Commentary on a Xinhua News Agency Dispatch Concerning Yugoslavia’s Economic Problems〔1〕 (August 2, 1962) Is Yugoslavia’s anti-Marxist course a good one? Comrades, please discuss this. Mao Zedong August 2 Printed from the manuscript. Notes〔〕 This commentary was written on a Xinhua News Agency dispatch titled “Yugoslavia Faces Numerous Economic Difficulties and a Host of Social Evils,” which appeared in the People’s Daily on July 29, 1962. The dispatch reported that on the 23rd, Yugoslav President and General Secretary of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, disclosed that the recently held plenary session of the League’s Central Committee had failed to propose any measures to extricate Yugoslavia from its economic difficulties. Some at the top harbored doubts about workers’ self-management, deeming it unworkable. Prior to this, Tito had delivered several speeches acknowledging that “various abnormal and negative phenomena” were occurring in all aspects of Yugoslavia’s economic, political, and cultural development. Wage differentials were vast, and the distribution of profits within enterprises was highly uneven. Prices of many domestic goods were steadily rising, and the market remained fragmented. The country faced a substantial foreign trade deficit and currently owed US$1 billion in foreign debt. In political life, localism and chauvinism persisted, while among young people there was a growing tendency toward materialism. The working people of Yugoslavia were deeply dissatisfied with their present situation.

The dispatch was circulated as a meeting document to the comrades then attending the CPC Central Committee Work Conference in Beidaihe.