Contradiction is present in the process of development of all things; it permeates the process of development of each thing from beginning to end. This is the universality and absoluteness of contradiction. — Mao Zedong, On Contradiction

Mao Zedong was not only a brilliant general and revolutionary theoretician, he was also an excellent philosopher. The unity of opposites and the universality of contradiction undergird the philosophical foundations of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Contradictions exist in all things, even within ourselves, and without them, we wouldn’t exist. Capitalism, for example, produced its eventual gravedigger, the proletariat. The development of Feudalism and its eventual transformation into an objective hindrance to continued development gave rise to the forces that would eventually chop the heads of European kings. To be a dialectical materialist, a Communist, means to grasp the fact that when we are considering problems and making analysis, we must do deep and thorough analysis of everything and all aspects and sides of a thing. Contradictions are not bad. It is a contradiction between forces in space that keep the Earth from either being pulled into the sun or flying out into never-never land. Opposites struggle, and through this struggle find new unity. There are two types of contradictions, non-antagonistic and antagonistic. A non-antagonistic contradiction is a contradiction, a conflict, the resolution of which does not require the destruction of one or the other aspect. When we struggle with our family, comrades and friends, the resolution of that conflict can be had without taking a pistol and killing people. We struggle, we argue, we debate, and through this process develop new unity. An antagonistic contradiction is a contradiction such as that between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, or the imperialists and those they exploit. These types of contradictions can only be solved ultimately by the destruction of one aspect of this contradiction. Since the bourgeoisie needs the proletariat, and the imperialists need people to exploit, it is obvious that philosophically and objectively, the resolution of this contradiction will inevitably be the destruction of exploiters by exploited.

The Black Panther Party was ultimately destroyed by its own internal contradictions.

Many activists make a fatal error in confusing the two types of contradictions, and as a result, work stagnates, organizations collapse, and the movement suffers. There are remarkably few objective enemies and remarkably many real friends. Falling out and squabbling over petty personal considerations is not a correct handling of contradictions among the people. The collapse of the Black Panther Party is a firm example of this. The Party collapsed because of an internal atmosphere of distrust and physical violence being meted out on comrades for no reason whatsoever, to prove one’s dominance in a movement dominated by machismo and ultra-left adventurist violence, or because of brownmail (phony letters sent to Party cadres by the FBI to foment dissent). There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to threaten comrades with physical violence for whatever reason. For one, if you run off when the cops start being violent with people and then go on the internet talking about what you’re going to do to people who you have no reason to fall out with, you’re a coward. Second, you’re an idiot for discussing violence towards individuals on a police monitored apparatus. They collect your posts and will bring them to court to have you railroaded for things you didn’t even do. If you truly know the repressive power of the state and this revolution shit isn’t just a fad for you, many of you wouldn’t act the way you do while claiming Communism. Third, you don’t know your contradictions. Struggle for unity means that when we engage with contradictions, we engage in the spirit of unity and to expand and strengthen the movement. We do not engage out of a spirit of oneupmanship or spite. We do seek to prove people wrong because a wrong idea that wins over enough people leads to defeat, prison and death. Different types of contradictions require different solutions. To resolve contradictions with imperialism, we make revolution to destroy it. To resolve contradictions with our comrades, we struggle with them and change their views. This is how to handle different types of contradictions and issues.

This leads us to the external/internal aspects of contradictions. The internal basis of a thing, whether it be a person, or a Party, or a country, is what makes external factors (illnesses, splits, imperialist invasion) operative and effective. People who claim that countries and parties are split or destroyed because of solely external factors are wrong because if your Party is correctly guided, armed, and has a solid mass base, it will not split or collapse because its internal foundation is strong and the people and masses of cadres will not tolerate a split in the party. More from Mao:

This Party of ours already has fifty years’ history, during which time we have had ten big struggles on the question of our line. During these ten struggles there were people who wanted to split our Party, but none of them were able to do so. This is a question worth studying: such a big country, such a large population, yet no split. We can only say that this means that the Party wants what the people want, and the Party members do not want a split. In view of its past history, the future of the Party is full of hope. First came Ch’en Tu-hsiu, who went in for right opportunism. After the ‘August 7th’ Conference of 1927 he organized the ‘Leninist left-opposition faction’ together with Liu Jen-ching, P’eng Shu-chih and others, and eighty-one of them issued a statement. They aimed to split our Party but they did not succeed. They then fled to the Trotskyites. Next Ch’ü Ch’iu-pai committed mistakes of line. His people came across a pamphlet of mine in Hunan which contained my remark, ‘Political power comes from the barrel of a gun.’ This infuriated them. How could political power possibly come from the barrel of a gun? So they stripped me of my position as alternate member of the Politburo. Later Ch’ü Ch’iu-pai was captured by the Kuomintang, wrote his ‘Superfluous Words’, betrayed us, and went over to the other side.[1] After the Sixth Congress of the Party in 1928 Li Li-san started to put on airs. From June to September 1930 he followed his Li-san Line for over three months. He advocated attacks on big cities, and first winning victory in one or several provinces. I did not agree with all this. At the Third Plenum of the Sixth Central Committee Li Li-san fell. From 1930 to 1931 Lo Chang-lung’s rightist faction set up a separate Central Committee and engaged in splitting activity.[2] But they did not succeed either. The Wang Ming Line had the longest life-span. He had formed a faction in Moscow, and organized the ‘28½ Bolsheviks’. Relying on the might of the Third International they seized power in the Party and held it for a full four years. Wang Ming called the Fourth Plenum of the Sixth Central Committee in Shanghai, and published his pamphlet, Fight for the Greater Bolshevization of the Chinese Communist Party, in which he criticized Li Li-san for not being ‘left’ enough. He was not satisfied until he had made a clean sweep of the bases, as in the end he practically did. During the four years from 1931 to 1934 I had no voice at all at the Centre. The Tsunyi Conference of January 1935 corrected mistakes of Wang Ming’s line and he fell. During the Long March, after the meeting of the First and Fourth Front Armies, Chang Kuo-t’ao carried out a split and set up a separate Centre, but he did not succeed. Before the Long March the Red Army had 300,000 men. On its arrival in North Shensi only 25,000 remained. In the Central Soviet Area there had been 80,000. Of these only 8,000 arrived in North Shensi. Chang Kuo-t’ao did not want to go to North Shensi and carried out a split. But what way out was there at that time, other than to go to North Shensi? This was a question of political line. Our political line at that time was correct. If we had not gone to North Shensi, how could we have later gone to the North China Region, the East China Region, and the Central China Region, the North-East Region? How could we have built so many bases in the Anti-Japanese War? When we arrived in North Shensi, Chang Kuo-t’ao fled. After nationwide victory Kao Kang and Jao Shu-shih created an anti-party alliance, with the intention of seizing power, but they did not succeed either. At the 1959 Lushan Conference P’eng Te-huai colluded with a foreign country to seize power. Huang K’e-ch’eng, Chang Wen-t’ien, Chou Hsiao-chou popped up and opposed the Party. They formed a military club, though they did not discuss military affairs, but said such things as: ‘The people’s communes were set up too soon,’ ‘Our gains do not compensate for our losses,’ etc. P’eng Te-huai also wrote a letter which was an open declaration of war. His intention was to seize power, but he did not succeed. Liu Shao-ch’i and his lot also wanted to split the Party, but they did not achieve their ambitions either. — Talks With Responsible Comrades At Various Places During Provincial Tour

Internal contradictions, if left unattended to and allowed to transform themselves in a negative way, will generate problems that will become public, undermine faith in the party among the masses, and make the designs of wreckers, saboteurs, government agents, and other bad elements effective. A building collapses apparently out of nowhere, but the internal basis of the building was undermined. To combat this, people routinely conduct work on buildings to strengthen its internal basis. We can apply this principle to Party and movements. Everyone knows that the police routinely seek to undermine movements, and the best thing to make their work successful is to consistently be fighting among and squabbling with each other. They know who has fallen out with each other, who is sleeping with who, who doesn’t like who. You don’t believe me? Look at the massive amount of documents from the surveillance of the Standing Rock movement by mercenaries in the employ of the US Government. A movement that deals in petty gossip, tolerates the presence of negative elements that sow discord and confusion, allows snitchjacketing and other bad traits to occur, and does not offer space for peaceful resolution of conflict and contradictions before they become antagonistic is doomed to fail, and it’s not because of the police, it’s because the movement itself made an atmosphere conductive to the machinations of the police.

The same logic applies to countries. People who still consider China, Cuba, and other such places as socialist countries do not understand contradictions either. Simply because a thing had a progressive aspect in the past does not mean that it is still so after transforming itself internally. Things change into their opposite. The Communist Party of China is now a party that allows entry of billionaires, class enemies of the proletariat. East Germany collapsed not because of CIA wrecking, but because its internal basis was weak and when something is weak, it falls apart. It tried to hide contradictions by having an active police force and building a wall, but it still crumbled. This is what happens when you try to mask contradictions, let them get out of hand, and act before the world as if nothing is wrong. Learn this lesson.