Praise good people and good deeds, criticize bad people and bad deeds

In view of the fact that last year many leading comrades, county and commune cadres, did not have a great understanding of the problems of the socialist economy and did not understand the laws of economic development, and in view of the fact that there is still routinism in our work now, we should study hard. Members of the Central Committee, provincial, municipal, and prefectural committees, including county party secretaries, must read books on political economy. Three books should be compiled for county and commune cadres: one book on "good people and good deeds," collecting examples from last year's Great Leap Forward of those who dared to uphold their principles, did not bend with the wind, did their work very well, did not report falsely, did not engage in exaggeration, and sought truth from facts. One book on "bad people and bad deeds," collecting examples of those who specialized in telling lies, violated laws and discipline, or made serious mistakes in their work. The third book is to systematically compile the various directives and documents issued by the Central Committee from last year to the present. The achievements are great, the problems are many, the future is bright.

What is the domestic situation? Generally speaking, the achievements are great, the problems are many, the future is bright. The basic problems are: ① comprehensive balance; ② the mass line; ③ unified leadership; ④ attention to quality. Among these, the most important are the problems of comprehensive balance and the mass line. It is better to have less, but it must be better and more complete. There must be all kinds of things. In agriculture, there must be grain, cotton, oil, hemp, silk, tea, sugar, vegetables, tobacco, fruit, medicine, and miscellaneous crops. In industry, there must be light industry and heavy industry, and within these, there must be all kinds of things. Last year, we concentrated our efforts on small blast furnaces and abandoned everything else. This way of doing things will not work. One of the important lessons of the Great Leap Forward, and its main shortcoming, was the lack of balance. It was said that we should walk on two legs and develop things simultaneously, but in reality, there was no concurrent consideration. In the entire economy, comprehensive balance is a fundamental problem. Only with comprehensive balance can there be a mass line.

Three kinds of balance: within agriculture itself—farming, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, and fishery; among the various departments and links within industry; and between industry and agriculture. Only by doing these three kinds of balance work well can the proportional relationships of the entire national economy be handled correctly. Place agriculture in the primary position.

In the past, the order for arranging the economic plan was heavy industry, light industry, agriculture. In the future, I am afraid this must be reversed. Is it now agriculture, light industry, heavy industry? That is to say, we must emphasize doing a good job in agriculture, and change the order of heavy, light, agriculture, commerce, and transport to agriculture, light, heavy, transport, and commerce. To put it this way is still to prioritize the development of the means of production and does not violate Marxism. It now seems that Comrade Chen Yun's opinion is correct. We must first arrange well the five characters of clothing, food, housing, articles for use, and transport, so that everyone lives comfortably. Then no one will make idle talk or curse us. This is beneficial to construction, and at the same time, the state can accumulate more.

Regarding several specific policies for the countryside

The Three Fixes policy: fixed output, fixed procurement, fixed sales. The masses demand its restoration, and it seems it must be restored. It can remain unchanged for three years. If it can be fixed, how much should be fixed? For the part of increased production, can we levy four-tenths and leave six-tenths? There will be reductions in case of disaster, and private plots will not be taxed. This needs to be discussed at this meeting.

The rural primary markets must be restored.

The production teams must be made into semi-accounting units. Strengthen the unified leadership of the Central Committee, oppose semi-anarchism.

There are two kinds of enthusiasm: one is the enthusiasm of seeking truth from facts, the other is blind enthusiasm. Of the Red Army's Three Main Rules of Discipline, two can be universally applied: "Obey orders in all your actions" means unified leadership and opposition to anarchism; "Do not take a single needle or piece of thread from the masses" means not engaging in egalitarianism and indiscriminate transfers. The problem of the system: there is now some semi-anarchism. The "four powers" were delegated too much and too quickly in the past, causing chaos. We should emphasize unified leadership and centralization of power by the Central Committee. The powers that have been delegated should be appropriately taken back, and there should be appropriate control over the lower levels, opposing semi-anarchism. Being too rigid is not good, and being too flexible is also not good. It now seems that it must not be too flexible.