Chapter 34 Oppose bureaucracy, overcome "five excesses and five deficiencies[1]

(March 30, 1960) The Shanghai Bureau, all coordination district committees, all provincial party committees, municipal party committees, and autonomous region party committees, all ministries and commissions at the central level, and all party groups: Bureaucracy, a bad style left over from the old society, will regenerate without sweeping it with a broom once a year.In late March 1960, the Central Committee distributed to you the first phase of the briefing [2] of the meeting of the six-level cadres in Shandong. Please pay full attention to the many serious situations in the people's communes. , use the sixth-level cadre meeting held by the provincial party committee and the fourth-level cadre meeting subsequently held by the county party committee to thoroughly rectify those unacceptable and extremely serious situations, and reorganize them again in the second half of the year.You must have seen this document [3].It was mentioned in this document that now it is necessary to use the six-level and four-level cadre conferences to publicly point out the seriousness of the "three evils" problem, and to put forward the tasks of fighting corruption, waste, and bureaucracy.With regard to the "three evils", the central government will have a specified scope and instructions on how to deal with all kinds of wrongdoers[4] in early April, and send them to you.But you should not wait for this document. Instead, you should use the sixth-level and fourth-level conferences that are currently being held or are about to be held to immediately call for rectification, and conduct typical investigations so that you know what to expect.What the Central Committee wants to tell you now is about the serious problem of bureaucracy.Here is a material from Licheng County, Shandong Province.The Licheng County Party Committee reported to the Shandong Provincial Party Committee on March 14 this year that there were both positive and negative aspects.The positive side is that things are going great, that's the main thing.On the negative side, they said, the outstanding performance is "more than five and less than five".That is to say, there are many meetings, but few contacts with the masses; many documents and reports, but few experience summaries; many people squatting in the office, but few serious investigations and studies;They are sending this document to you now.It mentioned that there are too many meetings and documents and reports, to what extent? They said: The county party committee and its departments, from January 1st to March 10th this year, during the 70 days, held meetings with party committee secretaries of various communes. There were 184 meetings with department heads, 56 teleconferences, 1,074 documents and 599 reports.Comrades, this situation cannot continue. Things will go against each other. We must create conditions for this kind of bureaucracy to go to its opposite.Licheng County has worked out a method[5] to overcome the "five excesses and five deficiencies".The Shandong Provincial Party Committee has pushed the Licheng Measures to be implemented across the province.Comrades, does this bureaucratic state only exist in a county in Licheng, or a province in Shandong? Not necessarily.It is likely to exist everywhere.Please investigate a county and a city (or a district in a big city) respectively, and then you will know the details.The method of overcoming "five excesses and five deficiencies" can be handled in the same way as Licheng.The source of this bureaucracy is not only in the county, but also in the province and the central government.Regarding the province (city, autonomous region), please pay attention to handling it.On the central side, we will take the approach.It seems that this issue of "more than five and less than five" should be discussed twice a year, at least once.The central government issued instructions on this issue a few years ago[6], but did not ask again later (mainly referring to the many meetings and documents and reports in the "five mores"). I also have bureaucracy, so I can't just blame others.This article and its attachments should be published in the party journal.

central March 30, 1960 Published according to the documents of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is an inner-party directive drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. [2] See note [1] on page 164 of this volume. [3] Refers to the remarks of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on March 23, 1960, which forwarded the briefing on the situation of the sixth-level cadre meeting in Shandong Province, which was included in this book as "Resolutely Stop the Resurrection of the "Communist Wind" and Other Illegal and Disciplinary Behaviors" .See pp. 163-164 of this volume.

[4] On May 15, 1960, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Instructions on Launching the "Three Antis" Movement in the Rural Areas." [5] The specific measures proposed in the report of the Licheng County Party Committee in Shandong Province to solve the problem of "five excesses and five shortages" are as follows: 1. The responsible cadres of the county committee, commune party committee, and various departments should all leave the office and work in the field together with the cadres of the brigade and small brigade Rendezvous, gain experience, and set an example to guide and drive across the board.2. Cadres implement the "three commons" and "five guarantees", that is, they eat, live and work together with the members, and they are responsible for the five aspects of their unit's ideological mobilization, production tasks, technological revolution, living arrangements for members, and management of the commune team. All aspects of the work should be done in an all-round way.3. Adopt the method of combining "strips", "blocks" and "pieces" under the unified leadership of the party committee. The cadres in charge of various departments must obey the center and do a good job in the work of the center, but also do a good job in the division of labor business work, gain experience, and promote it in an all-round way.4. Streamline meetings, reduce documents and reports, and solve problems on the spot below.

[6] Refers to the "Instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Solving the "Five More" Problems in District and Township Work" dated March 19, 1953, which was titled "Solving the "Five More" Problems in District and Township Work when it was included in this book ".See pages 271-274 of Volume VI of this book.