Comments on the Report Concerning the Staffing of Shanghai’s Party, Government, and Mass Organizations (August 20, 1950)

Zhou [1]: These two proposals in the telegram [2] are worthy of attention. Please consider issuing instructions to all localities, directing provinces and major cities to follow this approach and make it a standing practice.

Furthermore, few summaries of the reorganization efforts have been submitted from various regions. Please consider dispatching telegrams to urge their prompt submission.

Mao Zedong August 20  Printed from the manuscript.  Notes  [1] Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai.

[2] Refers to the two proposals put forward in the report dated August 14, 1950, submitted by the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPC to the Central Committee and the East China Bureau concerning the staffing situation of Shanghai’s Party, government, and mass organizations. The two proposals are as follows:

(1) Handling surplus personnel. It is extremely important to proceed with caution during the reorganization; however, elderly, infirm, and disabled staff should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. As a general rule, they may be granted severance pay and discharged at an early date. For example, veteran workers in the Public Works Bureau who are sixty or seventy years old, have many years of service, and are without a home, it would be appropriate to arrange for their care in state-run nursing homes.

(2) After the dissolution of the Staffing Commission, all matters pertaining to staffing should be entrusted to a designated specialized agency to continue providing guidance, so as to consolidate the gains already achieved and ensure their sustained implementation. Otherwise, given sufficient time, each unit will revert to acting independently, engaging in unauthorized expansion and extensive recruitment, and laxity in discipline is bound to reappear—this is something that deserves close attention.