Resolution on the Peasant Question
(Resolution of the Third National Congress of
the Chinese Communist Party¹)
(June 1923)

Ever since the various imperialists started using military force to impose the
importing of foreign goods, the rate of price increases for household necessities
has far exceeded that for agricultural produce. The former sideline industries of
the peasants (such as handweaving) have also been totally destroyed. Moreover,
since the 1911 Revolution, the life of the peasants has been made increasingly
difficult by the continual wars among the warlords for spheres of influence, and
the bandits everywhere, plus the exorbitant taxes levied by corrupt officials (such
as advance cash levies on the land tax, extra fees, etc.) and the savage oppression
carried out by local ruffians and bad gentry. Because of all these various kinds of
oppression, a spirit of rebellion has naturally arisen among the peasants. The
widespread peasant antirent and antitax riots are clear evidence of this. Therefore, our Party's Third Congress resolves that it is necessary to gather together
small peasants, sharecroppers, and farm laborers to resist the imperialists who
control China, to overthrow the warlords and corrupt officials, and to resist the
local ruffians and bad gentry, so as to protect the interests of the peasants and to
promote the national revolutionary movement.

Our translation is based on Zhonggong zhongyang wenjian xuanji, Vol. 1, 1921-1925, p.
151. This text reproduces that of the brochure containing the resolutions and manifestos of
the Third Congress published in July 1923.
1. The Third Congress, held in Guangzhou June 12-20, 1923, formally adopted the
policy of a united front with the Guomindang in the shape of a "bloc within." Mao, who
had argued at the congress in favor of this line, was elected to the new Central Executive
Committee, of which he was appointed secretary, and also became a member of the
five-man Central Bureau, the Party's organ for dealing with day-to-day affairs. During the
discussion of the peasant question at the congress, he declared: "The Chinese Communist
Party should not see only the Guomindang in the small area near Guangzhou, it should
attach importance to the broad masses of the peasantry throughout the country." For further
details about Mao's role at the Third Congress, and the Chinese Communist Party's views
regarding the peasantry beginning in 1922, see above, the Introduction to Volume II.