15 January 1934 [Test] In the great fight against imperialism and for land revolution, many comrades have gloriously sacrificed themselves! The sacrifice of these comrades demonstrates the invincible courage of the proletariat and lays the foundation for the Chinese Soviet Republic. The worker-peasant toiling masses of all China are advancing by treading on the bloodstains of these comrades, to overthrow the rule of imperialism and the Kuomintang and win victory for the Soviet over all China* Mao Tse-tung, 15 January 1934. 0 "Inscriptions on Red Army Martyr Monument." * Collection of Red Bandit Reactionary Documents ,'Vol 5, 1935. 8564 CSO: 4005 152 A SOLEMN OPENING SPEECH OUTLINE OF CHAIRMAN MAO'S SPEECH (AT THE SECOND ALL-SOVIET CONGRESS) 22 January 1934 [Text] Comrades! On behalf of the Central Executive Committee I declare the Second National Soviet Congress open. (Band plays) Comrades! Today is the day the Second National Worker-Peasant-Soldier Soviet Congress opens. On behalf of the Central Executive Committee I give the whole body of delegates the revolutionary salute! Comrades! It has been 2 years and 2 months since the First National Soviet Congress. Developments in the past 2 years have completely shown and proved that the counterrevolutionary ruling classes are further shaken and collapsing, while the soviet movement and the nationwide revolutionary struggle are developing greatly. China is a country oppressed and invaded by imperialism, a country in which the Kuomintang Government of the landlord - bourgeoisie carries out slaughter, repression and enslavement. The vast territory of the country is surrendered by the Kuomintang to the imperialists, so that all China is being threatened with partition and joint rule by Imperialism and is rapidly approaching a state of doom. In such a situation China's toiling worker-peasant masses, led by the Chinese Communist Party, have united and armed themselves and created their own government and state. Our First All-Soviet Congress declared the inauguration of this state, which is our Chinese Soviet Republic. Since then there has been extremely acute opposition between two governments in all China. Developments of the revolution in the past 2 years have even more developed the revolutionary situation throughout the country. The broad worker-peasant masses, rallying around the banner of the Soviet, have been attacking our enemies, imperialism and the Kuomintang. We have won great victories in the past 2 years. In the face of our victories imperialism and the Kuomintang are trembling. Following three "encirclement and suppression" campaigns they have organized the 4th and even the 5th "encirclement and suppression" campaigns. But we have shattered the four "encirclement and 153 suppression" campaigns of the enemies, and have already won an initial victory in smashing the 5th "encirclement and suppression" campaign. At present we are in a battle of decision against the 5th "encirclement and suppression" campaign and in a most crucial moment. In the past 2 years the Red Army of the whole country has won a great victory in the bloody struggle. In this many of our comrades have shed their last drop of blood and gloriously sacrificed themselves for the Soviet. Many of those who led the revolutionary struggle in Kuomintang and White areas have been murdered by the Kuoraintang. Among these comrades were Huang Kung-lueh, Chao Po-sheng, Wei Pa-ch'un, Yun Tai-ying, Ts'ai Ho-sen, Teng Chung-hsia, Ch'en Yuan-tao, Lu I, Shen Tse-min, Wang Liang, Hu A-lin, Chang Hsi-lung, Wu Kao-ch'un, P'eng Ao and others. They gloriously sacrificed themselves under the enemy's bullets and butcher's knife on the fronts and various frontlines. I propose that we show our grief and respect for these comrades by observing a 3-minute silence. (All delegates stand up in silence for 3 minutes) The tasks of the Second National Soviet Congress are to utterly smash the enemy's 5th "encirclement and suppression" campaign, to push the soviet movement all over the country and to oppose the scheme and vicious plot of imperialism and the Kuomintang to put China into extinction. Our Congress shoulders a great responsibility. Our Congress should call upon the toiling worker-peasant masses throughout the Soviet area and all China to struggle for expansion of the Red Army into 1 million ironlike men. We should call upon the masses throughout the Soviet area and all China to arm themselves, concentrate all forces and shatter the 5th "encirclement and suppression" campaign to win the biggest, most thorough victory of the revolutionary war and victory of the revolution in all China. Our Congress is the supreme organ of state power of the whole country. It has immense strength to solve these problems. We believe it certainly can solve them and is fully confident of doing so. Our Congress will make the 5th "encirclement and suppression" campaign end in utter rout, develop the revolution in the whole country, extend the territory of the Soviet to all regions ruled by the Kuomintang, and unfurl the red flag all over the country. Let us shout: Long live the Second National Soviet Congress! Long live the soviet new China! (Overwhelming applause) 0 Red China Special Edition for Second All-Soviet Congress, No 2, 24 January 1934. 8564 CSO: 4005 154 REPORT OF THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND THE PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE OF THE CHINESE SOVIET REPUBLIC TO THE SECOND ALL-SOVIET CONGRESS 25 January 1934 [Text] (The report of the Central Executive Committee and the People's Committee was the first item of business on the agenda after the Second All-Soviet Congress opened. The report was delivered by Comrade Mao Tse-tung of the Central Executive Committee and the time of delivery was the afternoon of 24 January and the morning of 25 January, The report delineated the situation in the Chinese Revolution and world revolution, summed up very valuable experiences gained from the soviet movement since the establishment of the central government and set forth the current concrete fighting tasks. The outline of this report includes 1) The current situation and the progress of the soviet movement; 2) The attacks of imperialism and the soviet leadership of the anti-imperialist movement; 3) The struggle between the "encirclement and suppression" of the imperialist Kuoiaintang and the Soviet Government's anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign; 4) The implementation of the various basic policies of the Soviet during the past 2 years, with the contents divided into arming the people and the construction of the Red Army, on the suppression of counterrevolution, labor policy, agrarian revolution, fiscal policy, economic policy, cultural development, the marriage system and the nationalities policy—a total of nine parts; and 5) The concrete, fighting tasks of the soviet in the face of smashing the 5th "encirclement and suppression" and winning nationwide victory. The full text is as follows:) 155 1. The Current Situation and the Victory of the Soviet Movement Two full years have passed since the first All-Soviet Congress. The development of revolutionary events during these 2 years has fully revealed the further vacillation and collapse of the Kuomintang rule, and the accelerated unfolding of the soviet movement and its victory! The period we are in today is a period of further intensification of the Chinese revolutionary situation, and it is precisely also the interim of the world's entrance into the new period of war and revolution. The confrontation of the socialist world and the capitalist world has become extremely acute now. On the one hand the socialist economy of the Soviet Union has achieved final consolidation, its First Five-Year Plan was completed within 4 years, and great achievements were attained in the first year of its Second Five-Year Plan. The Soviet Union very early eliminated unemployment, and the cultural level and standards of living of its entire working people have been greatly heightened. The Soviet Union's national defense has been greatly consolidated. With the support of the people throughout the world, the peaceful policies of the Soviet Union have been successful everywhere, and even the most obdurate U.S. imperialism has been compelled to establish diplomatic relations. Por the capitalist world it was a picture of another kind, the economic crisis has reached its apex, the entire production of the capitalist world has dropped to an unprecedented low, its unemployed workers are counted by the tens of millions, the temporary stability of capitalism has ended, and the peril of capitalism in general has entered a new stage. The various imperialist countries are frantically preparing for war. The result of Japanese imperialism1s occupation of Manchuria was to bring about an unfolding of contradictions among the various countries on a new basis—especially the contradictions between Japan and the United States—and the imperialist bandit war for redistributing the world is threatening all the people. Nevertheless, imperialism is again attempting to mitigate the contradictions within its ranks for awhile and find a way out by sacrificing the Soviet Union and China. The preparations for war against the Soviet Union have never ceased. The war to divide China and attack the Chinese Revolution is now being carried out even more openly. The revolutionary movement of the oppressed people of the world and the world's proletariat, however, was born and has grown under the influence of the success of the Soviet Union's socialist construction and the threat of war and peril of the imperialists. Pierce class struggles and national revolutions are unfolding in all capitalist colonial and semi-colonial countries. The flames of global war and revolution are pressing in on us. The Chinese Revolution is part of the world revolution. But the deepening of the national peril, the collapse of the national economy, and the victory of the soviet movement have caused the further development of the Chinese Revolution and pushed it into special prominence in the world revolution. 156 The core of the current situation in China is the vast Civil War, a life-and-death struggle between revolution and counterrevolution, and the intense confrontation between the political power of the worker-peasant Soviet and the political power of the Kuomintang landlord bourgeoisie. On the one hand, the Kuomintang landlord bourgeoisie wholly capitulated to imperialism and led imperialism into occupying vast expanses of Chinese territory and monopolizing all of the primary political and economic powers. And it led the national economy into general collapse, bringing unprecedented suffering to the lives of the hard-working worker-peasant masses. It stripped all freedom from the revolutionary people, suppressed all revolutionary movements and carried out frenzied, fascist terrorism. Under the direction of imperialism, it organized all counterrevolutionary forces to launch desperate attacks against the Soviet area and the Red Army. All these have one objective. That is to merge the interests of the Chinese landlord bourgeoisie and the interests of capitalism and lead China into becoming a colony. On the other hand, the Soviet regime called upon all the people of all China for a resolute war of national revolution, organizing and leading the Red Army and the masses in a struggle to defend and expand the Soviet territories. It sought to smash the repeated "encirclement and suppression" campaigns of the imperialist Kuomintang with determined attacks, and mount a strict guard against the counterrevolutionary attempts of all exploiting elements within the Soviet territories. All land is to be given to the people and the soldiers of the Red Army. The workers are to be placed on an 8-hour work day system, wages are to be increased and aid is to be given to the unemployed. The social insurance system is to be implemented. All the people are to have complete freedom of assembly, speech, publication and strike. The broad masses of workers and peasants are to participate in the administration of their own government organizations, but no element of the exploiting class is to take part. The economic life of the people is to be organized so as to bring about a change from the former situation, under the rule of the landlord bourgeoisie, of suffering cold and hunger, to a position that is not only wholly free of hunger and cold, but is also improving with every passing day. The broad masses of people who had no possibility whatsoever to enjoy education under the rule of the landlord bourgeoisie are to gain to a position where their cultural level is heightened daily. There is only one objective—to overthrow the rule of the landlord bourgeoisie throughout the country, drive imperialism out of China, liberate several hundred million people from oppression and exploitation under the role of the imperialist Kuomintang, obstruct the path of colonization that will doom China and establish a Soviet China that is free and independent, with territorial integrity. The daily mounting intensity of the opposition between two political powers cannot but help stimulate the daily intensification of the life-and-death struggle between these two powers. The current period is the historic 157 period deciding the victory or defeat of the struggle between the two sides. Following on the heels of the fourth "encirclement and suppression" which was smashed, the counterrevolutionaries' fifth "encirclement and suppression" is now advancing against us on a massive scale. The historic task of the Soviet Government is to call upon, organize and lead all revolutionary people throughout the Soviet areas and in all China to take part in this great and decisive battle, mobilize the broad masses of workers and peasants to join the Red Army. .We must improve the political education and military techniques of the Red Army, enlarge the local armed forces and the guerrilla units, launch guerrilla warfare on a broad scale and strengthen the centralized and unified leadership of the Soviet over the Red Army in the various Soviet areas. The speed and quality of work carried out by the Soviet will improve. Fiscal and economic organizations of the Soviet are to ensure that the material needs of the revolutionary war will be met. We will launch a workers1 class struggle, organize a revolutionary activism of the worker masses and bring it to bear on the struggle to smash the enemy. The peasants' land struggle will unfold and we will organize the broad masses of peasants to struggle to seize land and protect it. We call on the toiling masses of workers and peasants in all China to sacrifice everything and exert all efforts for the war. By so doing we shall thoroughly smash the fifth "encirclement and suppression" of the imperialist Kuomintang, prevent China from becoming a colony, and win victory, first, for the Soviet, in one or several provinces, and then within the entire nation. 2. The Imperialist's Offensive and the Soviet Government's Leadership of the Anti-Imperialist Campaign In the 2 years since the Provincial Central Government was established, the most momentous event in the country was the attack of imperialism and the counterrevolutionaries' fourth and fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaigns launched against the revolution. In the bandit war of Japanese imperialism which began on 18 September 1931, the eastern provinces of Heilungkiang, Kirin and Liaoning and Jehol Province were occupied under the butchery carried out with planes and artillery. The P'ing-Tsin area fell under its control, and preparations are now underway for an even more massive and murderous war against Inner Mongolia and all of North China. The British imperialists attacked Szechwan from Tibet. The French imperialists attacked Yunnan and Kweichow provinces. U.S. imperialism wanted the Yangtze River basin and Fukien Province to be placed under its direct rule. All these imperialists extended their poisonous hands and schemes over the vast territory of China in order to enslave China, wipe out the Chinese Soviet regime, prepare for the offensive against the Soviet Union and, at the same time, prepare for World War II among the imperialist bandits. But the landlord bourgeoisie Kuomintang, under a policy of giving everything to imperialism, gave away several million square li of territory, adopted the shameful policy of non-resistance against the attacks of the imperialists. They bargained the interests of the Chinese working people for political and military assistance from imperialism so as to facilitate the concentration of Its forces to attack the Soviet and the Red Army. 158 Under such an unprecedentedly grave national crisis, the anti-imperialist movement of the revolutionary people throughout China unfolded in an extremely fierce manner. The struggle of volunteer forces, several hundred thousand strong, in the Three Eastern Provinces and the bloody battle of Shanghai fought by the soldiers of the 19th Route Army caused the anti-imperialist movement to spread throughout China and surged to unprecedented levels. At this time the revolutionary people of China were faced with actions of a contradictory nature from two political powers. The Kuomintang completely capitulated to the imperialists and suppressed, in every way possible, the people opposing imperialism. The Soviet resolutely opposed imperialism, and in every conceivable way tried to give help to and lead the anti-imperialist movement. In the past 2 years the Provisional Soviet Central Government has repeatedly cabled its opposition to Japanese imperialism's war of banditry and of the Kuomintang's capitulation and betrayal of the nation. On 14 April 1932, the Provisional Central Government officially declared war on Japan. Simultaneously, it issued the mobilization order for war agaisnt Japan, and called upon the people of all China to launch a national revolutionary war and keep the imperialists from enslaving China and oppose the Kuomintang which is betraying China. The Provisional Central Government and the Revolutionary Military Committee previously called upon all Kuomintang units attacking the Soviet and the Red Army, making it known that they were willing to conclude a fighting agreement to oppose Japan and all imperialism under three conditions. These were 1) immediately cease attacks on the Soviet area; 2) guarantee the democratic rights of the people (freedom of speech, publication, assembly and association and strike); and 3) arm the people and organize an anti-Japanese volunteer army. When the Kuomintang concluded the Tangku agreement with Japan and when it held the recent direct Sino-Japanese negotiations, the Provisional Government repeatedly proclaimed to the nation, and to the world, its opposition to such policies and actions, which betray the national interests. The Soviet gives aid to the people's struggle against Japan in various areas. The anti-Japanese strike of the Hu Hsi Factory of Shanghai alone was given 16,000 yuan in aid by the Soviet. Also, there was the soliciting of funds by the people in the Soviet area to help the anti-Japanese North China volunteer army, and much other aid in material and moral support were also given to other anti-imperialist struggles. In the Soviet territories the special rights of imperialism were completely abolished long ago. The influence of imperialism was wiped away. The preachers and priests were driven out by the people. The people's property occupied by the missions has been recovered and mission schools have been abolished. In China it is only the Soviet territories which have shaken off the rule of imperialism. All these facts clearly indicate that the Soviet Government is the only government that is opposing imperialism. The Soviet Government should point out to the people of the country that it is the greatest responsibility of the Soviet and the entire people to wage direct warfare against 159 imperialism and defeat it. In order to discharge this responsibility, the only way is to rely on the unfolding of the anti-imperialist struggle of the broad masses. First of all, unite all forces and defeat the Kuomintang, the running dog of imperialism, because it is the biggest obstacle to the opposition put up by the Soviet and the people against imperialism. The people must understand that precisely because of the Kuomintang*s obstruction—spreading across the area between the Soviet territories and the advance of imperialism, and concentrating all its forces on attacks against the Soviet territories—it is impossible for the Red Army to engage the imperialists in direct warfare. They have forced the Soviet and the Red Army to take, as their first step, the clearing of the pathway with resolute attacks, to smash the Kuomintang's "encirclement and suppression." The direct and massive conflict between the Soviet and imperialism draws nearer every day. This makes it necessary for the Soviet to fully strengthen its leadership of all anti-imperialist struggles. The Soviet should become the organizer and leader of the people's anti-imperialist struggle throughout the country. Only by exerting all efforts to make the people understand the current peril and the crimes of the Kuomintang, and depending upon the heightening of the anti-imperialist, anti-Kuomintang consciousness of the broad masses of people and their organizational strength, can the Soviet Government carry out its sacred task to topple the rule of the imperialist Kuomintang in China with national revolutionary and the revolutionary civil war. 3. The Struggle Between the "Encirclement and Suppression" of the Imperialist Kuomintang and the Anti-"Encirclement and Suppression" of the Soviet Government Because the Chinese Soviet area is the revolutionary base area of the nationwide anti-imperialist movement, because the Chinese Worker-Peasant Red Army is the main force of the nationwide opposition against imperialism and because the Soviet movement and the revolution are fiercely advancing in their development, the Kuomintang, with the direct assistance of imperialism, concentrated all its forces to launch hopeless attacks against the Soviet and the Red Army one, two, three, four and even five times in an attempt to wipe out the strength of the Chinese revolution and to clear the way for imperialism to carve up China. But each attack of the imperialist Kuomintang has met with crushing defeat. With the support of the people throughout the country, and under the correct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Soviet and the Worker-Peasant Red Army have become an invincible force. Simultaneously, the victories of the Soviet and the Red Army have greatly heightened the enthusiasm of the working people of China. It has made them realize that only the Soviet and the Red Army are truly fighting for national independence and freedom, and only the Soviet and the Red Army can save China. The 4th "encirclement and suppression" began right after the Kuomintang sold out the Three Eastern Provinces—Kirin, Liaoning and Heilungkiang'— and concluded the Shanghai cease-fire agreement. The Kuomintang national traitors did not station even a single soldier to oppose the aggression of Japanese imperialism, and ignored the repeated announcements of the Soviet Central Government and the Red Army stating their willingness to conclude 160 a combat agreement to fight Japanese imperialism with any troops truly opposing Japan. On the contrary, the arch criminal of national betrayal in the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek, concentrated several hundred thousand troops to attack Hupeh-Honan-Anhwei and the western Hunan-Hupeh Soviet areas to force the Red Army and to withdraw from the area surrounding Wuhan. On our side, although there was a need to avoid battle with vastly superior enemy forces, the Red Fourth Front Army was forced to withdraw from the Hupeh-Honan-Anhwei border Soviet area du£ to our subjective errors in strategy. It made the famous long inarch and created a new, vast Soviet base in the area along Szechwan, Nan-chiang [0589 3068], Yu-han [1335 3352] and Sui-ting [4840 1353]. From the long march of the Red Fourth Front Army came the unfolding of a widespread people's revolutionary struggle in the distant northwestern area of China, spreading the seeds of the Soviet into an area where the revolutionary situation was relatively backward. The courage and skill of the Red Fourth Front Army in battle turned more than 10 counties into Red areas in less than a year, induced the hard-working workers and peasants and soldiers of the White army in all of Szechwan Province to lean favorably toward the Soviet revolution. In spite of themselves, Chiang Kai-shek and the Szechwan warlords were forced into a state of trembling and fear when faced with the great victories of the Red Fourth Front Army. At the same time, the 2d Red Army Corps, which withdrew from the Hung Hu [3163 3275] area, not only did not suffer any appreciable losses, but, in positive actions taken in coordination with the Red Fourth Front Army in the Szechwan-Hupeh-Hunan border Soviet area, won new victories. As for the area around Hung Hu, guerrilla units were still present there. In the Hupeh-Honan-Anhwei Soviet area our base not only did not sustain any great losses, but won a consolidated position and has mounted guerrilla warfare on all fronts. The Central Soviet Area is where the Central Government is located, and it is the homebase of the Soviet movement throughout the country. It is also the prime target of the enemy's attack. The enemy concentrated the greater part of his forces to wage a tenacious campaign against us, deploying the so-called "Central Government Forces the forces of warlords Chiang and Tsai, the warlords of Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces, and the Hunan warlords to surround the Central Soviet Area and various neighboring Soviet areas from all directions. After a year of arduous struggle we won an unprecedented victory. The biggest victory was won in the first half of 1933. In this half year period alone, the Red Army of the Central Soviet Area wiped out 24 regiments, 6 battalions and 2 companies of the White Army, smashed 3 divisions, 12 regiments, 5 battalions and 2 companies of the White Army and captured about 20,000 rifles, and some 1,000 machine guns and side arms. Especially in the Tung Huang Pi [2639 7806 7095] campaign, the most tenacious basic column of the enemy was wiped out and a final and most disastrous defeat was inflicted on the enemy's fourth "encirclement and suppression." In the great victory of the campaign that smashed the fourth "encirclement and suppression," the Red Army not only grew in numbers but also strengthened in quality. Enormous improvements were attained in the political resoluteness and military techniques of the Red commanders and fighters as compared to the period before the fourth campaign. The Soviet territory has been 161 enlarged. Except for the Soviet area In Szechwan Province, the vast Soviet areas in northwest Fukien Province and east Kiangsi Province have been expanded with an increase in population of nearly 1 million and the new Min Kan [7044 6373] Province was established. The old Soviet areas have become even more consolidated, and this is manifested in the improvement of the functions of the Soviet, the heightening of the revolutionary enthusiasm of the worker-peasant masses, the development of class struggles in the rural and urban areas, as well as the strict suppression of remnant counterrevolutionary forces in the Soviet areas. Simultaneously, this victory had a great impact upon the Kuotnintang areas. Under the influence of this victory, the courage to struggle was heightened even further among the worker-peasant masses in the vast White area. Not only was there general vacillation among the soldiers of the Kuomintang participating in the "encirclement and suppression," there was great fear among the cadres, which resulted in forcing Chiang Kai-shek to openly proclaim the desperate order: "Those who do not suppress the bandits but want to fight Japan will be shot without mercy." However, the winning of these victories did not happen by chance. It was dependent upon the correctness of the Chinese Communist Party's political line, the centralized leadership of the Soviet Government, and the correctness of its plans and policies, the courage and skill of the Red Army in battlet and the enthusiastic support of the broad masses of workers and peasants in the Soviet areas, as well as the daily struggles of the worker-peasant masses of the White areas and the unfolding of the anti-imperialist and anti-Kuomintang movement. All these fare the basic conditions of defeating the enemy. Without these conditions there would be no victory. After its disatrous defeat in the fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, the only way out left for the Kuomintang warlords was to capitulate to imperialism in an even more shameless manner. It obtained large loans and huge quantities of armaments from imperialism and hired foreign advisors in large numbers. It assembled the forces it formerly had and organized new forces (such as training new soldiers, training new units and training the blue shirt society of the officers corps). They concentrated all counterrevolutionary forces and, under the direction of imperialism, launched the fifth "encirclement and suppression" against the Soviet and the Red Army. The Soviet, with regard to the fifth "encirclement and suppression," was completely in accord with what the Party Central Committee had pointed out: "It is a struggle to prevent imperialism from extricating itself from the peril it is in, and it is a struggle to win freedom and independence for Soviet China." The campaign to smash the fifth "encirclement and suppression" will decide "whether China will be divided up by imperialism and ruled by it jointly, or wholly become a colony, or whether it will become a new Soviet China, independent, free and with its territory intact." 162 The Soviet should call on all the masses in the Soviet and White areas who are participants in the struggle to clearly recognize the gravity of this struggle. Only by uniting with all revolutionary forces to strengthen our own forces and uniting with great enthusiasm under the leadership of the Soviet, can we achieve complete victory in this campaign, The Soviet should give instructions to all the masses participating in the struggle: In smashing this "encirclement and suppression," especially after smashing the fourth "encirclement and suppression," we have all the basic conditions for defeating the enemy. The correct leadership of the party and the Soviet, the powerful Red Army and its expansion, the activism in struggle of the broad masses of workers and peasants in the Soviet and White areas-'-all these form the foundation for our victory over the enemy. Through our efforts and through the development of contradictions inside the ruling class, the new and massive attacks of the imperialist Kuomintang have been dealt a severe blow. The original plans of the enemy have failed, and they have been forced to launch the final offensive against us under a new plan and on a new front. We are now face-to-face with the final, decisive battle of the fifth "encirclement and suppression." Although the blockhouse policy and the policy of economic blockade of the Kuomintang warlords are extremely vicious, they are not impregnable walls of iron and bronze that cannot be overcome. These policies of the enemy disclose only their own weakness. We will raise the level of our military techniques and skills, concentrate all our forces and overcome all these difficulties. Victory belongs to us. We should point out that the difficulties of the enemy greatly exceed ours. The vacillation of the White Armies' soldiers, the hate and dissatisfaction of the workers and peasants and the broad masses of petite bourgeoisie under enemy rule, the struggle and division of the various warlord factions in the ruling class, the contradictions and conflicts among the imperialists helping the Kuomintang and the bankruptcy of the Kuomintangrs finances and economy—all these are objective conditions of victory for the revolution. Here we should point out that while the imperialist Kuomintang was carrying out its fifth "encirclement and suppression," a people's government emerged in Fukien Province. The emergence of this people's revolutionary government indicates the further disruption of the Kuomintang's system. The great victory of the Soviet movement and the KuomintangTs bankruptcy in the eyes of the people throughout the country has forced a part of the reactionary ruling class of China to adopt a new method,, attempting to find a third road outside of the road of the Kuoraintang and the Soviet so as to preserve the lot of the reactionary ruling class, which is near death. However, this plan is futile, because if an organization such as the People's Revolutionary Government does not truly proceed from the interests of the hard-working masses of workers and peasants and does not carry out many 163 basic policies similar to the ones that have been implemented by the Soviet, does not resolutely accept the three conditions already announced by the Soviet Government in April of last year and conclude an agreement with the Soviet Government to oppose imperialism and the Kuomintang and carry it out, it will merely be empty talk and a swindle. Then, the broad masses of revolutionary people will not see the difference between the Kuomintang and the People's Revolutionary Government. It can also be predicted that they will fail tragically. With the trust and confidence of the people throughout the country in the Soviet growing day by day, and with the daily bankruptcy of the swindles perpetrated by the Kuomintang and all counterrevolutionary factions, the Soviet will resolutely smash the fifth "encirclement and suppression," obstruct the path of imperialism to turn China into a colony and proceed from victory, first in one or more provinces, to nationwide victory. These will give proof to that well-known saying: "Only the Soviet can save China!" 4. The Formulation of Various Basic Policies of the Soviet in the Past Two Years When we talk about the various basic policies of the Soviet, we must first ask from what basis do these policies proceed? In answering this question, we should understand the past and present situations of the Soviet and the tasks that emerged from these situations. In the past, the Soviet was born in the midst of guerrilla warfare. It emerged from various very small places, places which were independent from each other and were not united. All around each Soviet area was the world of the enemy, and the enemy wreaked destruction and carried out suppression of the Soviet areas every minute of the day. However, it could defeat all these enemies. It emerged and developed from the oppression of defeating the enemy countless times. This was the situation of the Soviet. There are many differences in the present situation of the Soviet compared to that of the past. It now has vast territories, a broad mass of people and a powerful Red Army. It has assembled many dispersed forces (although they have not all been concentrated), and it has organized and become a nation—our Chinese Soviet Republic, This nation has its place and central organizations, and it has already established a provisional central government. This government is a centralized organization of power. It relies on the broad masses and on the armed forces of the people—the Red Army. It is a government of workers and peasants, it has implemented the revolutionary dictatorship of workers and peasants. With regard to the workers and peasants it is a broad democracy, but it absolutely does not permit any landlord bourgeois elements to take part in it. It is a dictatorship, a dictatorship that already has great powers. This dictatorship is already having a widespread impact within the country, and there is great trust in it among the people. 164 There Is a great change in the situation from the guerrilla era of the past. War, nevertheless, is a daily way of life for it and, furthermore, the war has intensified and spread even more. The reason is because the confrontation between this dictatorship and the dictatorship of the Kuoinintattg landlord bourgeoisie is becoming more acute with each passing day. It has now entered the decisive period of victory or defeat for both sides, and it is faced with the massive "encirclement and suppression" of the imperialist Kuomintang. This is the current situation of the Soviet. This kind of situation has decided its tasks, which are that it must exert all of its efforts toward mobilizing, organizing and arming the people. It must not cease even for a night its attacks on the enemy so as to smash the enemy's "encirclement and suppression." Its task is revolutionary war, the concentration of all its forces to wage revolutionary war, and the use of revolutionary warfare to overthrow the other dictatorship of the enemy. It must also overthrow the rule of the powerful imperialists, because imperialism is the supporter and leader of that other dictatorship. The objective of overthrowing imperialism and the Kuomintang is to unify China and carry out a democratic revolution of a bourgeois nature, and, furthermore, it must make it possible for this revolution to be transformed into a socialist revolution in the future. This is the task of the Soviet. Can we understand what the purpose of the Soviet is in Implementing various basic policies in such a situation and under such tasks? Its purpose is to consolidate the already victorious dictatorship of the workers and peasants, to spread this dictatorship throughout the nation, and to mobilize, organize and arm the hard-working worker-peasant masses throughout the Soviet areas and in all China to overthrow the rule of imperialism and the Kuomintang, so as to consolidate and develop this dictatorship. The Soviet, moreover, must implement various necessary and basic policies in preparation for the future transformation of the current worker-peasant dictatorship of a bourgeois nature into a socialist proletarian dictatorship. This is the point of departure for all Soviet policies. The Central Executive Committee and the People's Committee, holding to the instructions of the First All-Soviet Congress, have adhered resolutely to this kind of general line in policy during the past 2 years and attained immense achievements. From experience it has proved to all of the revolutionary people in China that only the Soviet Government's policy is a policy in the interests of the people and for the people's political power, a policy of resolute opposition against the counterrevolutionary policies of imperialist Kuomintang for toppling the rule of the imperialist Kuomintang throughtout the country, and for rescuing the nation from doom and liberating all hard-working people from oppression. Heedless to say, in the China where two regimes are in acute opposition, each and every one of the concrete policies of the Soviet must immediately win the support of the broad masses of people. To the people who have drunk the dregs of oppression and exploitation under the counterrevolutionary 165 policies of the imperialist Kuoraintang, each and every one of the concrete policies of the Soviet is like a magnet attracting iron filings. This kind of situation has caused great alarm in the reactionary ruling class. It did not hesitate to use the most shameless sort of rumor-mongering to slander the policies of the Soviet. However, ironclad facts powerfully refuted the shameless rumors. Provided he is not a fanatical Kuomintang landlord capitalist, every Chinese who has eyes will have to admit that there is a vast difference between the policies of the Soviet Government and that of the Kuomintang Government. Let Us First Talk About the Soviet Arming of the People and the Building of the Red Army For the purpose of opposing the enemy's "encirclement and suppression" and waging the revolutionary war, the first task of the Soviet is to arm the people, organize a powerful Red Army, local troops and guerrilla units and organize supply and transport for waging war. In the resolute struggle against the enemy's fourth and fifth "encirclement and suppression11 campaigns during the past 2 years, the Soviet forces have achieved great success. First of all, the establishment of the Central Revolutionary Military Affairs Committee unified the leadership of the Red Army throughout the country. It brought about the beginning of mutual help and coordination of the Red Army units on the various fronts of the various Soviet areas under a unified strategic purpose. This is the key to the transformation from activities of dispersed guerrilla units to activities of a regular and massive Red Army. In the past 2 years, the Revolutionary Military Affairs Committee, leading the Red Army throughout the country, primarily the Red Army in the Central Soviet Area, conducted a glorious and victorious war, smashing the fourth "encirclement and suppression" of the enemy and also winning the initial victory in the campaign against the enemy's fifth "encirclement and suppression." In 2 years the Red Army expanded very rapidly, growing several times larger than it was 2 years ago. The success achieved in this respect was dependent upon the enthusiasm of the broad masses of workers and peasants for participating in the revolutionary war. It was also dependent upon the improvement of mobilization methods and the implementation, of the Soviet law and decrees on preferential treatment of Red Army members. In the month of Red May, 1933, there was an increase of nearly 20,000 new fighters in the several counties of the Central Soviet Area. In many areas, masses of workers and peasants rushed into the Red Army as a surging tide. The opportunist contention of the impossibility of enlarging the Red Army in the new and border areas or that the masses were unwilling to enlist In the Red Array were proven wrong in practice. The key to the rapid accomplishment of the mobilization plan lies in the correctness of mobilization methods and the thorough implementation of the Soviet law and decrees on preferential treatment of Red Army members. Abolishing coercive orders, carrying out ample propaganda and persuasion and placing restraints on class alien elements sabotaging the expansion of the Red Army and giving leadership to deserters were important program items of the mobilization methods. It is necessary to raise the social status of Red Army fighters 166 to a higher standard, giving all possible and necessary spiritual and material support to each individual Red Army fighter. We will distribute land to Red Army fighters of non-native residence and mobilize the masses to farm the land for them and to cultivate the land well for the family of each individual Red Army fighter. There is a 5-percent discount for families of Red Army members at the consumer cooperatives and we run special shops supplying daily necessities to them, giving 10 percent of the profits made by state enterprises and cooperatives to the families of Red Army members. We call on the masses to raise funds and aid families of Red Army members afflicted with sickness and to give moral and material comfort to the families of Red Army members. These practical and thorough implementations of the laws and decrees on the preferential treatment of Red Army fighters and their families are necessary and very important measures ensuring that the Red Army members will proceed to the front without worry and that their will to fight will be consolidated. A great many models of such work, exist in the various Soviet areas. The broad masses of workers and peasants in these areas regard as their sacred trust to protect and expand the Soviet areas with guns in their hands, and they march to the fronts in large numbers. Among these, for example, is Chang-kang [7022 1481] Village in Kiangsi Province. Of the 407 youths and adults between the ages of 16 to 45, 320 left the village to join the Red Army or work for it. The ratio '.of those who left the village and those who remained, 87 persons, was 80 percent to 20 percent. Of the total number of 554 youths and adults of Upper-tsai-chi [0006 2088 3305] Village in Fukien Province, only 67 remained. The comparative ratio between those who left and those who stayed behind was 88 percent to 12 percent. What about the production of the village and the livelihood of families when such large numbers of able-bodied persons so heroically and courageously took to the fronts? Not only was there no adverse effect, but there was even greater expansion and improvement. What was the reason for this? Because of the mutual-help cooperatives, cultivation units and all other methods used have gone about in an organized and planned way to arrange the distribution of the labor force in the village and resolved every one of the difficulties of the families of Red Army members. I think such glorious lessons are worthy of study by all the Soviet areas. The transformation of the Red Army into an iron-like consolidated body should be closely linked with its expansion. Similarly, good results have been achieved on such work in the past 2 years. The present Red Army has stepped onto the road of becoming a regular, revolutionary armed column of steel. This is demonstrated by: 1) increase in (class) elements, putting into practice (the principle of) only the hard-working masses of workers and peasants have the glorious right to bear arms and resolutely driving out those class alien elements who have infiltrated (into the ranks); 2) worker cadres have increased and the system of political committee members has been established on a general scale, and the command of the Red Army is held in reliable hands; 3) political work has improved, firming up the determination of Red fighters to struggle to the end for the Soviet, heightened the discipline of class consciousness and the liaison between 167 the Red Army and the broad masses of people has become closely linked; A) military techniques have been improved. Although the Red Army at present lacks the adoption of the most modern weapons and the training in their use, there have been great improvements in general military techniques in comparison with the past, and 5) changes have been made in organizational structure, strengthening the Red Army organizationally. All these have greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the Red Army, transforming it into an invincible Soviet armed force. The expansion of Red Youth Units and guerrilla units on a large scale is an extremely important enterprise of the Soviet in the arming of the people to wage revolutionary war. The Red Guard Army and the Young Pioneers are existing reserve forces in the rear area of the Red Army on the front lines. These are the local forces for defending the Soviet areas, and they are also the bridge spanning the present voluntary enlistment system to the obligatory service that will be implemented in the future. As for the guerrilla units, they are the creators of new (Soviet) areas and an indis-pensible detachment of the Red Army main force. In the past 2 years, these units have been developed in the various Soviet areas and their military and political training have also been considerably strengthened. Their participation in the Red Army, the defense of local areas, attacks on and creating havoc among the enemy, have been clearly demonstrated in the many smashings of the "encirclement and suppressions" to have achieved extremely great results. These have caused the enemy to fear and wonder and they have become the greatest difficulty facing the enemy1s aggression of the Soviet areas. Their functions were specially demonstrated in the Central Soviet Areas and the Fukien-Chekiang-Kiangsi Soviet area. It is an important responsibility of the Soviet to spread this system to all newly opened Soviet areas, vigorously strengthening their training so as to transform these troops into the most reliable brothers of the Red Army in the revolutionary war. The fleshing out of the Red Army's rations and supplies, organizing military transportation to maintain liaison between the front lines and the rear lines, and organizing military hygiene and medical treatment are enterprises all of which have similar decisive significance to the revolutionary war (efforts). Under the situation of economic blockade by the enemy and where we have not yet captured some central cities, the implementation of this task is extremely difficult. But in the past 2 years, we have been able to establish a considerable foundation in this work by relying upon and drawing from the enthusiasm of the broad masses of workers and peasants in the Soviet and White areas. In this respect we had ensured the supply and transportation of rations to the Red Army over extended periods of time. This, we are forced to admit, is an extremely great achievement. However, in the current decisive campaign to smash the enemy's fifth "encirclement and suppression" and in the even more massive war to follow, we are required to use our greatest power to strengthen the forces in this respect and ensure that there is an even more adequate supply. 168 We are faced with a revolutionary war on an even more massive scale, and the Soviet policy of arming the people demonstrates its top priority nature. Without slackening the arming of the people for even a moment, we must realize the formation of a million strong iron-like Red Army, by carrying out our work with the greatest of speed. This is the basic fighting task of the Soviet. The basic task of the Soviet is revolutionary war, the mobilization of all forces of the people to wage war. Revolving around this basic task are other pressing tasks for the Soviet. It should carry out extensive democracy for the broad masses of people. It must resolutely suppress counterrevolution within its ranks. It must launch the workers' class struggle, unfold the agrarian revolution of the peasants and, under the principle of uniting workers and peasants under the leadership of the working class, heighten the enthusiasm of the worker-peasant masses. It should carry out correct financial and economic policies so as to ensure the material needs of the revolutionary war. It should carry out cultural revolution and arm the minds of the workers-peasant masses. All these, as well as very many other basic policies, are geared to one objective. That is to topple the imperialist Kuomintang's rule with revolutionary war, consolidate and develop the democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants as well as preparing for the transition to the stage of proletarian dictatorship. Let us now discuss the democratic system of the Soviet. The Soviet of worker-peasant democratic dictatorship is the people's own political power, and it is directly dependent upon the people. It must maintain to the highest degree of intimacy the relationship between itself and the people, and only following that can it play its role. The Soviet is imbued with mighty powers. It has already become the organizer and leader of the revolutionary war, as well as organizer and leader of the lives of the masses. The greatness of its powers cannot be compared with any form of government in history. It is entirely dependent, however, upon the people and cannot be separated from the people for even a moment. The Soviet regime must use force in handling all class enemies, but toward its own class—the hard-working masses of workers and peasants—it cannot use force of any kind, and what it demonstrates is only the most extensive form of democracy. The most extensive democracy of the Soviet is, first of all, displayed in its own election. The Soviet wholly grants to all exploited and oppressed people all the rights to elect and be elected. Women have equal rights with men. For the hard-working workers and peasants, obtaining such rights was a historical precedent. In summing up the election experiences of the various Soviet areas during the past 2 years, generally speaking, the achievements made were very great. First, on the registration of voters. A strict segregation of those residents with voting rights and those without is carried out with the use of Red and White placards. Amass meeting of voters, which strictly prohibits any exploiting elements from participating, was substituted for the mass meeting held in the past for election purposes, 169 Second, the ratio of constituent elements. In order to ensure the proletariat forming the core of leadership in the Soviet regime the method of electing one representative out of 13 workers and their families and one representative out of 50 peasants and their families was adopted. These elements were used to organize urban and rural congresses of representatives. A suitable ratio of worker and peasant representatives was included in all levels of congresses of representatives and executive committees from area governments to the central government. By so doing, it ensures the alliance of workers and peasants in the organization of the Soviet Government, and places the workers in the position of leadership. Third, regarding election units. In order to ensure that the majority of the voters participate in elections, and to enable workers to elect suitable representatives of their own to the Soviet, the new election law proclaimed by the Central Executive Committee in September 1933 provided that each township or city Soviet was to be divided into several election units to carry out elections. That is, the peasants carry out elections with the village as a unit, while the workers carry out elections with each individual as a unit. This made the participation of the masses in elections a very convenient matter. Fourth, on the number of people participating in the election. The development of the Soviet election campaign has made the voter masses become greatly aware of the relationship between election and their own lives. Many of those who were not enthusiastic about participating in elections in the past became more active. In the two elections held in 1932 and in the one held in the latter half of 1933, more than 80 percent of the electorate participated. In some places only those who were ill, giving birth or on sentinel duty did not take part in the election meetings. Fifth, on the candidates' list. In the election held in the latter half of 1933, the system of listing candidates was implemented so as to enable the voter to be prepared, before the election, as to whom he should, or should not, vote for. Sixth, on the candidacy of women. Currently, in most of the rural and urban Soviets, women candidates elected as representatives account for more than 25 percent. In some areas such as Upper-tsai-chi Village in Shang Hang, there were 43 women among the 75 representatives, accounting for 60 percent, and there were 59 women among the 91 representatives from Lower-tsai-chi Village, accounting for 66 percent of the total. The broad masses of working women are now participating in the management of the country. Seventh, work report. The village and city Soviets called voters to a meeting before the election. A report on the work of the Soviet is made to them and they are led to comment on this kind of report. This method was applied on a more general scale in the election held during the latter hal£ of 1933 than the one that was held the year before. All these gave the people a satisfactory method of conducting and managing state organizations—the election of the Soviet—and it ensures the consolidation of the foundation of the Soviet regime. 170 Next, Soviet democracy can be seen working in the city and village representatives congresses. The system of urban and rural congresses of representatives is the organizational foundation of the Soviet. It is the agency through which the Soviet can maintain close liaison with the broad masses of people, and the improvements attained in the past 2 years have made this system even more perfect. Its most prominent characteristics as follows. 1. In order to have the representatives of the township and city Soviets maintain a very close relationship with the local residents and facilitate the absorbing of suggestions from the residents, the entire resident population, in accordance with the distance between the residence of the representatives and the local residents, are suitably allocated under the leadership of each representative (usually 30 to 70 people are placed under the leadership of one representative), thereby creating stable relationships between each representative and the people under his leadership. This, then, enables the people to link up with the Soviet, organizationally, as one. 2. For township and city soviet representatives, in accordance with how far away he lives, one from among 3 to 7 representatives is elected as chairman of the representatives. His task is to allocate and guide, under the instruction of the presidiums of township and city Soviets, the work of each representative under his leadership, relay to each representative the notices from the presidium, call meetings of residents under his leadership and resolve comparatively minor matters. In a village there should be a chairman of representatives with the responsibility to lead the work in the entire village. There will be a close link between the representatives and the city and township presidium. And the work In the village will have strong leadership. 3. Under the township and city Soviets permanent and provisional committees of various types are organized, such as committees for the preferential treatment of Red Army members, committees for water conservancy, education committees, committees for provisions and committees for health. There can be as many as 10, and attract large numbers of activists from the people to participate in the work of these committees. Not only does the township have committees, but the village should also have some committees that are necessary to it. In doing so, the work of the Soviet is organized into a network, and the broad masses of people are "brought in to participate directly in the work of the Soviet. 4. Elections of township and city Soviets are scheduled to be held once every 6 months (half a year for area Soviets and once a year for county and provincial Soviets), Thus, it will be easy for new suggestions from the people to reach the Soviets. 5. Between elections, representatives who have committed grave errors are to be recalled after more than 10 voters petition and more than half of the voters concurred, or they may be expelled after a resolution has been passed by the congress of representatives. This will prevent bad elements from 171 maintaining a position in the Soviet organizations for a long period of time. These are the characteristics of the township and city Soviets which are being implemented in many Soviet areas. Everybody can see that the development of the democracy of the Soviet political power reaching to such a degree has never before happened in history under any type of political system. In depending upon this system and closely linking up with the broad masses, the Soviet has become an organization most capable of developing the creativity of the masses and mobilizing the masses to meet the needs of the civil war and revolutionary construction. This is also something which has not been achieved by any government in history. The political power organizations of the various levels of the Soviet above the area level are all built on the foundation of the township and city Soviets, and it is organized from the various levels of worker-peasant-soldier representatives congresses and executive committees. Government functionaries take their appointments to positions through elections, and those who are not trusted are replaced by public opinion. The discussion and resolution of all problems are up to the people. Therefore, the Soviet Government is truly the regime of the broad masses. Besides, the democracy of the Soviet can be seen in the giving of complete freedom of assembly, association, speech, publication and to strike to the revolutionary masses. At a time when all freedom and rights of the people have been stripped from the revolutionary people In areas under Kuomintang rule, and fascist terrorism is being frantically carried out, each revolutionary citizen under the Soviet Government has the right to freely express his opinion, and the Soviet also provided by all possible means conveniences in material conditions (such as assembly halls, paper and printing press). The Soviet constantly goes all out to give leadership to all anti-imperialist, anti-Kuomintang assemblies, associations, speech and publications. What the Soviet does not permit is the counterrevolutionary freedom of those exploiting elements. The Soviet, furthermore, in order to consolidate the democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants, must induce the broad masses of people to supervise and criticize its work. Every revolutionary person has the right to expose the errors and shortcomings of Soviet functionaries. Corrupt officials of the Kuomintang cover the whole country, and the people of the country only dare to be angry but fear to speak out. Such a phenomenon is absolutely not allowed under the Soviet system. If corruption, degeneracy, negativism and feet dragging, as well as bureaucratic elements, are discovered among the Soviet functionaries, the people can immediately expose their errors and the Soviet will immediately punish them. There will be absolutely no leniency. This kind of amplitude in the democratic spirit can only exist under the Soviet system. Finally, the democratic spirit of the Soviet can also be seen in the delimiting of its administrative areas. The Soviet abolished the former bureaucratic administrative areas which are larger and unweildy. It has reduced the jurisdictional areas of all levels of the Soviet from provincial to township. What does this mean? It means that the Soviet can keep close contact with the people and, because its jurisdictional area is not big, have general knowledge of what the people want3 very 172 quickly reflecting the opinions of the people to the Soviet which then quickly discusses and resolve them. It makes the work of mobilizing the masses for the war and for Soviet construction very convenient. The Kuomintang warlords' use of the system of large provinces, counties, districts and townships of the feudal era tends only to isolate the people. The Soviet has no use for it. We should point out here that the delimiting of villages is a very important program, because, below the township soviet, the most convenient way to carry out the work of the Soviet is to mobilize the people with the village as a unit. Only by relying on suitable delimiting of villages, establishing of village people's organizations, and the strong leadership of the village by representatives and chairman of the representatives will the work of the township soviet achieve its greatest affects. Next, we discuss the Soviet's attitude toward the landlord bourgeoisie. The Soviet has realized the most perfect democratic system in the world. It is open to direct participation by the masses. It provides the broad masses with all democratic rights, and it absolutely will not, and has no need to, use any kind of force. However, with regard to the landlord bourgeoisie, that is, the exploiting elements overthrown by the revolutionary people, the Soviet reserves for them a different attitude. The landlord bourgeoisie, because they are the exploiters and, in the past, were the rulers, hold extremely deep hatred for the Soviet. Because they have not been wiped out, although they have been overthrown, they still possess a deep-rooted social base, superior knowledge and technology. Although they have been toppled, they do not cease for a moment to plan a comeback, overthrow the Soviet political power and resume their former system of exploitation. Especially in this era of Civil War when the enemy is unceasingly carrying out military attacks against the Soviet areas, the overthrown exploiters are even more active in planning, every minute of the day, to respond to the enemy's attacks with counterrevolutionary activities. The Soviet regime is forced to take strict punitive and suppressive measures in an all-around manner against these elements. The first item in the Soviet policy of restraint against these exploiting elements is to keep them outside the regime. With regard to landlord bourgeoisie and all others who stand in enmity to the revolution, their voting rights have been wholly abolished, and their right to serve in the Red Army and local forces has been voided. These elements are always resorting to a thousand and one ways to attempt infiltration of Soviet organizations and into the ranks of the Red Army and local forces. Especially in'the newly opened areas, the mass struggle has not been fully developed, and it is even easier for these elements to utilize opportunities and infiltrate. Past experiences have demonstrated that the launching of a ruthless and merciless struggle against those elements who have infiltrated into the revolutionary government is, for the Soviet, a task of the most gravest importance. 173 The second item is the stripping of all freedom of speech, publication, assembly and association from all the landlord bourgeoisie. This kind of freedom the Soviet gives only to the revolutionary people and not to any elements of the landlord bourgeoisie. Because these elements of the landlord bourgeoisie will inevitably use this kind of freedom as a tool for their counterrevolutionary campaign, it is absolutely necessary to strip them of it. Stripping these class enemies of their freedom and lessening the opportunities for them to become active under the pretext of these freedoms is also an important reason why the Soviet is becoming more consolidated daily. The third item is the use of revolutionary armed forces and revolutionary courts to suppress all counterrevolutionary activities. Basing itself on the task of arming the people, the Soviet has established a powerful Red Army and widespread local forces. These form the iron strength on which the Soviet is directly dependent. Only by relying on them can the Soviet defeat the armed forces of the imperialist Kuomintang, and suppress counterrevolutionary activities within the Soviet areas. The Soviets also have an important weapon to suppress counterrevolution. This is the Soviet courts. The Soviet courts are directly dependent upon the armed forces, the activities of the state's political defense bureau and the class struggle of the broad masses to enforce strict suppression of all counterrevolutionary attempts in Soviet areas. In the past several years, serious counterrevolutionary activities have flared up in every one of the Soviet areas, such as the AB group in the central and Hunan-Kiangsi Soviet areas, the social democratic party of Fukien, the reorganization faction of the Hunan-Hupeh-Kwangsi, Hunan-Honan-Anhwei, Fukien-Chekiang-Kiangsi, and Fukien-Kiangsi areas, and the Tuo Chen Chu Hsiao [2094 7115 0648 3194] faction of the Hunan-Hupeh-Kiangsi area, all of which have attempted or are even carrying out counterrevolutionary uprising. But it resulted in all being severely suppressed by the Soviet courts, their plots to stage uprisings were overcome and the Soviet regime was consolidated. With regard to this matter, the Political Defense Bureau and the Soviet courts have compiled rich experiences and rectified the errors committed in the past of not implementing a clear class line in many areas. The transformation of Soviet courts into people's courts, that is, the punishment of counterrevolution, should be linked with the struggle of the broad masses to suppress counterrevolution. Great improvements have also been made in this respect, of which general use of mobile courts is proof. From an overall view, the Soviet is equipped with an extremely extensive revolutionary democracy with regard to the broad masses. Simultaneously, it is within this democracy that its greatest powers are formed, powers erected on the foundation of solid trust and consciousness of tens of millions of worker-peasant masses. Using these powers, the Soviet formed its own dictatorship, organized the revolutionary war, organized the Soviet courts and launched fierce attacks against the enemy on various fronts. The Soviet courts thereby played a magnificant role in the suppression of counterrevolutionary activities within the territories of the Soviets. 174 If a comparison is made "between the courts of the Soviet under the dictatorship of the workers and peasants and the courts of the Kuomintang under the dictatorship of the landlord bourgeoisie, a wonderful picture appears. The objective of the Soviet courts is the suppression of crimes committed by the landlord bourgeoisie, and sentences meted out are generally light on crimes committed by worker-peasant elements. The Kuomintang courts have the suppression of the worker-peasant class as their objective and are generally lenient in sentences passed on crimes committed by the landlord bourgeoisie. The roles of the courts have been completely shaped by their class nature. On the one hand, the Soivet courts severely suppressed the activities of counterrevolutionary elements, and the Soviet should not display any leniency whatsoever toward such elements. On the other hand, inhumane treatment of prisoners is prohibited. The Soviet Central Government has proclaimed an open order abolishing physical punishment. This is a major reform in history. But the Kuomintang courts are still full of the inhuman and cruel tortures of the Middle Ages. Except for capital crimes, the Soviet prisons have adopted a policy of conversion. They apply the spirit of communism and labor discipline to educate the prisoners and transform their criminal nature. But the Kuomintang prisons are hells on earth for the working masses and revolutionaries filled with purely feudalistic barbarous killings and fascist tortures. Wiping out the counterrevolutionary plot of the enemy against the class, establishing the revolutionary order in the Soviet territories, abolishing all barbarous, feudal1vestiges from the sphere of judicial administration is the target of the Soviet courts. The reforms carried out by the Soviet in this respect similarly have their own historic significance. The Soviet labor policy is to be discussed next, Proceeding from the basis of the class nature in its political power and from its glorious task of arming the working masses to overthrow the imperialist Kuomintang by waging revolutionary war, the Soviet must resolutely promote the workers' class struggle, ensure the daily interests of the workers, develop the revolutionary activism of the workers and organize such activism to bring it to bear on the revolutionary war, as well as transform the workers into active leaders of the revolutionary war and the pillars supporting the consolidation and development of the Soviet. This is the starting point of the Soviet labor policy. The interests of the workers is given complete protection under the Soviet labor policy. The difference is as great as that between paradise and hell when they are compared with the era of Kuomintang rule in the past and the present areas under the Kuomintang. 175 In the era when the Soviet areas were still under Kuomintang rule, the workers were slaves of their employers. Work hours were long, wages small, treatment was cruel and there was no legal guarantee of the workers' status. These are things no worker will ever forget. In the areas presently under Kuomintang rule all these not only still exist, but have become ever worse. According to the latest situation the real wages of the workers in the White areas has decreased by more than 50 percent, while decreasing work, laying off workers and closing factories are the usual methods used by the capitalists in their attacks against the workers. They created mass unemployment, with over 60 percent of the workers of production enterprises unemployed. In all of,:the areas under Kuomintang rule, strike is a criminal offense, and the Kuomintang openly announced in Hankow in March 1933 that strikers would be sentenced to death. In all disputes between the workers and the capitalists, the Kuomintang always takes the side of the capitalists to oppress the workers. Under Soviet political power the workers are masters. The workers leading the broad masses of peasants have shouldered the glorious responsibility of consolidating and developing the Soviet. Therefore, the principle underlining the labor policy of the Soviet is the protection of the workers' interests and the consolidation and development of the Soviet regime. In accordance with this principle the Labor Law was proclaimed in December 1931. In 1933 it was revised and reproclaimed. The revised Labor Law is suitable for application to all urban and rural, big and small enterprises. The Soviet areas have generally implemented the 8-hour work system, and have concluded labor contracts and collective labor contracts. In the cities and in many townships and villages labor inspection, stations with labor inspectors have been generally established to inspect whether employers have broken the Soviet Labor Law. The punishment of offenses committed by employers is handled by labor courts especially set up for this purpose. To guard against capitalist manipulation of labor and protect the unemployed workers, the Soviet has monopolized the right to find employment for workers. All applications for labor submitted by the capitalists must be made at the employment offices set up by the Soviet. The establishment of agencies to help the unemployed is spreading daily, and unemployed workers are receiving concrete assistance. Also, workers in the rural areas have been distributed land. The system of social insurance has been firmly established, and social insurance bureaus have been set up in each of the cities in the Soviet areas. None of these has ever been available to the workers under the Kuomintang regime, while the Soviet considered the implementation of these policies as its greatest responsibility. Due to the resolute implementation of the Soviet's own policies the well-being of the workers in the Soviet areas has been greatly improved, First, with regard to labor wages. The actual wages in the various Soviet areas have generally increased in comparison with pre-revolution period. The following is an example from Ting-chou [3060 1558]. [See attached table "A."] 176 From this table it can be seen that the wages of workers in Ting-chou city have increased at least 32 percent over that of the period before the revolution, and the largest increase (carpenters) was 1,450 percent, an increase of 14.5 times textile industry workers. Such startling increases wholly reflect the shockingly low levels of the Kuomintang era. Of course, the wages of Ting-chou workers are especially high when compared with other cities and towns (.the workers meals are also included in the computation), but the wages in other towns and cities have also increased. For example, during the most recent period, the masons and carpenters of Jui-ching [3843 6855] township received increases of 80 percent" in wages from the 2 chiao 5 fen daily in the period before the revolution to 4 chiao 5 fen. Wages have increased not only in towns and cities but also in the rural areas, The following is a comparison table of wages received by workers in miscel^-laneous enterprises during different periods in the Tien-chun [3944 2625] area of Kan Hsien [6373 4905]: [see attached table "B"] This table represents one rural area. The wages in other rural areas have generally increased. With regard to the wages in state-run enterprises, a general increase of 20 percent has been made within the recent 2 years of the various types of enterprises directly under the jurisdiction of the Central Government, with the largest increase registering 40 percent. Generally speaking, wages are paid on time, and there are very few cases of employers owing wages, due to overseeing by the Soviet. After being punished by the labor courts, a handful of obdurate capitalists also did not dare to create difficulties for the workers. The application of the 8-hour day system to the work period of the courts has become generla during the past 2 years in all of the towns and cities in Soviet areas. The hours of the hired workers in rural areas are generally less than those for adults. The protection of women and minors, such as equal work, equal wages, rest before and after birth, prohibition of child labor under 14, has been fully implemented. With regard to the protection of apprentices, the age limit has been generally shortened, treatment of apprentices has been improved and the feudal oppression of apprentices swept away. Considerable improvements have been made in the well being of the apprentices, and their wages have been increased (for example, apprentices in the Kiangsi area receive at least 15 yuan subsidy annually, and some as large as 3 yuan monthly). As for treatment in general, great improvements have been made in cities, especially in state enterprises, with regard to workers1 meals and hygiene. The monthly meal allowance for city workers is generally over 6 yuan. The meals of workers in the rural area are, at least, the same as that of the employers. 177 The workers in the Soviet area have organized a powerful class trade union. Such trade unions are the pillars of the Soviet, the bulwark defending the interests of the workers. At the same time,, they have become schools for the broad masses of workers to study communism. With regard to the trade unions the Soviet guaranteed their right by law. There has been a great growth in union membership. In accordance with the statistics compiled by the All-China General Trade Union, taking into account only the central Soviet area and the nine areas in its vicinity, there are 229,000 members in the trade unions of the Soviet areas, with their distribution as follows; 110,000 in the central Soviet area, 23,000 in the Hunan-Kiangsi area, 40,000 in the Hunan-Hupeh-Kiangsi area, 25,000 in the Fukien-Chekiang-Kiangsi area, 6,000 in the Fukien-Kiangsi area and 5,000 in the northern Fukien area. Based on the materials of the central Soviet area, there are only 3,676 persons who have not joined the trade unions, which is less than 5 percent of all the workers. That is to say, 95 percent of the workers are members. In some places, such as Hsing-kuo [5281 0948], 98 percent of the workers joined trade unions. Could this, I ask, be dreamed of in the Kuomintang areas? Not only in China, but also the whole world, with the exception of the Soviet Union, which imperialist country enjoys such a situation? In brief, the Soviet Labor Law has been implemented in all the towns and cities in the Soviet areas during the past 2 years, and the important articles of the Labor Law have also been implemented in the rural areas. Although opposition by quite a few capitalists and rich peasants to the Labor Law has been encountered during the 2 years, such opposition came to nought due to the spirited struggle of the worker masses and the strict supervision of the Soviet. At the same time, cases of transgression of the Labor Law arise from time to time in the hiring of workers by independent producers, middle and poor peas-ants, and these should be handled through sincere remonstrations until they understand and voluntarily support the Labor Law, Therefore, great improvements were made in the well-being of the workers. This has led to the development of the enthusiasm of workers on a -massive scale, and the workers were able to play a. glorious role in the revolutionary war and in Soviet construction. In accordance with the compilations made by the 12 counties of Kung-lueh [0361 3970], Wan-tai [8001 3141], Lung-kang [7893 1481], Hsing-kuo [5283 0948], Hsing^li [0524 0448], Hsi-chiang [6007 3068], Yu-tu [0061 6757], Hsun-wu [1416 0839], Shang-hang [0006 2635], Mng-hua [1337 0553], Chang-ting [7022 3060] and Hsin-.chuan [2450 3123], in the central Soviet area, the 19,960 union members, out of a total membership of 70,580, who are serving in the Red Army and in guerrilla units are equivalent to 20 percent of the entire membership. The 6,752 working in revolutionary Soviet organizations account for 10 percent of the membership, and they are*mostly in responsible positions in the Soviet organizations. The above two. items, totaling 26,712 persons, account for 38 percent of the membership. There are 43,868 members who are still at home. Second issue bonds valued at 43,855 yuan have been redeemed from the members 178 remaining at home in these 12 counties. Recently they bought economic construction bonds valued at 197,803 yuan, averaging out at 4 yuan 5 chiao per person. Of the trade unions members who remained at home, 12,435 have become members of the Communist Party and the tuan, accounting for 28 percent of the total number of members at home. These statistics prove that the worker masses are actively participating in the Red Army and they are participating and supporting the revolution, and supporting the Chinese Communist Party. This resulted from the Soviet's protection of workers' interests, thereby sparking the enthusiasm of the workers. Those remarks about workers not having received anything after the revolution began, and that the enthusiasm of the workers has not been developed, can all be written off as pure nonsense. Let us now discuss the agrarian revolution of the Soviet areas. The Chinese Soviet and the Red Army emerged and developed in the midst of the agrarian revolution. Only agrarian revolution could liberate the broad masses of peasants from the ruthless oppression and exploitation of the landlord class and the Kuomintang warlords. The land policy of the Soviet is based on the principle of completely overthrowing all of the feudal and semi-feudal oppressions and exploitations of the landlord class and the Kuomintang warlords. Now, as in the past, shocking land rents (60 to 80 percent), shocking usurious rates (.30 to 100 percent) and shockingly exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous levies (over 1,700 kinds of taxes and levies throughout the country) prevail in the rural villages in the Kuomintang areas. As a result, land was concentrated in the hands of the landlord class and the rich peasants. The greatest majority of the peasants lost their land and fell into a terrible situation of suffering from which there was no escape. Because of the ruthless plunder of the land the peasants lost their ability to protect themselves against the disaster of famine. As a result, the entire country had floods, droughts and famines. In 1931, the area struck by disasters covered 809 counties, and over 44 million people were affected by them. Due to the layer^upon-layer of rapacious plunder the peasants lacked the ability to produce again. Much cultivated land became unfruitful and much just turned into wasteland. At the same time, the only produce the peasants had was overwhelmed by the imperialist's dumping of agricultural products. For this reason the rural economy of China fell into a state of complete bankruptcy. It was from this basis that the flames of agrarian revolution exploded with powerful force in the rural areas. The might of the Soviet agrarian revolution swept away all vestiges of feudalism. Millions and tens of millions of peasants have been jolted into awareness from a long period of darkness, seized all the landed estates of the landlord class, confiscated the lands of the rich peasants, abolished usury and liquidated exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous levies, overthrew all who stood against the revolution, and established their own political power. The first time they emerged from hell, the peasant masses became masters. This is the difference between the rural situation under the Soviet political power and that under the Kuomintang political power. 179 The First All-Soviet Congress promulgated the Land Law and created a correct basis for the solution of land problems throughout the country. Because of the intensification of the class struggle in the rural areas many disputes arose from the problem of class analysis. The people's committee, in accordance with experiences gained from land struggles of the past, set forth the "resolutions on various problems in land struggle/1 and correctly resolved many problems such as landlords, rich peasants, middle peasants, poor peasants and vagrants, Struggles in the rural areas will become even stronger. As with many problems on land distribution such as distance, fertility, green sprouts, forests and ponds, we urgently need to collect the experiences of various areas and make the necessary decisions. This is imperative in the leadership of land distribution in new areas. In order that the remnant forces of feudalism are thoroughly eliminated and to enable the fruits of agrarian revolution to fall completely into the hands of tennant farmers, poor peasants and middle peasants, the Central Government has launched a widespread and penetrating movement*of land investigation. According to the statistics compiled in the 3 months of July, August and September 1933, a total of 3,980 landlord families and 6,638 rich peasant families was unearthed in the three provinces of Kiangsi, Fukien and Kiangsi-Hupeh in the central Soviet area. From the hands of these exposed landlords and rich peasants 307,539 tan of land were recovered, and cash from landlords and contributions from rich peasants totaling 606,916 yuan were confiscated. The revolutionary enthusiasm of the peasant masses developed even further and the tenant farmer trade union and the poor peasants group became the pillars of the Soviet in the rural areas. Gaining such great results in 3 months proves that the Soviet must still give its full attention to the class struggle in the rural areas, and the land investigation movement being a powerful method to continue the development of struggles in the rural areas for thoroughly wiping out the remnant forces of feudalism has also been wholly proved. The class line of the land struggle is to rely on tennant farmers and poor peasants, unite with the middle peasants and exploit the rich peasants and wipe out the landlords. The correct application of this line is the key to guaranteeing the victorious development of the land struggle, and it is the basis of each concrete policy of the Soviet formulated for the rural areas. The Soviet should place severe restraint on erroneous tendencies toward infringing upon middle peasants Cprimarily toward rich middle peasants) and elimination of rich peasants. But, at the same time, there absolutely should not be any slackening toward those errors of seeking compromise with the landlord rich peasants. Only by opposing such errors can the land struggle be led onto the correct path. With regard to the work done on the masses with respect to land struggles? considerable experiences have Been accumulated during the past 2 years. In summary, Its principal points are: 180 1. In both the movement of land distribution and the land investigation movement, an all-out effort must be made to mobilize the broad masses of poor and middle peasants and the broad masses of workers in the rural areas to struggle personally against landlord rich peasants. The work of land distribution and land investigation must be carried out with the concurrance of the masses. The handling of each one of the class elements must be done through meetings of the masses. There is the danger of decreasing enthusiasm of the masses fur struggle if Soviet personnel, alone or with a handful of others, were to carry out the distribution of land or investigation of class. 2. When assets of the landlord class, besides land, and surplus plow oxen, farming implements.and buildings are confiscated, the greater part of it must be distributed to the poor people. If this is not done and they are given over to a handful of people for use, it will also lower the spirits of the masses and will land itself to the opposition of the exploiting elements. 3. Distribution of land over a long and erratic period of time is not appropriate, It should be completed within a considerably short period of time so that the land will remain firmly in the hands of the peasants. Later, redistribution of land should not be lightly undertaken in the absence of a request from the majority of the local people. If we do not adhere to this, we will be going counter to wishes of the peasants. We would not only adversely affect the attitude of the peasants toward producing from the land, -but would allow exploiting elements to obstruct the progress of the land struggle. 4. The object of land investigation is to ferret out exploiting elements and not to expose the exploited elements. Therefore, house-to-house and mou-tO'-mou inspections should be avoided. What should be done is the mobilization of the greatest number of people to ferret out those landlord and rich peasant elements who are in hiding. 5. Those counterrevolutionary elements who impeded land distribution and land investigation must be severely dealt with. With the concurrance of the masses use the most severe method to control them, from the time they were arrested, imprisoned and publicly tried by the masses, right up to the time of their execution. This is absolutely necessary, because if it is not done in this manner, the land struggle will be greatly impeded. 6. Class struggle should be developed in an all-out manner, but avoid struggles between localities, between clans and between nationalities. The landlord class and the rich peasant's desire wholeheartedly to replace class struggle with this kind of struggle and obstruct the progress of agrarian revolution, and personnel of the Soviet should not be taken In by them. 7. The progress of agrarian revolution is dependent upon the enhancement of the level of organization and class consciousness of the basic masses in the rural areas. Soviet personnel, therefore, must carry out propaganda on a wide and intensive scale and make sound the organization of poor 181 peasant groups and tenant farmers trade unions. The agrarian revolution not only gets land to the peasants, it must also make the peasants develop the production force of the land and due to the leadership of the Soviet and the enhancement of the peasants' enthusiasm for labor, agricultural production has recovered over a wide area In the Soviet areas. In some places it has developed even further, On this basis the peasants' well--being has been vastly improved. The peasants overthrew the exploitation of landlords and the Kuomintang and, as a result, production came into their own hands. The current standard of living of the peasants has been at least doubled, in comparison with that under the Kuomintang. The majority of the peasants were hungry many times in the past year, and in times of difficulty they had to eat tree bark and grain chaff. But, generally speaking, there is no more hunger now, and living conditions have improved with each passing year. In the past, the majority of the peasants had very little meat during the year. Meat is eaten more frequently now, In the past, the majority of the peasants were clothed in rags. This is generally-improved now, sometimes by 100 and even 200 percent. What kind of life and what kind of political power do the peasant masses want? Let the peasant masses in all of the Kuomintang areas answer this question themselves! We then discuss the financial policy of the Soviet. The object of Soviet finance is to guarantee provisions and supply for the revolution and the disbursement of all other revolutionary expenditures. The Soviet Republic, required to meet outlays in vast revolution war and revolutionary work expenditures and constituting a small portion of the entire country, which is also an area with a comparatively backward economy, is carrying out a taxation, policy favorable to the broad masses. Many outsiders do not know where the solution for Soviet finances will come from. Meanwhile, why did the Kuomintang become bankrupt, with it occupying a vast area and extracting the wealth of the people in vast quantities? There is nothing strange about it. There is a basic difference between the financial policy of the Soviet and its application of funds with that of the Kuomintang. The Soviet financial policy is founded on the principle of class interests and the interests of the revolution. The Soviet's sources for funds are; 1) confiscation or forceful collection from all feudal exploiters; 2) tax revenue; and 3) development of the national economy. What confiscation or forceful collection from all feudal exploiters means is to make collections from landlords and rich peasants in the Soviet and the White areas. Based on past experience, this revenue frequently accounts for the lion's share. This is exactly opposite to the Kuomintang's fiscal policy. The Soviet places the main financial burden on the exploiters, whereas the Kuomintang places it on the hard-working masses of workers and peasants. 182 The tax collection of the Soviet is a unified excalating tax. It is currently being carried out in a simple manner on two sides, that is, commerce tax and agricultural tax. The principle of taxation is similarly placing the burden on the exploiters. The collection of commercial taxes is divided into custom tax and business tax. The custom tax is for the purpose of regulating the export and import of commodities in accordance with the degree of need of the Soviet areas. The rates include complete exemption, and some going as high as 100 percent. Only the Soviet has implemented a wholly free customs tax system which is not subjected to any interference from foreign countries. All merchandise goes into circulation all over the Soviet areas after paying taxes at the border customs, and there is no second taxation, thereby sweeping away the Kuomintang's tyranny of the money barrier and the layers of extortion. Business tax is sales tax (industrial tax is not being collected at present), In accordance with the size of the businessman's capital and his profit, a unified, escalated tax is collected. Tax is light on small capital and small profits, and heavy on big capital and big profits. Where the capital is below 100 yuan, the people's cooperatives, and surplus products sold directly by the peasants are all exempted. The agricultural tax is dependent upon the revolutionary fervor of the peasants as this tax is collected on a voluntary basis, and it is similarly progressive. Where there are few In the family and land distributed Is small, the tax is light, and.where there are many in the family and land distributed is large, the tax is heavy. Tax is light on poor and middle peasants, but heavy on rich peasants. Tenant farmers and families of Red Army members are exempted from taxation, and in disaster areas tax is reduced or exempted in accordance with the lightness or severity of the disaster situation. The unified, progressive tax system adopted by the Soviet is the best tax system In the world, and it Is a system all capitalist countries dare not adopt or adopt it in its entirety, As for the Kuomintang's tax collection, it is. one complete mess. Its tax policy is primarily to collect from peasants and other petit "bourgeoisie. Besides the principal tax, there are countless tacked^on taxes. In accordance with the statistics compiled by the TA KHING PAO and published in 22 March 1933 there are as many as 1,756 items of taxations in the Kuomintang areas. And the land taxes in Szechwan Province have been prer-collected up to 1987, and the land taxes in Shensi Province have increased 25 times over the period before the arrival of the Kuomintang. These are the "Benefactions" of the Kuomintang for the hard-working masses! To increase our revenue by developing the national economy is a basic principle of our financial policy; it has already brought tangible results In the Fukien-Chekiang^Kiangsi border area and is beginning to do so in the central area, too. It is the duty of our financial and economic 183 organizations to apply this principle conscientously.. In this connection, we should make quite sure that the issuing of notes by the state bank is based primarily on the needs of economic development, and only secondarily on purely fiscal needs. Thrift should be the guiding principle in our government expenditures. It should be made clear to all government workers that corruption and waste are very great crimes. Our campaigns against corruption and waste have already achieved some results, but further efforts are required. Our system of accounting must Be guided by the principle of saving every copper for the war effort, for the revolutionary cause, and for economic construction. Our method of spending state revenue must be strictly different from those of the Kuomintang. There are difficulties in the finances of the Soviet. With the expansion of the Red Army and the development of the revolution, the Soviet does face difficulties in its finances. Overcoming difficulty is inherent in the difficulty itself. The method for overcoming the difficulty is to develop our revolution, improve our Soviet work, augment our revenue from all of the Kuomintang areas, place the burden of Soviet finance on the shoulders of all exploiting elements and increase the revenue of the Soviet through the development of the national economy. We will discuss Soviet economic policy. ____ Only the shameless Kuomintang warlords will create rumors every day about the utter devastation of the Soviet region when the people are impoverished and the finances exhausted in the area under their control. The goal of the imperialist Kuomintang is to sabotage the Soviet region, the advancing Soviet construction, and the welfare of the tens of millions of liberated worker-peasant masses; therefore, the counterrevolutionaries have not only organized all their military strength for "encirclement and suppression," but also enforced a ruthless policy of blockade in the economic aspect. Nevertheless, the broad masses and the Red Army led by the Soviet government have not only routed the enemy "encirclement" time and again, but also undertaken all possible and necessary economic constructions to break down the vicious enemy blockade. Currently, this measure taken by the Soviet is successful step by step. As the central task of the Soviet is to strive for victory in the war against the imperialist Kuomintang, while the current Soviet region is situated in areas relatively backward in economy and hemmed in by enemy blockade, the principle of the Soviet economic policy is to undertake all possible and necessary constructions in the economic aspect and concentrate strengths to supply the war. Meanwhile, the Soviet is doing its utmost to improve the people's living, consolidate the worker-peasant alliance in the economic aspect, assure the proletariat's leadership of the peasants, and create the premise and superiority for the development of the socialist construction in the future. 184 The nucleus of the SovietTs economic construction is to develop agricultural production, industrial production, export trade and the cooperative movement. Currently, the agriculture of the Soviet region is obviously making progress. The 1933 farm output of the Central Soviet region increased 15 percent compared to that of 1932, while that of the Fukien-Chekiang-Kiangsi Soviet region grew 20 percent. In the first or second year after the uprising, the agricultural output of Soviet areas often appeared to be dropping. However, with the decision to divide the land, the promotion effort of the Soviet, and the growing labor enthusiasm of the peasant masses, production recovered. Currently some areas have not only recovered, but also surpassed the level before the uprising. Other areas have not only eliminated the land laid waste in the course of the uprising, but also reclaimed new land. Many areas have organized labor cooperatives and farming teams to relieve the rural labor force. They have organized plow oxen cooperatives to solve the shortage of plow animals. Meanwhile, the broad masses of women have joined the emergency work on the production front. All these would have been absolutely impossible in the Kuomintang era. In the Kuomintang era, land was the private property of the landowners, and the peasants were neither willing nor able to improve the land with their own effort. Only after the land distribution to the peasants by the Soviet and the Soviet's promotion and encouragement was the labor enthusiasm of the peasant masses stimulated, leading to great production victories. Here it must be pointed out that, under the current condition, agricultural production takes the first place in the Soviet economic construction. Agricultural production will not only solve the most important grain issue, but also shoulder the responsibility of supplying the raw material (cotton, hemp, sugarcane, bamboo, etc.) for such everyday necessities as clothes, sugar and paper. In addition, afforestation and livestock production are also important parts of agriculture. It is both permissible and necessary to formulate appropriate production plans on the foundation of the small-peasant economy and mobilize the peasants to fulfill the plans (for example, so many 10,OOQ^catties of cotton per province). The Soviet must pay further attention and devote a greater effort in this aspect. In regard to the many basic conditions of agricultural production, such as manpower, plow oxen, raw material, seeds and water conservation, the Soviet must vigorously guide the peasants toward their solution. Here, organizing the manpower to relieve the shortage and activating the women to participate in production constitute the most fundamental issue of agricultural production in the Soviet region. Meanwhile, organizing labor cooperatives and farming teams and mobilizing and encouraging the entire rural masses during the crucial spring and summer seasons are the effective means to solve the issue. The lack of plow oxen by a large portion of the peasants (about 25 percent) is also a very big problem. Organizing plow oxen cooperatives and mobilizing all households without plow animals to buy the animals together and share in their use are matters which the Soviet must give attention to. Water conservation Is the lifeline of agriculture, and the Soviet must give serious attention to it. Naturally, this is not yet the time to bring up the problems of soviet and collective agriculture. However, for the purpose of promoting agriculture, organizing a soviet experimental farm on a small scale in every village and ward and establishing agricultural study schools and farm products exhibition sites are urgently needed. 185 Enemy blockade has made our export difficult. Many handicraft enterprises in the Soviet region have deteriorated, especially tobacco and paper. However, it is not absolutely impossible to overcome such export difficulties. Furthermore, in view of the need of the broad masses in the Soviet region, we possess our own extensive market. We must systematically develop our industry for export, but mainly for self-sufficiency. In the past 2 years, especially since the first half of 1933, as the Soviet has begun to pay attention and as the mass production cooperatives have gradually developed, many industries have started to recover. Here the main items are tobacco, paper, tungsten, camphor, farm tools and fertilizer (such as lime), while textile, drug manufacturing and sugar refining are also not to be overlooked in the present environment. In the Fukien-Chekiang-Kiangsi region, some of the areas did not have much industry to start with, such as paper making, textile weaving and sugar refining, but now such industries have actually been started and are producing good results. To relieve the shortage of salt, they have undertaken the manufacture of nitrate. In regard to industry, it is even more necessary to have suitable planning. Naturally, it is impossible to formulate general and precise plans on the foundation of the scattered handicraft industries, but, in regard to certain minor industries, primarily the enterprises operated by the state and the cooperatives, it is entirely necessary to formulate appropriate precise production plans. The accurate estimate of raw material production and the assessment of the market in the White and Soviet regions are matters requiring the attention of Soviet and cooperative industries right from the beginning. Planned organizing of foreign trade and direct handling of the circulation of certain necessary commodities, such as the import of salt and fabric, the export of grain and tungsten, and grain circulation inside the Soviet region, are currently extremely crucial. Such work was begun relatively early in the Fukien-Chekiang-Kiangsi region, while the Central region started in the spring of 1933. With the establishment of such agencies as the Foreign Trade Bureau, preliminary achievements have been made. Currently, the national economy of the Soviet region is developed in three simultaneous aspects—state operated, cooperative and private enterprises. Now limited to the feasible and essential, the state operated economy has been started in both industry and commerce. Its future is naturally inestimable. As for private economy, as long as it stays within the limits of the law, the Soviet not only will not block it, but will promote and encourage it, because the development of private economy at the present time is required by the interest of the Soviet. Needless to say, private economy occupies a position of absolute predominance at the present time, and such predominance will remain for a considerably long period of time to come. The development of private economy in the Soviet region generally follows the pattern of small capital. 186 The cooperative economy is developing rapidly. According to the September 1933 statistics of 17 counties in Kiangsi and Fukien provinces, all types of cooperatives totaled 1,423, with the shares amounting to 305,551 yuan. Due to the promotion by the Economic Construction Mass Meeting, the development of such counties as Jui-chin and Hsing-kuo in a little over a month after the meeting surpassed the figures for the entire period before it. Currently, the large-scale development of cooperatives covers mainly consumer and grain cooperatives, with production cooperatives second. As for the credit cooperative, it is still just beginning. The development of the cooperative movement will doubtlessly become the pivot of the economic development of the Soviet region. The cooperative economy and the state operated economy, when coordinated, will become a tremendous force in the economic aspect. In the long process of the struggle against the private economy, they will gradually gain the leading and superior position and form the condition for the economy of the Soviet region, to develop to a socialist economy. Therefore, developing state enterprises as much as possible and promoting cooperatives on a large scale must be pursued simultaneously with the encouragement of private economy, For the purpose of developing state operated enterprises and aiding the cooperative movement, the People's Committee, with the support of the masses, issued 3 million yuan of economic construction bonds. Solving the economic construction capital problem by relying on the strength of the masses is the only feasible means at present. While all of China is engulfed in an economic calamity and the hundreds of millions of people are hungry and cold, the Soviet government, in disregard of all difficulties, conscientiously pursues economic construction for the revolutionary war and in the interest of the people. Very obviously, only the victory of the Soviet over the imperialist Kuomintang and only its planned and organized economic construction will rescue the hundreds of millions of the nation from the unprecedented economic calamity. [Footnotes] Increasing our revenue by developing the national economy is our basic financial policy, The apparent effect has been demonstrated in the Fukien-Chekiang-Kiangsi Border Area and has begun to be demonstrated in the Central Region. The enforcement of this policy is the responsibility of our fiscal and economic organs. Here, attention tnus-t be given to the fact that the issuance of paper currency by state banks must be based on the need of the development of the national economy, and simply fiscal need can only take second place. 187 Fiscal disbursement must follow the policy of thrift. All government work personnel must understand that corruption and waste are serious crimes. Some achievement was made in the struggle against corruption and waste in the past, and we must continue with our effort hereafter. Saving every penny for the war and the revolutionary cause, and for our economic construction, is the principle of our accounting system. A strict distinction must be made between the way we spend our state revenue and the way of the Kuomintang. 6080 CSO: 4005 We will now- deal with Soviet cultural education. Reform of cultural education must be carried out by the Soviet in order to win victory in the revolution, consolidate and develop the Soviet regime, mobilise all the forces of the people for the purpose of waging the great revolutionary struggle, create a new and revolutionary generation and free the worker~peasant masses from the spiritual shackles placed upon them by the reactionary ruling class, We must create a new, Soviet culture of workers and peasants. It is public knowledge that all educational and cultural agencies under the Kuomintang rule are in the hands of the landlord bourgeoisie. Their policy is to carry out lopsided propaganda to eradicate revolutionary concepts of the oppressed class, on the one hand, and implement a policy of hoodwinking the people so as to exclude workers and peasants from education on the other, Educational funds were used by the reactionary Kuomintang to finance attacks on the revolution, most schools stopped operating and a majority of the students were idled. The people became ignorant and foolish under the rule of the'Kuomintang and over 80 percent of the entire population was illiterate. While extremely vicious White terrorism was adopted against revolutionary concepts, all left-wing literary figures and sociologists and revolutionaries in cultural and educational agencies were subjected to the ravages of the Kuomintang fascist emperor, turning all educational organizations into dark, hell-boles. This is the Kuomintang!s educational policy. 188 Whoever comes to our Soviet area, and takes a look will see immedlately that it is a free and bright new country, All educational agencies are in the hands of the laboring masses of workers and peasants. The workers and peasants and their children enjoy priority rights to education. The Soviet Government is using all possible methods to raise the cultural level of workers and peasants, and for the purpose of attaining this objective all possible political and material aid are given to the masses. For this reason, Soviet areas are today speeding up the revolutionary cultural construction, although they are situated in an environment of ruthless Civil War and were, in the past, culturally very backward areas. According to the compilations of the three provinces of Kiangsi, Fukien and Hupeh'-Kiangsi, there are 3,05.2 Lenin elementary schools, with 89,710 students, 6,462 supplementary night schools with 94,517 students, 32,388 adult education groups (this does not include figures from Fukien) with 155,371 members and 1,656 clubs with 49,668 functionaries. This is only a partial compilation of the central Soviet areas. The majority of school age children are in Lenin elementary schools in many of the Soviet areas. For example, 12,806 C8,825 boys and 3,981 girls) out of 20,969 (12,076 boys and 8,893 girls) school age children in Hsing-kuo [5281 0948] are attending Lenin elementary schools, and 8,163 (3,251 boys and 4,912 girls) are idle. The comparative ratios for those attending schools and those who do not is 6 to 4. Children in many places in the Soviet areas are most of the time engaged in receiving education and in play, and only a small part of their time is applied to home chores. This is exactly opposite to the situation prevailing during the Kuomintang period. The children are, at the same time, enrolled in the Red Children Group* These groups are similar to schools for the children to learn about communism. Such enthusiastic demands of women for education have never before been seen. Of the 15?740 students attending supplementary night schools in Hsing-kuo, 4?986 are males, accounting for 31 percent of the total and 10,752 are females, accounting for 69 percent. Of the 22,519 members of the adult education groups, 9,000 are males, accounting for 40 percent, and 13,519 are females, accounting for 60 percent of the total. Illiterate women in Hsing-kuo and other areas have achieved initial liberation and are enthusiastic about activities. Women are not only receiving education but also presiding over it. Many women have become principals of elementary and night schools and members of educational committees and literary committees. Associations of women workers and peasants have become common in the Soviet areas. The focus is on the entire interests of women workers, and, of course, the education of women is also a part of it. The literacy of the masses has grown rapidly. Night schools, literacy movements and placards are used to induce literacy. Night schools are set in location, literacy groups are located in the homes of the masses and. literacy placards are mounted along the roads. The literacy -movement is led by a village committee. H'sing-kuo is an example, There is a general committee for the literacy -movement in more than 130 villages, 3,387 branch 189 committees for 561 villages and there are members enrolled in the 12?529 literacy groups below the branch committees. This is a, mass movement on an extremely vast scale to sweep away illiteracy and it should be expanded to cover all rural and urban areas in the Soviet territories. We can also see from the publications of newspapers the rapid advances being made in the cultural movement in the Soviet areas. There are 34 different kinds of big and small newspapers in the central Soviet areas, of which RED CHINA has increased its printing from 3,000 to 4,000 copies., THE TRUTH FROM YOUTH prints 28,000 copies, STRUGGLE 27,100 copies and RED STAR 17,300 copies. All these prove that the cultural level of the masses is being rapidly elevated, The revolutionary arts of the masses in the Soviet areas are beginning to be formed. The theatre of the workers and peasants, the blue shirt group and the club movement in the rural areas are expanding widely. The Red physical culture movement of the -masses is also developing rapidly. Track events are available even in isolated rural hamlets and villages and sports grounds have been established in many areas. Soviet areas are still lacking in the construction of complete specialized education apparatus, although we have established the Red Army University, the Soviet University, the Marxist Communist University and many schools for educating cadres under the leadership of the department of education for the training of leading cadres in the revolutionary struggle. Beyond doubt, limiting the expansion of general education for the development of secondary and special (vocational) education should be matfe part of the educational plans. The forming of worker<-peasant intellectuals, developing cultural education and utilizing intellectuals with landlord bourgeois background to serve the Soviet should not be neglected in the Soviet's cultural policy. Where does the general guideline of the Soviet cultural education lie? It lies in the education of the broad masses of laboring people with the communist spirit? using cultural education to serve the revolution and the class struggle, and linking up education arid labor. What are the central tasks of the Soviet's cultural construction? They are the implementation of obligatory education in full, developing and spreading social education and developing large numbers of high ranking cadres to lead the revolution. Everyone should understand that all these policies and tasks can be implemented only under the Soviet political power, because it is a manifestation of the intensification of class struggle. This is an absolutely great victory in the spiritual liberation of humankind. We shall now discuss the -marriage system of the Soviet. 190 The Central Executive Committee promulgated the Soviet marriage laws in November 1931, in order to liberate women from the barbaric, feudal system and implement a marriage system which is truly equal for both men and women. It established the complete freedom of marriage and divorce, abolished the marriage system of contracting, coercion and buying and selling of marriages, and prohibited the rearing of child daughters-in-law. The law has been implemented in all of the areas under Soviet jurisdiction during the past 2 years. All those who are not related by blood and are outside of the 5-generation group, who are not insane and do not have serious infectious diseases, can be married if the male is 20 years old and the female 18, and if both agree to it and it has been registered with the rural or urban Soviet. The only requirement needed for divorce is for either the husband or wife to make the request and duly register it with the township or city soviet. This type of democratic marriage system has smashed the feudal fetters which have shackled mankind, especially its females, for many thousands of years. This is also.a great victory in the history of mankind. This is a victory to be attained only after the worker-peasant democratic dictatorship has been successful, First, the dictatorship of the landlord bourgeois must be overthrown, the agrarian revolution carried out and the masses of men and women, especially the women, have political and relative economic freedom. Only then will the freedom of -marriage be finally guaranteed. The new system can be wholly initiated because the working women in the Soviet area have the same right to vote as the men, and they have also been distributed land and assigned work. The current Soviet marriage law emphasizes the protection of women because the marriage relationship for the past several thousand years has been barbarously inhumane. Women are subjected to more oppression than men, and the obligations arising from divorces have been placed more heavily on the men to shoulder. In the society that has passed it was customary not to pay too much attention to the protection of children. But children are the new generation of the revolution. There is a .law solely concerned with the protection of children in the marriage laws, and it has underscored the protection of illegitimate children and the acceptance of their status. The implementation of the marriage system won for the Soviet the support of the broad masses. The broad masses of people have not only achieved liberation economically, but also in relationships between men and women. With just the marriage system as an example, the Soviet areas and the Kupmintang areas are two diametrically opposed worlds. Finally, we shall talk about our policy regarding nationalities. The basis from which the Soviet nationalities policy proceeds is winning over all oppressed minority nationalities and rally them around the Soviet, and increasing the revolutionary forces opposing imperialism and the Kuomintang. 191 Many of the minority nationalities such as the Mongols,, Tibetans, Koreans, Annamese, Miao and Li in China have always been ruled and exploited by Chinese feudal emperors and feudal warlords. After inheriting this rule^ the Kuomintang has made no changes, and the so-called "five nationalities in harmonious peace" is just so much nonsense used to dupe people. The Kuomintang's recent "reward" was the massacre of Hui people in Kansu Province carried out by Feng Yu-hsiang [7458 3768 4382] and the slaughtering of the Miao people by Fai Chung-hsi [4101 1504 4406] in Kwangsi. On the other side, the ruling class within the minority nationalities themselves, such as the kings and princes, living buddhas, lamas and headmen, collaborated with the Kuomintang landlords of China and brought even more severe oppression and exploitation upon the broad masses of laboring people of the minority nationalities. Or they (like Tibet, Sinkiang and Inner Mongolia) capitulated to the imperialists and led imperialism to rapidly turn these areas into colonies and carried the robbing of the working people a step forward. This was the essence of the lives of minority nationalities in the past. The Soviet Government firmly opposes imperialist and Kuomintang warlords7 rule and plunder perpetrated upon the minority nationalities. Article 14 of the Constitution proclaimed by the First National Soviet Congress in November 1931 says; "The Chinese Soviet political power recognises the autonomous right of minority nationalities within the boundaries of China right up to the time they secede from China and establish their own independent and free nations. All Mongolians, Huis, Tibetans, Miaos, Lis and Koreans residing within the boundaries of China will decide in accordance with the wishes of each nationality whether to participate in the Chinese Soviet Union or cecede from it. The Chinese Soviet political power currently must strive to help these weak, minority nationalities to get out from under the oppressive rule of imperialism, Kuomintang warlords, kings, princes, lamas and headmen and attain complete liberation,. The Soviet should develop their own language and culture among these nationalities." This is a resounding answer to the vicious colonial policy applied to nationalities by imperialists all over the world (including the Chinese Kuomintang). The broad masses of workers and peasants of China and their Soviet Government are not only seeking to get rid of the shackles of imperialism by waging a resolute national revolutionary war on its own but also call upon all weak, minority nationalities in the country to do so at the same time until these nationalities have been able to cut themselves away and achieve complete independence. Besides, Article 15 of the Soviet Constitution Outline says: "The various nationalities in China, as well as revolutionary fighters of the various countries in the world, who are being persecuted by the reactionary rulers because of their revolutionary activities will be given the right to asylum in the Soviet areas by the Chinese Soviet Government, and help will be extended to them to recover their strength to struggle again until the revolutionary movement of these nationalities and nations have achieved complete victory." 192 The existence of many Korean, Taiwanese and Annmese revolutionary comrades in temporary residence in the Soviet areas, the attendance of Korean representatives at the First All-Soviet Congress and the attendance of several Korean, Taiwanese and Annamese representatives at this Congress prove that this proclamation of the Soviet is true. The common revolutionary interests of the Chinese and minority nationality working people have truly united them. The oppression of nationality is based upon the exploitation of the nationality and when this system of national exploitation is overthrown, the free union of nationalities will be substituted for national oppression. This is possible only when the Soviet political power has won complete victory, It is the responsibility of the various minority nationalities to support and help the Soviet political power to win victory throughout China. 5. The Concrete Fighting Tasks of the Soviet in Striving to Smash Thoroughly the Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression" and Win Nationwide Victory for the Revolution After we have discussed the current situation, the struggle of the Soviet political power against imperialism and against "encirclement and suppression" during the past 2 years, and the basic policies implemented by the Soviet, we arrived at a determined conclusion and, that is to say, the Soviet movement is progressing with giant strides. The victory of the Soviet movement in the past 2 years has brought about a visible change in the strengths of both the enemy and ourselves. The vacillation and collapse of the enemy is accelerating while the Soviet movement is vigorously developing. The forces of revolution have grown, even greater, and the battle lines of the revolution have become even more consolidated. The national war and the revolutionary Civil War are being waged within the vast confines of China, and the Red Army has become an invincible force. The foundation of the democratic worker-peasant dictatorship has been established. The Soviet*s work of construction has achieved great results in various respects, The centralized leadership of the Soviet Central Government has not only established a solid foundation in the Soviet areas, but it has also become the revolutionary banner of the broad masses in the areas under the Kuomintang rule. All these have become the current realities of: life, they have become realities existing objectively and which are not to be denied. But the progress of the revolution has required us to take into consideration other situations. It required us to apply an intensive spirit of self-criticism to examine the weaknesses existing in the revolutionary fronts. This is a responsibility we cannot disregard. In evaluating our weaknesses, we must first of all realize' that although the areas where the Soviet has already been victorious is very large, it is situated in very small and narrow confines when the entire country is taken as a whole, and in areas 193 where the economy is relatively backward. The counterrevolutionaries still have their vast areas and occupy the important cities. The task of the Soviet seeking nationwide victory by first achieving victories in one or several provinces rests very heavily upon our shoulders. The daily intensifying life-and-death struggle between two political powers requires us to go all out to resolve this problem. It does not permit the slightest bit of complacency to exist in our revolutionary ranks, and it also does not permit the slightest appearance of fatigue in our attitudes. Second, although the people's- anti-imperialist movement has unfolded on a massive scale in the past 2 years and considerable achievements attained in the leadership given by the Central Government in the anti-imperialist movement, the forces engaged in the currently developing struggle against imperialism is woefully inadequate seen in the light of the grave nature of the national peril and the seriousness of our task to stop imperialist aggression and the capitulation and national betrayal of the Kuomintang. The Soviet has not yet adopted numerous ways to spark the national and class consciousness of the broad masses and organize their struggle against imperialism. Notwithstanding this fact, the Soviet Government's direct aid and leadership of the anti-imperialist struggle launched at the initiative of the'-masses are very much inadequate. The Soviet Government has not fully discharged its responsibility with regard to the organization and leadership of the workers' struggle against the bourgeoisie and the peasants' struggle against landlords in the vast areas under White domination. In the Kuomintang areas surrounding the Soviet areas, it also has not exerted the greatest effort to organise the people's struggle and create conditions that will rapidly transform them into Soviet areas, bring about ever-increasing efforts of the masses to coordinate with the Red Army's campaigns in these areas, and, especially, the situation wherein soldiers of the White Armies rebel in support of the Red Army, Third, the Red Army's entire -military strength is still far from being able to accomplish the great task of defeating imperialism and the Kuomintang and achieving victory for the revolution throughout the country although numerically and qualitatively it has been increased and improved. The rear echelon work of expanding the Red Army still cannot meet the requirements of the front, and in many respects the organizing and training of Red Guard Forces and Young Pioneers leave much to be desired. Also, the organizing of guerrilla units and their activities are generally very inadequate. Tn some areas the work of giving preferential treatment to families of Red Army members is very poorly carried out. These have caused achievements in the revolution to remain at a standstill and prevented us from being able to pursue in the flush of victory and win even greater victories each time we smashed the enemy's "encirclement and suppression." Fourth, with a mission of giving everything for the war effort, we still are unable to conform our work to the needs of the revolution. Regardless of whether it is with respect to land struggle, workers' struggle, economic construction, finance, suppression of counterrevolution and cultural and education, each has its own weaknesses. In pointing out these weaknesses 194 in general, we would like to say that the revolution requires this work to garner greater achievements with the greatest speed. But this work is being carried out very unevenly in the various areas. Many areas have truly attained the standard of greatest speed and greatest achievements. Reliance on the work of these areas has been of great help to the revolution. . However, in some other areas work progress has been very slow and, in some cases, achievements that should have been attained are still unreachable after a long period of time. Especially in some newly established areas and border areas, the work is done even more poorly. The main reason for this is that in the Soviet organizations of these areas there exist elements who do not understand and are even unwilling to carry out, the laws and policies of the Soviet. Some of these elements are people gravely afflicted with opportunism and bureaucracism, but others are outright spies sent in by the .landlord bourgeoisie. They do not advance the work of the Soviet but impede it. They did not subordinate Soviet work to the war efforts^ but caused it to become separated from it. They were not willing to develop the struggle of the masses and brought it to a standstill. Instead of proceeding from -mobilizing the broad masses and doing education work on them, they tried to implement the Soviet's work through empty talk and clamor, even to the extent of using coercive orders of bureaucraticism. Instead of trying to understand the situation at lower levels, educating new cadres and soliciting suggestions from the masses, they slandered lower level cadres and said that the masses do not have enthusiasm. The Soviet democracy was not fully developed in these respects. It did not attract a majority of the masses to participate in the election of Soviets or attract large numbers of intellectuals from the masses to participate in the work of the Soviet. The system of urban and rural congresses of representatives has not been firmly established in these areas, nor the Soviet transformed into a political organization that is truly of the masses. For these reasons, many aspects of the Soviet's work did not achieve what should have "been achieved in these areas and they were unable to meet the pressing needs of the revolution. It should be clearly pointed out that this is the gravest shortcoming in the Soviet's work. All of these weaknesses have placed us on the highest alert to overcome them so that the Soviet movement will be able to conform with all objective and favorable conditions and expand on an even more massive scale over an even more vast territory. We already have one great force,, and it has become the foundation for our expansion. But it is insufficient because the requirement of the revolutionary situation exceeds its capability, and we must strengthen it. The Second All^China Congress of Soviet Representatives must call on the revolutionary masses in all of the Soviet areas and all of China to resolutely carry out the following concrete fighting tasks in order to thoroughly sniash the imperialists1 and Kuomintang's "encirclement and suppression" and win nationwide victory for the revolution: 195 1. On building the Red Army. Further strengthen, and perfect the leadership of the Central Revolutionary Military Affairs Committee over the Red Army so that the activities of the Red Array throughout China will, under a unified strategic will, become even more mutually supportive and mutually coordinated than in the past, and the local military organizations will "be able to discharge their own duties under the central leadership. Propagate on a general and penetrating scale the slogan "expand the Red Army into an iron force at least a million strong" into the ranks of the worker-peasant masses throughout the Soviet areas and throughout China, calling upon the broad masses to struggle for the realization of this slogan in the shortest time possible. The masses must be made to understand that the Imminent struggle to decide victory or defeat between the Soviet political power and the Kuomintang political power, and the direct and massive struggle between the Soviet political power and imperialism is entirely dependent upon the establishment of the Red Army. This task is a sacred responsibility of the Soviet and each one of the workers and peasants. The Central Revolutionary Military Affairs Committee and the various Soviets should be responsible for collecting the rich experiences gained in expanding the Red Army in various areas during the last 2 years, especially since Red May of last year. It is emphatically pointed out that in expanding the Red Army, is for political encouragement to be used instead qf forceful coercion. We must deal with alien and bad elements who sabotage effqrts to expand the Red Army and lead to desertion by applying merciless class struggle and the Soviet's laws concerning such matters. All laws and methods of the Soviet for the preferential treatment of Red Army fighters and their families -must be implemented. We must raise the social status of Red Army fighters, heightening the spiritual comfort of the Red Army fighters and their families and resolving material difficulties in their lives. It is also necessary to point out that cultivating land for families of Red Army members and providing them with daily necessities are an important part of the work to give preferential treatment. All those who drag their feet, are apathetic and feigned compliance with regard to the preferential treatment of Red Army fighters and their families should be prosecuted under Soviet law. Place the work of consolidating the Red Army in. a place of importance in the work of building the Red Army so that it will not only be able to expand very quickly, but also become strong and healthy very rapidly. Political education of Red Army fighters should be elevated even further so that each one of them will consciously struggle to the end for the Soviet New China, so that the Red Army is transformed into a propagandist and organizer for the Soviet and a creator of new Soviet territories. The relationship between the Red Army fighters and the laboring masses of workers and peasants in both the Soviet and White areas becomes even -more closely linked. Enhance the conscious discipline of the Red Army through political 196 education and make them understand that this is an important weapon guaranteer-ing victory in the war. The system of political commissars should be established throughout all Red Army? local and guerrilla units, and foster even more worker elements to Become military and political commanders. Transform the Red Army school to train better than in the past large numbers of senior and junior grade military and political cadres. Search for bad elements within the Red Army and deal severely with the attempts of landlord bourgeois elements who have stolen in to sabotage the Red Army. The work of consolidating the Red Army so as to transform it into a form of iron is of the same importance as political work. It is what the Red Army urgently needs now. Improving the Red Army's military techniques is of vital importance to us in the face of the daily growing scale of the war and the daily adoption of new military techniques by imperialist and Kuomintang troops. The slogan "Master and improve on new military techniques" should penetrate' deeply "into the minds of the Red Army fighters and the Red Army school should exert its greatest efforts toward this end. The new method of organizing Red Guard Forces and Young Pioneers units should be propagated to reach every nook and cranny of the Soviet areas and arm all of the youths and adult males and females of the working class. Every one of the members of the Red Guard Forces and the Young Pioneers should be made to understand clearly the roles and responsibilities of the Red Army's rear support troops and local defense forces. The necessity for and the role to be played by obligatory service in the forthcoming Civil War which will be waged on an even bigger scale should be suitably propagated now to the broad masses of working people and members of the Red Guard Forces and the Young Pioneers, An all-out effort should be made to carry out necessary military and political training whenever possible. Spread the method of bivouaking and maneuvers to all Red Guard Forces and Young Pioneer units in all areas. Under a situation of enemy attacks and attempts at trouble-making by exploiting elements in the Soviet areas, the responsibility of the Red Guard Forces and Young Pioneer units for the defense of the area should be increased in a special manner, and existing slackness in Red martial law in many areas should be speedily corrected. One of the best means to expand the Red Army is to mobilize model units of the Red Guard Forces and Young Pioneers, immediately recognize these troops after mobilization and enlist them into the Red Army by the whole unit and by the entire company. It is the Red guerrilla units of new and border areas and in the areas between the Soviet and the White areas who play the great role of detachments of the Red Army inseparable from the Red Army in battle. The most pressing task of the Soviet is to strengthen and enlarge present guerrilla units, establish new guerrilla units on a most widespread scale, collect the rich experiences of guerrilla warfare of the past, massively strengthen education an'd instruction in guerrilla tactics, send forth hundreds and thousands of guerrilla units into the White areas and into the rear and flanks of the enemy to attack them there, develop mass struggle, create guerrilla areas and expand them into new Soviet areas and, especially, 197 be active in the areas between the Soviet territories which have not yet been linked up in coordination with the activities of the lied Army's main force. All means should be applied to ensure the supply and transportation of the Red Army's rations. The finance and economic organizations of the Soviet, and the supply, transportation and health organizations within the military system should strive together to attain this common objective. Past shortcomings should be overcome in the mobilization of transport units so that there will be no shortage of transportation personnel to hinder the mobility and combat of the Red Army, All for the war effort is the responsibility of every revolutionary and every worker of the Soviet. 2. On economic construction. The Soviet should carry out various necessary and feasible economic construction in a planned -manner for the purpose of Breaking through the enemy's blockade, opposing the manipulations of unscupulous merchants, ensuring the needs of the revolution,vand improve the well-being of the worker-peasant masses. First and foremost is the development of the vast agricultural production in the Soviet areas. The Soviet should use all means to heighten the enthusiasm of the peasantry for production, It should take advantage of the important seasons for agricultural work, such as spring and summer plowing and fall harvesting, to launch a general and widespread movement to increase production and mobilize the entire peasantry of the rural areas to plunge together into the front lines of production. An important method to increase production is to organize labor cooperatives and plowing units, distribute the rural labor force in a planned way and mobilize the broad masses of women tq participate in production. Help and leadership should be provided to the peasants in solving concrete and important problems of agriculture, such as plow oxen, farm implements, fertilizers, seeds, irrigation and pest prevention. Plow oxen cooperatives should be set up on a general scale. Based upon the experience gained from the spring and summer plowing campaign of last year,, "Completely eliminate waste land'1 and "Increase this year's harvest by 20 percent" should become battle slogans. Experiences in planting cotton should be collected and the production of cotton in the Soviet areas should be developed. A movement to plant trees should be launched? calling upon every person in the rural areas to plant 10 trees. The Soviet should pay attention to increasing stock animal raising. The Ministry of the People's Council on National Economy of the Central Government and the Departments of National Economy of various provinces should set forth concrete plans of action in such important departments of agriculture as food grains, cotton and others. The Sovietrs Department of Food Grains, the Bureau of Food Grains Distribution and food grain cooperatives of the masses should closely link together in work and strive hard to ensure the supply of food grains to the Red Army and the people, The recovery of the large, handicraft enterprises and the construction of needed military Industries are important tasks of the SovietTs economic 198 construction. The Soviet's plan to recover and expand industry should be based upon the needs of the war? the needs of the people in the Soviet areas and the possibility of exporting to the White areas? wolfram, coal., iron, lime, agricultural implements, tobacco, paper, cloth, sugar., medicine, nitre, camphor and lumber should be the main departments. A major effort should be made to develop people's production cooperatives of these indus^ tries, and organize as many as possible unemployed workers, independent laborers and peasants and bring them into production cooperatives. At the same time, permit and reward private capitalists to invest and expand these productions in the Soviet areas. Currently, the Soviet should not attempt to monopolize all production, enterprises, but the founding and expansion of especially needed and especially profitable state enterprises is permissible and should be done. An important way to increase production is to heighten enthusiasm for labor, launch competitions in production and reward those making outstanding achievements on the production front. The smashing of the enemy's economic blockade, developing the Soviet areas' trade with the outside, exchanging surplus items (such as unhusked grain, wolfram, lumber, tobacco and paper) produced in the Soviet areas with industrial commodities from the White areas (such as table salt, cloth-and kerosene) are the pivots in the development of the national economy. The Soviet Bureau of External -Trade and other commercial organizations must be further improved and strengthened. At the same time, reward private businessmen and "bring them to work hard toward the import and export of needed commercial commodities. Consumer cooperatives are to be developed on a general scale and organize the broad masses of workers and peasants within these cooperatives so that the masses will be able to buy necessary items from the White areas at a cheap price and sell the products from Soviet areas at a high price. All these occupy especially important positions in the Soviet's trade and in the entire project of economic construction. The Soviet should greatly strengthen its leadership over the general consumer cooperative of the Central Government and the general consumer cooperatives of the provinces and counties, and establish general cooperatives as quickly as possible in areas where they have not yet been established. In economic construction, the solution of the problem of capital is achieved mainly through the absorption of capital from the masses. Organize them into the production consumer and credit cooperatives and attention should be paid to the development of credit cooperatives so that after usurious capital has been done away with the credit cooperatives can be substituted. Absorbing the capital of the masses into the construction of state enterprises, expansion of trade with outside areas and assisting cooperative enterprises through such means as issuing economic construction bonds, issu-^ ing bank shares and deposits in banks are equally important. Use all possible means to encourage private capitalists to invest within the boundaries of Soviet laws so that capital in the Soviet areas is more viable. The role of the Soviet Bank should be given free rein by all possible means, issuing suitable amount of scripts in accordance with the principle of market demand, absorbing the deposits of the masses, making loans to profitable production enterprises, allocate the finances of the entire Soviet areas in a planned way, and lead the people's cooperatives to struggle against speculative businessmen. All these are the tasks of the banks, 199 3. On Soviet construction. The establishment of the Central Government provided general leadership to the Soviet movement throughout the country and it is of absolute significance to the Chinese revolution. It has achieved a great and glorious victory in leading the struggle against imperialism and the Kuomintang during the past 2 years. We should point out that the Central Government, in its organization and work, is still not sound and adequate enough in many areas. In order to strengthen the Central Government's general leadership of the various Soviet areas and the revolution throughout the country it will be necessary to separate the work of the Central Executive Committee from that of the People's Committee. Faced with a situation of accelerated development of the revolution, it will be necessary to make the work and the organization of the Central Executive Committee's presidium quite sound, the staff of the various people's committees must be fleshed out and their work methods improved and more peopleTs committee departments must be established, such as the people's committee department of food grain, so as to enable the Central Government to play its full role as principal motive force. The provincial Soviet is the supreme organization of leadership for the local political power, and it is the Central Government's link with the various county and area Soviets. We must make a great effort to strengthen the Central Government's leadership of the various provinces, closely link the relationship between it and the various provincial Soviets (the provincial Soviets in the central Soviet area and those outside) and closely scrutinize the work of the various provincial Soviets,.put into effect the systems of collective discussion, precise division of labor and individual responsibility. We must scrutinize the work of the various Soviet areas in the counties and strive hard to correct the phenomena of slackened efforts and non^centralization which had occurred in the past in some areas. As township and city Soviets are the basic organizations of the Soviet, we must go all-out to improve the work of these Soviets. In those areas where a congress of representatives does not exist, it must be established. Further strengthen its work and form a presidium for the Congress. The many committees under the Congress should be formed and spread this system of committees into the rural areas, attracting large groups of worker-peasant activists to join the committees and work in them. A system whereby close relationships may be maintained between a representative and a definite number of residents must be set up, a system of chairmen of representatives formed so that there will be one in each village to oversee the work of the entire village, and he should be permitted to convene a meeting between a representative of a hamlet and its inhabitants to discuss the work being done in the hamlet. The township and city Soviets are organizations directly responsible for mobilizing the masses and carrying out the work of the Soviet. The focus of its work should be how to mobilize the masses of the village or township in the soundest and most adequate way 200 and struggle to implement successfully each task and each piece of work of the Soviet. The village and ward Soviets must give their greatest attention to the practical work.being done by the village or street, and implement a system of scheduled examination of their work. An effective way to achieve speed in work is the revolutionary competition between the various villages or streets. The speedy and thorough improvement of village and ward Soviets is dependent upon the correct and practical leadership of the area and municipal Soviets. The attention of the area and municipal Soviets should be placed fully upon the improvement of the work of the village and street Soviets, and the key to the leadership of the area and municipal Soviets is full explanations, constant inspections, thorough examinations and tests by the people. The county Soviet should apply these as criteria in examinr-ing the work of the area Soviet. The Soviet of various provinces must place its own attention strongly upon the newly formed Soviet areas, and regard the work of establishing revolutionary committees and strenthening their work as its important duty. The essence of the work and the form of the organization of revolutionary com<-mittees are in many places different from those of the village or township. The transformation of all White areas into Soviet areas has to pass through the stage of revolutionary committee. The provincial Sovietsf the Soviets of various new and boundary areas and the county soviet should place the organizational structure and work of revolutionary committees on a sound basis so that they will be able to shoulder the responsibility of arming the people, launching people's struggles, wiping out reactionary forces and speedily switching over to the establishment of the Soviet political power. Although Soviet democracy has developed, we should point out that there is still much to be desired in many areas, and it is necessary that a serious struggle be launched against bureaucracy to eliminate those obsolete things—bureaucraticism and commandism—hidden in the Soviets and among the people. The functionaries (cadres of the Soviets) should carry out their work by mobilization and persuasion, and not by compulsory orders. They should be attentive to, and not ignore, each and every request or suggestion from the masses. Personnel of the Soviets, especially the procurate committee of the workers and peasants, should induce the broad masses to launch criticism and struggle against bad elements within the Soviet organizations and sternly prosecute them under the laws of the Soviet so as to ensure that there will be good relationship between the Soviet and the people. In order to have sound elements in the Soviet, it will be necessary to popularize the election of Soviets, explain the meaning of elections to the people and induce the greatest majority of the voters to participate in the elections. In elections, those class alien elements and elements who are corrupt, wasteful and bureaucratic must be absolutely expelled and large numbers of workers-peasant activists elected to manage the stateTs work. Here, letting in large groups of worker cadres, in accordance with the election laws to strengthen the workers* position of leadership 201