Chapter 3 third chapter

The wave of educated youth petitions receded quickly.The people in the State Party Committee Compound and the Reclamation Headquarters had just had time to catch their breath. They secretly rejoiced that the situation had not expanded further, and that this little trouble was finally over. A sudden news came like a thunderbolt, which made people dumbfounded. The Jinghong farm educated youth, who had always been peaceful under the eyes of the state capital, announced a general strike.When the petition teams that got their wish left Jinghong and returned to the farm one after another, a strike crowd appeared on the dusty road from Jinghong to Olive Dam.Their number is several times more than the total number of educated youths in Lanlanba. They blocked the road, and the two rusty horizontal banners deeply reflected the two lines of shocking characters in the eyes of each educated youth—"Educated youths must be human!" "Educated youths must return." city!"

On December 3, relevant leaders of the provincial and state party committees met with representatives of educated youth at the headquarters of the reclamation area.The meeting room is carpeted, and cigarettes and fruit are placed on the tea table.The leaders occupied a row of large sofas in the center, with secretaries and department heads on both sides, and staff pouring tea and water lightly, which made the conference room feel condescending and depressing in advance.When the educated youth representatives filed in, they were unavoidably nervous, crowded and shy.There are also people who deliberately pretend not to care, light cigarettes to smoke, and cough too much after smoking too much.

The leaders exchanged glances with each other.After all, these young people have never seen a big scene, and they have been psychologically passive and disadvantaged from the very beginning.If there are good words of persuasion, what kind of problems cannot be solved one by one? "Today, the leading comrades of the provincial and state party committees took time out of their busy schedules to meet with you, uh, see you. What do you think, uh, talk about it, talk about it. 'Know everything, say everything' well ,right?" The representative handed over a neatly written petition.A fair-skinned male educated youth briefly recounted the reasons for the strike and the request to return to the city.

"Do these demands of yours represent the wishes of the farm, um, the educated youth comrades in the reclamation area?" "I think the leaders invited us here today not to review our representative qualifications. I would like to remind the leaders that each of our strike youths has the qualifications of representatives, because our request to return to the city is common and consistent. Please Look, this Strike Declaration, signed by tens of thousands of people, is the proof." "Let me share my personal opinion, okay? I don't think your request is completely unreasonable. As a major policy for educated youth to go to the countryside, we still have to insist, 'Policies and strategies are the life of the party'. But When we implement the party's policy on educated youth, there may be problems of one kind or another. We are not so thoughtful about comrades' thinking, work and life, and there are even many mistakes. I can take responsibility for these work problems. Let me tell you with all sincerity, we will definitely do our best to rectify..."

"Don't go around in circles!" "Don't avoid substantive issues!" "Young intellectual comrades, I hope everyone remains calm. You should trust the Party and obey the correct leadership of Chairman Hua of the Party Central Committee..." "Leading comrades, I have a small question for you to answer. May I ask how many children in your family are educated youths in the countryside?" "It's nonsense! I tell you that work must be resumed unconditionally! This is not the Cultural Revolution, not the era when the rebels can do whatever they want! Do you know the consequences of strikes? Who are you striking? Mobilize the educated youth to strike, sabotaging the educated youth going to the mountains and going to the countryside!  …”

The educated youth representatives all left the venue to express their protest.The meeting went nowhere. On December 10, the National Educated Youth Work Conference closed in Beijing, and the Central People's Broadcasting Station broadcast the resolution of the meeting that night.This news was like a fuse, igniting all the long-suppressed resistance among the educated youth.From the 10th onwards, the farm’s cable radio began broadcasting the resolutions of the National Educated Youth Conference (the “Forty Measures for Educated Youth Work”) without interruption from morning till night, in order to mentally and psychologically break down the defense line of the strike-educated youths.The reaction of most educated youths to this was shock, questioning, and suspicion at first, followed by an unstoppable volcanic outburst of anger and despair.

Because there is only one policy for farms in the "Forty Articles": "... From now on, the educated youths on the frontier farms (corps) will be treated as employees of state-owned enterprises, and will no longer be included in the scope of care of the national policy." Yunyun. The central government made a policy, and hopes were dashed.Educated youths are educated youths, or in other words, they will not even be educated youths in the future, but just "young workers" on state-owned farms.Those who formulate policies may have forgotten how two million farm educated youths came to the frontier from the cities.If they were indeed educated youths, why was their legitimate desire to return to the city not satisfied?Is intellectual youth a permanent occupation?If the document can change the true status and identity of the educated youth, can the document change the long history written by the educated youth with their youth?

"Fuck his grandma! Why don't we let the four sides of other people turn around?..." "The educated youth who go to the countryside recruit for a year, transfer to work in two years, and go to college in three years. Why don't the educated youths in the Corps not graduate after ten years of education?" "Does the central government know about the situation of the educated youths on the farm?!" "Who cares about the fate of the educated youth?..." A complex feeling of being utterly abandoned, cheated and played on takes hold of people's hearts.After listening to the broadcast, many educated youths wept loudly, stamped their feet and beat their chests, as if they had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

To change the fate of educated youth, it is necessary to actively participate in the revision and adjustment of educated youth policy.There is no way out of being passive, and sticking to the same place can only fend for itself.There is only one bold option for the strike educated youth, and that is to go to Beijing to petition and report to the Party Central Committee and Vice Chairman Deng the true situation of the educated youth in the frontier.Let the highest authorities of the party and the state listen to the voices and wishes of the educated youth, pay attention to and stop ignoring the tragic fate of ordinary people, let the public opinion sympathize with and support the legitimate demands of the educated youth, so as to promote the early correction of the mistakes of the movement to the countryside. It is the true intention and subtext of the educated youth's determination to go to Beijing to petition with great fanfare.

All members of the strike headquarters unanimously agreed to go north to petition, and passed the "Northern Petition and an Open Letter to the Party Central Committee, Chairman Hua, and Vice Chairman Deng". "...Our purpose is to present a letter of petition to the responsible comrades of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on behalf of the 100,000 educated youths in Yunnan Agricultural Reclamation, and make an oral report to reflect the mistakes and problems in the ten-year route of going to the mountains and going to the countryside. Our only purpose And the mission is to convey the highest wish of all the educated youths in rural reclamation - the request to return to the city to the beloved Chairman Hua and Vice Chairman Deng. Our request is reasonable and conforms to the hearts of the party and the people and the trend of history. We firmly believe that the Party Central Committee After knowing the real situation of the educated youth in the land reclamation, they will sympathize with and understand our legitimate request.

… There is no going back from a strike, our fate is now in our own hands.Doing nothing is not enough, people's minds are lax, let alone being dejected and doing nothing!We must persevere in the strike struggle until the northward petition group wins a complete victory! ... Our goal must be achieved!Our goal must be achieved! " On December 14, the state party committee rejected the request of the educated youth to go north to petition. On the 15th, the Provincial Party Committee sent an urgent telegram to the relevant prefectural, city, and prefectural Party committees in the southern Yunnan area: "Do a good job in persuasion, and don't let a single petitioning educated youth come to Kunming." On December 17, a total of 143 representatives of the educated youth from Xishuangbanna's first batch of petition groups to Beijing left Jinghong and walked northward along the Middle-Old Highway.On the 18th, the second batch of educated youth representatives, 160 people, left Simao and walked northward.The provincial and state party committees dispatched working groups to dissuade them along the way, and a large number of military police also dispatched to cooperate.The educated youth petition group broke the boat and vowed to go north.On the 19th and 22nd, a total of 11 groups of educated youth representatives from various farms, totaling more than 2,000 people, set off northward, clashed with the working group, and were stopped at the line of Yuanjiang, Jinggu, and Ailao Mountain. In the next few days, strike educated youths in other reclamation areas also organized petition groups and forcibly went north.