Speech at the Production Mobilization Rally of the Party, Government, and Army in Yan’an[1]

(February 2, 1939)

Three paths lie before us: to starve to death? to disband? or to take matters into our own hands? No one is in favor of starving to death, and no one is in favor of disbanding. So let us take matters into our own hands!—This is our answer.

To continue the War of Resistance, it is necessary to mobilize the human and material resources of the entire nation. To mobilize human resources, the principle of civil rights must be implemented; to mobilize material resources, the principle of people’s livelihood must be implemented. Today’s production mobilization rally is precisely a rally for implementing the principle of people’s livelihood. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region has two million inhabitants, plus forty thousand staff members detached from production. To solve the problem of food and clothing for these two hundred and four thousand people, a production campaign must be carried out. In the past, these forty thousand people did not know how to engage in production, nor did they have the time to do so, and in fact it was not necessary for them to do so. In the Central Soviet Area, the various organs had grain in abundance, so it was also unnecessary for the staff to engage in production; at the same time, the environment then was extremely tense, surrounded by encirclement warfare, the work of all organs was very busy, and the troops were in combat; furthermore, there was no experience at that time, and no one knew how to carry out production. Now it is different. We are now in the new environment of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and in northern Shaanxi, a region with a backward economy shaped by history. Clearly, the economic situation is more difficult. Therefore, we must solve the problem of livelihood ourselves. Although we are still in a wartime environment, it is different from the past; although the work of the various organs is

[1] On February 2, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a production mobilization rally in Yan’an. Li Fuchun delivered a report entitled "Step Up Production, Persist in the War of Resistance." Mao Zedong, Luo Fu (Zhang Wentian), Chen Shaoyu (Wang Ming), and others attended the rally and delivered speeches. This is part of Mao Zedong’s speech.

Speech at the Production Mobilization Rally of the Party, Government, and Army in Yan’an

still very busy, in the new environment, that is, an environment of domestic peace and external war, the degree of busyness in work is somewhat different. As for experience, we now have it. Last year, the Rear Area Garrison Corps partially carried out a production campaign, and their daily lives improved. In winter, the problem of shoes and socks was solved. In the past, soldiers in some units suffered from frozen feet and hands; now this phenomenon has disappeared, which is also a result of carrying out production. Therefore, whether in the troops or in the organs, this production campaign must be launched. Everyone should grow vegetables, raise pigs, run cooperatives, and wage a great struggle on the economic front.

The production campaign must solve the problem of food and clothing for the two hundred and four thousand people in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and it also embodies a new significance of uniting workers, peasants, merchants, students, and soldiers. Uniting workers, peasants, merchants, students, and soldiers also means uniting knowledge and labor, eliminating the past phenomenon of the division between mental labor and physical labor.