The Economic Reconstruction of Northeast China
PREFACE
This booklet will introduce to the readers a report made on March 13, 1950, to the First Delegates’ Congress of the Northeast Chinese Communist Party by Gao Gang, one of the vice-presidents of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, Chairman of the Northeast People’s Government, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and Secretary of the Bureau of the Northeast Chinese Communist Party Central Committee.
As everyone knows, the Northeast, or Manchuria, is a part of paramount importance to China, both strategically and economically. Historically, it was a prey that the imperialists never tired of fighting over.
Japanese imperialism, after taking this part of Chinese territory, would have wanted to turn it into a first-class base in the Asian continent.
In 1945, the Soviet army advanced into the Northeast and helped China expel the Japanese aggressors, and in 1948, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, having swept away the reactionary KMT regime, thus liberated the entire Northeast territory.
Natural resources are rich in the Northeast, and we can take this report at face value and say with its author that «The Northeast had had industry on a relatively large scale». Indeed, the conditions for industrialization are not lacking.
Immediately after the liberation of the Northeast, the People’s Government, under the brilliant leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong, devoted its efforts to «reconstructing the Northeast to serve as a starting point or important base for the industrialization of the whole country» (Gao Gang’s Report).
Indeed, the work of reconstructing the Northeast has already made promising acquisitions.
We hope that this report will help readers to learn more about the current status of this work and the difficulties encountered in the course of reconstruction. In addition, it will also give readers a glimpse of the prospects for the industrial reconstruction of the whole of New China.
— Editor
Comrades:
Today, the report I propose to make to you is a report dealing with the economic recovery and reconstruction of the Northeast. This is one of the most important problems of our Party at the present time and is also one of the most important issues of our congress. It is therefore necessary for us to study this problem thoroughly so that our cadres and members will resolutely and devotedly place themselves in the forefront of the people of the Northeast in order to lead this great work to a new victory.
I. The importance of the Northeast in the national economy of the country.
First of all, I would like to talk about the important role that the Northeast plays in the national economy of the country. Almost everyone understands this subject. I would like to talk about it again, not for any reason, but simply because I want to emphasize that this has a close connection with the duty and task of our Party members in the Northeast. Now, the work of our comrades in the Northeast will not only have a direct influence on the people of that particular region, but on the country as a whole.
According to statistics which are not entirely accurate, but at least approximate, in 1943, for example: coal production accounted for 49 per cent of the production of the whole country; crude iron, 87 per cent; steel, 93 per cent; and electric power, 78 per cent; while the railway line in the Northeast was 42 per cent of the total railway line of the whole country. Some branches of heavy industry in the Northeast were of an overwhelming figure. Apart from industry, some agricultural production, for example, that of soybeans, known to the world, according to the figures of 1938, was 51% of all China.
Comrade Mao Zedong said last year at the Second Plenary Session of the Party Central Committee: «China’s modern industry accounts for only about 10% of the national economy». The fact that modern industry, including that of the Northeast, is only 10% of the entire national economy means that the Chinese economy is backwards. But from the point of view of the Northeast in particular, it is different. Also according to not entirely accurate, but approximate statistics, the industrial output of the Northeast in 1943, for example, was about 56% of the total output of the Northeast national economy. In other words, if one deals with the Northeast in particular, this region had had industry on a relatively large scale.
Comrades! Precisely because of this, the whole people are following our reconstruction work very closely and want us to assist them. And also because of this, Comrade Mao Zedong and the Party Central Committee are constantly instructing us and asking us to work well so that the construction of the Northeast can serve as a starting point or a solid base for the industrialization of the country. The hope of the whole people, the directives of Comrade Mao Zedong and those of the Central Committee must be considered as a great glory for the people and all Party members in the Northeast.
Will our work be able to satisfy the hopes of the entire people? Can our work fulfil the great task which Comrade Mao Zedong and our Central Committee have entrusted to us? In spite of the fact that the Northeast has suffered destruction in the course of a war that lasted several years and merciless plundering by the Kuomintangian reactionaries, but because our Party is the fighting party of the working class led by Comrade Mao Zedong and our people in the Northeast are a fighting people under the leadership of such a party, we must, without any hesitation and together with the people of the Northeast, take upon ourselves this heavy burden — the economic reconstruction and development of the Northeast. No pride, no impatience, let us march forward with sure steps to reach our goal.
II. A brilliant start.
The Northeast was completely liberated in winter 1948 and we began to undertake the economic reconstruction of the entire Northeast from 1949. We drew up a recovery plan for 1949 and invested for this purpose a capital equivalent to two million tonnes of grain. The progress of the 1949 recovery can be marked by the reopening of factories and the reopening of the mines of our Department of Industry: at the beginning of our takeover, there were very few factories in operation; in April, 191 factories were reopened, in September this number rose to 243 and in December to 307.
The production of the enterprises of our Department of Industry in 1949 represented a value equivalent to 7,960,000 tonnes of sorghum (not including the production of the ammunition factories), thus exceeding 4.20% of the plan. Some branches of heavy industry, such as iron, steel, copper, coal, coke, electric power, machinery, etc., all exceeded the forecast plan. But some branches of light industry (e.g. cotton yarn, cloth, paper) did not reach the figures foreseen by the plan, while the rail transport plan was completed ahead of schedule.
With regard to agricultural production, due to the drought in the north and the flooding in the south, the net harvest amounted to 14,500,000 tonnes of grain (not including the production from supplementary occupations equivalent to 2 million tonnes of grain), thus representing only 90% of the plan.
Private industry and commerce also grew, as they had orders and markets as a result of the development achieved in public enterprises and in agriculture. For example, in Mukden, between June and December 1949, the number of privately owned industrial enterprises increased from 9,727 to 12,007, i.e. by 23%, and the number of workers employed rose from 42,590 to 50,413, i.e. by 18%.
From the point of view of our rehabilitation work already done, the output of the state-owned industrial enterprises in 1949 reached about 29 per cent of that of the same enterprises at the time of the Japanese occupation in 1943 (not including the enterprises which proved difficult or impossible to re-establish because of serious destruction). And agricultural production has reached 67%.
This acceleration is noteworthy. In particular, the speed achieved in the recovery of industrial production has exceeded that of the recovery of industrial equipment. Let us take the iron foundry as an example: the reinstallation of its equipment reached only 25% of the highest level at the time of the Manchukuo, but the output reached 42.20% of the highest output of the same period. In the textile industry, its equipment is only 66% of the highest level at the time of the Manchukuo, while its output reached 143% of the highest output. This demonstrates the superiority of our public industry under the New Democratic regime. It also demonstrates the great future of our productive force which is capable of rapid development.
Last year the ratio between industry and agriculture was as follows: industrial production, which in 1943 was about 56% of total industrial and agricultural production, has fallen to about 35%, while agricultural production, which in 1943 was about 44% of total industrial and agricultural production, has risen to about 65%. This situation means that our industrial recovery work is still a long way from the goal we have to achieve. But, as the recovery of our industry is directed, first and foremost, towards the recovery of the means of production industry (the total value of the production of our means of production achieved in 1949 represented 74% of the total value of industrial production; the total value of the production of consumer goods was only about 26%), and by following this correct direction and with other favourable conditions (e.g., if the purchase of industrial equipment is carried out in time), our production industry will become a basis for the reform of the national economy in the Northeast. We can be sure that by the time we reach the end of this period, we will be able to provide more means of production for industry and agriculture in order to strengthen the national economy and accelerate the recovery and development of industry, and thus gain time to completely change the existing proportion between industry and agriculture in a shorter period of time. We can be sure that by that time agricultural production will have made a great advance as a result of the future development of the productive forces of society, as a result of the large quantity of agricultural implements which industry will be able to supply to agriculture, and as a result of the new zeal of the peasants in production.
Our work of rehabilitation and the development of our economy have enabled us not only to support our great army in its operations in South China, but also to improve the standard of living of our people. In 1949, the number of workers employed by industry in the state-owned enterprises alone increased by 240,000, and the real wages of workers rose from 110 points in May 1949 to 140 points in December of the same year, i.e., an increase of 27 per cent; in addition, labour insurance was introduced. In addition to wages, the state paid the premiums for labour insurance, medical expenses, cultural and educational expenses, etc., the total of which amounted to 9–11% of the total wages paid. The exchange rate between grain and cloth, which in winter 1948 was 1 tonne of grain for 1 piece and 40 feet[2] of cloth, was at the end of 1949 as follows: 1 tonne of grain for 2.80 pieces (in northern and central Manchuria). In addition, the quality of the cloth was improved.
General prices managed to be relatively stabilized. In 1948, prices increased by an average of 8 times and in 1949 the average increase was only 80%. The burden on the farmers was reduced: in 1948 the taxes in kind levied were 23% of the total production and in 1949 they were only 20%.
The state trading houses and cooperatives supplied consumers with 3,260,000 tonnes of grain, equivalent to 34% of the total retail value of the company, for their daily needs in basic necessities. In addition, these state shops and cooperatives have purchased 1,380,000 tonnes of different kinds of grain and 300,000 tonnes of other native products. Since they play a proportionately greater role in commercial activities, they have ensured a relatively stable market and maintained the standard of living of our people by combating the various activities detrimental to the life of the country by way of speculation, and monopolization on the part of commercial capital.
Comrades! These facts which have unfolded in the last year prove that our Party is not only capable of mobilizing the masses to achieve the Agrarian Reform, to wage revolutionary war, to completely overthrow the criminal domination of the Kuomintang reactionaries and to destroy the state machine of the KMT which oppresses our people, but is also capable of leading the people to build a new state and to raise our economy. Although this is a start, we must say that it is a really good start. For us, such work of modern economic construction is a totally new and difficult task. For the past year, the central work of our Party, which was war and Agrarian Reform, has shifted to the front of economic construction.
The Party has raised and sent thousands of cadres to directly assist in the work of economic construction. Many of these cadres have already acquired some knowledge of economic and urban administration. What they did not know before, they are beginning to know, and what they did not know before, they are beginning to know. Just as we learned before to do land reform and war, we must and can learn to undertake our work of economic construction. This fact has not only greatly boosted the enthusiasm and confidence of the whole Party in the work of economic construction, but for those who see only difficulties in the present work and worry about the great work of rebuilding New China, it shows them that their worries are groundless. Moreover, this fact shows the Chinese and foreign reactionaries that in spite of their criminal desire, we have not only won the victory in the great liberation war, but we will win again in the work of economic construction.
It is clear that the rapid recovery of our economy is due to the following main conditions:
1 — Our state is a people’s state under the leadership of the working class; the state machine serving imperialism, the bureaucracy, the militarists and the KMT bandits have been completely destroyed and our People’s Government (including the Northeast People’s Government) is a government that serves the people devotedly and wholeheartedly.
2 — We have overthrown imperialism, we have overthrown the feudal and semi-feudal agrarian system so that the peasants have been truly liberated. The peasants were forced to pay, at the time of the Manchukuo, 8 million tonnes of grain. In 1949 they paid only 2,300,000 tonnes. Their burden was thus considerably lightened. In addition, the rent they had to pay was entirely abolished. Thus, there is an unprecedented initiative in production on the part of the farmers, who now have the favourable conditions to supply the industry with grain and raw materials.
The taxes in kind collected by the state have been invested to a large extent in industry and are converted into capital that can be used in industrial construction.
3 — Our people’s state has confiscated the various enterprises and properties of imperialism and the bureaucratic capitalists and has taken over the major industries of vital importance to the whole economy, the railways, the banks and the large commercial organizations. The People’s Government conducts all these economic activities in the interests of the people. From this economic basis, we will be able to draw up step-by-step state economic plans and carry out any necessary regularization, although in the early years, such plans can only be made en bloc.
4 — The great initiative of the working class in production after the Liberation. This was fully proved by the fact that the productivity of the workers was increased. For example, the production of a miner in the time of the Manchukuo was on average 0.36 tonnes of coal per day, and in 1949, the production of a miner in our mines and in the «Pengqi» and «Fushun» mines was on average 0.54 tonnes. In other words, the productivity at present is 150% of that in the time of the Manchukuo. According to the surveys carried out in some of the factories and mines of our Department of Industry: productivity rose by an average of 23.83% in December 1949 compared with June 1949. In 116 factories and mines, 17,232 new records were set and a large number of advanced elements appeared who not only directed the work of production, but also enjoyed prestige among the masses. This is a great and invaluable force that will be the most valuable pillar for the future production of the various factories and mines.
5 — Our Party has twenty years of experience in the construction of grassroots areas and has trained a relatively large number of cadres as a result. Although the experiences of these cadres are not sufficient, they at least enable them to acquire the specific ability to work under the new conditions. They thus play a fairly important role in the reconstruction work of today.
6 — Another factor of decisive significance is the correct policy of Comrade Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of our Party and all their other concrete instructions which enable us to move forward along the right path.
7 — The assistance of Soviet specialists.
We are convinced that the above-mentioned basic conditions have determined not only our magnificent beginning, but they will determine a grandiose future in all our economic building.
About the shortcomings that we have discovered in parallel with this beginning, I will speak about them later, when I touch on various issues concerning our work in the fourth part.
III. Our work in 1950.
From the beautifully prepared beginning in 1949 and in accordance with the determined direction of development, we will continue our work of economic construction.
For this year, the essential output of the state-owned industrial enterprises is planned as follows:
 |
| Click to enlarge if not visible |
On the other hand, according to this plan, the production of industrial consumer goods will also have a further increase of 2/5 over 1949 in terms of real quantity (based on the unchanged prices of 1943: in 1949, 300 million yuan and in 1950, 490 million yuan). We shall have, so to speak, more consumer goods to supply to the people in 1950 than in 1949.
Agriculture: according to the 1950 production plan, 17,200,000 hectares of land will be cultivated, of which 234,000 hectares will be for cotton; 97,000 hectares for hemp.
The production of grain is planned to be 18 million tonnes or 300 million yuan, in 1943 currency, or 137% of the value produced by agriculture in 1949 which was about 220 million yuan. Agricultural production in 1950 will be 93% of the level of production in 1943 at the time of the Manchukuo.
Forests: according to our plan, the timber felled for this year is forecast at 5,928,000 cubic metres. Last year, 4,600,000 cubic metres were felled. This work was completed, but only 4,100,000 cubic metres were transported.
Attention will be given to reforestation and forest protection.
It is clear that if our plan for this year is fully realized, there will be a preliminary change in the proportion between industry and agriculture, that is, the total value of industrial production in 1950 will be about 43% instead of 35% in 1949, and that of agricultural production about 57% instead of about 65% in 1949. Of course, this will be a great advance, but an advance which will still depend on great efforts which we must make during this year.
Indeed, in comparison with agriculture, the proportion that industry will occupy will still be backward and far from regaining the position it had in 1943 in the proportions between industry and agriculture. The recovery of industry this year will only reach the 57% of 1949. It is obvious that we are not satisfied with such a level. Therefore, in 1950, we will invest new capital in industrial reconstruction.
|
and adding the public loan and last year’s balance, we shall have a total of 12,390,000 tonnes.
Of this sum, we shall take 6,650,000 tonnes, or 54% of the 1950 expenditure, to invest in economic recovery and construction, of which 5 million tonnes, or 40% of our annual expenditure, will be invested in industry. Of the 5 million tonnes to be invested in industry, 85% will be invested in the means of production industry and 15% in the consumer goods industry. Compared with 1949, the sum to be invested in industry in 1950 will be two and a half times greater. The greatest work this year will be the repair and construction work to re-establish our industry.
Our government is a government of the people. From the figures given in our annual expenditures, it is easy to see where the efforts of our People’s Government are directed.
With regard to trade, we expect that in 1950 the retail sales of our state shops and cooperatives will reach 51,970 billion yuan (the currency of the Northeast at present), i.e., about 50 per cent of the total retail sales of the society, instead of 34 per cent in 1949. This is calculated on the basis of the industrial and agricultural production possibilities of our plan and on the basis of the materials which the state would have in hand.
In order to continue the struggle against speculators and to sell materials directly to consumers at reasonable prices, which the state can dispose of, and in order to ensure that the peasants supply food and raw materials to industry and that, conversely, industry supplies the peasants with the industrial goods they need, we are preparing to increase the number of state retail shops from the 372 existing in 1949 to 1,500, and the amount of retail sales by our state shops is planned to be 26,200 billion yuan. At the same time, we will develop, under certain conditions and with methods, cooperation on the basis of the 9,000 cooperatives existing at present. The projected retail sales of the cooperatives are 25,900 billion yuan.
The 1950 autumn harvest is expected to be 2 million tonnes. In addition, we will buy native products from the peasants worth approximately 17,000 billion yuan in today’s Northeast currency. According to the present situation of our state trading houses, we still lack many things that can be traded with the peasants. Therefore, apart from the expansion of light industry in our plan, local state-owned light industry enterprises and private industrial enterprises should be encouraged to develop and orders should be placed with enterprises in the rest of China outside the Northeast. At the same time, private traders should be led to move in the direction beneficial to the state economy and the people’s welfare in order to increase the variety of goods needed by the people.
With regard to foreign trade, the export and import of 1950 are each planned to amount to 160 million U.S. dollars (i.e., 100% more than in 1949). Our principle is to import machines and raw materials of absolute necessity for our industry and to strengthen our export with our surplus materials.
Comrades! This is more or less our economic reconstruction plan for this year. This plan is a step forward in comparison with that of 1949. It is obvious that the course of events could somewhat influence the progress of our plan. But this plan is still a comparatively practical plan. It is feasible, because it is based on real material conditions. Of course, the transition from possibility to realization must be a very great struggle. We must work in a serious and skillful manner and at the same time we must fully estimate the difficulties that exist and those that may arise. Comrade Mao Zedong has told us very often, «In the course of work we must always be prepared to encounter difficulties and overcome them». It will be wrong and extremely harmful to think that everything will work out well and to neglect the need for vigilance which our comrades must have with regard to difficulties.
IV. Some problems concerning our work.
Below I intend to outline some of the problems with our work.
(A) About the plan.
We already had a plan in 1949; and now we have another plan to be implemented this year. Our economy develops only according to plans, as you all know. As we have already said, the nature of our state power and the fact that our state power controls the arteries of the national economy give us the basis for the possibility of plans of this kind. The trials we have made in the past year in economic activities have proved perfectly that our economic plan, once it became an organized action and joined closely with the masses, would constitute a force capable of advancing productivity, and that to lead without a plan would be to work blindly.
The experiences of 1949 have also shown us that our plans are not well drawn up and that there are many defects in our plans. Of course, since we do not have enough experience in economic work (especially in large industries), and since the documents we have are far from sufficient, it is impossible for us, since we are not geniuses, to draw up very beautiful and perfect plans all at once. There are still many very important things that we have to research and discover.
We must demonstrate, for example, that there is insufficient coordination between the different economic sectors. This lack of co-ordination is between industry and agriculture, between one industrial sector and another, between one company and another, between industry and agriculture on the one hand, and trade on the other, etc., etc. We must also demonstrate that between our higher governments and the various lower governments, between one region and another, between public enterprises and private enterprises, the mutual liaison in their economic activities is not sufficient either. We have not so far been able to link in a systematic way and in a more or less suitable form the different economic activities with the different economic sectors; and this is a point which is indispensable to us in order to undertake economic activities according to plans.
Nevertheless, our economic activities, and in particular those of the last year, both in the Northeast and in the rest of the country, have given us many useful experiences in this field. Of these experiences, the most important is the system of contracts: labour contracts within companies on the one hand, and production and sales contracts and contracts for orders between certain economic sectors on the other. Let’s take an example: in the Northeast, for labour contracts within our public enterprises, we have universally adopted «liaison contracts», and on key points «collective contracts» and «package contracts». On the other hand, between the state-owned shops and the cooperative sales and distribution companies in the rural areas, we have already adopted production and sales contracts. Between industrial and commercial sectors, between national and regional enterprises, between state and private enterprises, there have already been order contracts. By means of the various kinds of contracts mentioned above, we have been able to overcome the phenomena of dislocation between production and sale, which has enabled us to organize the execution of our plans well and to strengthen the nature of the plans and their use. This system of contracts is capable of closely linking the various sectors of our economy, accelerating the development of production and strengthening the responsibility of the various economic sectors and enterprises in their efforts to draw up and execute plans through labour contracts and order contracts, or through sales and distribution contracts. This system is capable not only of organizing state enterprises in a more planned way, but also of including the role of small producers in production in our state plan by means of order contracts with cooperative societies. And the operation of privately owned companies can also be included in our state plan to a certain extent by means of order contracts. This system of contracts is for us the most important method and the most important form of organization for organizing the economic activities of all sectors and for maintaining the link between them. That is why we intend to systematically and gradually expand the use of this system, i.e., to transform this elementary system of contracts that already exists into a well-organized contract system under the planned direction and adjustment of the state.
In order to expand the use of this system of contracts in an informed way, our comrades must carefully and concretely study the experiences we have already gained. We must study the faults and qualities of this system, develop the good in it and try to overcome the faults. We must avoid repeating the mistakes we have made before. Our comrades must, in their efforts to broaden and execute, oppose formalism and try to acquire new experiences. It is not difficult to understand that before our plans are perfectly established and production is on the right track, long-term contracts would involve difficulties, so that in many cases we would have to start with short-term contracts, and only after these various very useful trials will we be able to have sufficient experiences and it will be possible for us to constantly examine our plans and the concrete relations of the different sides of our national economy and to proceed, at any time, and everywhere, to various rational and necessary adjustments. At the same time, it will make us more capable of organizing our economy and drawing up more precise plans for developing our economy.
(B) About business administration.
The problem of business administration is simply the practical problem of management. In order to know whether we are able to lead and develop our economy, it is not enough that we can make general plans; in particular, we must be able to lead practically. The practical basis of leadership is the administration of companies itself.
Here I intend to speak of the three essential points which are to be found in the problem of the present administration of our enterprises, namely: the establishment of a system of responsibility, the generalization of democratization in the administration and the generalization of the system of calculation.
a) Let us speak first of the establishment of the system of responsibility.
Comrades! This is a general theory with which we are all familiar. Our Communist Party holds itself responsible to the working class, to the people and to our motherland. Yes, it is a theory which is not difficult to understand or to expound. But there are still people in our ranks who like to hold themselves responsible in an abstract and not concrete way, who, when it comes to the great things in the world, speak with enthusiasm, with perfect reasoning and declare with emotion that they will resolutely take responsibility for them. But when it is their turn to take on concrete work, these great things become for them unimportant things which are no longer worth their attention. During our revolutionary career we have met many people of this character, and there are quite a few of them in the present day. We need to understand that business is not just a matter for the people, but also of the people. We need to understand that the most important affairs of life are only accumulations or connections of small affairs, and this is even more evident in economic enterprises. We cannot accomplish an economic reconstruction well unless the innumerable small matters of economic work are well done. And in order to examine the revolutionary qualities of every communist, it is necessary to know to what extent he holds himself responsible for these small matters.
I can give you some examples of irresponsibility in economic work: first in the Fushun mines, there was a chief of the section for repairs to the slanting shafts, who violated the safety regulations by opening the «secret partition» and caused a gas explosion in which fifteen people were killed and twelve wounded, so that a serious loss resulted. Another example: in the Anshan Steelworks, during the repair of furnace №2, oxygen was urgently needed. The place was cluttered with oxygen bottles, but they were all empty. According to the furnace workers, the cylinders were already empty when they arrived at the factory. But the people at the oxygen plant insisted that the steel mill, by depleting the contents of these bottles, was trying to hold them responsible for the accident. They were trying to blame each other; this had a very serious effect on production, and no conclusion could be reached as to responsibility. Another example: in the shops of the Harbin Chicken and Duck Company, there was meat from 1948 that had not reached the export standard and was worth more than ten billion yuan. This meat could be sold within the country, but it remained in the shops for more than six months. The same company was unable to put on immediate sale a quantity of pig silk from the pigs killed in 1948. This stock of hog silk remained in the shops until the spring of the following year. There was a loss of ten thousand pounds worth three billion. Another example: in recent years there have been many fires in the forests. In the year 1949 alone, the number of fires amounted to 270, resulting in a loss of wood which approached 5 million square miles, and which exceeded the amount of wood felled during a whole year. In every fire there is a phenomenon of irresponsibility.
Comrades! Many facts have taught us that a neglect of responsibility of any kind would often result in an inestimable loss and constitute a crime on our part. Our irresponsibility makes us responsible for our crime, for our failure, especially since now our economic connection on all sides has become so close that a neglect of responsibility can have repercussions in many ways. For example: how can the work of the lathe affect the whole workshop; how can the work of the workshop affect the whole factory; how can the work of the factory affect the whole industry, etc.? That is why in the different economic sectors and in the different companies we must establish, and this seriously, the system of responsibility in the administration of the companies. We must also eliminate the phenomenon of ‘everyone is responsible for something, but no one takes responsibility for it’, which exists in many places. Whether it is a piece of machinery or a simple tool, a small matter or a very important matter, we must ensure that someone is responsible for it, and there must be a regulation that clearly defines responsibility. In this way we can have efficient organizations in our enterprises, and by means of the system of responsibility we can guarantee the realization of our plans, develop the spirit of initiative and train the capacity of each worker, and thus continually perfect our administrative organization and our system of administration. In view of the losses of the past, the managers of the mines and factories must take their responsibility for the safety facilities very seriously. With this system of accountability established, we can easily conduct labour inspections and distinguish between good and bad workers. The good ones will be praised and the bad ones punished. And those who are responsible for the failure of a job must be punished according to the seriousness of their mistake. They can simply be dismissed, and in very serious cases even be prosecuted.
Comrades! Our revolution has already won, our homeland has already become stable. Based on the interests and needs of the people, our motherland is building a series of systems to continue our great reconstruction. And the system of accountability is only the most important element of our reconstruction and, in particular, of our economic recovery. We must seriously build such a system in all enterprises. All communists must strive to become model workers who never neglect their responsibility.
b) Let us now talk about democratization in the administration of enterprises.
The democratization of the administration of enterprises is a very important method which aims to transform the enterprises of imperialism and bureaucratic capitalism into people’s enterprises. For the moment, the centre of the work of administrative democratization is to organize the factory management committee properly. This committee must include representatives of the workers’ union and the communist organizations within the enterprise in question. This has the aim of opposing bureaucratism, of uniting the entire mass of workers, technicians and employees, through the advanced elements and active elements found among the employees, technicians and the working masses. This is also intended to concentrate the opinions of the masses, to solve important problems in the factories, to develop our consciousness and spirit of initiative in production and politics, and to fight effectively against sabotage and the destruction of production.
What we have just said is not in conflict with the responsibility system; on the contrary, it is linked to it. The system of responsibility in our company must be based on the consciousness and initiative of the masses, otherwise it will be impossible to achieve a satisfactory result. The system of responsibility in our enterprises is a system of responsibility based on democracy; and the democratization of the administration of enterprises is a democracy with the system of responsibility. The board of directors of our factory, headed by the factory manager, is a general organization of centralized and democratic management at the same time. There are people who believe that the accountability system is in conflict with democratization. This view is completely wrong.
The factory manager is appointed by a higher body of the national economy, is responsible for the execution of the national economic plans drawn up by the higher bodies and is accountable to the higher bodies. But he has the duty to take into consideration the opinions and proposals submitted by the members of the factory, which he must in turn submit to a higher body to select the correct ones. The factory manager must submit the factory production plan to the factory management committee for discussion. The plans for each year, each season, each month must be discussed in the meetings of the workers’ and employees’ representatives. He who refuses or neglects the work of democratization in the administration, who does not want to rely on the masses, the Party and the trade union, and who acts only according to his own decision, commits a great mistake.
There is a particular opinion among our comrades: these comrades believe that the system of responsibility of the factory manager can be replaced by the Secretary of the Communist Party Committee (or cell) within the enterprise; this opinion is obviously false. The Communist Party Committee or cell is not an administrative organ of the factory. It is a leading organization of the vanguards of the working class inside the enterprise, it must call on the communist members to place themselves at the front of the first front of production and to conduct themselves as model workers in the fulfilment of the production plan. He must supervise and encourage the progress of the factory’s production plan, submitting necessary proposals at the appropriate time. He cannot replace the factory manager, nor can he replace the system of responsibility of the factory manager.
The communists of the various industrial units need to know that all national enterprises must work according to the economic plan of the whole nation. This economic plan is drawn up by the state bodies under the direction of the Central Committee of our Party or the body representing it. The factory manager owes his responsibility to the higher national body, and this responsibility is very necessary not only for the factory itself, but also for the centralization of the national economic plan. If one wants the manager to be responsible not to the higher national body which directs him or to the higher industrial management body, but to the Party Committee or cell inside the factory; if the production plan of the factory in question is to be drawn up not by the higher national governing body or by the higher industrial administration body, but by the Party Committee or cell in the factory; then it is no longer «centralization of leadership», but rather the dismemberment and destruction of centralization of leadership. It must be understood that the organization of the Communist Party must not and cannot replace the state body.
There are cases where the administrative work of the director was replaced by the work of the trade unions. As you all know, this is again a mistake. The work and responsibility of the trade unions is to unify and organize the immense mass of workers; to educate the working masses, to make the workers understand their position as masters; to strengthen their consciousness concerning labour discipline; to provoke their initiative in production; to encourage them to exchange experiences and to learn to direct production. In a word, the unions work for the interests of the workers. It is obvious that, if we transform the trade unions into ordinary administrative bodies, the result will be that the trade union and the factory administration will be in opposition to each other, and that several administrative bodies of the same nature will exist side by side, which will prevent the establishment of the system of responsibility.
It is also a mistake to have too many conferences among the employees and workers in factories and mines. An excessive number of conferences entails a waste and loss of the energy of the employees and workers, thus causing damage to production. The factory management committee must know how to save the time and energy of the workers and employees, it must make a proper adjustment to the various indispensable conferences of the factory, and suppress excessive and useless conferences, likely to damage production.
At the present time, we already have differences of opinion on the problem of mutual relations between the trade unions and the Party Committees and the administration within the companies, that’s why I talk a lot about these problems. And about this problem of democratization in the administration of enterprises, we have already formed a project which I kindly ask you to study and correct.
c) Below I will talk about the calculation system.
The calculation system is a very important problem from the point of view of the administration of our companies. We have already raised this problem some time ago, which has attracted the attention of the whole Party, and we have obtained some results. Now I want to raise this issue once again, because it is an issue for which we have not yet found a complete solution.
We all know that we have spent quite a long period in which we have lived under the regime of «take charge». Even now, our comrades in many sectors are still living under this regime. It’s a regime under which you make do with whatever you can get, there is a total or partial lack of calculation of expenditure and income. There is a certain distinction in salary according to seniority, qualification and age. But the salary has nothing to do with the result of the work. The lazy ones can in any case have something to eat. «Whether you work or not, you can always have a pound and a half». That is one side of the question. On the other hand, in the past we did some economic work, established factories too, but strictly speaking there was no calculation as such, especially since most of these factories were working for the liberation war. As long as it was a question of war needs, we no longer considered the importance of the cost of production at all. This had a great influence on our comrades who were involved in economic work, the concept of the cost of production did not arise for a long period. For them, the question was to produce the things that were needed without counting the cost of production.
There is no doubt that our «take-it-or-leave-it» regime has played a positive role in our prolonged revolutionary career and has produced a very happy effect. And even now, for a limited period, this scheme is very useful in some organizations, and it is still very necessary in the Army. It is likewise out of the question that our production of war material, in the past without taking into account the magnitude of the cost of production in support of the war of liberation, represented the greatest benefit of the people.
Today’s problem depends on the situation of the great change that has already taken place. Namely, in the management of the whole national economy and particularly in that of the modern economy, if there is no calculation of income and expenditure, if there is no graduated scale of wages and an examination of the results of work, that is, if the cost of production is not considered, if a system of calculation is not seriously adopted, then there can be no proper industrial operation, no knowledge of the present state of industry, and no assessment of the future of that industry. For us, this enterprise will be a mass of confusion, we will not have the means to draw up the plan to reproduce and reproduce in a grand manner. In these circumstances, the question of having a rigorous economic plan no longer arises.
Together with the system of corporate responsibility and democratization in corporate administration, we can adopt the system of calculation, because where there is no system of responsibility, there can be no system of calculation; and where there is no democratization of administration to develop the initiative of the masses in production and to make the supervision of the masses appear, but where there is only a system of bureaucratic administration, there cannot be a system of calculation either.
Now the core of the problem of the calculation system is to establish such a system, i.e., on the basis of the level of our industrial technical equipment, on the basis of our effort to overcome waste, on the basis of the spirit of initiative of the masses in production and on the basis of the results achieved in the movement of new records, we can fix a possible and rational production quota with a view to applying the administration of the cost of production as a first attempt in a more or less correct way, That is to say, to apply the system of calculation as a first attempt, and then to proceed one step further to an improvement of the administration, to an elevation of the technique, to an encouragement of emulation in mass production, to a stepwise increase of the production quota and to a gradual decrease of the cost of production.
To fight for the system of calculation is to fight for the economy, for the expansion of our productive power.
c) About the new records.
After the Liberation, in the Northeast, as in the rest of the country, a new zeal and attitude to work appeared among the workers, and productivity was thereby increased. I have already mentioned this in the part of my conclusion on the experiences of 1949.
In the Northeast, the new record movement was consciously launched in 1949. There is ample evidence to show that this movement has a significance of extreme importance.
This movement has clearly shown that the productive force of state-owned enterprises, endowed with a socialist character in our New Democratic state, is far superior to the productive force of feudal and semi-feudal society and to that of capitalist enterprises. It has shown that our productive force will have an immense future in its development.
The record movement has changed the face of our factories and mills. It has educated our managers and at the same time the working class itself.
Some factories and mines have found, or partially found during the movement, each their share of reasonable production. It can be said that the experiences gained during this movement will be extremely useful for future planned production, for the change of a new wage system, for the application of the quota administration and the vigorous implementation of the calculation system, as well as for the improvement of the various administrative systems in the people’s enterprises.
The new records result from the following two conditions:
One condition is the change in the attitude of the workers who voluntarily resorted to the «straggler’s work» procedure, which was changed; the work power was thus reasonably increased and it reached the level of production that can be aspired to under the current technical conditions.
The other condition is that new working methods have been partially created, so that the old techniques have been partially changed.
From the first condition above, we must say that it is absolutely necessary and obligatory. But it must be understood that the increase of the working power is still limited by the physical conditions of man; any overcoming of these would not be proper. In other words, in the course of the movement for new records, we demand only that the level of production to be achieved by labour power should be the level that can reasonably be achieved according to man’s physical conditions and within the limits of technology at the present time. Apart from this, we should mainly lead and encourage our workers and technicians to develop their own creative power, and to improve working methods and technical conditions. In this way, it may be that not only a small number of workers will break new records in a given time, but also the workers in general will be able to break records at any time. And furthermore, it is possible that one record will beget another.
In the course of the new record movement of the last few months, some shortcomings or deviations have appeared. One of the most common deviations consists in valuing quantity more than quality. It even goes so far as to interfere with the normal operation of the work technique, which has caused losses. For example: at the 3rd Machine Factory, every lathe produced was turned over for finishing work before it was usable, although the result of the movement of records was magnificent. Then, another flaw is the blindness in the movement. In many cases it is breaking records purely for the sake of breaking records. Many new records are broken, but the general mission is not accomplished. The record movement is therefore stuck on problems of minimal importance and the movement is not directed, in the course of its development, to solve in time the question of the quota. Finally, another shortcoming is that the movement does not develop in parallel in all enterprises and factories. Very rarely or infrequently do technicians work on improving or discovering the technique to co-ordinate with the record movement led by the workers.
Indeed, the defects and deviations we have just mentioned are inevitable at the beginning of the movement, but we must learn from them for the future.
Comrades! It is an important step in the development of production and the fulfilment of the production plan to systematically develop the record movement and at the same time oppose formalism. This movement is inseparable from a series of problems: the constitution of a rational organization of work in production, the constitution of a rational system of management, the implementation of the system of calculation, the implementation of the rational system of hierarchical wages and rewards for overproduction, etc.
We must skillfully lead this great movement and lead the working class in the struggle to create an entirely new productive force.
(D) On the development of agricultural production.
I have already spoken enough about the various problems concerning our industry, let us now turn to the development of our agricultural production.
At present, the agricultural economy of the Northeast takes the following four main forms:
1) The individualistic economy;
2) The self-help labour organizations and the sales and distribution cooperatives in the countryside, based on the individualistic economy of the peasants (on the peasants’ private property);
3) The economy of the new rich peasants is still smaller, but it exists. Moreover, it is developing.
4) State farms. Apart from the state farms, every province and hsien[3] has at least one, even several. Some districts also have public farms, but on a smaller scale.
Apart from the above four forms, of course, there are still a small number of elderly widows and widowers, old men without support, who live by renting out their land. There are also capitalists who run farms and vegetable gardens by renting land from the state and hiring labourers. But since they are not numerous, they do not yet play a significant role in the whole agricultural economy.
The fundamental starting point of the Party’s general policy is to develop the agricultural productive force everywhere, to harvest more grain, to produce more raw materials for industry and, ultimately, to raise the standard of living of the peasant masses.
Undoubtedly, we must protect and urge the spirit of initiative in the individualistic economy among the peasants, freed from the yoke of imperialism and feudal rule. We must encourage them to acquire new means of production, horses and other livestock, to intensify the use of fertilizers, to increase the area of cultivable land and to repair and build houses, etc. It would be a very serious and inadmissible mistake to neglect or frustrate this spirit of initiative in the individualistic economy, especially to harm the initiative of the average peasant. This is something that everyone should be aware of.
But at the same time, we must devote ourselves to developing and organizing cooperation: the exchange of work. The question is this: the absolute majority of peasants (the poor peasants and part of the average peasants at the time of the Agrarian Reform) could not fully or only with difficulty till their land, if the exchange of labour were not applied, one could even less speak of the development and prosperity of the peasant economy. Moreover, it is absolutely impossible to hope for the development and elevation of the peasant economy if this development and elevation were separated from the elevation of the poor peasants and small and medium peasants, whose number represents the majority of the rural population. Comrade Mao Zedong said: «The cooperative organization such as the labour exchange team was an expression of the miserable life of the peasants in the old days. But now, in our liberated areas, it has undergone a change in both form and content and has then become an expression through which the peasant masses strive for a prosperous life by developing their own productive force». The reality is there.
The Party and the People’s Government must make a great effort, by material and other means, to help the peasants to organize cooperation of this kind: mutual aid and exchange of labour.
But free choice must be protected: every peasant has full freedom to participate in the mutual aid group or to give up participation and plough alone, because the masses always make decisions according to their practical interests and experiences.
The two principles enunciated by Comrade Mao Zedong regarding mutual aid, i.e. free consent and exchange based on equal values, are very accurate. It is by no means permitted to violate them. We therefore oppose any impatience, any subjective way of thinking and working, because this is a question of the awakening of the masses and of our attitude towards the average peasant.
If, on this question, we were to behave in a brutal and imperative manner towards the average peasant, this would be an inadmissible mistake. Our way of working allows us to measure whether our «organizational work» has been well done or not. What is essential is not just a simple increase in the number of organizations, but rather the quantity of agricultural products produced by the farmers after they have set up the organizations. If our work in the development of mutual aid is well done, and the production is, as a result, really more abundant, the participants will automatically be more numerous; if not, they will be less numerous.
But we must also understand that even if our work on the mutual aid is well done and the harvest is consequently more abundant, every farmer still has full freedom not to participate and, in this case, we can in no way force them. At the same time, we must not despise, attack and push away any farmer who only wants to plough alone. Nor should we impose a «label» on him, refuse to help him solve his difficulties, and not try to unite with him. To do so would be another very serious mistake, because any peasant labouring individually is still a labourer. Instead, we should be very patient to unite with such peasants, help them and educate them. Show these peasants through trials that mutual help will bring them more produce and that it will make them rich faster than separate work. Only in this way will we succeed, little by little, in getting the peasants to participate, according to their own awakening and free consent, in the self-help groups.
As for the policy to be adopted towards the new rich peasants, it is not a question of attacking them or limiting them at the present time, for their existence and growth are permitted. They are allowed to take on labourers, borrow money, mortgage, buy, sell and work the land on sharecropping terms, etc., provided they observe the conditions laid down by the government.
At state farms, surplus staff from government agencies were previously mobilized into production to increase grain and solve credit difficulties. This system worked well. But we have not done enough work on seed selection, on propagating the best seeds, new and improved agricultural implements, and on popularizing agricultural science. This work would enable our state farms to direct and influence the production of the masses. We must now do more work in these areas, and first of all we must seek closer relations with the self-help teams and the closest farmers so that the state farms can better play their role in the development of the agricultural economy. We are preparing, where possible, to organize more farms with tractor-machines. These farms will serve as demonstration models for farmers.
What we have just talked about are our basic policies towards the four forms of peasant economy.
The Party must educate its organizations and encourage its members in the countryside to participate actively in labour exchange and mutual aid groups, and in sales and distribution cooperatives, with a view to playing a vanguard and linking role in the economic development of the broad masses of people. In this way they can develop their economy at the same time.
But if there are peasant members of the Party who wish to work individually and refuse to participate in the self-help groups and cooperatives, we must always consider these facts as a question of education and at the same time as a question of the effort we have devoted sufficiently or not in the work of self-help and cooperation. There is therefore no point in trying to settle this question by force or by authority.
When members of the Party become rich peasants through their work and with their production, as a result of the Agrarian Reform, and wish to withdraw voluntarily from the Party, the Party shall give them its consent and approve them. For those members whose attitude becomes passive towards the Party, they must, in accordance with the Party statutes, suspend their membership. But we expect them to remain politically good citizens. We will guarantee them that no intervention will be made in their economic work. As for those members who do not themselves ask to withdraw from the Party and who adopt a different attitude, a passive attitude, the Party will settle their question according to the regulations laid down by the Organizing Department of the Central Committee and according to the concrete conditions, i.e., for those who are still carrying out the resolutions of the Party, observing the policies and decrees of the People’s Government and who have not yet left a bad influence among the masses, there is reason to maintain their membership; but for those who are politically and ideologically corrupted and have truly lost the minimum conditions of being a communist, it is only natural, according to the Party statutes, to exclude them from the Party in order to maintain the purity of the Party.
V. All comrades, let us unite and put ourselves at the front of the front of economic reconstruction.
Comrades! In my present report I have already spoken, in a general way, of the various problems which we have encountered on the front of our present economic reconstruction and which we have to solve immediately. Of course, there are still other important things, for example, we intend to train a large number of technicians, etc., at all costs. We will do this in the course of our concrete work. Here we do not speak further about it.
Comrades! All our outlines have been determined. Now we ask all our comrades to unite closely and to place us in the front line of the economic reconstruction front. Let us work well with the working class, with the peasants, with the technicians, with the intellectuals and with the people. At the same time, we must absorb more advanced elements into our Party in a more active way. Let us centralize, with sure steps, carefully, laboriously and with care for public property, under the great banner of our Party leader, the leader of our people — Comrade Mao Zedong, all our human strength, all our material strength and all our financial strength available to put them to work in reconstruction. Let us struggle in the course of our work against bureaucratism and formalism, let us always consult the masses on everything, let us make extensive use of criticism and self-criticism, let us push our work further and further, let us take precautions against the sabotage activities of the anti-revolutionaries, let us overcome all difficulties, let us learn from the Soviet Union the experiences of socialist construction, and finally let us accomplish the new historical task which the Party has entrusted to us.
It is true that our knowledge in the economic and cultural fields is not sufficient, just as our theoretical level on Marxism-Leninism is far from reaching our needs. All this is our weakness. To know this weakness is a profitable thing. But these points of insufficiency are not to be feared, what is to be feared is that we do not want to learn seriously. Comrade Mao Zedong told us: «The most important thing is to learn». Only if we want to learn can we overcome any fortress of difficulties. In China there is a proverb: «There are no difficulties for anyone who has a strong will».[4] We communists are «strong-willed people». It is because we wanted to make the revolution and we learned how to make it that it is finally victorious. Now we want to rebuild, we will be able to acquire, without doubt, the capacity to rebuild and the work of reconstruction will surely lead to a victorious success.
In order for our cadres to perform their various assigned functions properly, it is necessary to encourage all Party cadres to learn to do what they are assigned to do so that they become highly skilled in their occupations and become «specialists», i.e., it is necessary to have all Party cadres «specialize».
We must understand that our work of reconstruction is a long-term one, so each cadre must become highly skilled in a speciality so that they can perform their role better. In the past, the possibility of doing this did not exist, but today the necessary conditions are complete. It is possible to do so and it is necessary to do so.
Learning a profession and studying the doctrines of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and the thinking of Mao Zedong are two things together. To study the doctrines of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin and the thinking of Mao Zedong is to enable us to see far, to increase our intelligence, to affirm our conviction and to carry out our work in a more perfect way.
All Party cadres, especially the leading cadres, must do their utmost to devote part of their time to organizing the study of the 12 books that cadres are obliged to study, books specially designated by Comrade Mao Zedong. At the same time, they should seriously study the works of Comrade Mao Zedong and the numerous documents of the Party Central Committee.
Comrades! I will not dwell on the various problems of the Party. Let me, before I finish, repeat again:
All cadres, let us unite and put ourselves at the front of the front of economic reconstruction, under the great banner of Mao Zedong!
FOOTNOTES
[1] To the French edition.
[2] 1 piece equals 38.50 metres and 1 Chinese foot equals 1/5 of a metre.
[3] District (Chin. in the original).
[4] This could be interpreted as the French proverb «Vouloir, c’est pouvoir» (To want is to be able).
Shoku Enver Translations
.jpg)
No comments