Speech at the Educational Mobilization Meeting
for Cadres at Their Posts in Yan'an
(May 20, 1939)

Comrades:

We have been preparing for this meeting for quite a long time.¹ It was meant to be
held earlier, but because of the production movement, it was postponed until today. Now, responding to the Central Committee's call concerning the study movement, the comrades in the various organs have organized study groups, and some
have already begun to study and have achieved considerable results. This is very
good. We have called today's meeting to discuss a few questions related to the
study movement.

1. The Study Movement Is Necessary

On the basis of past experience as well as of the current situation, our Party has
recently launched two movements. One is the production movement, and the other
is the study movement. Both these movements have universal and permanent significance.

As everyone knows, the purpose of the production movement is to get food to
eat and clothes to wear. Clothes to wear and food to eat are things we very much
need, so our current production movement is extremely important. The whole country needs to eat food and wear clothing, so it is important for the whole country as
well. This is likewise the case not only in the whole country but in the whole world.
Therefore, the production movement has a universal nature. It is not only we ourselves who need food to eat and clothes to wear; our sons, grandsons, and their
descendants need them too. Thus the production movement was not only needed in

Our source for this letter is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, p. 154, where it is reproduced from
the manuscript.
1. Pan Zinian (1893-1972) was a native of Yixing, Jiangsu. At this time, he was chairman of the Xinhua ribao in Chongqing.
2. We have been unable to identify Mr. Tao or his nephew.

Our source for this speech is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 176-85, where it is reproduced
from the stenographic record in the Central Archives.
1. This meeting was convened by the Cadre Education Department of the Central Committee, and was attended by more than a thousand people drawn from the administration,
schools, and mass organizations. See Zhongguo gongchandang Kang Ri zhanzheng shiqi
dashiji, 1937-1945, ed. Xiao Yiping et al. (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1988) (hereafter,
Dashiji).