1. The cooperative introduced here is the so-called "Paupers' Co-op" led by Wang Guofan.
Diligent and frugal management should be the policy of all agricultural producers' cooperatives throughout the country—indeed, it should be the policy of all economic undertakings.
Run factories diligently and frugally, run shops diligently and frugally, run all state enterprises and cooperative enterprises diligently and frugally, run all other undertakings diligently and frugally—the principle of diligence and frugality should be applied in everything.
This is the principle of economy, and economy is one of the basic principles of socialist economics.
China is a big country, but it is still very poor now. To make China prosperous will take several decades.
Even after several decades, the principle of diligence and frugality will still need to be observed, but it is especially necessary to advocate diligence and frugality, and particularly to pay attention to economy, during these coming decades, during the period of the current five-year plans.
At present, many cooperatives have a bad tendency to neglect economy, and this should be corrected quickly.
In every province and every county, examples of cooperatives run with diligence and frugality can be found; these examples should be publicized so that everyone can follow them.
Those cooperatives that are diligent and frugal, that have the highest output, and that are well run in all respects should be rewarded, while those that are wasteful, have very low output, and are poorly run in all respects should be criticized.
(Note to the article "Running a Co-op Diligently and Frugally" [2])

2. This is a very interesting story.
A new thing like socialism can only come into being through a serious struggle against old things.
For a certain period, some people in society are so stubbornly determined to keep to their old path.
In another period, these same people can change their attitude and express approval of the new thing.
The majority of the well-to-do middle peasants were still opposed to co-operation in the first half of 1955, but in the second half, some of them changed their attitude and expressed a wish to join the cooperatives, although among them some aimed to join in order to gain leadership over the cooperatives.
Another section showed great vacillation, saying they wanted to join but still being rather unwilling at heart.
A third section stubbornly wanted to wait and see.
On this question, the Party organizations in the countryside must have the patience to wait for this stratum.
In order to establish the dominance of the poor peasants and the new lower-middle peasants in leadership, it is actually advantageous for some well-to-do middle peasants to join the cooperatives a bit later.
(Note to the article "They Resolutely Chose the Path of Co-operation" [3])

3. This material is very convincing.
The question of enabling a locality to achieve co-operation soundly is a question of the Party's policy and methods of work.
So long as our Party's policies on handling the question of co-operation are correct, and so long as the methods of work we use when mobilizing the masses to join the cooperatives are not commandist or simplistic, but rather methods of reasoning with the masses, making analyses, and fully relying on their consciousness and voluntariness, then it is by no means very difficult to accomplish co-operation and achieve increased production.
Dongchuankou Village in Xingtai County, Hebei Province, is an old liberated area. All 70 households in the village had joined mutual-aid teams before 1952. It had a strong Party branch and a leader like Wang Zhiqi who was trusted by the masses. Conditions in all respects were ripe.
Therefore, in that village, it took only a little over a month in 1952 to establish a cooperative and complete semi-socialist co-operation.
What should be done in places where conditions are not as complete as in this village? Then it is a matter of preparing the conditions, which can be done in a few months, or a year, or a little more time.
Conditions can be prepared while the work is going on.
Running some small co-ops is precisely to prepare conditions for the co-operation of the whole village, the whole township, and the whole district.
This material on Dongchuankou also emphatically explains how the Party branch carried out propaganda and education work among the masses and how it relied on the masses' consciousness and voluntariness to establish the cooperative.
Among this, there is what is called "reverse propaganda," which is a point well worth noting.
On the question of labor organization and labor management, this material describes the entire process of twists and turns, which resulted in the tremendous achievement of increasing production year by year.
The facts prove that this cooperative is sound.
All cooperatives should take whether they increase production and the degree of that increase as the main criterion for testing whether they are sound.
(Note to the article "It Took Only a Little Over a Month to Achieve Co-operation in the Whole Village" [4])

4. Political work is the lifeline of all economic work.
This is especially true during the period of fundamental change in the social and economic system.
From the very beginning, the agricultural co-operative movement has been a serious ideological and political struggle.
No cooperative can be established without going through such a struggle.
A brand-new social system must be built upon the base of the old system, and it must clear away that base.
The remnants of old ideas reflecting the old system always remain in people's minds for a long time and are unwilling to retreat easily.
After a cooperative is established, it must still go through many struggles before it can consolidate itself.
Even after consolidation, if there is any slackening of effort, it may collapse.
The Sanlousi Cooperative in Xieyu County, Shanxi Province, nearly collapsed after consolidation because of slackening effort.
Only when the Party organization there criticized its own mistakes, re-educated the members and masses against capitalism and strengthened socialist education, and restored political work, was the crisis overcome and the path of continued development embarked upon.
Opposing the spontaneous tendency of selfish capitalism and promoting the socialist spirit that takes the principle of combining collective interests with individual interests as the standard for all words and actions—this is the ideological and political guarantee for gradually transitioning the scattered small-peasant economy to a large-scale co-operative economy.
This work is arduous and must be carried out very concretely and meticulously, based on the peasants' life experience; crude attitudes and simple methods cannot be used.
It must be carried out in conjunction with economic work and cannot be done in isolation.
We have already accumulated considerable experience in this work nationwide.
Almost every piece included in this book manifests this characteristic.
(Note to the article "A Serious Lesson" [5])

5. Such technical night schools should be set up in every township—at least in the majority of townships at present—and the various levels of Youth League organizations should take charge of this matter.
The peasants' learning of techniques should be combined with the elimination of illiteracy, and the Youth League should be responsible for managing both together.
Teachers for the technical night schools can be selected locally, and the practice of teaching while learning should be encouraged.
(Note to the article "A Popular Agricultural Technical Night School" [6])

6. This article is very useful and can serve as a reference for all counties.
Every county should, in its overall plan, draw up an appropriate water conservancy plan.
Building water conservancy works is a major task for ensuring increased agricultural production. Small-scale water conservancy projects can be undertaken by every county, district, township, and cooperative. It is very necessary to formulate a plan to be implemented in stages over a number of years, ensuring that, except when encountering irresistible catastrophic floods or droughts, there will be water during droughts and drainage during waterlogging.
This is entirely achievable.
On the basis of co-operation, the masses have great strength.
The common problems of floods and droughts, which could not be solved for thousands of years, may be solved within a few years.
(Note to the article "Every Person Should Have One Mu of Irrigated Land" [7])

7. This article should arouse the serious attention of all cooperatives.
Cooperatives should set up supervisory committees responsible for inspecting the cooperative's accounts and waging a serious struggle against cadres' acts of embezzlement and theft.
Party and Youth League branches should pay serious attention to this problem.
(Note to the article "A Serious Struggle Must Be Waged Against the Illegal Acts of Embezzlement and Theft" [8])

8. This is a 13-year long-term plan that can serve as a reference for various localities.
The usefulness of such a plan lies in having a long-term goal, so that people's vision is not limited to the step immediately before them.
This kind of plan is only a general direction and must be made concrete through each five-year plan and each annual plan.
As several annual plans are implemented, the long-range plan will have to be revised again and again.
(Note to the article "The Long-Range Plan of the Huang'antuo Agriculture, Forestry, and Animal Husbandry Production Cooperative" [9])

9. This article reflects a common situation, namely, that among the peasant masses there is great potential capacity for raising agricultural funds.
In the process of agricultural co-operation, the state should give the peasants necessary assistance in terms of funds, such as the poor peasant funds and other loans already established.
However, the main and largest portion of the funds should still be raised by the peasants themselves.
And this is entirely possible.
It is wrong to underestimate the potential strength of the peasants.
(Note to the article "Cooperatives Can Solve Their Own Production Funds" [10])

10. For the purpose of building a great socialist society, mobilizing the broad masses of women to participate in production activities is of tremendous significance.
In production, equal pay for equal work between men and women must be realized.
Genuine equality between men and women can only be achieved in the course of the socialist transformation of the entire society.
(Note to the article "Women Have Stepped Onto the Labor Front" [11])

11. This material is useful and deserves widespread attention.
This material depicts the dynamics of various strata in the countryside.
The poor peasants are the most active toward co-operation.
Many middle peasants want to "wait and see"; they like to "be free and easy outside." They mainly want to see whether the cooperatives' handling of their means of production upon joining will cause them to suffer losses. They can go either way.
Many well-to-do middle peasants have strong resistance to co-operation; among them, those with the worst attitude are selling off means of production, withdrawing funds, organizing fake cooperatives, and a few are even colluding with landlords and rich peasants to do bad things.
We hope that comrades engaged in rural work everywhere will pay attention to observing and analyzing the dynamics of the various strata in their own areas so as to adopt policies suited to the situation.
This material mentions the erroneous tendency of paying attention to cooperatives while neglecting mutual-aid teams and puts forward the opinion of making overall plans and taking all factors into consideration. This is correct.
The method of "mutual-aid and co-operation networks" is good; that is, both cooperatives and mutual-aid teams must be taken into account. Cooperatives should genuinely help mutual-aid teams and individual peasant households solve their current production difficulties.
The poor peasant fund must be distributed quickly.
Poor peasants who have not yet joined the cooperatives should be told that whenever they join, they can obtain this fund.
(Note to the article "New Situation and New Problems" [12])

12. This article is very good and can be emulated everywhere.
"Lack of accountants" is one of the excuses used by those who oppose the rapid development of co-operation.
Nationwide co-operation will require millions of people to serve as accountants. Where can they be found? Actually, there are people available; large numbers of graduates from higher primary schools and junior middle schools can be mobilized to do this work.
The problem is to train them quickly and to raise their cultural and technical levels in the course of work.
Forming accounting mutual-aid networks, with the district as the unit, composed of accountants from production cooperatives, supply and marketing cooperatives, and credit cooperatives, is a good method for raising the cultural and technical levels of accountants.
The accounting network in the Third District of Zhangwu County not only helped accountants raise their cultural and technical levels but also carried out a great deal of economic and political work.
Party organizations at the county and district levels must pay attention to leading this work.
(Note to the article "Experience of an Accounting Mutual-Aid Network Formed by Accountants from Agricultural Producers' Cooperatives, Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, and Credit Cooperatives" [13])

13. This is a very well-run cooperative from which much useful experience can be drawn.
Qufu County is the hometown of Confucius. The old gentleman ran schools here for many years and taught many talented students—this is very famous.
However, he did not pay much attention to the people's economic life.
When his student Fan Chi asked him about engaging in agriculture, he not only brushed him aside but also cursed Fan Chi behind his back as a "petty man."
Now, the people of his hometown have set up socialist cooperatives.
After more than two thousand years of remaining so impoverished, the people, having run a cooperative for three years, have begun to see changes in their economic and cultural life.
This proves that today's socialism is indeed unprecedented.
Socialism is countless times better than the "Confucian classics."
Those who are interested in visiting the Confucian Temple and the Confucian Grove, I advise them to take a side trip to see this cooperative as well.
(Note to the article "An Agricultural Producers' Cooperative That Increased Production by 67 Percent in Three Years" [14])

14. This experience should be widely promoted.
Lenin said: "A communist society cannot be built in a country where illiteracy is widespread." [15]
Our country now has so many illiterates, yet socialist construction cannot wait until illiteracy is eliminated before starting. This creates a sharp contradiction.
At present, not only are there many children of school age who have no schools to attend, but there are also large numbers of adolescents and youths past school age who have no schools to attend, not to mention adults.
This serious problem must be solved in the course of agricultural co-operation, and it can only be solved in the course of agricultural co-operation.
Having organized cooperatives, the peasants, out of economic necessity, urgently demand to learn to read and write.
Having organized cooperatives, the peasants have collective strength, and the situation has completely changed; they can organize themselves to learn to read and write.
The first step, to meet the needs of recording work points, is to learn the names of people, places, tools, farm tasks, and some necessary vocabulary in their own village and township—about two to three hundred characters.
The second step is to learn further characters and vocabulary.
Two types of textbooks should be compiled for this purpose.
The first type of textbook should be compiled by comrades engaged in guiding co-operative work, helping local intellectuals, according to the needs of the cooperatives in their own localities.
Each locality should compile its own textbook; a uniform textbook cannot be used.
This type of textbook does not need to be reviewed.
The second type of textbook should also be compiled by comrades engaged in guiding co-operative work, helping local intellectuals, based on the things and vocabulary of a relatively small area (for example, a county or a prefecture), plus some provincial (municipal, regional) and national things and vocabulary, also requiring only a few hundred characters.
This type of textbook should also not be uniform across localities; it should be promptly reviewed by educational authorities at the county, prefectural, or provincial (municipal, regional) level.
After these two steps, the third step is for the educational authorities of each province (municipality, region) to compile a third type of commonly used textbook.
Thereafter, there should be textbooks for further advancement.
The central cultural and educational authorities should provide appropriate guidance for this matter.
The Youth League branch of Gaojialiugou Village in Junan County, Shandong Province, has done creative work.
Seeing this situation makes one very happy.
Teachers are available—they are the graduates of higher primary schools in the township.
Progress is fast; in two and a half months, over a hundred young people and adults learned more than two hundred characters and could keep their own work-point accounts, and some became bookkeepers for the cooperatives.
The name "work-point recording study class" is also very good.
Such study classes should be widely emulated everywhere.
Youth League organizations at all levels should lead this work, and all Party and government organs should support it.
(Note to the article "Experience of the Youth League Branch of Gaojialiugou Village, Junan County, in Starting a Work-Point Recording Study Class" [16])

15. Here is another Chen Xuemeng.
In China, such heroic figures number not just thousands but tens of thousands; it is a pity that writers have not yet sought them out, and those who go to the countryside to guide co-operative work also see much but write little.
(Note to the article "Chen Xuemeng, a Pioneer in Co-operation" [17])

16. This is a vivid example of organizing to resist natural disasters.
No working peasant, regardless of stratum, can resist natural disasters except by organizing for collective production.
The words of middle peasant Ke Xianfu and poor peasant Ke Baifa in Fanchang County, Anhui Province, speak this truth.
(Note to the article "Only Co-operation Can Resist Natural Disasters" [18])

17. This is also a problem of a universal nature.
According to the situation of these two cooperatives, under current production conditions, nearly one-third of the labor force is already surplus.
Work that was done by three people in the past can now be done by two after co-operation, demonstrating the superiority of socialism.
Where can the surplus one-third or even more of the labor force find an outlet? Mainly still in the countryside.
Socialism has not only liberated the laborers and the means of production from the old society but has also liberated the vast natural world that the old society could not utilize.
The masses of the people have boundless creative power.
They can organize themselves and march forward to all places and sectors where they can exert their strength, march forward into the depth and breadth of production, and create ever-increasing welfare undertakings for themselves.
Agricultural mechanization has not yet been touched upon here.
After mechanization, labor will be saved in even greater quantities. Will there be outlets for it? According to the experience of some mechanized farms, there will still be outlets, because the scope of production will be expanded, the sectors will be more numerous, and the work will be more refined, so there will be no fear of having strength with nowhere to use it.
(Note to the article "Surplus Labor Has Found an Outlet" [19])

18. Before co-operation, the problem of surplus labor existed in many places across the country.
After co-operation, many cooperatives have felt a shortage of labor, making it necessary to mobilize the broad masses of women who previously did not participate in field labor to join the labor front.
This is a major event that has taken many people by surprise.
In the past, people always thought that after co-operation, there would definitely be a surplus of labor.
Since there was already a surplus, what would happen if another surplus appeared? In many places, the practice of co-operation has dispelled people's worries on this score—labor is not in surplus but in shortage.
In some places, a temporary feeling of labor surplus after co-operation arises because the scale of production has not yet been expanded, diversified operations have not yet been carried out, and farming has not yet been refined.
For many places, when the scale of production is enlarged, the sectors of operation are more numerous, the scope of labor expands into the breadth and depth of nature, and the work is done more meticulously, a shortage of labor will be felt.
This situation is only just beginning now and will develop year by year in the future.
The same will be true after agricultural mechanization.
In the future, there will emerge all kinds of undertakings never before conceived by people, with crop yields several times, a dozen times, or even dozens of times higher than at present.
The development of industry, transportation, and exchange will be even more beyond what our predecessors could have imagined.
The same applies to science, culture, education, health, and other undertakings.
Chinese women are a great human resource.
This resource must be tapped, and we must strive to build a great socialist country.
To mobilize women to participate in labor, the principle of equal pay for equal work between men and women must be implemented.
The experience of Jiande County, Zhejiang Province, can be adopted by all cooperatives.
(Note to the article "Mobilizing Women to Join Production Solves the Difficulty of Labor Shortage" [20])

19. Pig raising is a major issue related to fertilizer, meat supply, and earning foreign exchange through exports. All cooperatives should include pig raising in their plans, and of course, provinces, prefectures, counties, and districts should all have their own plans.
Pig feed is easy to solve; certain green grasses, certain tree leaves, sweet potato vines and leaves, and sweet potatoes are all feed. Refined feed is not necessarily required, and especially not in large quantities.
In addition to collective raising by the cooperative, every peasant household should be encouraged to raise one to several pigs, achieving this goal over a few years.
Certain minority nationalities that prohibit pig raising and certain individual households that are unwilling to raise pigs due to religious customs are, of course, not included.
Developing the pig-raising enterprise requires a set of incentive measures. The experience of the Shanghua Cooperative in Zhejiang Province can serve as a reference for various localities.
(Note to the article "A Large Number of Hogs Are Raised Here" [21])

20. The problem discussed here has universal significance.
The middle peasants must be united; it is wrong not to unite with them.
But in the countryside, whom should the working class and the Communist Party rely on to unite with the middle peasants and carry out the socialist transformation of the entire countryside? Of course, only the poor peasants.
This was the case in the past when struggling against the landlords and carrying out land reform, and it is also the case now when struggling against the rich peasants and other capitalist elements and carrying out the socialist transformation of agriculture.
In both revolutionary periods, the middle peasants were vacillating in the initial stage.
Only when they see the general trend clearly and the revolution is about to win will the middle peasants join the revolutionary side.
The poor peasants must work on the middle peasants, unite them to their own side, and expand the revolution day by day until final victory is achieved.
The management committees of the current agricultural producers' cooperatives, like the peasant associations of the past, must attract the old lower-middle peasants and a portion of the new and old upper-middle peasants who are relatively more conscious and representative to participate, but their numbers should not be too large—about one-third is appropriate.
The number of poor peasant committee members (including the current poor peasants and the new lower-middle peasants who were originally poor peasants) should account for about two-thirds.
The main leading cadres of the cooperative, except for the old lower-middle peasants and a few new and old upper-middle peasants who are highly conscious, truly fair, and capable, should generally be filled by poor peasants (once again, including the current poor peasants and all the new lower-middle peasants who were originally poor peasants).
We should not regard the situation in Fu'an County, Fujian Province, where cooperatives led by poor peasants and those led by middle peasants show different attitudes toward the socialist cause, as an isolated phenomenon; it has universal significance.
(Note to the article "The Lesson of the Emergence of 'Middle-Peasant Co-ops' and 'Poor-Peasant Co-ops' in Fu'an County" [22])

21. This is a very good experience in consolidating a cooperative and is worth recommending.
The birth of a new social system is always accompanied by a great clamor—that is, propagating the superiority of the new system and criticizing the backwardness of the old system.
The earth-shaking undertaking of carrying out the socialist transformation of over 500 million peasants in our country cannot possibly emerge under calm and tranquil conditions. It demands that we Communists carry out patient, vivid, and easily understandable propaganda and education work among the broad masses of peasants who carry the burden of the old system on their backs.
At present, this work is being done all over the country, and many comrades in rural work who are good at propaganda have emerged.
The "four comparisons and five calculations" described in this article is a very good method for explaining to the peasants which of the two systems is good and which is bad, making it understandable at once.
This method is highly persuasive.
It does not merely mention in a simplistic way, as some comrades who are not good at propaganda do, the so-called "either take the road of the Communist Party or take the road of Chiang Kai-shek," merely trying to suppress the audience with big labels without having any moving substance in hand. Instead, it uses the local peasants' own experience to make a detailed analysis for them, which is highly persuasive.
(Note to the article "A Good Experience in Consolidating a Co-op" [23])

22. The situation in this township also proves that by developing diversified operations, surplus labor can find an outlet.
The current small cooperatives and elementary cooperatives still impose a constraint on the full utilization of labor power and various means of production.
When large cooperatives and advanced cooperatives are established, this constraint can be broken, allowing the entire productive forces and production to take a big step forward.
At that time, it will be even more necessary to develop diversified operations and many large-scale undertakings serving both urban and rural areas.
Only in this way can the entire productive forces, first of all manpower, be fully utilized.
(Note to the article "Zhudi Township Has Attracted Large Numbers of Peasants Who Also Engaged in Small-Scale Trading Into Agricultural Co-operation" [24])

23. This article is also very good.
In any socialist economic undertaking, attention must be paid to utilizing manpower and equipment as fully as possible, improving labor organization, improving management and raising labor productivity as much as possible, economizing on all possible manpower and material resources, and implementing labor emulation and economic accounting, so as to reduce costs year by year, increase personal income, and increase accumulation.
Agricultural cooperatives must also do the same.
In this regard, a great deal of work must be done.
(Note to the article "Experience of the Liziyuan Agricultural Producers' Cooperative in Zhenru District in Saving Production Costs" [25])

24. This is also a good article and can serve as a reference for various localities.
It mentions organizing middle school students and higher primary school graduates to participate in co-operative work, which deserves special attention.
All such intellectuals who can go to work in the countryside should gladly go there.
The countryside is a vast world where much can be accomplished.
(Note to the article "Experience in Planning Co-operation in a Township" [26])

25. This is a widespread and serious problem.
Party committees at all levels and comrades sent to the countryside to guide co-operative work should pay full attention to this problem.
The leading bodies of cooperatives must establish the dominance of the current poor peasants and the new lower-middle peasants in the leading bodies, with the old lower-middle peasants and the two sections of new and old upper-middle peasants as auxiliary forces. Only then can the unity of the poor and middle peasants be achieved according to the Party's policy, the cooperatives be consolidated, production be developed, and the socialist transformation of the entire countryside be correctly completed.
Without this condition, the middle peasants and poor peasants cannot unite, the cooperatives cannot be consolidated, production cannot develop, and the socialist transformation of the entire countryside cannot be realized.
Many comrades do not understand this principle.
They believe that the question of establishing the dominance of the poor peasants was necessary during the period of land reform, because at that time the poor peasants, who accounted for 50, 60, or 70 percent of the rural population, had not yet risen to become middle peasants, and the middle peasants were vacillating toward land reform. Therefore, it was indeed necessary to establish the dominance of the poor peasants at that time.
Now is the period of carrying out the socialist transformation of agriculture. Most of the former poor peasants have already risen to become new middle peasants, while the old middle peasants have more means of production. Without the participation of the old middle peasants, the problem of the cooperatives' lack of means of production cannot be solved.
Therefore, these comrades believe that now it is inappropriate to raise the slogan of relying on the poor peasants or establishing the dominance of the poor peasants, thinking that such a slogan would be detrimental to co-operation.
We consider this view to be wrong.
If the working class and the Communist Party want to use the socialist spirit and the socialist system to thoroughly transform the system of small-peasant private ownership of the means of production in the entire countryside, they can only do so relatively smoothly by relying on the broad masses of poor peasants who were formerly semi-proletarians; otherwise, it will be very difficult.
Because the semi-proletarians in the countryside are people who are relatively less attached to the system of small-peasant private ownership of the means of production and relatively more receptive to socialist transformation.
Most of them have now become new middle peasants, but compared with the old middle peasants, except for a portion of the new well-to-do middle peasants, the majority have higher political consciousness, and their past hardships are still easily recalled.
Furthermore, the lower-middle peasants among the old middle peasants, in terms of their economic status and political attitude, are relatively close to the lower-middle peasants among the new middle peasants, and are different from the upper-middle peasants among the new and old middle peasants, i.e., the well-to-do and relatively well-to-do middle peasants.
Therefore, in the process of co-operation, we must pay attention to: (1) the poor peasants who are still in a difficult position at present, (2) the lower-middle peasants among the new middle peasants, and (3) the lower-middle peasants among the old middle peasants. These three sections of people, who are relatively more receptive to socialist transformation, should first be guided, batch by batch and stage by stage, to join the cooperatives. Among them, we should select a number of individuals with relatively high consciousness and relatively strong organizational ability, train them, and form the leading core of the cooperatives. Special attention should be paid to selecting such core elements from among the current poor peasants and the new lower-middle peasants.
This is not a matter of reclassifying class status in the countryside, but a guiding principle that Party branches and comrades sent to the countryside to guide the work should pay attention to and grasp in the process of co-operation. This principle should be openly told to the peasant masses.
We are not saying that well-to-do middle peasants cannot join the cooperatives, but rather that we should wait until their socialist consciousness has been raised, they express willingness to join, and they are willing to submit to the leadership of the poor peasants (including the current poor peasants and all the new lower-middle peasants who were originally poor peasants) before admitting them. We should not force them to join when they are unwilling, just to get hold of their draft animals and farm tools.
Those who have already joined and are willing to stay can continue as before.
Those who request to withdraw should be persuaded; if they are willing to stay, they may also remain.
Cooperatives can also be organized with relatively few means of production, as has been proven by many cooperatives organized by poor peasants and lower-middle peasants.
We are also not saying that not a single well-to-do middle peasant can serve as a cadre of a cooperative.
Those individual well-to-do middle peasants who have a high degree of socialist consciousness, are fair and capable, and are admired by the majority of the cooperative members can also serve as cadres.
However, cooperatives must establish the dominance of the poor peasants (once again, including the current poor peasants and all the new lower-middle peasants who were originally poor peasants; they constitute the majority, or the great majority, of the rural population).
In terms of organizational composition, they should account for about two-thirds, while the middle peasants (including the old lower-middle peasants and the two sections of new and old upper-middle peasants) should account for only about one-third.
In terms of the guiding principles of the cooperative, the policy of mutual benefit between poor and middle peasants must be implemented, and no one's interests should be harmed.
To achieve this, the dominance of the poor peasants must also be established.
In cooperatives where the middle peasants are dominant, the poor peasants will always be pushed aside and their interests harmed.
The experience of Gaoshan Township in Changsha County, Hunan Province, fully tells us the necessity and possibility of establishing the dominance of the poor peasants and thereby solidly uniting with the middle peasants, as well as the dangers if this is not done.
The author of this article fully understands the Party's line and has taken a very correct approach: first completing the urgent task of increasing production, and then establishing the dominant leadership of the poor peasants.
As a result, the poor peasants hold their heads high, and the middle peasants are also sincerely convinced.
The author of this article also tells us a major thing, namely, regarding a cooperative in a chaotic state, is it better to dissolve it? Or to consolidate it and lead it from chaos to health? Is it possible to consolidate and strengthen such a cooperative? The author very convincingly tells us that we should not dissolve those "third-class cooperatives" but should carry out consolidation work.
Through work, third-class cooperatives can completely become first-class cooperatives.
This experience is already quite common across the country, not just in Gaoshan Township, Changsha County.
(Note to the article "How the Wutang Agricultural Producers' Cooperative in Gaoshan Township, Changsha County, Transformed from Middle-Peasant Dominance to Poor-Peasant Dominance" [27])

26. The policy of this cooperative is correct.
All cooperatives should do likewise.
In their resolutions or directives on the question of co-operation, each province should point out that all cooperatives have the responsibility to help members who are widowers, widows, orphans, or childless and lack labor power (they should be admitted to the cooperatives) and members who, although they have labor power, face great difficulties in their livelihood, to solve their difficulties.
At present, many cooperatives lack the socialist spirit of helping households in difficulty and even fundamentally exclude poor peasants. This is completely wrong.
At present, the government has already established a poor peasant fund, which can help poor peasants solve the difficulty of lacking draft animals and farm tools, but it still cannot solve the difficulty of some poor peasant households lacking labor power, nor can it completely solve the difficulty of some households lacking means of livelihood during the period of temporary shortage. This can only be solved by relying on the strength of the broad masses in the cooperatives.
(Note to the article "The Party Branch of Qingfeng Township, Xiangtan County, Helps Poor Members Solve Difficulties" [28])

27. This article is very good and can serve as a reference for various localities.
Young people are the most active and vital force in the whole of society.
They are the most eager to learn and the least conservative in their thinking, especially in the socialist era.
We hope that Party organizations everywhere, in coordination with Youth League organizations, will study how to give special play to the strength of young people, not treating them in an ordinary way and obliterating their special characteristics.
Of course, young people must learn from the elderly and adults, and should try as much as possible to carry out various beneficial activities with the consent of the elderly and adults.
The elderly and adults tend to have more conservative ideas and often suppress the progressive activities of young people, only becoming convinced after the young people have achieved results. This article describes this situation very well.
Of course, there should be no compromise with conservative ideas. Well then, let's give it a try; once results are produced, they will agree.
(Note to the article "The Youth Shock Brigade of the Ninth Agricultural Producers' Cooperative in Xinping Township, Zhongshan County" [29])

28. This is short-distance land reclamation, which can be done wherever conditions permit.
However, attention must be paid to water and soil conservation; downstream flooding must never be caused by land reclamation.
(Note to the article "Experience of the Tianmei Village Agricultural Producers' Cooperative in Taishan County in Organizing Land Reclamation and Production" [30])

29. This article is very well written and is worth recommending to every Party and Youth League county committee, district committee, and township branch. All cooperatives should do likewise.
The author of this article understands the Party's line and speaks entirely to the point.
The writing is also good—understandable at a glance, without any stereotyped