CHINA'S COMMUNES FORMING LABOR ARMIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-02771R000300120005-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 14, 2000
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: October 1, 1958
• Content Type: OPEN

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U.S. Ti-tMORM&PION AGENCY
No. 58>410
U&ckgrounder on Comnnrn.
October, 1958
IFSjW 5
CHINA'S COI NNES FORK IM ARNIE
By N.18 3tef'eaasan
(Historian and Writer on Cont ;porsry Asia)
8UYOlARY: Press retorts from mainland China are stating
that all Chinese peasants are to become members of com-
munes ? super-collectives with an average of 20,000 to
409000 members within a few months. This article
describes the economic reasons behind the comae drive
Peipingts desire to have a tightly-organized, mobile
labor force, and the Comt.mistsa wish to control peasant
food consumption. Mess halls, nurseries, a wage system,
and grain rationing are ,attended to add more women to
the labor force and make the peasants eat less.
NOTEt Please rmaove this cover sheet before distribution.
Use of the byline is optional. The article may be abridged.
USIA declassification & release instructions on file
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CHINAS CO UNES FORNINC LABOR MOUES
by Nils St?fansson
(Historian and Writer on Co unist China)
China?a 500 million peasants will soon be organized Into
"people ? a coin mea" enormous collective faarms with 20,000 to 40, OOO
members,
This was announced by the Peiping P_eopj ea s Daiiv. official.
organ of the Communist Party, which said on October 1, 1958 that "by the
and of September ninety per cent of the peasant households in China had
already joined psople?s commanes,'c
China's poasantry is being transformed into a rural proletari -
Peasants are ordered to join large labor groups. They are to work for
wages, not a share of the crop, and must go where they are assigned
to factories or mines as well as to the fields.
Wives of oomamme members are also being forced, to join labor
groups.- Children are being placed in acrnuaal nurseries. All families
are to eat, in communal moss halls,
The comunes are used as the basis for "labor armies." The
PaloB &s AAi1v reported on August 15, 1958 that in Shansi proxince the
party "is in the course of forming more than 3,6660,000 people into a latw
army which performs the roles of workers, peasants, and soldier30..."
According to the PecnleTa Dap, "this labor army is to be fork.
with peasants of both sexes from 16 to 55 years of age in the province,
It constitution a her t-c? force "
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CRDIAQS COMMUNgS FORMIII LABOR ilRM 3 2
This remarkable drive was inaugurated in Ronan province in
April 1958. In August the Commamist Party's Central Committee issued a
resolution directing that communes be established all over China.
As the mention of "labor armies" implies, the principal f no-
tion of the comzmunes is to provide China's economic planners with a cloy
supervised, politically reliable, flexible and docile labor force. Equa`
important, the commune system is also supposed to ensure that commune
members eat only as much as the state decides they shall eat, and no more.
The official Peiping theoretical magazine j g said in its
September 1, 1958 issue that "To make full, use of labor power, to enable
women to play their full part in field work, and to ensure that there is
no waste of the labor time of men and women, the farm cooperatives (col-
lectives) must not only be organizers of production but also organizers
of the way of life; not only do they have to collectivize labor further,
but also to organize the collective way of life"
Rod Flag went on to say that "On the basis of this ua.?gent need.,
public moashalls, nurseries, kindergartens, tailoring teams, etc,, are
being formed in large numbers. All this demands that the, agricfultural
producers' cooperatives take an additional step forward - to transfoz'm
themselves into people's communes,"
The men and women "freed for production" in this way are sent
to work in Industry as well as in the fields. Some work in baeIycrd
factories being set up by the communes themselves.
Sys however, will be assigned to work away from home. An
NCNA despatch of September 1, 1958, praised the "East Wind" commune in
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CHINA'S COMMUNES FORMING LABOR ARMIES
Tsinghai province, which "was able to allocate 800 people to help with
from and'steel smelting in nearby countries on the very next day after it
was founded,"
The Peo's Dail reported on Aigust 15 that in the Yutzu'
administrative district of Honan province, "more than 1,700 'reserve worll re'
have been drafted to help in the construction of factories, mines, and
railways,"
A June 7,, 1958 article in the same newspaper stated that fac-
tories in the city of Chungking made labor contracts directly with com in:?d,
"On the expiry of a contract," the Peon1Q1s Daily explained,
"whether the workers will be retained by the factories or released for
participation in agricultural production in the countryside will be deem-1
in accordance with the uroduction needs of the factories, so that rational"
use can be made of labor and so that relations between industry and grit
culture can be tightened further."
The _P92P12' aDaily also said that Peasant-workers provided by
the communes are paid less than prevailing wages and receive fewer welfar
benefits. In other words, the communes involve a form of Indentured
service operated by the state for its own benefit.
In its September 1, 1958 report the NCNA stated that in seven
administrative districts of Honan rrovinoe preliminary statistics show
that "the opening up of mess halls there has enabled 6.9 million women
to take part in production.'
The August 29 directive of the Central Committee urged the com-
munes to adopt a system of payment which serves two ends: it advances
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CH'INA'S COI44UNES FORMING L.',BO ARMIES
the "proletarianization" of the peasantry and facilitates control of
food grains.
Wages are to be fixed by'the communal managers. About 25 per-
cent of the wage fund will be reserved' for bonuses,
The People's Daily declared on August 21, 1958 that "collective
members receiving bonuses should posseasthe following qualifications&
(1) being obedient to leadership and.rositive in work; (2) actively parts
itating in production and fulfilling or over-fulfilling production assign
inents; (3) protecting nubile property and constantly struggling against
wicked persons and evil things; (4) being advanced in thinking,,.and (5).
working at least 28 days a month,"
Communal managers will also determine each family's requirement;
of grain for food. Grain tickets will be issued in place of all or part
of money wages earned, Tickets can be releemed only at the communal mess
halls. Peasants with any surplus money wages cannot use them to buy food
grain, and most other foods are also rationed.
Grain supply has always been a serious uroblemfor the Communis
regime. When the peasants farmed as individuals they usually ate better
if they had' a good crop, Forty percent of China's exports to the Soviet
Union consist of food grains, and Peiping has sought wears to increase
grain collection.
The ordinary collective farms, set up in 1955-56, were intended
to enforce a tighter control. on peasant food consumption. But they had
only a few hundren member-households, Small work-teams composed mostly
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ClINA?S C0MUNES FORMING LABOR ARMIES
neighbors and acquaintances could cheat the collective and it some prod-
uce aside for their own use.
Furthermore, peasant families cooking in their own homes could
also save. grain. The farmers disliked seeing their produce taken away
from. them; hoarding and black-marketing were common, even after the col-
lectives: were set up.
The September 1957 issue of the Peiping magazine1_i.tica Study
admitted that hoarding "has oven become a common practice; people ridicule
those who. positively fulfill the atatesa grain urehase quota."
Under the commune system, however, all grain will be tallied in
and out by the commune staff, which will literally keep track of every
bowl of rice. The state will decide whether the bowl will be full or
empty.
On August 18, 1957 the People's Daily pointed with satisfaction
to a typical effect of the commune system: "Yin Fu-yua!!, a member of the
No; 2 cooperative, and his family formerly consumed eight catties and two
taels of grain per day; now in the mess hail they consume only seven
catties,"
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