**Directive Transmitting the Fujian Provincial Committee’s Report on the Question of Agricultural Cooperation (September 4 and 7, 1955)**

**I**
Comrades Zhou, Boda, Liu, Zhu, Chen, Deng, Peng Zhen, and Zihui[1], please read. Shangkun[2], send by telegram. Also distribute as indicated above. If there are differing opinions, please ask Comrade Shaoqi to convene a meeting for discussion twice, and wait until I return to Beijing to deliberate before issuing.
Mao Zedong
September 4

**II**
Issue as is.
Mao Zedong
September 7
Published based on the manuscript.

**III**
Shanghai Bureau, all provincial and municipal committees, all autonomous region party committees:
The Fujian Provincial Committee’s report of August 31, 1955, on the question of agricultural cooperation[3] is hereby forwarded to you for reference. The Central Committee considers the Fujian Provincial Committee’s policy to be correct. Regarding the slogan “rely on the poor peasants (including all new middle peasants who were originally poor peasants) and solidly unite with the middle peasants,” it remains basically correct at present. However, because (1) among the new middle peasants, there have emerged well-to-do middle peasants (i.e., upper middle peasants), among whom, apart from a number with relatively high political consciousness, the rest are temporarily unwilling to join cooperatives; (2) the lower middle peasants among the old middle peasants, whose economic status was originally not well-to-do, and some of whom suffered improper infringements during the land reform, are broadly similar in economic status to the lower middle peasants among the new middle peasants, and they generally show interest in joining cooperatives. For the above two reasons, in all places where the cooperative movement has not yet reached a high tide and the well-to-do middle peasants still lack consciousness, it is appropriate to first admit into cooperatives the following three groups: (1) poor peasants; (2) lower middle peasants among the new middle peasants (in the revised text of Comrade Mao Zedong’s report[4], the middle peasants are divided only into upper middle peasants and lower middle peasants, without mentioning middle-middle peasants, so as to avoid overly fine distinctions that are hard to differentiate. The term “lower middle peasants” as now used actually includes the two parts originally referred to as lower middle peasants and middle-middle peasants among the new middle peasants); (3) lower middle peasants among the old middle peasants (and they should be admitted in multiple batches according to their level of consciousness, first admitting those with higher consciousness). As for those well-to-do middle peasants, i.e., the upper middle peasants among the new and old middle peasants, who are currently unwilling to join cooperatives, they should not be forcibly dragged in. Currently, in many places, well-to-do middle peasants are being coerced into joining cooperatives, with the aim of coveting their draft animals and farm implements (pricing them too low, extending repayment periods too long), which actually infringes upon their interests and violates the principle of “solidly uniting with the middle peasants.” This Marxist principle is one we must never violate at any time. As for those among the well-to-do middle peasants with strong capitalist thinking, in all places where cooperatives are newly established or not yet dominant, whether dragging them in, or their own attempts to worm their way into cooperatives to seize leadership positions (not out of genuine political consciousness), or their attempts to organize low-level cooperatives, as discovered in Shuangcheng County, Heilongjiang, is very detrimental to establishing the leadership position of the poor peasants and lower middle peasants (individual well-to-do middle peasants who are fair, capable, and have high political consciousness are, of course, exceptions). And all cooperatives must establish the leadership position of the poor peasants and lower middle peasants. Some say that the current formulation seems to abandon the slogan “rely on the poor peasants and solidly unite with the middle peasants.” This is incorrect. We are not abandoning this slogan, but rather making it more concrete in accordance with new circumstances, i.e., those among the new middle peasants who have already risen to become well-to-do middle peasants are no longer counted as part of the reliance target, while the lower middle peasants among the old middle peasants are counted as part of the reliance target. This is divided according to their economic status and whether they adopt a positive attitude towards the cooperative movement. That is to say, the poor peasants and the two parts of lower middle peasants, equivalent to the old poor peasants, serve as the reliance target, while the two parts of upper middle peasants, equivalent to the old middle peasants, serve as the target of solid unity. And one of the current methods to unite with them is not to force them into cooperatives and infringe upon their interests. Furthermore, regarding the question of whom to rely on in the rural areas, several points must be clarified. We should first of all rely on Party and League members. It is wrong for our leading organs above the district committee level or cadres sent to guide work in the villages not to first rely on the Party and League members in the villages, but to lump Party and League members together with the non-Party and non-League masses. Second, we should rely on the more active elements among the non-Party masses. Such people should account for about 5 percent of the rural population (for example, a township with a population of about 2,500 should have about 125 such activists). We should strive to train such a group of people, and we should not lump them together with the ordinary masses. Third, we rely on the broad masses of ordinary poor peasants and the two parts of lower middle peasants. If this question of whom to rely on and how to rely on them is not made clear, the cooperative movement will make mistakes.
Central Committee
September 7, 1955
Published based on Mao Zedong’s manuscript. Partially excerpted in *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, Volume V.

**Notes**
[1] Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai. Boda, i.e., Chen Boda, then Deputy Director of the Rural Work Department of the CPC Central Committee. Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Zhu refers to Zhu De. Chen refers to Chen Yun, then Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, then Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. Peng Zhen, then Alternate Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Zihui, i.e., Deng Zihui, then Director of the Rural Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council.
[2] Shangkun, i.e., Yang Shangkun, then Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the Central Committee.
[3] The main content of the Fujian Provincial Committee’s report discusses the following two issues raised during the discussion of Mao Zedong’s report “On the Question of Agricultural Cooperation”: (1) On the question of the imminent arrival of the socialist high tide in agriculture. Over the past two years, through implementing the General Line, the planned purchase and supply of grain, and the development and consolidation of the agricultural cooperative movement in our province, the socialist enthusiasm of the broad masses of peasants has greatly increased. According to recent surveys, in advanced areas, peasant households actively demanding to establish or join cooperatives account for about 24 percent of those not yet in cooperatives. We plan to develop 19,000 new cooperatives from this autumn until before spring plowing next year, raising the proportion of households in cooperatives to over 35 percent of the total. Therefore, the Provincial Committee has decided that after the expanded cadre meeting above the district committee secretary level concludes, each county will convene a three-level cadre meeting, followed by extensive propaganda and mobilization among the masses, so that under the Party’s leadership, the broad masses of peasants will consciously and actively take action, joining agricultural producers’ cooperatives in batches and groups. At that time, the high tide of the socialist mass movement in our province will arrive. (2) On the question of class policy. Since the propagation of the General Line, because our thinking on relying on and supporting the poor peasants was not clear, there were shortcomings in implementing the rural class policy, resulting in well-to-do and relatively well-to-do peasants holding a dominant position among the backbone elements in some cooperatives. More seriously, poor peasants did not hold a dominant position among the backbone elements in some rural Party branches. Because for the past two years we have spoken in general terms of “relying on the poor peasants (including new middle peasants), uniting with the middle peasants,” without distinguishing the not-yet-well-to-do peasants among the new and old middle peasants from the well-to-do or relatively well-to-do middle peasants, we often mistook the negative sentiments of a very small number of well-to-do or relatively well-to-do peasants for the sentiments of the broad peasant masses, while seeing little or none of the positive sentiments of the vast numbers of poor or very un-well-to-do peasants. If this issue is not made concrete and clear, errors will continue to occur in the future. Our understanding is: the Party’s class line in the rural areas remains as stipulated by the Central Committee: “rely on the poor peasants (including new middle peasants), unite with the middle peasants...” However, in concrete implementation, the reliance targets should be clearly defined as: poor peasants, lower middle peasants and middle-middle peasants among the new middle peasants, and lower middle peasants among the old middle peasants. The unity targets should be: upper middle peasants among the new middle peasants, middle-middle peasants among the old middle peasants, and well-to-do middle peasants. Based on this understanding and the current situation of rural Party members, in the construction of rural Party branches, we clearly propose: (1) At present, the main targets for Party member recruitment are poor peasants, lower middle peasants and middle-middle peasants among the new middle peasants, lower middle peasants among the old middle peasants, and rural working people (handicraft workers, etc.); well-to-do peasants are temporarily not to be admitted. (2) The leadership core of the branch must ensure poor peasants hold a dominant position, and actively cultivate and absorb elements from other poor peasants into the leadership backbone. (3) For Party members who are well-to-do or relatively well-to-do peasants, class education on “not forgetting one’s roots” should be strengthened. The targets for cooperative development in the next two to three years are also mainly the current poor peasants, lower middle peasants and middle-middle peasants among the new middle peasants, and lower middle peasants among the old middle peasants. First organize the active elements among these groups, and cultivate and promote them to the main leadership positions in the cooperatives.
[4] Refers to Mao Zedong’s report “On the Question of Agricultural Cooperation,” delivered at the Conference of Provincial, Municipal, and Autonomous Region Party Committee Secretaries on July 31, 1955. See pages — 2 of this volume.

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**Central Committee Notice on Convening the Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee (September 5 and 7, 1955)**

**I**
Comrades Zhou and Boda[1], after reading, please send immediately to Comrade Deng Xiaoping[2]: Please have Comrade Xiaoping consult with Comrade Shaoqi, deliberate and revise this document, distribute it to all members of the Political Bureau, immediately convene a Political Bureau meeting to discuss and approve it, and send it by telegram. It is essential that all provinces, municipalities, and prefectures receive it before September 11.
Mao Zedong
September 5
Published based on the manuscript.

**II**
Shanghai Bureau, all provincial and municipal committees, all autonomous region party committees, all prefectural committees:
(1) The Political Bureau of the Central Committee has decided to convene the Sixth Plenary Session (Enlarged) of the Seventh Central Committee. The agenda has two items: (A) Discuss and adopt the resolution on agricultural cooperation; (B) Discuss and adopt the resolution on convening the Eighth National Congress of the Party and the work of electing delegates.
(2) The Sixth Plenary Session is an enlarged meeting. It has been decided that Comrade Ke Qingshi, Secretary of the Shanghai Bureau; Comrade Liu Ren, Second Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee; Comrade Huang Huoqing, Secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee; Comrade Chen Pixian, Second Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee; the secretaries of all provincial committees, autonomous region party committees, major municipal committees (Shenyang, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Xi’an), and all district party committees and prefectural committees (if the first secretary cannot attend due to illness or other matters, the second secretary or a deputy secretary shall attend); the directors of the rural work departments of all provincial and autonomous region party committees; and responsible comrades from central ministries and commissions and central state organs who should attend, shall participate in this Central Committee meeting. The participating comrades shall attend the meeting as non-voting delegates, with the right to speak but not to vote. The total number of voting and non-voting delegates will be over 300.
(3) At the meeting, Comrade Chen Boda will report on the significance and content of the resolution on the question of agricultural cooperation, and Comrade Deng Xiaoping will report on the significance and content of the resolution on the question of the Eighth Party Congress.
(4) Meeting dates: October 3 to 7, a total of five days.
(5) All attending members and alternate members of the Central Committee, non-voting delegates who are secretaries or deputy secretaries of the Shanghai Bureau, provincial, municipal, autonomous region, district, and prefectural committees, and directors of rural work departments of provincial and autonomous region committees must arrive in Beijing by September 27 and report to the General Office of the Central Committee, so as to have a few days to exchange views beforehand, read documents, and participate in observing the National Day celebrations.
(6) The speeches at this plenary session by members and alternate members of the Central Committee (including members of the Political Bureau) will be arranged separately through consultation.
(7) Secretaries of the Shanghai Bureau, provincial, municipal, autonomous region, district, and prefectural committees are requested to begin preparing their speeches immediately. All must be written into speech drafts. These speech drafts: for secretaries of the Shanghai Bureau, provincial committees, municipalities directly under the central government, and autonomous region party committees, may be around 4,000 characters; provinces with rich experience in cooperation and large provinces may have around 5,000 characters; small provinces may need only around 3,000 characters. Speech drafts for secretaries of major municipal committees, district party committees, and prefectural committees may be around 3,000 characters; prefectures with rich experience in cooperation may have around 4,000 characters; those with insufficient experience may have only around 1,000 to 2,000 characters. The content of the speeches should mainly address cooperation, which should account for about seven to eight-tenths of the character count. They may incidentally touch upon opinions on work such as the “Three Fixes” for grain, social suppression of counterrevolutionaries, and Party building and rectification. Together with the issue of convening the Eighth Congress, these should account for about two to three-tenths of the character count in total. The content of the speeches should, as far as possible, possess relatively profound ideological content, substantiated and proven with concrete experience and planned figures. Because the session lasts only five days, it is impossible for everyone to read their speech drafts aloud. It is planned that some representative regions will read their speech drafts aloud, while the speech drafts from other regions will be distributed for everyone to read. Therefore, although not all local comrades may be able to speak, everyone must prepare a written speech draft. Depending on their content, these speech drafts are planned to be slightly revised (including removing certain parts beyond the cooperation issue) into article form and published in newspapers, so as to exchange experience and promote the cooperative movement.
Central Committee
September 7, 1955
Published based on the telegram draft preserved in the Central Archives. (Includes Mao Zedong’s manuscript)

**Notes**
[1] Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai. Boda, i.e., Chen Boda, then Deputy Director of the Rural Work Department of the CPC Central Committee.
[2] Deng Xiaoping, then Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee.