Comments on the Hunan Provincial Committee’s Opinions on Launching a Communist Education Campaign (October 30, 1958)

Comrade Qiaomu [1]: This document [2] is very good and may be published in Red Flag. Mao Zedong, 11:00 p.m. on October 30, printed from the manuscript. Two [ ]—printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript.

Plant the red flag; pull down the white flag. 3 Notes

[1] Qiaomu refers to Hu Qiaomu, who at that time served as an alternate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee.

[2] Refers to the opinions of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee dated October 20, 1958, concerning the launch of a communist education campaign. The document presents Zhu Yuansheng, secretary of the Party branch of the Huadong Agricultural Production Cooperative in Nan County, hailed as “a bright red flag of communism,” and Liu Yaoqi, production team leader of the Xingxing Agricultural Production Cooperative in Liuyang County, branded as “a white flag of bourgeois ideology,” along with their conduct during the People’s Commune movement. It argues that these two flags, representing opposing poles, fully reflect the struggle between communist and capitalist ideas in the countryside within the context of the People’s Commune movement, serving as a microcosm of the current ideological struggle over the two paths in rural areas. On one side, the socialist and communist consciousness of the broad masses of peasants has grown rapidly and become the mainstream of the movement. On the other hand, a certain segment opposes the commune’s unified distribution, contending that it violates the principle of distribution according to work, that poor communes exploit rich ones, and that such a system is unfair and irrational, failing to stimulate labor initiative; they view communism through the lens of bourgeois individualism. Meanwhile, the “post-harvest reckoning” faction has launched a vigorous counteroffensive, and some cadres also lack sufficient ideological preparation for the rapid advent of the people’s communes. Therefore, it is highly necessary to carry out, through the people’s commune movement, a great nationwide revolution in communist thought—a thorough demolition followed by new construction—in order to eradicate root and branch all bourgeois ideas of individualism and localism, as well as rightist conservatism and other “white” or “gray” banners, so that communist thought may occupy every position. Issue No. 12 of the journal Red Flag, published on November 16, 1958, carried the Hunan Provincial Committee’s opinions.

[3] This is the title drafted by Mao Zedong for the publication in Red Flag of the Hunan Provincial Committee’s opinions on launching a communist education campaign.