Instruction on Revising the Documents Concerning Trade Union Work[1]

(April 26, 1953)

Comrade Rao Shushi:[2]

I agree with the revisions made by Comrade Hu Qiaomu.[3] Please further review them together with the leading comrades of the trade unions. I share the same feeling regarding the shortcomings Qiaomu pointed out in his letter.[4] There is still some time before the conference convenes; whether supplements can be made is also for you to consider and decide. I have a slight cold today and may not attend the meeting tomorrow.

Mao Zedong
April 26

[1] This instruction was written on Hu Qiaomu’s letter to Mao Zedong concerning the revision of four documents on trade union work.

[2] Rao Shushi was then Director of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

[3] Hu Qiaomu was then Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong’s secretary.

[4] In his letter, Hu Qiaomu pointed out that a major shortcoming of the report on trade union work was that it said too little about specific problems in current work, offering only general programmatic explanations. Good experiences that should be promoted, erroneous tendencies that need criticism, and controversies that must be clarified were either described in overly simplistic and abstract terms or not mentioned at all, thus diminishing the report’s due impact.