Comments on the Article “The Parallel Advancement of Industry and Agriculture Is an Important Law of Our Socialist Economy” (November 11, 1960) To Comrade Chen Boda [1]: This article [2] has been read and is deemed suitable. Mao Zedong, November 11, 24:00, printed from the manuscript.

Notes [1] Chen Boda was at that time the editor-in-chief of the journal Red Flag. [2] Refers to the draft editorial “The Parallel Advancement of Industry and Agriculture Is an Important Law of Our Socialist Economy,” intended for publication in the twenty-second issue of Red Flag in 1960. The editorial stated that Comrade Mao Zedong had proposed placing agriculture in the primary position among economic issues, while also emphasizing that industrial development must proceed concurrently with agricultural development. This represents a creative new generalization by Marxists on the question of socialist construction. Giving priority to the development of heavy industry and rapidly advancing agriculture are two interdependent, mutually reinforcing, and mutually promoting tasks. The policy of simultaneously advancing industrial and agricultural development accurately expresses the important law of socialist economic development—that agriculture must advance closely and in tandem with industry. In order to better implement this policy, the Party and the state have adopted a series of vigorous measures to further address two key problems in agricultural development: one concerns agricultural productivity, primarily through more rational allocation of labor across all sectors of the economy so as to ensure an adequate workforce on the front lines of agricultural production; the other concerns the socialist relations of production in the countryside, mainly by upholding and consolidating the commune’s three-level ownership system based on production teams. These steps hold the potential to change, within a relatively short period, the current situation in which agricultural development lags behind industrial development. To this end, we should actively promote the technological transformation of agriculture, although for the present mechanization can only be gradually introduced in certain localities. Therefore, securing a sufficient agricultural labor force is the paramount factor in ensuring agricultural development, and likewise the paramount factor in ensuring the development of industry and all other undertakings. Among rural areas, the most important aspect of rational labor allocation is resolving the issue of balancing agricultural and non-agricultural work. It is imperative not to arbitrarily divert labor from agricultural production. The Central Committee’s proposal to rationally allocate labor across all sectors of the economy, thereby enabling the front lines of agricultural production to maintain and be adequately staffed, is a matter of grasping the laws of the economy. In social production, the greatest form of economy lies in conserving labor; we must avoid wasting human resources. Properly addressing the issues of labor conservation and rational distribution, particularly in rural areas, is inseparable from upholding and consolidating the commune’s three-level ownership system based on production teams. This three-level ownership system is, at the present stage, the best fundamental institutional arrangement for the people’s communes; it is conducive to the development of agricultural production and must be stabilized over a long period. The twenty-second issue of Red Flag, published on November 16, 1960, carried this editorial.