The Outline of the National Government’s Policy on the Peasant Movement, adopted by the Political Bureau in June, has been issued as Agricultural Circular No. 5 to all provincial committees and Party fractions in peasant associations at all levels for strict implementation.
This policy bears immensely on the future of the peasant movement and, by extension, the entire revolutionary movement.
Particularly in provinces such as Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, peasant departments must guide Party fractions in peasant associations at all levels to carry it out rigorously.
No negligence shall be tolerated!
The most crucial point outlined in this policy is the movement to establish peasant policies, yet the analysis highlights three key aspects: (1) The initiation of the agrarian revolution, such as the confiscation of land belonging to big landlords and local tyrants and evil gentry, is not excessive; it is merely a strategic measure for the current stage of the revolution, underscoring the vital importance of not confiscating the land of small landlords and revolutionary officers. (2) It points out that equal distribution of land or even property is indeed an improper policy at present. (3) It indicates that while other policies may be inherently justified, the weakness of our Party’s guidance and the lack of peasant representation among the executive committee members of peasant associations often lead to their implementation through unorganized actions.
Such unorganized actions, though unavoidable or even necessary in the early stages of revolution, will, if prolonged without timely organizational guidance to consolidate the revolutionary gains and advance into a new phase, result in grave abuses.
These unorganized actions, such as the following, must currently be corrected with absolute urgency: Practices like "eating communal meals" often harm small landlords, provoking reactions from military officers and small landlords, who then unite with relatively affluent elements in the countryside under the political influence of big landlords to oppose the revolutionary movement.
At present, peasant associations themselves must ensure that such actions do not harm small landlords and revolutionary officers.
As for the movement to overthrow local tyrants and evil gentry, it not only cannot be halted now but must be pursued with greater resolve, especially during their counteroffensive.
However, under the current political situation, every effort must be made in each struggle to collect as much evidence and proof of the crimes of these local tyrants and evil gentry as possible, refraining from primitive methods.
Such concrete evidence can then be handed over to government agencies as tools for handling the matter—this must be earnestly heeded. (2) Actions such as banning grain exports, coercively demanding donations, eradicating tobacco, and prohibiting alcohol production suffice to stagnate commerce, disrupt urban-rural communication, and provoke reactions from small and medium merchants.
They may further give the government pretexts, such as obstructing military grain transport or hindering tax collection, to suppress the peasant movement.
These must henceforth be absolutely halted.
Regarding the issue of grain hoarding, peasant associations must meticulously calculate rural needs to ensure surplus grain circulates as freely as possible or is supplied in greater quantities for military use.
Donations collected by peasant associations, except fines imposed on major gentry and local tyrants, must all have designated purposes.
For instance, the establishment of cooperatives should grant certain rights to donors, thereby achieving the dual effect of securing ample funds and uniting small merchants.
Otherwise, the arbitrary solicitation of donations by peasant associations in their localities often terrifies and angers small merchants without actually collecting the funds.
Such actions must be promptly corrected.
Those that prove uncollectible should be immediately announced as canceled.
As for peasant associations levying donations on merchants purchasing goods from outside, this is also not a viable approach—peasant associations should systematically set appropriate prices to prevent profiteering merchants from monopolizing and exploiting peasants, yet they must never excessively intimidate outside merchants, severing the ties between the rural economy and urban commerce.
The same reasoning and circumstances apply to the unnecessary prohibition of grain exports. (3) Movements opposing old ethical codes, ancestor worship, and all superstitious practices such as belief in deities that shackle the peasants, as well as reforms in gender relations, are naturally necessary to pursue.
However, these are all cultural movements that can only be advanced through propaganda, not agitation, and certainly not through coercion.
Peasant associations are not the Communist Party; they are, in essence, embryonic forms of peasant political power.
Even regarding religion, the principle of freedom of belief must be upheld, with patient explanation and propaganda conducted by the Party headquarters of both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
Temple properties may be confiscated, but the forcible destruction of idols, ancestral tablets, and the like is impermissible.
In rural areas where clan-based superstitions remain deeply entrenched, even opposition to these antiquated practices must be approached with caution.
On organizational matters, all levels of peasant associations must, wherever possible, convene representative assemblies at the earliest opportunity and carry out re-elections to the fullest extent.
On one hand, active peasant elements must be enabled to participate as much as possible in the executive committees of peasant associations at all levels.
The entire peasant association must center on impoverished peasants—tenant farmers, hired laborers, and owner-peasants who till the land—while uniting all classes of peasants who do not exploit others, as well as the petty bourgeoisie, small merchants, primary school teachers, and the like, to forge a revolutionary alliance.
This re-election movement (representative assemblies) should rally support under the banner of consolidating peasant associations and implementing new policies: on one hand, it may cite specific local instances of unorganized actions to rectify them (through appropriate resolutions); on the other hand, demands for rural self-governance movements should be fervently propagated, with petitions submitted to the government by peasant associations in each district and township.
Furthermore, propaganda must be directed at the general populace regarding the confiscation of property belonging to big landlords and counter-revolutionaries, with peasant associations at all levels clearly stating that small landlords will not be subjected to confiscation, so that the peasant masses and other classes alike may fully understand.
Finally, in this re-election movement, particular attention must be paid to exposing the ferocity of the gentry’s counteroffensive to the whole of society and devising concrete methods for resistance and suppression.
Should such representative assemblies at the district, township, county, or even provincial level prove difficult to convene due to intense armed struggles, the existing peasant association committees must undertake the aforementioned tasks.
Those with genuinely unsound organizations must be reorganized.
Peasant associations at all levels must establish close ties with the National Peasant Association.
The National Peasant Association’s already-issued Provisional Directive No. 1 and its forthcoming Directive No. 1 must be endorsed through telegrams by peasant associations at all levels, especially those in Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces.
This will, on one hand, demonstrate the resolve of peasant associations at all levels to implement the new policies, and on the other, elevate the political standing of the National Peasant Association.
Peasant departments at all levels must recognize that the peasant movement has reached an extremely critical juncture.
If we fail to rigorously implement the Party’s policies to rectify past errors, it will be exceedingly difficult to salvage the current crisis.
In other words, this would deal a fatal blow to the entire peasant movement and, consequently, inflict severe wounds upon the entire revolutionary movement.
Therefore, peasant departments at all levels must guide Party fractions in peasant associations at all levels to enforce this strictly—this is of the utmost importance!
Of the utmost importance!