CARRY OUT THE LAND INVESTIGATION MOVEMENT

Announcement No. 27 of the Provisional Central Government of the Soviet Republic of China

1 September 1933

[Text] In order to eliminate the remnant feudal forces, the Central Government promulgated the Land Investigation Directive and called a mass meeting in June, appealing to the masses to rise up and finally launch the land investigation movement in all rural areas. In the past several years, great achievements have been made. Nevertheless, many areas have not launched the movement. In some areas, people either protect the landlords and rich peasants, encroach upon the middle peasants, fail to hold mass meetings or make propaganda, confiscate without the approval of the masses, fail to distribute the confiscated articles to the masses, or fail to be firm in suppressing the counterrevolution. These are prevalent errors. In order to eliminate the feudal remnants promptly and enable the middle and poor peasants and the worker masses to receive all the benefits of the land revolution, the Central Government now makes this announcement to the governments of all areas and the broad worker-peasant masses, asking all of them to rise up and support the order of the Central Government and, under the following methods, pursue a firm class struggle and strive for the complete success of the land investigation movement.

(1) The governments and land investigation committees of all areas must closely tackle the leadership of the land investigation and activate the labor unions, poor peasants' leagues and all mass organizations to soundly prosecute the land investigation movement. They must first make extensive propaganda to the masses, so that everyone understands the significance of the movement and personally takes part in the land and class investigations.

(2) Land investigation is not land division. And class investigation is not an investigation of the middle peasants, poor peasants and farm laborers. Therefore, it must not be carried out household by household, farm by farm, or by staking, but by activating all the revolutionary masses and concentrating on investigating the landlords and rich peasants.

(3) Because the poor peasants' league is the central force of the land investigation movement, it must be vigorously developed. Any and every poor peasant may join the league without requirement of sponsorship. All rural workers should join it so that they will lead the land investigation struggle. The middle peasants may attend the meetings of the poor peasants' league as observers.

(4) The interests of the middle peasants absolutely must not be encroached upon. The middle peasants must not be mistaken for rich peasants. In regard to some well-to-do middle peasant elements, although they might have been guilty of some slight exploitation in the past, they must not be regarded as rich peasants. All the middle peasant masses must rally around the poor peasants and together attack the landlords and rich peasants.

(5) The rich peasants rely on their own labor and exploitation for their livelihood. Therefore, they can only be allocated inferior land, and they must not be regarded as middle peasants. Nor must they be regarded as landlords. Confiscation of all their assets is wrong.

(6) The landlords perform either no, or only incidental, labor. They belong to the feudal exploiting class, and all their land and assets must be confiscated. The able-bodied among them must be organized into a labor team, given training and made to partake in state or local labor work.

(7) After confiscation, the assets of the landlord class, except cash, must be promptly distributed to the impoverished masses of the particular village. Besides, reserving for public enterprise field, the confiscated land must be promptly divided among the masses.

(8) In regard to the landlord and rich peasant elements and those guilty of corruption and decadence, negative slowdown, commandism and coercion and sheltering the landlord and rich peasants who have infiltrated the soviet, the worker-peasant masses must, under the leadership of the worker-peasant procurators' department, struggle against them, rectifying those committing minor mistakes and punishing those guilty of grave errors, in order to consolidate the soviet political power.

(9) All those participating in counterrevolutionary activities must receive severe suppression and those guilty of major crimes must be executed by shooting. The worker-peasant masses must successfully coordinate with the security bureau and judicial department of the soviet and thoroughly eliminate the counterrevolution.

(10) The work of the land investigation movement should be concretely coordinated with the expansion of the Red Army, reinforcement of the Red Guard and Young Pioneers, sale of economic construction bonds, development of the cooperative, promotion of agriculture and industry, development of import and export trade, total enforcement of the labor law, development of the Lenin School and literacy movement, repair of bridges and roads and launching of the soviet election movement. All the broad worker-peasant masses

must, under the leadership of the local soviet and with one mind and a unanimous effort, perform all necessary tasks, in order to smash promptly the fifth "encirclement and suppression" of the imperialist Kuomintang and strive for the victory of the revolution throughout the whole of China.

Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Republic of China

Hsiang Ying, Vice Chairman

Chang Kuo-t'ao, Vice Chairman

1 September 1933

° "Announcement No. 27 of the Provisional Central Government of the Soviet Republic of China"