**Current Tactics for the Hunan Peasant Movement***
(August 1926)

Based on the experience of the past five months, it has been discovered that the peasant movement in various localities of this province is mostly afflicted with the malady of left infantilism. The slogans it has raised, such as overthrowing the landlords, and those concerning interference in politics, are all excessively high at present. The peasant movement in this province, besides devoting every effort to organizing the masses of poor peasants and supporting the improvement of their minimum economic conditions, should also guide the middle and small landlords and all petty-bourgeois masses to participate in the national revolution. Even with regard to the big landlords, apart from a very small minority who are difficult to win over to sympathize with the revolution, we must also find ways to make them remain neutral in the revolutionary movement. We are in the period of just beginning this kind of work. If our slogans are too high and our actions too leftist, it will cause all the landlords, gentry, and militia in the countryside to come into conflict with our movement. The result will not only hinder the development of the work but also affect the united front of the national revolutionary movement.

Our comrades should cite many facts to propagate the following meaning in the countryside: The people of all classes in China, without exception, have fully suffered the calamities inflicted by international imperialism and domestic warlords, especially the rural populace, whose suffering is the most severe and the most widespread (the comprador class and bureaucrats in the cities collude with imperialism and the warlords to share the spoils). Although superficially the economic status of the rural people varies between rich and poor, yet as a result of the invasion of foreign goods, the rural economy has been completely destroyed, the unemployed are increasing daily, and further subjected to the ravages of the warlords; the poor already have no way to escape with their lives and no place to die, and even the rich, do they not also suffer from the impact of soaring prices, their economic status growing daily more precarious? Moreover, the calamities of war drag on endlessly, politics are dark, making it impossible for people to save themselves from death; therefore, the great rich are declining day by day, the middle-propertied find it even harder to maintain their position, and those with only a little property have long since fallen into cold and hunger. Thus, to rescue this common perilous situation, there is only the united effort to eliminate these two enemies intertwined in evil—imperialism and the warlords.

Our Party’s engagement in the peasant movement stems from a deep understanding that the foundation of the harm done to China by imperialism and the warlords is entirely built upon the exploitation of the interests of all classes in the Chinese countryside. If this foundation is not eradicated, the national revolution can never be realized. Therefore, we desire to awaken the people of all classes in the countryside to recognize the crimes of imperialism and the warlords, to unite as one, and to strive for the national revolution, in order to seek relief from their own suffering.

Unless they are willing to serve as the claws and teeth of imperialism and the warlords, such as corrupt officials and local bullies who rely on wealth to do evil, all should be able to accept our Party’s propaganda. In the peasant movement, our Party’s policy towards the various classes should take the hired peasants, tenant peasants, and owner-peasants as the main body, and establish a united front with the middle and small landlords, as well as the gentry, merchants, and others, in order to oppose the warlords (the running dogs of imperialism), the corrupt officials (the claws and teeth of the warlords), and the local bullies and evil gentry (the claws and teeth of the local bullies). We absolutely must not take a foe for a son, and even more must we not mistakenly oppose a friend as an enemy, thereby allowing the enemy’s united front to expand while we ourselves retreat into an isolated position. This requires deep attention.

Now, based on the experience of our work in this province over the past several months, we stipulate our attitude and policy towards all quarters in the countryside. All comrades, especially those comrades devoting themselves exclusively to the peasant movement, must act in accordance with these stipulations, engage in propaganda and organization, with a view to expanding the peasant movement in this province within the shortest period, establishing peasant associations in all counties and townships, and building a firm and unshakable revolutionary foundation. Under no circumstances should they deviate from this purpose or engage in erroneous propaganda, thereby causing the danger of destroying the united front in the course of the national revolutionary movement.

**Tactics Towards All Quarters**

1.  **Attitude to be Adopted Towards the Current Hunan Government**
    So long as the current government can confirm its policy of cooperating with the National Government and opposing Wu Peifu, and can guarantee the people’s freedom of assembly, association, speech, publication, and strike, as well as the development of worker and peasant organizations, we shall cooperate with it wholeheartedly. Our activities must be brought into legal forms as much as possible; for instance, peasant associations shall uniformly register with the government authorities, and when matters arise, lawsuits shall be filed with the government authorities according to legal procedures, requesting decisions, etc. In short, when encountering matters, we must avoid riots and unnecessary conflicts.

2.  **Attitude to be Adopted Towards All Quarters in the Countryside**
    Some of the tactics we previously formulated on this issue have become inapplicable due to a lack of practical experience. Moreover, when comrades were implementing them, they exceeded the limits of the originally stipulated tactics, revealing many instances of left infantilism. The result is that we have not yet launched an offensive against our enemies, imperialism and the warlords, while some who could have cooperated with us (such as enlightened landlords and upright gentry, etc.) have already, due to misunderstandings, ceased to sympathize with us, and some have even begun to attack us. We now stipulate our attitude as follows:
    (1) Unite the hired peasants, tenant peasants, and owner-peasants;
    (2) Form a united front with the middle and small landlords (those collecting 100 to 500 piculs of rent grain are small landlords, those collecting 500 to 1,000 piculs are middle landlords, and those collecting over 1,000 piculs are big landlords);
    (3) Make the big landlords who do not actively commit evil remain neutral;
    (4) Ally with the upright gentry and oppose the evil gentry;
    (5) We must overthrow the corrupt officials;
    (6) We must overthrow the local bullies (those elements within the landlord class who actively commit evil, even using the militia bureaus to massacre common people).

3.  **The Problem of People’s Food**
    In recent years, Hunan has suffered successive floods and droughts, as well as the extortionate exactions of the warlords. Grain prices have soared, and famine victims are spread across all counties. At this moment, we truly have no possibility of solely undertaking the responsibility for solving this problem. The previous handling of the People’s Famine Relief Association was actually a means to expose the black curtain behind Zhao Hengti’s use of famine relief as a pretext to extort funds, donations, and loans. The situation now is different from before, so our tactics should also undergo slight changes. We now re-stipulate the tactics regarding the people’s food problem as follows:
    (1) Adopt an attitude of abandonment and passivity towards the Famine Relief Association;
    (2) Encourage the upright gentry to engage in disaster relief, seed distribution, and petitioning the government for relief, etc., and we shall actively participate and support these efforts;
    (3) Regarding matters such as inspecting granaries, prohibiting grain exports, stabilizing prices, and apportioning grain purchases..., we must cooperate with the upright gentry in handling them; even if we have our own propositions, they should be put forward in an appropriate form, and we should not act independently apart from the upright gentry (such as forcibly fixing grain prices for buying and selling, etc.).

4.  **The Peasant Movement and Local Self-Government**
    The peasants’ previous extreme irresponsibility towards local self-government was truly a mistake. Henceforth, we should guide the peasants to legally participate in the election of local public functionaries, or to be elected as local public functionaries, etc. Peasant associations should pay attention to participating in local public welfare matters (such as road repair, dike construction, water conservancy, forestry, cooperatives, etc.), but should not actively interfere in local administration (such as disputes over debts and credits, bandit suppression and pacification, etc.).

5.  **Peasant Associations and the Old Peasant Associations**
    Under the current political situation, the old peasant associations are still so-called legal bodies, while the peasant associations are still novel organizations. During this transitional period, in the peasant movement, our comrades should work in accordance with the following stipulations regarding the relationship between the peasant associations and the old peasant associations:
    (1) Take the open organization of peasant associations in all counties and townships of this province as a principle, but when encountering special circumstances where openness is impossible, their secret organization should still be preserved;
    (2) Members of the peasant associations must, on the one hand, as far as possible, gain control of the old peasant associations, so as to prevent the evil gentry and local bullies from using the old peasant associations—the so-called legal organs—to oppress the peasants;
    (3) Propagate among the peasants that the organization of the old peasant associations cannot represent the peasants’ interests;
    (4) Within the old peasant associations, hint to the poor peasants that they should simultaneously join the peasant associations;
    (5) All words and actions of peasant association members within the old peasant associations must stand on the policy of the peasant associations;
    (6) In times of calm, the peasant associations shall adopt an attitude of cooperation with the old peasant associations; when conflicts arise between landlords and poor peasants, efforts should be made to have the old peasant associations assume a mediating position.

6.  **The Peasant Movement and Rural Primary Schools, Primary School Teachers, and Private School Teachers**
    The economic status of primary school teachers, private school teachers, and peasants is roughly the same. Compared with primary school teachers, private school teachers are merely ideologically backward. Rural primary school teachers are actually naturally positioned to transmit new ideas to the countryside. At present, many primary school teachers have already fulfilled this function, and many primary schools have already become organs of the peasant movement in various localities. We should now carry out our work towards rural primary schools, primary school teachers, and private school teachers in accordance with the following stipulations:
    (1) Transmit revolutionary ideas to primary school teachers, and strive to absorb primary school teachers into our Party;
    (2) Find ways to urge every primary school teacher to handle adult supplementary education under the unified guidance of the Provincial Rural Supplementary Education Society;
    (3) Utilize primary schools or other educational institutions to the fullest extent as organs for the peasant movement;
    (4) Peasant associations shall vigorously support primary school teachers in fulfilling various minimum economic demands (such as salary increases, etc.);
    (5) Do not oppose private schools, and propagate to private school teachers to make them sympathize with the peasant movement;
    (6) Regarding conflicts between primary school teachers and private school teachers (such as private school teachers and primary school students, primary school teachers advocating the banning of private schools, etc.), do not become involved in the vortex, and even more so, do not take sides, but mediate when possible.

7.  **Attitude to be Adopted Towards the Militia Bureaus**
    The militia bureaus are indeed a machine used by the local bullies to oppress and extort the common people and protect their own interests, but it is not absolutely impossible for us to make them exert themselves for the oppressed populace, because the militiamen are mostly peasants, and their functionaries and even bureau chiefs are mostly local upright gentry, primary school teachers, or other intellectuals who understand reason.
    Therefore, our current work towards the militia bureaus should: (1) From their upper levels down to the lower levels, vigorously propagate to them and introduce their members into the Party; (2) Support the small landlords, upright gentry, primary school teachers, and other elements who do not oppress the peasants, in obtaining positions in the militia bureaus, so that the militia bureaus are transferred from the hands of a minority of domineering local bullies into their hands.

8.  **Attitude to be Adopted Towards Charitable Organizations and Charitable Halls, Tongshan Society, etc.**
    We should establish appropriate connections with charitable undertakings and organizations (such as charitable halls, Jishan Xiaobu Hall, etc.); we shall temporarily refrain from opposing organizations that specialize in propagating superstition (such as the Tongshan Society, etc.).

9.  **Attitude to be Adopted Towards the Churches**
    Regarding the churches, in our oral propaganda, we should do our utmost to explain that the churches are the vanguard of imperialism. We must explain that, on the one hand, they act as detectives for imperialism, spying out the internal conditions of China—exactly what the political, economic, popular sentiment, and customary conditions are like. On the other hand, they conversely use pleasant-sounding terms like "peace" and "fraternity," and even use some money to buy the people's faith in them. They want to deceive all the oppressed masses together. They want to lead the general oppressed masses to forget their own suffering, in order to ensure the consolidation and permanence of the foundation of imperialism's oppression of the masses. But at present, we must not create an opportunity for actual conflict with them, because the environment we are in (they collude with the warlords, using treaty protection as a pretext everywhere) allows us only to adopt such an attitude. If we encounter churches that are clearly and actually committing evil (such as forcibly occupying fields and estates, coercively buying people's houses, etc.), we must then stir up public indignation, rise up in opposition, and we must actively participate at such times.

10. **Attitude to be Adopted Towards Bandits**
    The majority of bandits are produced by the unemployment of peasants. In other words, it is the oppression of imperialism and the warlords that produces bandits. They use robbery as a method to rebel against the present society; we naturally do not approve. But because their lives are hard and they demand a solution to the problem of livelihood, we naturally sympathize with them. Therefore, we do not now raise the entire slogan of overthrowing the bandits, but only raise the slogan of overthrowing imperialism and the warlords; this is precisely the reason why we want to eliminate all bandits. However, if we encounter a certain part or a certain bandit being utilized by the oppressing classes to oppress the peasants, we must then oppose them separately.

11. **Regarding the Peasant Movement in Places Related to Military and Political Affairs**
    The peasant movement in this province should pay special attention to places related to military and political affairs. For example, in southern Hunan, attention should be paid to the main communication routes between Hunan-Guangdong and Hunan-Guangxi; in eastern and western Hunan, attention should be paid to areas connected by railways, convenient water transport, proximity to the provincial capital, as well as province-wide automobile roads and industrial organs. Attention must also be paid to ensuring that wherever there is a labor movement, the peasant movement must be closely linked with it.

12. **Worker-Peasant Alliance**
    Regarding the industrial workers of this province (such as at Shuikoushan, Xikuangshan, the First Cotton Mill, Anyuan—"the movement here is transferred by the Central Committee to the Provincial Department for management"—and the Zhuzhou-Pingxiang and Guangzhou-Hankou railways, etc.), our peasant movement should closely link with them and form an extremely close relationship. Among all the peasant masses, we should especially propagate that only when workers and peasants can truly and solidly unite will the revolutionary force be great.

13. **The Peasant Movement and the Development of Our Party’s Organization**
    Our Party is the center guiding the peasant movement. If we do not strive to develop our Party’s organization within the peasant movement, the result, on the one hand, will be that, due to the lack of leadership from a majority of our Party comrades, the organization of the peasant associations will inevitably not be strong, the development of the peasant movement will not be rapid, and it may even invite some oppression that could have been avoided or should not have occurred. On the other hand, because there are no Party members outside the peasant associations to do support work, the peasant associations will inevitably be isolated when taking action. Therefore, in the peasant movement, we should work according to the following stipulations:
    (1) Strive to develop our Party’s organization and increase the number of Party members in the countryside. We must establish at least one sub-district branch in the location of every lowest-level peasant association.
    (2) We should enable the hired peasants, tenant peasants, owner-peasants, primary school teachers, and other relatively knowledgeable intellectuals, such as handicraftsmen, merchants, militia bureau functionaries, militiamen, upright militia gentry, and landlords who sympathize with the national revolution, all to join our Party.

14. **The Problem of Destroying the Peasant Movement Under the False Pretense of the Peasant Associations’ Name**
    We have already discovered people using the false pretense of the peasant associations’ name to engage in activities that deceive the peasants and destroy the peasant associations. Some of them utilize unemployed vagrants to do evil, destroying the reputation of the peasant associations; some utilize the concept of clan, assembling the sons of one surname, falsely using the name of the peasant association, baiting them with temporary small gains, to destroy the unified revolutionary peasant movement. Regarding this problem, we should work according to the following stipulations:
    (1) Earnestly propagate the meaning of our peasant movement, so that the oppressed rural masses in general can all understand the necessity of revolution and not be fooled by them. As long as the propaganda is done well (the interests of the peasants should be consistent, and the slogans towards the various rural classes must not be excessively high), and the organization is tight (our strength grows daily stronger), those who oppose will inevitably have scruples (petty-bourgeois people are attached to their land and reluctant to move; their lives and the safety of their families are extremely important) and will not dare to lightly oppose us;
    (2) Prevent destructive actions at any time;
    (3) Split the clan leaders and win over the masses below them.

15. **Rectifying the Lower-Level Organizations**
    We have formulated the above various tactics in order to cope with the environment. But these tactics are absolutely not right-leaning; rather, they are methods suited to the circumstances.
    We believe that the poor peasants of low economic status, in their need for revolution, are bound to be especially courageous and especially loyal compared to all other rural classes. We should absorb more awakened elements of this kind into our Party and into the peasant associations, to serve as the core of the peasant movement. Only then can our peasant movement be considered to have a foundation. We absolutely must not allow any hesitation or laxity in the lower-level organizations, thereby losing the center of gravity of the work.
    The various tactics mentioned above are all formulated for the purpose of consolidating the lower-level organizations. If the work loses its central meaning, it loses the function of these tactics.