Chapter 130 On the Problem of Relying on the Poor Peasants and Solidarity with the Middle Peasants

(September 7, 1955) Shanghai Bureau, provincial and municipal party committees, and autonomous region party committees: I hereby send to you for your reference the report of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee on August 31, 1955 on the problem of agricultural co-operatives.The central government believes that the policy of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee is correct.The slogan of "relying on the poor peasants (including all the new middle peasants who were formerly poor peasants) and firmly uniting with the middle peasants" is still basically correct at present. Among these people, except for a few with relatively high political consciousness, the rest are not willing to join the co-operatives for the time being; Inappropriately, some people have been violated. These people are roughly similar in economic status to the lower-middle peasants among the new middle peasants, and they are generally interested in joining co-operatives.Because of the above two reasons, in places where co-operative transformation has not yet reached a climax and the well-to-do middle peasants are still lacking in awareness, (1) the poor peasants, and (2) the lower-middle peasants among the new middle peasants (revised in Comrade Mao Zedong's report [1]) should be absorbed first. In this book, the middle peasants are only divided into two parts, the upper middle peasants and the lower middle peasants, and the middle peasants are not mentioned, so as not to make the division too detailed and difficult to distinguish. The lower middle peasants mentioned now actually include the lower middle peasants and the middle middle peasants of the original new middle peasants. ), and (3) the lower-middle peasants among the old middle peasants, it is appropriate for these three groups of people to join the co-operatives (and they should be recruited in groups according to their level of consciousness, with those with a higher level of consciousness being recruited first).We should not forcefully recruit all the well-to-do middle peasants who are currently unwilling to join the co-operatives, that is, the upper middle peasants among the old and new middle peasants.At present, in many places, rich middle peasants are forced to join the cooperatives for the purpose of buying their farm animals and farm tools (the price is too low and the repayment period is too long), which actually violates their interests and violates the principle of "solidly uniting the middle peasants".And this principle of Marxism, we must never violate it at any time.As for some people among the wealthy middle peasants who have a strong capitalist ideology, in all places where cooperatives have just been established or are not yet dominant, whether they are drawn in or they themselves try to sneak into the cooperatives to seek leadership positions (not because of real political consciousness) ), or trying to organize low-level cooperatives, as found in Shuangcheng County, Heilongjiang, is very detrimental to establishing the leading position of poor and lower-middle peasants (except for a few fair, capable, and politically conscious rich middle peasants, of course), and all cooperatives are necessary. To establish the leadership of the poor and lower-middle peasants.Some people say that the current formulation seems to be giving up the slogan of "relying on the poor peasants to firmly unite with the middle peasants". People who have risen to become rich middle peasants are not counted as part of the dependents, but the lower-middle peasants among the old middle peasants are counted as part of the dependents. This is divided according to their economic status and whether they adopt a positive attitude towards the cooperative movement.That is to say, the poor peasants and the two parts of the lower-middle peasants are equivalent to the old poor peasants as objects of support, while the two parts of the upper-middle peasants are equivalent to the old middle peasants and they are the objects of solidarity. One of the current methods of uniting them is not to Forcing them to join the society violated their interests.

In addition, there are a few points to be clarified about who to rely on in the countryside.First of all, we should rely on the members of the Party and Youth League.It is wrong for our leading organs at or above the district committee level or the cadres sent to the countryside to guide work not to rely primarily on the Party and Youth League members in the countryside, but to confuse Party and Youth League members with the masses who are not Party and Youth League members.Second, we should rely on more active elements among the non-Party masses. Such people should account for about 5% of the rural population (for example, in a township with a population of about 2,500, there should be 120 active elements like this). about five people), we should work hard to train such a group of people, and we should not confuse them with the general public.The third is to rely on the general poor peasants and the two sections of the lower-middle peasants.If the issue of who to rely on and how to rely on the law is not clear, the cooperative movement will make mistakes.

central September 7, 1955 Published according to Mao Zedong's manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Note [1] refers to Mao Zedong's report "About the Issue of Agricultural Cooperativeization" made at the meeting of the provincial, municipal, and autonomous region party committee secretaries on July 31, 1955.See pages 418-442 of this volume.