In order to live, man must wage a struggle against nature and make use of nature to produce material values. At all times and under all conditions, his production of material things is social in character. It follows that when men engage in production at any stage of social development, they have to enter into certain relations of production with one another.

Pretty standard materialism, nicely expressed.

Every member of a class society exists as a member of a given class and lives in given conditions of class struggle. Man’s social being determines his consciousness.

I don't fully agree "Man’s social being determines his consciousness." because I'm not that much of a materialist, but the general point is taken. He then says, "In class society the ideology of the members of each class reflects a different position and different class interests.", and obviously things like class traitors exist.

Quotes “The German Ideology” by Marx & Engels that men are reformed in the process of revolution. That is to say, not by some self-improvement exercise, but by praxis.

"the revolution is necessary, therefore, not only the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew" – the revolution not only overthrows the bourgeoisie, it transforms the proletariat.

An immature revolutionary has to go through a long process of revolutionary tempering and self-cultivation, a long process of remoulding, before he cam become a mature and seasoned revolutionary who can grasp and skilfully apply the laws of revolution. For in the first place, a comparatively immature revolutionary, born and bred in the old society, carries with him the remnants of the various ideologies of that society (including its prejudices, habits and traditions), and in the second he has not been through a long period of revolutionary activity. Therefore he does not yet have a really thorough understanding of the enemy, of the people or of the laws of social development and revolutionary struggle.

This probably foreshadows/summarises a lot of what the book is gonna be about.

Work hard, study hard, transform yourself.

Some will make very rapid progress and some who used to lag behind will even forge ahead of others. Other Party members will advance very slowly. Still others will waver in the struggle and, instead of being pushed forward by revolutionary practice, will fall behind.

The Long March made some participants more enthusiastic, made others exhausted and they quit. People "differ in their attitude, stand and comprehension in relation to the revolutionary practice, and consequently they develop in different directions in the course of revolutionary practice"

Whether he joined the revolution long ago or just recently, every Communist who wants to become a good politically mature revolutionary must undergo a long period of tempering in revolutionary struggle, must steel himself in mass revolutionary struggles and all kinds of difficulties and hardships, must sum up the experience gained through practice, make great efforts in self-cultivation, raise his ideological level, heighten his ability and never loose sense of what is new. For only thus can he turn himself into a politically staunch revolutionary of high quality.

Just pulling this out because it's quotable.

Mencius, another feudal philosopher, said that no one had fulfilled a “great mission” and played a role in history without first undergoing a hard process of tempering, a process which “exercises his mind with suffering and toughens his sinews and bones with toil, exposes his body to hunger, subjects him to extreme poverty, thwarts his under-takings and thereby stimulates his mind, tempers his character and adds to his capacities”. Still more so must Communists give attention to tempering and cultivating themselves in revolutionary struggles, since they have the historically unprecedented “great mission” of changing the world.

😬

Our Communist self-cultivation is the kind essential to proletarian revolutionaries. It must not be divorced from revolutionary practice or from the actual revolutionary movements of the labouring masses, and especially of the proletarian masses.

From what I know about Liu Shaoqi, this point might recur. Theory alone is not enough; grow by practice.

The Mao quote in this chapter is about a dialectical theory-practice relationship.

Some people are broken by failure, but others are derailed by success (become complacent or arrogant). "Individual instances of this kind are not uncommon among our Party members. The existence of such a phenomenon in the Party calls for our comrades’ sharp attention."

"In past ages, before the proletarian revolutionaries appeared on the scene, practically all revolutionaries became corrupted and removedd with the achievement of victory. They lost their original revolutionary spirit and became obstacles to the further development of the revolution."

This is an interesting point. Revolutions have become tyrannical many many times in history. "once they themselves became the ruling class, these revolutionaries lost their revolutionary quality and turned round to oppress the exploited masses; this was the inexorable law."

But such can never be the case with the proletarian revolution and with the Communist Party. [lol, very optimistic of you comrade] The proletarian revolution is a revolution to abolish all exploitation, oppression and classes. The Communist Party represents the proletariat which is itself exploited but does not exploit others and which can therefore carry the revolution through to the end finally abolish all exploitation and sweep away all the corruption and rottenness in human society.

Reading this, I think, "Yeah that's the goal, but it isn't guaranteed. Arguably the more likely outcome is that the proletarian victors will become a ruling class". I hope the book goes on to address how to prevent that new class.

He then talks about purity ("preserving the purity of the Party and the state apparatus", "always preserve their pure proletarian revolutionary character so that they will not fall into the rut of earlier revolutionaries who removedd in the hour of success"), but the key question is HOW, how to preserve this purity.