This law is also called the law of contradictory movement between production relations and productivity. It plays a role in any stage of the development of human society and is an economic law shared by all social forms.

Productivity and production relations are two inseparable aspects of the mode of production. Productivity is the material content of production, and relations of production are the social form of production. The relationship between them is unity of opposites.

First of all, productivity determines the relations of production. What kind of productive forces there are, in the final analysis, what kind of production relations there are. The development of productive forces will lead to the change of production relations sooner or later. In other words, any kind of relations of production is the result of the development of social productive forces. When the development of productive forces has not reached a certain level, it is impossible to have a new and higher production relationship. The five basic relations of production that have emerged in human society since ancient times, that is, the five socio-economic systems-primitive commune system, slavery system, feudalism system, capitalism system and socialism system, are all produced to adapt to a certain level of productivity development. For example, the feudal system of relations of production is adapted to the improved iron tools, while the capitalist system of relations of production is based on the machine industry.

Productivity determines relations of production, which is a basic principle of historical materialism. This principle reveals the source of social and historical development, and points out that productivity is the ultimate decisive force for the existence and development of the whole society, and working people are the most important factor of productivity, so working people are the creators of history.

Secondly, the relations of production also react on the productive forces, which have a great impact on the development of productive forces. There are two different situations: when the relations of production meet the requirements of the development of productive forces, it will effectively promote the development of productive forces; When it does not meet the requirements of productivity development, it will seriously hinder the development of productivity. There is no unemployment problem here, technology and equipment can be fully utilized, production is developing rapidly, and the material and cultural living standards of working people can be continuously improved. On the contrary, under the modern capitalist system, the relations of production have not adapted to the development of productive forces, where there are often thousands of unemployed troops, the working class and other working people are increasingly poor, enterprises are seriously underemployed, economic and political crises break out from time to time, and the speed of production development is generally slow. Chairman Mao profoundly pointed out in On Contradiction that productive forces generally play a major role in determining the relations of production; However, under certain conditions, relations of production also play an important decisive role in productivity. For example, when the productive forces can't develop without changing the production relations, the change of the production relations plays an important decisive role. Historically, the emergence of new relations of production is only possible after the emergence of new productive forces, but the great leap of productive forces is always after the old relations of production have changed and the new relations of production have been established, not before. Therefore, just as denying the decisive role of productive forces in production relations, denying the dynamic role of production relations and their transformation under certain conditions is also contrary to Marxism-Leninism.

From Bernstein, the old revisionist of the Second International, to the traitors in Su Xiu and Lin Biao in Liu Shaoqi, there is a reactionary "productivity-only theory". Bernstein believes that as long as the productive forces are highly developed, the capitalist system will automatically collapse and "peacefully grow into socialism." Traitors in Su Xiu, liars in Liu Shaoqi and Lin Biao described the transition from capitalism to communism as a process of simply developing productive forces, without the transformation of relations of production, class struggle and social revolution. These statements of the old and new revisionists fundamentally distort the dialectical relationship of interdependence and interaction between productive forces and relations of production. Their evil purpose is to disintegrate the revolutionary fighting spirit of the working class and lead the socialist revolution and socialist construction to the wrong path.

The relations of production must be suitable for the nature of productive forces, which means that relations of production cannot lag behind productive forces for a long time. In other words, some old and outdated relations of production cannot be maintained forever, but must be broken through by the development of productive forces. Because the disastrous consequences caused by the long-term existence of the old relations of production mainly fall on the workers who are the first factor of productivity. When the working people can't continue to live under the torture of the old system, they will inevitably take action to eliminate decadent and outdated relations of production by revolutionary means and establish new relations of production, thus opening the way for the development of productive forces.

Productivity determines production relations, and production relations react on productivity. Their interaction constitutes the contradictory movement of the mode of production itself. Productivity is active and constantly changing, while production relations are relatively stable. So their development is always contradictory. When a new production relationship is established, it will always be in a state that is basically suitable for productivity, and the unsuitable side is secondary. However, with the continuous development of productive forces, the contradiction between production relations and productive forces will gradually become acute, even from the original form of promoting the development of productive forces to the shackles of productive forces. At this time, a period of social revolution came. The task of revolution is to change the old and outdated relations of production and establish new ones, thus liberating the productive forces. After such a revolutionary change, the relations of production and productivity changed from inadaptability to adaptability. On a new basis, the period of accelerated development of productivity began again, until the next relations of production became the shackles of productivity again. The relationship between production and productivity is a continuous development process from mutual suitability to unsuitability, and then to suitability on a new basis. Marxism calls the objective inevitability in this socio-economic process the law that relations of production must be suitable for the nature of productive forces.

This law was discovered by Marx. Lenin and Chairman Mao further expounded the scientific connotation of this law under the new historical conditions. The discovery of this law is a fundamental revolution for the whole social science. It is precisely because of the revelation of this law that the history of mankind is suddenly enlightened and clear at a glance that we understand why and how human society has changed from the original primitive society to a higher stage-slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, socialism and communist society in turn.

The relations of production must conform to the essential law of productive forces, which is of great significance to all activities of Marxist-Leninist political parties. This law is an important basis for * * * to formulate its line, principles and policies. Chairman Mao pointed out as early as the democratic revolution: "In the final analysis, the quality and size of the role played by the policies and practices of all political parties in China in the people of China depends on whether they are conducive to the development of the productive forces of the people of China and the size of their help, and whether they bind or liberate the productive forces." ①

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① Mao Zedong: On Coalition Government. Selected Works of Mao Zedong, p. 980.

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