Comments and Annotations by Mao Zedong on Chen Zhengren’s Report Concerning the Socialist Education Campaign at a Grass-roots Base [1] (December 12, 1964; January 15, 1965)  I. Forwarded to Comrades Shaoqi and Bo Yibo [2] for their consideration. — Mao Zedong December 12 II.
Returned to Comrade Bo Yibo: This document [3] is too long; it might well be withheld from circulation. — Mao Zedong January 15 III.
I concur with this view [4]. The bureaucratic class stands in sharp opposition to the working class and the poor and lower-middle peasants. — Note by Mao IV.
Why not devote four or five afternoons to manual labor?
That would still leave two full days and four to five mornings for other tasks. — Note by Mao [5] V. Management itself is part of the socialist education campaign.
If managers do not go down to the workshops and work teams to practice “three togethers” with the workers—living, eating, and working alongside them—and apprentice themselves to learn one or more trades, they will remain locked in a state of acute class struggle with the working class throughout their lives, ultimately to be overthrown by the working class as representatives of the bourgeoisie.
Without acquiring technical skills and remaining perpetual laymen, they cannot possibly manage effectively.
It is untenable to expect others to act with clarity while one remains muddled. — Note by Mao [6] Based on the manuscript copy.
VI.
These people [7] have already become, or are in the process of becoming, bourgeois elements who suck the blood of the workers.
How could they ever feel satisfied?
They are objects of struggle, targets of revolution.
We must never rely on them in the socialist education movement.
The only ones we can depend upon are cadres who harbor no hatred toward the workers and possess a revolutionary spirit.
Printed according to Mao Zedong’s manuscript.

Notes [1] Chen Zhengren was then Minister of the Ministry of Agricultural Machinery (which was reorganized as the Eighth Ministry of Machine-Building Industry in January 1965). [2] This section (I) consists of comments written by Mao Zedong on December 12, 1964, on a letter from Bo Yibo dated December 10 of the same year, which forwarded Chen Zhengren’s letter and report on the socialist education campaign at a grassroots level for Mao’s review.
Section (II) contains further comments by Mao, penned on January 15, 1965, on Bo Yibo’s letter.
In his letter, Bo Yibo noted that both Chen Zhengren’s letter and report were well written, substantive, and raised important issues, suggesting they be circulated to all Central Bureaus, provincial, municipal, and regional Party committees, as well as to various central ministries and leading Party groups, pending instructions.
Sections (III), (IV), and (V) comprise annotations made by Mao in response to Chen Zhengren’s letter of December 4, 1964, concerning the socialist education campaign conducted at the Luoyang Tractor Factory.
Section (VI) presents an annotation by Mao on Chen Zhengren’s report of November 25, 1964, detailing more than a month of socialist education work at the Luoyang Tractor Factory.
The four annotations by Mao, along with his January 15, 1965, comment and an abstract of Chen Zhengren’s letter to Bo Yibo, were distributed by the Confidential Office of the Central Committee to members of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat. [3] Shaoqi refers to Liu Shaoqi.
Bo Yibo was then an alternate member of the CPC Central Political Bureau, Vice Premier of the State Council, and Director of the State Economic Commission. [4] Refers to Chen Zhengren’s report of November 25, 1964, addressed to the Henan Provincial Party Committee, the State Economic Commission, the Central Political Department for Industry and Transportation, the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Agricultural Machinery, and submitted to the Central Committee and the Central-South Bureau, detailing the work carried out over more than a month by the Ministry of Agricultural Machinery’s socialist education task force stationed at the No. 1 Luoyang Tractor Factory.
The report comprises nearly 16,000 characters and focuses on four main issues: (1) the circumstances and problems currently emerging within the pilot unit; (2) the tasks that the pilot unit (and indeed the entire factory) should undertake in the course of the socialist education campaign; (3) our guiding principles, methods, and preliminary experiences in directing the campaign; and (4) plans for the future phase of the campaign. [5] Refers to the following passage in Chen Zhengren’s letter to Bo Yibo: “Of particular significance is the fact that after the victory of the revolution and the establishment of the new regime, certain veteran cadres tend to lose touch with the masses’ oversight.
Once they assume leadership positions, they often abuse their official authority to violate Party policies, eventually acting with complete impunity.
As leaders ourselves, we suffer from serious bureaucratism and frequently fail to detect these grave abuses in a timely manner.
This constitutes a very grave danger following the seizure of power.
In the past, we have repeatedly examined bureaucratic tendencies within our ranks, but it was only through this relatively thorough period of immersion at the grassroots level that I gradually came to fully appreciate the extent of the harm caused by bureaucratism.
I now realize that the process of building a solid socialist enterprise can only proceed through the unwavering implementation of continuous proletarian revolution—that is, through the ongoing proletarianization of both the Party organization and the working class within the enterprise.
Such a process is inevitably a prolonged and arduous struggle.
Overcoming bureaucratic practices among the management of our enterprises, therefore, serves as a prerequisite for advancing this broader revolutionary endeavor.” [6] This annotation follows the passage: “This time here, the ‘three togethers’ have been practiced more conscientiously.
We eat together, lining up with the factory workers in the canteen to obtain our meals.
We engage in manual labor, assigned to a fixed post in the Fourth Assembly Team of the Final Assembly Department, working two afternoons each week and intending to take the team leader as a master to learn how to assemble and repair tractors.” [7] This annotation appears after the following sentence in Chen Zhengren’s letter: “For the present, my primary focus remains on the socialist education campaign.
Issues pertaining to enterprise management will be addressed at a later stage.
Accordingly, the report submitted here deals solely with matters related to the campaign, and this letter likewise confines itself to my initial impressions upon arriving at the factory.
Should any new developments or problems arise, I shall write again to inform you. (Only by thoroughly carrying out the socialist education campaign can effective management be achieved.
This approach is correct.—Note by Bo Yibo.)” [8] When publishing this annotation, Bo Yibo added a footnote after the phrase “these people,” defining them as “those enterprise leaders who resolutely pursue the capitalist road.” [9] This annotation follows the passage in Chen Zhengren’s report on the socialist education campaign: “Judging from the seven major serious problems uncovered in the Chassis Workshop, the task of waging the ‘Five-Anti’ Campaign throughout this unit—and indeed the entire factory—is extremely arduous, and the struggle itself is exceedingly complex.
It involves resolving both acute contradictions within the ranks of the people and those between us and the enemy.
Essentially, both types of contradiction are class conflicts between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, reflecting the fundamental divergence between the socialist and capitalist paths.
The only way to resolve these contradictions once and for all is to resolutely implement the directives of the Party Central Committee, Chairman Mao, and Chairman Liu, boldly mobilizing the masses and launching a comprehensive, systematic, and thorough mass-based socialist revolution.
Any attempt to resort to reformist or conventional measures will undoubtedly prove futile; under such conditions, it is utterly impossible to transform our enterprise into a solid socialist one.
However, a lack of adequate understanding regarding this fundamental issue of socialist enterprise construction, an underestimation of the enemy situation, insufficient awareness of the serious problems existing within the enterprise, and especially a failure to recognize the necessity of the current socialist revolution—such right-leaning thinking is quite prevalent among a considerable proportion of cadres in this factory and in the agricultural machinery industry, particularly among many leading officials in various enterprises.”
The seven major problems mentioned in this passage are: 1) the existence of a corruption and theft ring directly linked to workshop leadership; 2) astonishingly wasteful use of state resources; 3) severe violations of workers’ political and economic democratic rights; 4) the promotion of unscrupulous individuals and toleration of harmful elements, constituting a grave breach of the Party’s class line; 5) deeply entrenched bourgeois ideology and lifestyle; 6) the pervasive influence of dogmatism and revisionism in enterprise management; and 7) the long-term presence and active operations of hidden enemies.