Outline for Talks with Responsible Comrades of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and Some Prefectural and Municipal Party Committees [1]
(March 1959)

Election of Commune Management Committees [2]
Partial Ownership by the Small Teams [3]
Large-Scale Cooperation

[1] On March 20, 1959, Mao Zedong convened a discussion with responsible comrades of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China and some prefectural and municipal Party committees to understand the situation of the Jiangxi Province six-level cadres conference and made an important speech. This is the outline for the talk written by Mao Zedong.

[2] Mao Zedong said in the talk: Focus mainly on production in April, and then convene commune member representative congresses in May to elect the commune management committees. It is very dangerous to elect only the current group of people in the communes to the management committees. A group of people from the management zones must be elected as committee members, one from each management zone. Major matters must be decided by the management committee and cannot be decided solely by the first secretary of the commune Party committee and the commune director. These people have been divorced from the masses for a long time, and their concept of the masses is very weak. They do have initiative, but it is the initiative to demand grain and pigs from the masses. They do not understand the psychological state of the masses; that is, they are divorced from the masses. They do not listen to the words from either end; it is especially dangerous not to listen to the words from below—five hundred million peasants! The commune Party committee must also undergo election. The cadres at the level that now serves as the basic accounting unit must be elected to the commune Party committee, and they must constitute a large part of it. Major matters decided by the commune Party committee must involve their participation in the decision.

[3] Mao Zedong said in the talk: The issue of partial ownership by the small teams is reasonable. The mess halls are there, the land is there, the draft cattle and farm tools are there—how can it work if the small teams bear no responsibility and have no initiative!