MAO TSE-TUNG
(August 20, 1933)
PAY ATTENTION TO ECONOMIC WORK
(Speech delivered at economic construction conference of seventeen counties in southern Kiangsi.)
The growing intensity of the revolutionary war makes it imperative for us to
mobilize the masses in order to launch an immediate campaign on the economic
front and undertake all possible and necessary tasks of economic
construction. Why? Because all our present efforts should be directed
towards gaining victory in the revolutionary war and, first and foremost,
towards gaining complete victory in the fight to smash the enemy's fifth
"encirclement and suppression" campaign [1] they should be directed towards
securing the material conditions which will guarantee food and other
supplies for the Red Army, towards bettering the life of the people and so
stimulating their more active participation in the revolutionary war,
towards organizing the masses on the economic front and educating them so as
to provide fresh mass strength for the war, and towards consolidating the
worker-peasant alliance and the democratic dictatorship of workers and
peasants and strengthening proletarian leadership by building up the
economy. Such economic construction is essential for the attainment of all
these objectives. This must be clearly understood by everyone engaged in
revolutionary work. Some comrades have thought it impossible to spare time
for economic construction because the revolutionary war keeps people busy
enough, and they have condemned anyone arguing for it as a "Right
deviationist". In their opinion economic construction is impossible in the
midst of a revolutionary war and is possible only in the peaceful, tranquil
conditions prevailing after final victory. Comrades, such views are wrong.
Whoever holds them fails to realize that without building up the economy it
is impossible to secure the material prerequisites for the revolutionary
war, and the people will become exhausted in the course of a long war. Just
consider! The enemy is enforcing an economic blockade, unscrupulous
merchants and reactionaries are disrupting our finance and commerce, and the
trade of our Red areas with the outside is seriously hampered. Will not the
revolutionary war be seriously affected unless these difficulties are
overcome? Salt is very dear, and sometimes even unobtainable. Rice is cheap
in the autumn and winter, but it becomes terribly dear in spring and summer.
All this directly affects the life of the workers and peasants and prevents
any improvement. And does it not affect our basic line -- the alliance of
workers and peasants? If the workers and peasants become dissatisfied with
their living conditions, will it not affect the expansion of our Red Army
and the mobilization of the masses for the revolutionary war? Therefore it
is utterly wrong to think that no economic construction should be undertaken
in the midst of the revolutionary war. Those who think this way often say
that everything should be subordinated to the war effort, but they fail to
understand that to dispense with economic construction would weaken the war
effort rather than subordinate everything to it. Only by extending the work
on the economic front and building the economy of the Red areas can we
provide an adequate material basis for the revolutionary war, proceed
smoothly with our military offensives and strike effective blows at the
enemy's "encirclement and suppression" campaigns; only thus can we acquire
the resources to enlarge the Red Army and push our front outwards to points
thousands of li away, so that when the circumstances prove favourable, the
Red Army will be able to attack Nanchang and Kiukiang free from all anxiety
and, thus relieved of much of the task of provisioning itself, give its
undivided attention to fighting; and only thus can we to a certain extent
satisfy the material needs of the people so that they will join the Red Army
or undertake other revolutionary tasks with even greater enthusiasm.
Subordinating everything to the war effort means just this. Among those
engaged in revolutionary work in various places, many do not yet understand
the importance of economic construction in the revolutionary war, and there
are many local governments which give little attention to discussing the
problems of economic construction. The economic departments of the local
governments are not yet well organized, and some are still without a
director; in others some incompetent has been assigned simply to kill the
post. The formation of co-operatives is still in the initial stage, and only
in a few places has the work of regulating food supplies been started. There
has been no propaganda among the people for the work of economic
construction (though such propaganda is very important), and mass enthusiasm
for it has not been aroused. All this is due to the failure to recognize the
importance of economic construction. Through the discussions at this
conference and through the reports you will make when you return to your
posts, we must create mass enthusiasm for economic construction among all
government personnel and among all workers and peasants. The importance of
economic construction for the revolutionary war should be made clear to
everyone, so that they will do their best to promote the sale of economic
construction bonds, develop the co-operative movement, and set up public
granaries and storehouses for famine relief everywhere. Each county must
establish a sub-department for the regulation of food supplies, with branch
offices in important districts and market centres. On the one hand, within
our Red areas we should send grain from places with a surplus to those with
a deficit, so that it will not pile up in one place and become unobtainable
in another and its price will not be too low in one place and too high in
another; on the other hand, we should send our grain surplus out of the Red
areas in a planned way (i.e., not in unlimited quantities) and bring in
necessities from the White areas, thus avoiding exploitation by unscrupulous
merchants. We must all do our best to develop agriculture and handicrafts
and increase the output of farm implements and lime in order to ensure a
bigger crop next year, and we must restore the output of such local products
as wolfram, timber, camphor, paper, tobacco, linen, dried mushrooms and
peppermint oil to former levels, and market them in the White areas in
quantity.
Judged by volume, grain ranks first among the principal outgoing
commodities in our trade with the outside areas. About three million piculs
of unhusked rice are sent out yearly in exchange for necessary consumer
goods, or an average of one picul a head of the three million population; it
cannot, surely, be less than this. But who is handling this trade? It is
handled entirely by the merchants who exploit us ruthlessly in the process.
Last year they bought unhusked rice from the peasants in Wanan and Taiho
Counties at fifty cents a picul and sold it in Kanchow for four yuan, making
a sevenfold profit. Take another instance. Every year our three million
people need about nine million yuan worth of salt and six million yuan worth
of cotton cloth. Needless to say, this fifteen million yuan trade in salt
and cloth has been entirely in the hands of the merchants; we have done
nothing about it. The exploitation by the merchants is really enormous. For
instance, they go to Meihsien and buy salt at one yuan for seven catties,
and then sell it in our areas at one yuan for twelve ounces. Is this not
shocking profiteering? We can no longer ignore such a state of affairs, and
from now on we must handle this trade ourselves. Our department of trade
with outside areas must make a great effort in this connection.
How shall we use the three million yuan from economic construction bonds?
We plan to use it in the following way. One million will be allotted for the
Red Army's war expenses, and two million will be loaned as capital to the
co-operatives, the Bureau for the Regulation of Food Supplies and the Bureau
of External Trade. Of the latter amount, the greater part will be used for
expanding our external trade and the rest for expanding production. Our
objective is not only to expand production but also to sell our products at
fair prices to the White areas and then purchase salt and cloth cheaply for
distribution among our people, so as to break the enemy's blockade and check
the merchants' exploitation. We must bring about the continued growth of the
people's economy, greatly improve the livelihood of the masses and
substantially increase our public revenue, thus laying firm material
foundations for the revolutionary war and for economic construction.
This is a great task, a great class struggle. But we should ask ourselves,
can it be accomplished in the midst of fierce fighting? I think it can. We
are not talking about building a railway to Lungyen or, for the time being,
even about building a motor road to Kanchow. We are not saying that there
should ...
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