Essay:The Pen is a Major Tool

Writing is one of the most effective forms of leadership AND cooperation.

The work we do here at ProleWiki is of the greatest possible importance. Each of us editors here are exercising enormous leadership that is and will be seen by thousands of comrades. Probably far more than mere thousands. With that in mind, I hope this article helps center how absolutely crucial, critical, vital and so on our collective writing efforts are. The internet is an immensely powerful tool. Amongst the mightiest yet constructed, and must be respected as such.

Keep being excellent to one another comrades, and Party on!

Ripped from this Redsails Article: https://redsails.org/the-pen-is-a-major-tool/

by Deng Xiaoping

"The pen is a major tool for exercising leadership, so leading comrades should learn to write. Holding meetings is essential to leadership, but it is always a small number of people who can attend meetings; even when you make an important report, the audience will number no more than a few hundred. Private conversation is also a way to exercise leadership, but it is confined only to individuals. The pen provides the tool for exercising the most extensive leadership. Through writing people can spread their views far and wide and refine and systematize their thoughts. That is why Chairman Mao told us that writing is a major way to exercise leadership. Anyone who cannot write should learn to write and those whose writing is poor should gradually improve it.

Writing takes on many forms. It is important for the Party and government to write resolutions, directives, plans and telegrams, but the directives and telegrams can be communicated only to a limited range of cadres. None of our policies, however, can take effect unless they are made known to the masses, not just to the cadres. The most extensive uses of writing are in publishing articles in the newspapers, issuing pamphlets and broadcasting them over the radio. Moreover, if the work of the press and broadcasting is closely integrated with practical and central tasks, it will be more effective on a broader scale than other means and will play a greater role in the carrying out of the leaders’ intentions.

What if some local leaders say that “the pen is too heavy” and they do not know how to write? We should drive home to them the importance of the pen and the press, so as to help them understand that he who does not know how to wield the pen cannot make a competent leader. Writing is not so difficult; the most important thing is that what you write should be sound in content. Leading comrades are already in the right position — they are well informed, and they view things in a correct and relatively comprehensive manner. The technical aspect of writing is of secondary importance. So long as they try hard and receive help from others, they can gradually increase their ability to write. If they are reluctant to write articles, journalists should go and encourage them to do it. When a leading comrade refuses to write, he always has a good reason to offer, “I cannot write” or “I have no time to write.” Then you should go to him and suggest, “You do the speaking; I will do the writing.” Or, you can ask someone who has a close contact with the leader and can write to do the writing. The best way, however, is for leading comrades themselves to write; journalists can then volunteer to help, and they should make plans for people to contribute articles to their newspapers. In this way we can progressively make it possible for leading organs and leading comrades to wield and exercise leadership over the newspapers.

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When criticizing a mistake, the newspapers should make use of typical cases throughout, while pointing out the positive orientation, sometimes purposely contrasting the good with the bad. Only in this way can criticism or self-criticism be effective, showing that it is intended for the purpose of improving work, rather than just for the sake of criticism. What is meant by “liveliness”? This has nothing to do with the length of an article, but means that the account is written in a lively style and with a conclusion. Some newspapers only expose the problems and fail to follow up on their solution. Of course, a lot of descriptive details are unnecessary. Since we have seriously fallen short in criticism and self-criticism, we should make a greater effort in this area. Leaders of Party committees and governments should fully support reporters in writing critical articles. Nowadays, few people dare to say what they think, so we should encourage people to speak. When necessary, we should also point out and refute false criticism.

The leaders view the publishing of newspapers as concerning everyone, and the journalists feel the same way. When the newspapers are really involved with practical matters and the masses, and are well run, they will be the greatest help to leaders. It often happens that the newspapers are better informed than the Party and government. They can feel the pulse of our society. They can discover the most outstanding issues of the day simply by making a comprehensive study of readers’ letters.

None of the tasks can be accomplished by just one newspaper. Different newspapers are concerned with different aspects of life. Therefore, it requires a joint effort for the voice of the Party and government to be communicated to people of all strata."

Deng Xiaoping, Report delivered at a conference on the press in Southwest China