Based on the experience of the past five months, it has been found that peasant movements in various parts of this province are often afflicted with the ailment of leftist immaturity. The slogans they raise, such as overthrowing landlords and interfering in politics, are currently overly ambitious. In addition to doing our utmost to organize the impoverished peasant masses and supporting the improvement of their minimum economic conditions, the peasant movement in this province should also guide small and medium landlords and all petty-bourgeois elements to participate in the national revolution. Even for large landlords, except for the very small minority who are unsympathetic to the revolution, we must find ways to ensure they remain neutral in the revolutionary movement. We are now in the initial stage of this work. If our slogans are too ambitious and our actions too leftist, it will cause all landlords, gentry, and local defense forces in the countryside to come into conflict with our movement. The result will not only hinder the development of our work but also affect the united front of the national revolutionary movement.

Our comrades should cite many facts to propagate the following message in the countryside: People of all classes in China, especially the rural populace, have suffered immensely and pervasively from the scourge of international imperialism and domestic warlords (the comprador class and bureaucrats in cities collude with imperialism and warlords to share the spoils). Although on the surface, the economic status of rural people varies between rich and poor, the invasion of foreign goods has completely destroyed the rural economy, leading to increasing unemployment. Coupled with the ravages of warlords, the poor have no way to survive or die with dignity, while the rich are equally affected by soaring prices, their economic standing increasingly unstable. Moreover, prolonged warfare and political darkness leave people struggling to save themselves from death. Thus, the very wealthy are declining day by day, the middle class finds it even harder to sustain themselves, and those with little have long been plunged into cold and hunger. Therefore, to rescue ourselves from this common peril, we must unite to eliminate these two intertwined evils—imperialism and warlords.

Our Party’s engagement in the peasant movement stems from a deep understanding that the foundation of imperialism and warlords’ harm to China is entirely built on exploiting the interests of all rural classes. If this foundation is not eradicated, the national revolution can never be realized. Hence, we aim to awaken people of all rural classes to recognize the evils of imperialism and warlords, unite in solidarity, and strive for the national revolution to relieve their own suffering.

Unless they willingly serve as lackeys of imperialism and warlords, such as corrupt officials and local bullies who exploit their wealth for evil, all should be able to accept our Party’s propaganda. In the peasant movement, our Party’s policy toward various classes should focus on hired peasants, tenant peasants, and owner-peasants as the mainstay, while forming a united front with small and medium landlords, gentry, and merchants to oppose warlords (the running dogs of imperialism), corrupt officials (the claws of warlords), and local bullies and evil gentry (the claws of local bullies). We must not mistake enemies for allies, nor mistakenly oppose friends as foes, thereby allowing the enemy’s united front to expand while we retreat into isolation. This requires deep attention.

Based on the experience gained from months of work in this province, we hereby stipulate our attitudes and policies toward various rural sectors. All comrades, especially those dedicated to peasant movement work, must strictly adhere to these provisions in their propaganda and organization efforts, aiming to expand the peasant movement in this province in the shortest time, establish peasant associations in counties and townships, and build a solid, unshakable revolutionary foundation. Under no circumstances should these principles be violated or propaganda be misguided, lest it endanger the united front in the process of the national revolutionary movement.

Strategies Toward Various Sectors

I. Attitude Toward the Current Hunan Government
As long as the current government can confirm its cooperation with the National Government, adopt a policy opposing Wu Peifu, and guarantee the people’s freedoms of assembly, association, speech, press, and strike, as well as the development of worker and peasant organizations, we shall wholeheartedly cooperate with it. Our activities must be conducted as much as possible within legal forms, such as registering peasant associations with the authorities and filing lawsuits or requesting resolutions through legal procedures when issues arise. In short, we must avoid riots and unnecessary conflicts in all matters.

II. Attitude Toward Various Rural Sectors
Previously, some of the strategies we formulated on this issue proved inapplicable due to a lack of practical experience. Moreover, comrades exceeded the limits of the original strategies during implementation, revealing many leftist immaturities. As a result, before we could even attack our enemies—imperialism and warlords—some who could have cooperated with us (such as enlightened landlords and upright gentry) have already withheld their sympathy due to misunderstandings, and some have even begun to attack us. We now stipulate our attitudes as follows:
(1) Unite hired peasants, tenant peasants, and owner-peasants;
(2) Form a united front with small and medium landlords (those collecting 100 to 500 dan of rent grain are small landlords, 500 to 1,000 dan are medium landlords, and over 1,000 dan are large landlords);
(3) Keep large landlords who do not actively commit evil neutral;
(4) Ally with upright gentry and oppose evil gentry;
(5) Overthrow corrupt officials;
(6) Overthrow local bullies (those within the landlord class who actively commit evil, even using local defense bureaus to massacre civilians).

III. The Issue of Food Supply
In recent years, Hunan has suffered successive floods, droughts, and exploitation by warlords, causing grain prices to soar and famine victims to spread across all counties. At present, we are truly incapable of resolving this issue on our own. Previously, the establishment of people’s disaster relief associations was essentially a means to expose Zhao Hengti’s shady dealings in extorting funds, donations, and loans under the guise of disaster relief. Now that the situation has changed, our strategy must also be slightly adjusted. The newly stipulated strategies on the food supply issue are as follows:
(1) Adopt a passive, hands-off attitude toward disaster relief associations;
(2) Encourage upright gentry to engage in disaster relief, seed distribution, and petitioning the government for aid, while we actively participate and support these efforts;
(3) On matters such as grain inspections, bans on hoarding, price stabilization, and grain allocation, we must cooperate with upright gentry. Even if we have our own proposals, they should be presented in an appropriate manner and not involve independent actions divorced from the upright gentry (such as forcibly setting grain prices for buying and selling).

IV. Peasant Movement and Local Self-Governance
It was a mistake for peasants to have previously been so irresponsible toward local self-governance. Henceforth, we should guide peasants to legally participate in electing local public officials or being elected as such. Peasant associations should pay attention to participating in local public welfare matters (such as road construction, dike building, water conservancy, forestry, cooperatives, etc.), but should not actively intervene in local administration (such as disputes over debts and credits, bandit suppression, etc.).

V. Peasant Associations and Old Peasant Unions
Under the current political circumstances, old peasant unions are still considered so-called legal organizations, while peasant associations remain novel entities. During this transitional period, our comrades in the peasant movement should handle the relationship between peasant associations and old peasant unions according to the following provisions:
(1) In principle, openly organize peasant associations uniformly across counties and townships in this province, but in special circumstances where openness is impossible, maintain their secret organization;
(2) Members of peasant associations should, on one hand, strive as much as possible to join old peasant unions to prevent evil gentry and local bullies from using these so-called legal bodies to oppress peasants;
(3) Propagate among peasants that the organization of old peasant unions cannot represent their interests;
(4) Within old peasant unions, subtly encourage impoverished peasants to simultaneously join peasant associations;
(5) All words and actions of peasant association members within old peasant unions must align with the policies of the peasant associations;
(6) In calm times, adopt a cooperative attitude with old peasant unions; when conflicts arise between landlords and the poor, strive to position old peasant unions as mediators.

VI. Peasant Movement and Rural Primary Schools, Teachers, and Private Tutors
The economic status of primary school teachers, private tutors, and peasants is roughly similar. Compared to primary school teachers, private tutors are merely ideologically backward. Rural primary school teachers are naturally positioned to transmit new ideas to the countryside. Many primary school teachers have already fulfilled this role, and many primary schools have become hubs for local peasant movements. We should now proceed with our work regarding rural primary schools, teachers, and private tutors according to the following provisions:
(1) Disseminate revolutionary ideas to primary school teachers and strive to recruit them into our Party;
(2) Find ways to urge every primary school teacher to conduct adult supplementary education under the unified guidance of the provincial rural supplementary education society;
(3) Make full use of primary schools or other educational institutions as bases for the peasant movement;
(4) Peasant associations should vigorously support primary school teachers in achieving various minimum economic demands (such as salary increases);
(5) Do not oppose private tutoring; instead, propagate to private tutors to win their sympathy for the peasant movement;
(6) In conflicts between primary school teachers and private tutors (such as disputes over students or initiatives by primary school teachers to ban private tutoring), do not get involved or take sides; mediate when possible.

VII. Attitude Toward Local Defense Bureaus
Local defense bureaus are indeed machines used by local bullies to oppress civilians and protect their own interests. However, it is not absolutely impossible to make them serve the oppressed masses, as most of their members are peasants, and their staff and even bureau chiefs are often local upright gentry, primary school teachers, or other reasonable intellectuals.
Thus, our current work regarding local defense bureaus should: (1) Strive to propagate to them from top to bottom and introduce members into the Party; (2) Support small landlords, upright gentry, primary school teachers, and others who do not oppress peasants in obtaining positions within local defense bureaus, thereby shifting control from a few domineering local bullies to their hands.

VIII. Attitude Toward Charitable Organizations and Groups Like Charity Halls and Tongshan Societies
We should establish appropriate connections with charitable organizations (such as Charity Halls, Jishan Xiaobu Halls, etc.). For groups specifically dedicated to spreading superstition (such as Tongshan Societies), we shall not oppose them for now.

IX. Attitude Toward Churches
In verbal propaganda, we should vigorously explain that churches are the vanguard of imperialism. We must clarify that, on one hand, they act as detectives for imperialism, scouting China’s interior—its political, economic, social, and cultural conditions. On the other hand, they use pleasant-sounding terms like “peace” and “fraternity,” and even spend money to buy the people’s faith. They aim to deceive all oppressed people, leading them to forget their own suffering, thereby ensuring the solidity and permanence of imperialism’s foundation of oppression. However, at present, we must avoid creating opportunities for actual conflict with them, given our circumstances (their collusion with warlords and constant invocation of treaty protections). Only when churches clearly and actively commit evil (such as seizing land, coercively purchasing civilian housing, etc.) should we stir public outrage and collectively oppose them, actively participating in such efforts.

X. Attitude Toward Bandits
Most bandits arise from peasant unemployment; in other words, imperialism and warlord oppression create bandits. They use robbery as a method to resist the current society, which we naturally do not endorse. However, we sympathize with their plight, as their dire living conditions drive them to seek solutions to their livelihood. Therefore, we do not currently raise the slogan of entirely overthrowing bandits but only advocate overthrowing imperialism and warlords, which addresses the root cause of all banditry. However, if a particular group or individual bandit is exploited by the oppressive class to suppress peasants, we must oppose them specifically.

XI. Peasant Movements Related to Military and Political Affairs

In the peasant movement of this province, special attention should be paid to areas related to military and political affairs, such as southern Hunan.
Focus on the key transportation routes between Hunan and Guangdong, and Hunan and Guangxi. In eastern and western Hunan, emphasize railway connections, convenient water transport, proximity to the provincial capital, as well as the province’s automobile roads and industrial institutions. Attention must also be given to areas where labor movements exist, and the peasant movement must closely coordinate with them.

12. Alliance of Workers and Peasants

The industrial workers of this province (such as those at Shuikoushan, Xikuangshan, the First Yarn Factory, Anyuan—"this movement is placed under provincial department management by the central authorities"—and the Zhuzhou-Pingxiang and Guangdong-Hankou railways, etc.), our peasant movement must closely coordinate with them and establish a very tight relationship. Among all peasant masses, we must especially propagate that workers and peasants can and must unite effectively, for only then will the revolutionary force be great.

13. The Peasant Movement and the Development of Our Party’s Organization

Our Party serves as the center for guiding the peasant movement. If we do not strive to develop our Party’s organization within the peasant movement, the result will be twofold: on the one hand, due to the lack of leadership from many Party comrades, the peasant associations’ organization will not be strong, the development of the peasant movement will not be rapid, and it may even invite some avoidable or undue oppression. On the other hand, because there are no Party members outside the peasant associations to provide support, the peasant associations will become isolated in their actions. Therefore, in the peasant movement, we should work according to the following provisions:

(1) Strive to develop our Party’s organization and increase the number of Party members in rural areas. We must establish at least one sub-branch in every location where the lowest-level peasant association exists.

(2) We should recruit farm laborers, tenant farmers, owner-peasants, primary school teachers, and other relatively knowledgeable intellectuals—such as handicraft workers, merchants, personnel of local defense bureaus, militia members, upright gentry of local defense groups, and landlords sympathetic to the National Revolution—into our Party.

14. The Problem of Disrupting the Peasant Movement Under the Guise of Peasant Associations

We have discovered that some individuals, under the guise of peasant associations, engage in activities to deceive peasants and undermine the peasant associations. Some exploit unemployed vagrants to commit misdeeds, damaging the reputation of peasant associations. Others exploit clan concepts, rallying members of their own surname under the false name of a peasant association, luring them with small immediate benefits to disrupt the unified revolutionary peasant movement. Regarding this issue, we should work according to the following provisions:

(1) Earnestly propagate the significance of our peasant movement so that the oppressed rural masses can understand the necessity of revolution and not be deceived by them. As long as propaganda is effective (the interests of peasants should be aligned, and slogans directed at various rural classes should not be overly radical), organization is tight (our strength grows daily), opponents will inevitably have concerns (petty bourgeois individuals value stability and are reluctant to relocate, prioritizing their lives and property) and will not dare to lightly oppose us.

(2) Prevent disruptive actions at all times.

(3) Cause divisions among clan leaders and win over the grassroots masses.

15. Consolidating Lower-Level Organizations

To adapt to circumstances, we have formulated the above strategies. However, these strategies are by no means right-leaning; they are measures tailored to the situation.

We believe that impoverished peasants of low economic status, in their need for revolution, will inevitably be more courageous and more loyal than other rural classes. We should recruit more of these awakened elements into our Party and into peasant associations to serve as the core of the peasant movement. Only then will our peasant movement have a foundation. There must be no hesitation whatsoever. Neglecting lower-level organizations will instead cause us to lose the focus of our work.

All the above strategies are designed to consolidate lower-level organizations. If the work loses its central significance, then the purpose of these strategies is lost.