the great proletarian cultural
revolution!"
The waterfront of the Whangpoo River in Shanghai was, until the liberation,
the centre of imperialist plunder of the Chinese people. The buildings
here have still carried many reminders of the imperialists and here the
Red Guards and revolutionary workers and staff have gone in for revolutionizing
in a big way. They have taken down all the imperialist signs from walls
and removed the bronze lions outside one of the big buildings.
The revolutionary workers and staff of Shanghai barber shops have adopted
revolutionary measures in response to the proposals of the Red Guards:
they no longer cut and set hair in the grotesque fashions indulged in
by a small minority of people; they cut out those services specially worked
out for the bourgeoisie such as manicuring, beauty treatments and so on.
In those shops which sold only goods catering to the needs of a small
minority of people, workers and staff have taken the revolutionary decision
to start supplying the people at large with good popular commodities at
low prices.
In Tientsin. For the past several days there has been
a new revolutionary atmosphere in the streets. Drums and gongs have been
sounding around Binjiang Street, the business centre, and firecrackers
have crackled all day long; many shops have discarded their old shop signs,
and replaced them with new revolutionary ones. Inspired by the revolutionary
spirit of the Red Guards, the revolutionary workers and staff members
of "Quanyechang," one of the biggest markets in the city, smashed
the name sign inlaid in its wall for the past 38 years and hung up a new
sign, the "People's Market." The "Beiyang Textile Mill"
which was established in the time of the Northern warlords 45 years ago
is now renamed "Four-New Textile Mill," meaning a mill with
new ideas, new culture, new customs and new habits. The "Golden Tripod,"
the factory's old trademark, has been changed for a new trademark, "Worker
and Peasant."
Hangchow. The Tungpo Theatre, Tungpo Road, and the Su
Ti (Su Dike) on Hangehow's West Lake named after Su Tung-po, a feudal
man of letters of eight centuries ago, have been given new names with
revolutionary meanings. The scissors shops which used the former shop
owner's name-Chang Hsiao-chuan- as their shop sign for the past three
centuries, have now taken the new name: "Hangchow Scissors Shop."
In Sining. In the capital of Chinghai Province, western
China, the broad masses of revolutionary workers and staff, revolutionary
cadres and poor and lower-middle peasants are giving resolute support
to the young revolutionary fighters for their revolutionary rebel spirit
of defying heaven or earth. Some shops, cinemas and theatres have been
given new revolutionary names. Carrying large portraits of Chairman Mao
and beating drums and gongs, the workers of the Sining Transport Vehicle
Plant, a model enterprise, paraded the streets, pledging their support
to the young fighters. Backing up the young revolutionary fighters, the
poor and lower middle peasants of the Mafang People's Commune have changed
their commune's name into the "Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Commune."
In Lhasa. This city's streets have been bubbling with
excitement throughout the past few days. Carrying big portraits of Chairman
Mao, displaying declarations of war on the old world, and beating drums
and gongs, hundreds of Red Guards and revolutionary students and teachers
of the Tibetan Normal School and the Lhasa Middle School took to the streets
in a vigorous offensive to destroy the "four olds" -old ideas,
old culture, old customs and old habits. In their declaration, the Red
Guards and revolutionary students and teachers of Lhasa Middle School
proclaimed: A decade and more has rolled by since Lhasa was liberated.
It was the great Communist Party of China and our great leader Chairman
Mao who led us in winning our emancipation and thus we were brought to
a happy life. However, the spiritual shackles put upon us by the three
kinds of serf-owners were still tight around our necks. This can no longer
be tolerated. It is high time for us to settle accounts with them.
Red Guards and revolutionary students and teachers in Lhasa have proposed
to change the names of places, streets and houses which are tainted with
feudal serfdom and superstition. They also propose that literary and art
groups forbid the performance of operas and plays which reek of imperialism
and feudalism. The broad masses of workers and peasants in Lhasa have
unanimously pledged themselves to give strong backing to the young Red
Guard fighters and battle shoulder to shoulder with them to transform
the city of Lhasa into a new, highly proletarianized and revolutionized
city.
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