Comments on the Report Concerning Rural Labor Force Issues
(October 17, 1960)
Comrade Fu Chun111:
This document is very good. After you have read it, please forward it to Comrade Chen Boda for his review, and ask him to convene a few people to examine and study it, drafting a telegram on behalf of the Central Committee to introduce this document to all Central Bureaus, provincial, municipal, and regional Party committees, as well as to the various ministries and commissions of the CPC Central Committee and their respective Party groups (since it involves industry, commerce, transportation, education, and other sectors), so that they may deliberate upon it, vigorously implement it, and expeditiously carry out the necessary measures.
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In addition, please instruct the Secretariat to compile statistics showing how many laborers each province, municipality, and region has reallocated to frontline agricultural work, the total number involved, which areas have achieved significant results and which have made less progress. I look forward to being informed!
[ I)
Fu Chun refers to Li Fuchun, who at that time was a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Vice Premier of the State Council.
(2)
Refers to the report submitted by the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the CPC to the Central Committee and Mao Zedong on October 12, 1960, concerning rural labor force issues. The report reads as follows:
(I) During the peak farming seasons in April and May this year, the number of laborers engaged in fieldwork across the province dropped sharply to just 2.4 million, representing only 48 percent of the province’s total rural labor force; moreover,

The Complete Works of Mao Zedong
Volume 44
there were more women than men, and more elderly than able-bodied workers. Not only had the quantity diminished, but the quality had also deteriorated.
(II) The main areas where excessive labor was diverted during the busy farming season included: basic construction projects; forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, and fisheries; social welfare programs; industrial and other enterprises at both county and commune levels; and a rapid increase in the number of school-age youth who were no longer participating in production.
(III) We must resolutely free up every possible laborer from all sectors to reinforce the agricultural production front. First and foremost, it is essential to achieve unified thinking throughout the Party and among the entire population, clearly recognizing that agriculture is the foundation of the national economy and that grain production is the foundation of that foundation.
(IV) On the basis of this unified understanding, we have taken the following measures:
(1) In order to ensure sufficient labor for steel production, industrial enterprises are required to improve labor organization and production management, streamline administrative structures, reduce non-production personnel, and reinforce the production front lines; curtail infrastructure construction to prioritize production; draw a portion of labor from urban people’s communes to support heavy industry; and, for the next three to five years, absolutely no labor shall be drawn from rural areas.
(2) It is imperative to guarantee that over 80 percent of the labor force participates in fieldwork during the peak farming season.
(3) We must resolutely reduce the amount of labor absorbed by county and commune-level organizations and redirect it to field production.
(4) Major rural infrastructure projects such as water conservancy should primarily be carried out during the off-season.
(5) County- and commune-level industries are to release a certain proportion of their workforce back to agricultural production.
(6) The pace of development of secondary and higher educational institutions should be appropriately controlled. Starting this year, half of rural primary school graduates will proceed to further studies, while the other half will return to rural production.
(7) All full-time and part-time cultural and sports troupes at the county and commune levels are to be disbanded, with all members returning to participate in agricultural production.
(8) The entire province is to mobilize 300,000 urban residents to join the agricultural production front. (V) As of late September, a total of 1.1 million laborers had been redeployed to rural areas, bringing the number of people engaged in fieldwork to 3.7 million, or 74 percent of the province’s total rural labor force. (VI) To prevent various departments from again diverting labor from agriculture in the future, it is crucial to strictly adhere to the centrally prescribed labor allocation plans and to prohibit unauthorized recruitment and misuse of labor. (VII) In order to stabilize the redeployed rural labor force, as well as rural youth and middle-aged workers, on the agricultural production front, the most important task is to run the people’s communes more effectively, specifically by:
(1) Upholding the three-tier ownership system of the people’s communes, with teams (management zones) as the basic units.
(2) Firmly implementing the Party’s distribution policies.
(3) Strengthening the operational management of the people’s communes, particularly labor management.
[3]
Chen Boda was, at the time, an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Deputy Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Department of Rural Work, and Mao Zedong’s secretary.
[4]
On October 27, 1960, the CPC Central Committee issued an instruction forwarding the Shanxi Provincial Committee’s report on rural labor force issues, stating: “The issue of the rural labor force is currently one of the major obstacles to developing agricultural production and a critical factor affecting the sustained leap-forward development of the entire national economy. It must receive the serious attention of all Party comrades.”
“Human beings need to eat every day. Whether it be agriculture, industry, transportation, education, or infrastructure construction—no undertaking can do without grain. Every Communist Party member should never forget this simple yet incontrovertible truth.” “The Central Committee calls upon Party committees at all levels and the leading bodies of various departments to carefully study the Shanxi report, draw on Shanxi’s experience, conduct comprehensive investigations from all angles, and strictly abide by all previous directives issued by the Central Committee regarding labor conservation. Based on your specific local conditions, you should take all effective measures to free up every available laborer, strengthen the agricultural production front, and swiftly reverse the current severe shortage of labor in agriculture.”