To the provincial committees and Party groups within peasant associations at all levels:

The following is a notice of the strategic outline for the peasant movement, adopted at the [redacted] meeting of the Political Bureau (June 1):

It is imperative to swiftly instruct the Peasant Department to guide the Party groups within peasant associations at all levels to earnestly implement the strategic outline for the peasant movement of the National Government.

1. In the recent period, unprecedented and intense conflicts have erupted between poor peasants and landlords, with the revolutionary peasant movement developing suddenly. Consequently, the issue of fundamentally reforming the land system has also burst forth. This is a natural phenomenon of the revolution, not so-called "excess." However, the continued escalation of even more intense conflicts poses a significant danger to the overall revolutionary situation and the temporary united front. Our Party must foresee this danger and provide correct guidance to the peasant movement.

2. At present, the officers of the National Revolutionary Army remain an important core of the revolutionary forces. However, they are simultaneously of landlord-class origin, with the majority being small landlords themselves. The struggle of poor peasants to reform the land system strikes at the interests of these officers, thereby altering their political stance. Currently, there are no reliable officers, nor is there a class-conscious army. If the officers in the military were to completely abandon the revolution at this moment, it would cause a major rupture in the entire revolutionary movement, potentially leading to its collapse.

3. Party departments at all levels must swiftly implement the peasant policy of the Fifth Congress—namely, not confiscating the land and property of officers' families. This strategy is extremely necessary at present. However, this does not mean that such a strategy can entirely win over politically sympathetic landlord officers to form a permanent alliance with workers and peasants. The class relations of all private property owners are firmly established. This strategy merely delays the time of intense conflict with revolutionary officers, providing an opportunity to consolidate the organizational strength of the worker-peasant movement. By employing this strategy, we can gain sufficient time to organize the armed forces of the revolutionary worker-peasant masses, and our influence should penetrate deeply into the military. On one hand, we should gradually improve the composition of the officer corps; on the other, we should enhance the class consciousness of the army, making it difficult for counter-revolutionaries to use soldiers as tools against workers and peasants.

4. At present, special attention should be paid to the fact that although boundaries can be drawn among small landlords and even among owner-peasants and semi-owner-peasants, their economies are all built upon the private property system. Therefore, incorrect policies could indeed cause the masses of owner-peasants to fall under the political influence of the landlord class (e.g., equal distribution of land, equalization of tenancy rights, equal division of property, forced destruction of ancestral tablets, confiscation of money sent home by soldiers, etc., are all improper policies).

The slogan of equal distribution of land cannot yet be raised (as for equal division of property, it should fundamentally not be propagated). Equal distribution of land cannot occur without first nationalizing the land. Party departments at all levels should provide detailed explanations to the leaders of peasant associations about the dangers of the slogan of equal land distribution. This slogan could drive small landlords and even wealthy tenant farmers to side with the landlords.

5. The foundation of peasant associations should shift from landless peasants to the majority of tenant farmers and owner-peasants. At the same time, concrete and temporary solutions should be devised for the urgent demands of landless peasants. Fundamental policies, such as the reclamation of wasteland, should also be promptly announced. The slogan "Those without land should obtain land" should be raised, while explaining to landless peasants that the implementation of reclamation policies using state financial resources to solve the problems of landless poor peasants, as well as the realization of equal land distribution, can only be achieved after the revolution is completed. Landless poor peasants are indeed the vanguard of the revolution. At present, they should join the revolutionary armed forces and even directly enter the revolutionary army.

6. Regarding the land struggle, there must be an extremely clear political program—namely, the confiscation of large landlords. Regardless of the National Government's stance, the confiscation of large landlords' land must be carried out. The realization of this demand cannot rely solely on decrees from the National Government but also requires the peasants' own strength. However, for strategic reasons, the confiscation of large landlords' land should only be implemented after our Party has fully explained its stance toward small and medium landlords and after the establishment of rural self-governance regimes has begun. The confiscation of large landlords' land is the current task of the peasant movement and must commence execution in the near [redacted] period.

7. In recent months, during the development of the revolutionary peasant movement, many unorganized actions have emerged. These actions, such as arbitrary arrests, forcing people to wear tall hats, parading them through the streets, equal distribution of property, widespread fines, and bans on the export of grain... often harm small landlords. Such unorganized actions naturally provoke opposition from officers and small landlords, causing them to unite with relatively wealthy elements in the countryside to carry out counter-revolutionary actions. Even within peasant associations, disturbances arise, with some peasants who own private land coming into conflict with the associations themselves. In some places, "moral campaigns" such as bans on smoking and alcohol have been implemented, using coercive measures like uprooting tobacco plants. As for general "equalization"-style confiscation of property and fine-based levies, these further pit peasants against each other, incite resentment among small merchants, and lead to work stoppages and business closures. Consequently, the financial and economic blockade policies of imperialism, old and new warlords, landlords, and gentry can more easily lead the petty bourgeoisie to join in attacks on peasant associations—because the rural economy is increasingly stagnating, even affecting the general economic and commercial life within the National Government's domain. These unorganized methods of struggle all bear the character of primitive uprisings by China's poor and must be diligently avoided and replaced with correct guidance.

8. However, those unorganized actions are objectively an inevitable phenomenon of the stormy period at the onset of revolution. These phenomena reflect the decline and instability of the power and political influence of local tyrants and evil gentry. In reality, it is precisely necessary to directly establish peasant political power, transitioning from the stormy period to a phase of consolidating revolutionary victory—the era of peasant political power. The National Government's policy on rural self-governance has been implemented too slowly, and it has so far lacked the resolve to eliminate the feudal political power of local tyrants and evil gentry. Therefore, our Party should carry out the following tasks:

We must take the peasant masses as the backbone, unite all oppressed people in the countryside, thoroughly overthrow the feudal political forces of the gentry, establish rural self-governance, proceed with the confiscation of counter-revolutionaries' and large landlords' land, satisfy the immediate demands of poor peasants, and link the peasants' struggles in various localities with the National Government's overall struggle against imperialism and warlords, thereby building a deeper social foundation for the National Government. In summary, the primary task now is to establish revolutionary peasant political power through rural self-governance, led by the peasants, using all possible and appropriate methods to continue the struggle against local tyrants, evil gentry, and large landlords in the form of government.

The significance of this new strategy for the peasant movement is: emphasizing the struggle for peasant political power, which is most essential for carrying out the agrarian revolution, and neutralizing the officers of the National Revolutionary Army and small and medium landlords; it also aims to push the left-wing Kuomintang to join us in supporting the peasants' own initial agrarian revolution of confiscating large landlords' land.

This strategy does not diminish the peasant movement but rather provides it with more conscious and correct guidance from the proletariat, leading the peasants toward a struggle to further consolidate the revolutionary victory.

9. Therefore, the fundamental tasks of the current peasant movement and our Party's guiding tasks for the peasant movement are as follows:

(1) Peasant associations must not only unite landless peasants but also unite all levels of peasants who do not exploit others, in order to establish a revolutionary alliance. Moreover, small handicraft workers, small merchants, primary school teachers, and others should all be included in this alliance.

(2) In accordance with the regulations issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and the policies determined by our Party, carry out the movement for rural self-governance and organize revolutionary peasant political power.

(3) Disarm the local tyrants and evil gentry, enable the peasants to seize their weapons, organize and consolidate the armed forces of the peasants (peasant self-defense forces), whose members should be drawn from peasant association members. When
the rural self-governance regime is stabilized, the peasant self-defense forces shall become the sole governmental military force in the countryside (or may be called security forces), implementing a [redacted] conscription system to ensure that every revolutionary peasant receives armed training.

(4) Carry out preparatory work for reforming the land system, investigate the limits of large landlords, and collect necessary materials. Involve Kuomintang Party branches and their masses in the movement for land system reform. Explain and propagate this issue among the peasant masses and the general populace.

(5) Guide the struggle to improve the living conditions of poor peasants. Pay greater attention to the struggle to reduce the exploitation of tenant farmers. Carry out campaigns to reduce taxes and levies, propagate and demand the implementation of a unified progressive agricultural tax. Study methods to improve the lives of hired laborers, and implement the establishment of consumer, credit, and production cooperatives.

(6) Bring active elements among the peasants into guiding roles. Genuine peasants should not only participate more in the organs of township and district peasant associations but also join the executive committees of county and provincial peasant associations. The organs of peasant associations should increase the number of poor peasants who cultivate the land, making them the core of the associations.

10. The most dangerous symptom currently afflicting peasant associations is our Party's lack of guidance in many instances.

Party departments at all levels lack precise examination of the situation of struggles in various localities, the composition of peasant association organizations, and the composition of peasant association organs; they also lack clear observation of the tendencies of peasants from different classes; and they are unable to know in detail the number of peasant association members or the number of armed peasants. Nowhere is there accurate and organized data.

11. The internal situation of peasant associations is also not very good. Close relationships have yet to be established among associations at the provincial, county, township, and district levels. Some personnel responsible for guiding the peasant movement often habitually inflate the numbers of peasant organizations and exaggerate the facts of peasant struggles—this makes correct and practical guidance nearly impossible and hinders the determination of political policies. The guiding organs of the peasant movement lack the participation of genuine peasants and non-Party members, which is a significant shortcoming. The composition of instructors in provincial and county peasant associations often includes only intellectuals who are unfamiliar with rural conditions.

12. Therefore, our Party's organizational responsibilities for the peasant movement are: (1) It is necessary to
examine the composition of peasant association organs, and to establish training classes for non-Party members and genuine peasants, in order to encourage the active participation of ordinary peasants in the work of peasant associations, so that the Party's guidance can penetrate deeply into the rural masses. Provincial peasant associations should actively focus on implementing this matter.

(2) Involving revolutionary Kuomintang members in the work of the peasant movement is of great significance. If the Kuomintang does not participate in the peasant association movement, then not only will the Kuomintang become detached from the peasant associations, but the urban petty bourgeoisie will also follow suit and break away from the alliance with the peasant movement. Therefore, it is simultaneously necessary to develop Kuomintang organizations among the peasants, expanding and strengthening the foundation of the left-wing Kuomintang in the countryside.

(3) Efforts must be made to rectify the work of Communist Party groups. The Party groups within peasant associations and the Party organ institutions (Party committees at all levels) must achieve a close relationship. Party organ institutions at all levels should regularly pay attention to discussing the peasant movement, especially the peasant departments of provincial and county Party organs and the Party groups within peasant associations at all levels. Only in this way can correct guidance be prepared. Most importantly, efforts must be made to develop Communist Party organizations among the peasants, and the work of Party branches must be strengthened. The Party's guidance over the masses must be effectively established—striving to win over the masses who have traditionally been under the guidance of old-style secret societies (such as the Gelaohui, Qingbang, Hongbang, etc.).

Upon receiving this outline, Party departments at all levels, especially those in Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, must conduct detailed studies, swiftly formulate concrete measures to implement this new strategy, and report to the Central Committee their plans for applying this strategy to the specific conditions in their respective areas. This is of the utmost importance.

Central Standing Committee
An Zhongyuan

Central Peasant Department
Zong Rongmin