Critique on Two Documents Concerning the "Three-Antis" Campaign in the Countryside
(June 14, 1960)

Shanghai Bureau, Party Committees of All Provinces, Municipalities, and Autonomous Regions:

The two documents from the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee concerning the "Three-Antis" campaign[1] are hereby issued to you. The Central Committee holds that the issues raised by the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and the methods for handling these issues are correct and may serve as reference for all localities.

The Central Committee
June 14, 1960

The Complete Works of Mao Zedong
Volume 43
this issue. The key to conducting this "Three-Antis" campaign well lies in boldly mobilizing the masses. The policy is: mobilize the masses for extensive airing of views and big-character posters, with the leadership actively backing the masses, thoroughly exposing bad people and bad deeds, and handling them while exposing them. At the start of the movement, first, it must be publicly announced to the masses that this "Three-Antis" campaign is to rectify the work style of cadres, that they have the right to criticize and expose problems among cadres, and to check various accounts, and that leaders at all levels of the commune absolutely must not retaliate against the masses; second, it must be clearly explained to the masses that issues involving the masses taking minor advantages will not be investigated; third, the policy must be repeatedly explained to cadres, urging those who have committed acts of corruption and those currently engaging in private distribution and taking more than their share to confess early and return the embezzled and privately distributed goods and money. Those who do so will be dealt with leniently; otherwise, punishment will be increased. Commune cadres are not permitted to run separate mess halls; they must eat together with commune members and conscientiously run the members' mess halls well. Commune cadres at all levels must immediately participate in labor according to regulations. During the movement, special attention must be paid to examining the leadership core of the "Three-Antis," implementing the class line, and relying on poor and lower-middle peasants and hired peasant activists. In this movement, for the vast majority of cadres, the main focus is education and improvement. The leadership must properly grasp the policy, with strict ideological criticism but lenient organizational handling, liberating and protecting the majority. The scope of disciplinary action should be controlled within 3% of the total number of cadres. At the same time, a group of backbone elements who performed well during the movement should be absorbed into the leadership cores at all levels of the commune. I believe the problems exposed in the "Three-Antis" are so serious that the provincial, prefectural, and county party committees all bear responsibility. In the past two or three years, our work style has not been deep-going, relying solely on holding meetings, issuing documents, [running] newspapers and journals, and requesting figures to guide work. There has been quite a lot of bureaucratism and formalism, and this should be acknowledged. In the future, besides conducting a rectification campaign for commune cadres once a year, the most thorough method is to improve the leadership style at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels. Especially at the county level, [cadres] must go deep into the communes, production brigades, and production teams to provide concrete leadership, set examples through their own actions, and influence and educate cadres at all levels. I suggest that from now until 1962, the "Three Togethers" work style with lower-level cadres and the masses, practiced during the land reform and cooperativization periods, should be immediately restored. Apart from the provincial party committee's existing stipulation that provincial party committee comrades must ensure four months a year at the grassroots, prefectural party committee comrades should have six months at the grassroots; more than two-thirds of county party committee members, and four-fifths of county party committee standing committee members and county party committee secretaries should all have seven months at the grassroots. The main content of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee's report is: 1. Currently, the rural "Three-Antis" movement is unfolding smoothly, the situation is very good, but there are also a few areas where the movement is not deep or thorough enough and requires supplementary sessions. The provincial party committee believes that efforts must continue to be intensified now to achieve complete victory in the movement. The key is to conduct well the commune member meetings with the production team as the unit, allowing the masses to air their views deeply and thoroughly, and rectifying the work style of cadres properly. 2. Resolutely transform the work style. This is a serious issue concerning whether the people's commune system can be consolidated and improved, and whether production can develop by leaps and bounds. The central point in transforming the work style at present is to step out of offices, break free from the cycle of meetings, shed bureaucratic airs, and go to the production brigades and production teams, especially to backward areas and backward teams, to eat, live, labor, and consult together with the masses. In order to thoroughly transform the work style, it is hoped that all localities, based on the twelve-point code of conduct for rural work cadres issued by the provincial party committee, will formulate their own codes of conduct for cadres as discipline. At the same time, various necessary systems must be established and perfected to plug loopholes and enable management work to keep pace. 3. Make every effort to run the mess halls well; this should be the central task of the "Three-Antis" rectification and reform. The most important thing in running the mess halls well is for cadres to all join the mess halls and resolutely rely on the poor and lower-middle peasants. The four levels of leadership—county, commune, brigade, and team—should all dispatch relatively strong cadres to personally take charge of livelihood matters; grain should be uniformly managed by the brigade and distributed to the mess halls monthly; the land allocated for the mess hall should average about one fen per person; the mess halls must have dining halls for centralized eating. 4. Launch a surprise campaign to expand the planting of coarse grains. All land that can be cultivated must be planted, and existing arable land should be used for intercropping and relay cropping.

In 1960, Mao Zedong inspected China's first research-manufactured sounding rocket in Shanghai.

"From Silkworms to Reeling, Spinning, and Weaving, Diligently Attending to the Royal Chamber, There Is Oversight Above" Most
⑩ Master of Affairs No. 3 Training to Assist in Reciting Bitter Green Grasshopper Poison
Crab
"Shanghai Has a Future, Must Develop"
(Chinese painting)

--- Notes

[1] Refers to the opinions of Tao Zhu, First Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee of the CPC, dated May 21, 1960, on conducting the rural "Three-Antis" campaign well to thoroughly improve the work style of cadres, and the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee's report of June 4 on ensuring the complete victory of the rural "Three-Antis" campaign. Tao Zhu stated: Judging from some situations I learned about in the Shantou region this time, generally speaking, the situation in this region this year is good. However, over the past one or two years, the bad work styles of bureaucratism, formalism, and extravagance and waste have greatly proliferated among a considerable number of cadres. The acts of corruption, degeneration, extravagance and waste, violation of laws and discipline, and coercion and commandism among some cadres below the commune level have even developed to an intolerable degree. In accordance with the Central Committee's directive to first conduct the "Three-Antis" campaign well among the three-level rural cadres, the "Three-Antis" movement in our province's countryside has been fully launched. Why must the "Three-Antis" be conducted in the countryside first? I believe the fundamental reason is that after communication, the relations of production underwent great changes, yet the commune's superstructure did not adapt to these changes, and the level of consciousness and work capability of commune cadres are extremely ill-adapted. This "Three-Antis" campaign aims precisely to resolve