Notes for Forwarding a Letter on Workers’ Supervision of Production (April 3, 1952) This is the opinion of a comrade from the Shanghai Labor Bureau concerning the issue of workers’ supervision of production [1]. Comrade Yang Shangkun [2] is requested to circulate it to all Central Committee members and alternate members in Beijing, to the Party Leadership Group of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, to the Central Financial and Economic Commission and the party leadership groups of its various departments, and to dispatch copies via Lu Di to the central bureaus, branch bureaus, and provincial, municipal, and regional party committees, for use as reference material in studying this question. Mao Zedong April 3 Based on the manuscript. Notes [ ] Refers to a proposal submitted by Jiang Li, a cadre of the Shanghai Municipal Labor Bureau, on March 25, 1952, for Mao Zedong’s review. The proposal pertains to workers’ supervision of production in private enterprises. Its main points are as follows: (1) Relying solely on top-down oversight by state organs and state-owned economic institutions over private capitalism is far from sufficient; it is essential to supplement this with bottom-up oversight by the working masses in private enterprises over the capitalists. Only through the close integration of these two forms of supervision can effective results be achieved. (2) The several relevant statutory documents that have already been issued contain no explicit provisions regarding workers’ rights to supervise production and business operations, which renders such supervision weak and ineffectual. This is one of the principal reasons why the bourgeoisie has been able to

steal state assets. Therefore, it is imperative to promptly and rigorously establish a system whereby trade unions and workers in private enterprises exercise oversight over production. (3) As long as workers’ supervisory powers are clearly defined within the framework of the Common Program, there will be no danger of imposing excessively restrictive or excessive limitations on capitalists. Today, trade unions and workers in private enterprises have attained a certain level of political consciousness and possess a reasonable familiarity with enterprise production and business activities. Provided they are endowed with clear authority and a more complete institutional framework, and supported by sound leadership, trade unions and workers are fully capable of fulfilling this task. (4) With regard to the specific measures for implementing a system of workers’ supervision of production in private enterprises, nine concrete suggestions are put forward, covering such matters as the nature of workers’ supervision, the scope of their powers, the organizational structure, discipline, and systems of rewards and punishments. [2] Yang Shangkun, then Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.