Regarding the Promotion of the Experience of Jinzhou No. 401 Factory in Solving the Problem of Workers Making Trouble over Grain Rations
(January 10, 1961)

It is worth promoting, but attention must be paid to resolving some problems that actually exist. The following
1. The low ration quotas for workers' family dependents still have a great impact on the workers, therefore special attention must be paid to strengthening work among the dependents.
2.
Some cadres newly promoted from among the workers,
because of changes in job types, have experienced excessively large drops in their grain consumption standards, and should be given consideration. 3. Insufficient consideration has been given to a small number of senior intellectuals.
4. There are still more than 20 patients with edema throughout the factory.

Document 111, to be distributed to all comrades [2] for study.
Mao Zedong
January 10
[!] Refers to Zhou Yang's letter to Mao Zedong dated January 9, 1961, and the report on the experience of Jinzhou No. 401 Factory in solving the problem of workers making trouble over grain rations, which he submitted with the letter; "Several Situations in Current School Work Worthy of Attention" published in the "Situation Briefs" compiled and printed by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on January 3; and "Some Good Methods for Public Security Work Starting from Concern for the People's Livelihood and Patient Education" published in the second issue of "Propaganda and Education Trends" compiled and printed by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee on January 9, 1961.
[2]

--- Notes

[I] This is a comment written on the report dated January 9, 1961, by Huang Huoqing, First Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and Zhou Yang, Vice Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee, regarding the experience of Jinzhou No. 401 Factory in solving the problem of workers making trouble over grain rations. Mao Zedong drafted a title for the comment and the report: "Is the Jinzhou Experience Worth Promoting?" The report by Huang Huoqing and Zhou Yang stated that from May to July last year, the problem of workers making trouble over grain rations occurred at Jinzhou No. 401 Factory. The main reason for the trouble over grain was psychological tension among the people. There were three reasons for this psychological tension: (1) The supply of non-staple foods and vegetables in the city was tight; (2) The family dependents of the factory's workers mostly lived in nearby rural areas, where grain ration quotas were low, directly affecting the workers; (3) During this period, the factory recruited seven to eight hundred blind migrants, whose backgrounds were extremely complex. After entering the factory, they spread tension among the workers, disrupted factory order, and caused worker unrest. In response to this situation, in early August, the factory leadership, on the one hand, conducted positive education among the broad masses of workers, launched free airing of views, free debate, and organized veteran workers to speak from personal experience, recall the past and compare it with the present, and held debates in small group meetings with a few individuals who were particularly disruptive, arresting three elements engaged in political sabotage activities;
on the other hand, they strengthened canteen work, resolved problems such as corruption, waste, and unplanned grain use, implemented democratic management, ensured that workers could eat their full quota according to plan,
and moreover ate relatively well.
On the basis of the aforementioned ideological education, they subsequently carried out the work of adjusting grain rations, called on workers to conserve grain, and reduced the portions of some workers that exceeded the standard. The actual problems now are:

Refers to the comrades then attending the Central Committee Working Conference in Beijing.