September 9, 1931 • No. 6.9 Comrades Delegates to the All-Provincial Congress of Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers of the Xianggan Soviet Province! Owing to communication difficulties, the Central Soviet Government is unable to send a representative to your congress; it can only transmit a brief directive by radio.

(1) At present, imperialism is frantically waging a war against the Soviet Union and plotting to carve up China, while the Chinese revolution is advancing—particularly in light of the Red Army’s series of unprecedented victories. Consequently, imperialist intervention has shifted from covert measures to open, direct armed suppression of the Chinese revolution.

(2) As the Kuomintang regime totters on the brink of collapse, continuing its policy of betraying China to serve as a lackey for imperialism and attempting to stave off its own demise, it has launched a frenzied new offensive against the Soviet areas and the Red Army nationwide. We have now entered a period in which revolution and counterrevolution are locked in a life-and-death struggle, and the domestic civil war has escalated into an all-out armed conflict with imperialism.

(3) The balance of class forces throughout the country has undergone a fundamental shift, increasingly favoring the development of the Soviet revolution. Under these circumstances, the Soviets must adopt a policy of active offensive: by means of revolutionary attack, we shall crush the imperialist-Kuomintang offensive; this requires mobilizing and arming the masses to the fullest extent, fully implementing the Central Committee’s mobilization order for war against Japan, and securing initial victories in Jiangxi and several neighboring provinces.

(4) Your congress should conduct all its work in pursuit of this task, formulating more concrete lines of action and mobilizing both the masses and the Red Army to fight for the overthrow of imperialist domination and Kuomintang rule. Specifically, you should plan concrete steps to extend Soviet control to the western bank of the Gan River, coordinating the operations of the Red Army with those of the Jiangxi provincial Soviet authorities to capture Ganzhou, Ji’an, and Nanchang.

(5) The congress should reach very specific decisions regarding efforts to expand the Red Army and to implement the regulations governing preferential treatment for Red Army personnel. It should also give full consideration to strengthening local armed forces, intensifying guerrilla warfare, and broadening and reinforcing leadership over all activities and struggles in the White Areas.

(6) To enhance the fighting spirit of the worker-peasant masses, it is imperative to thoroughly enforce the Soviet Ten-Point Program; to fully implement labor legislation; to conduct inspections to ascertain whether the land decree has been completely carried out; to undertake planned land reclamation and improvement; and to raise production levels.

(7) We must consolidate the system of workers’ and peasants’ representative assemblies as a genuine democratic institution, attracting the vast majority of workers and peasants to participate in state power and administration.

(8) With regard to the question of purging counter-revolutionaries, in addition to correctly implementing Instruction No. 6, we must at the same time guard against another error—the abandonment of purges. However, the treatment of various organizations that operate under the guise of harmless associations (such as smoking clubs or romantic societies) and into which worker-peasant elements have been unwittingly induced or deceived should not be equated with that of individuals who have consciously or knowingly joined the AB Group. A distinction must be drawn, and such cases should not be prosecuted as formal membership in counter-revolutionary organizations. Only in this way can we win over those members of the masses who have been misled into joining these disguised organizations, preventing counter-revolutionaries from exploiting their naivete to further their sinister designs.

(9) It is essential to rigorously correct the past practice of inciting the masses to raid and carry away rice from the White Areas. This practice has undermined confidence in the Soviet regime, intensified the resentment of the non-Soviet population, and provided opportunities for counter-revolutionaries to exploit the situation. Instead, grain should primarily be distributed locally to the working people, with a portion allocated to aid the Red Army and another portion to supply the severely food-deprived Soviet areas; at the same time, propaganda work among the non-Soviet populace must be stepped up.

(10) The Provincial Soviet has historically distinguished between two phases in its anti-rich-peasant policy—before and after the revolution—which is profoundly erroneous. Your congress must reject this theory. The lack of enthusiasm among the masses for production in the past was chiefly attributable to indiscriminate fines and arbitrary levies imposed without regard to class distinctions, rather than to exploitation by the rich peasantry.

(11) We must correctly implement economic policies to develop sources of revenue and lay the economic foundation for the revolutionary war. On the one hand, this entails promoting economic development, streamlining tax collection, organizing guerrilla units, and raising funds in the White Areas; on the other, it requires adopting a policy of strict economy in all expenditures to finance the war effort, severely punishing corruption and waste, and establishing genuine fiscal unity. In this way, the regular Red Army can gradually be relieved of the task of fundraising and concentrate exclusively on conducting the revolutionary war.

(12) To ensure the thorough implementation of all these tasks, we must institute a system of work inspections to eradicate bureaucracy, corruption, and passive inefficiency. It was a grave mistake for the Provincial Soviet not to establish a Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection Department. Governments at all levels must set up such departments in accordance with the regulations promulgated by the Provincial Soviet Congress, appointing veteran Communist Party members with a proven record of struggle and outstanding dedication to their duties, and calling upon the broad ranks of workers and peasants, as well as mass organizations, to participate in this work.

(13) Your congress must conduct a comprehensive review of the work of the Provincial Soviet and of governments at all levels, ruthlessly exposing every error in their operations. Only in this way can we ensure the faithful implementation of all resolutions and directives issued by the All-China Soviet Congress and the Central Committee, thereby fulfilling the congress’s proper mandate. Finally, I wish your congress every success.  Chairman of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic Mao Zedong Vice-Chairman Zhang Guotao (September 9)