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Source: "Chinese Workers Live Better," Beijing Review 2, no. 42, 20 October 1959, 13-15.
Transcribed by an HC, May 5, 2005
October 20, 1959
by MA WEN-JUI
Minister of Labour
Chinese workers review their achievements in the past decade with joy and pride. In the ten years since liberation, they have boosted the total value of industrial output more than elevenfold, and on the basis of the growth of production, their material and cultural life has improved greatly.
Under the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, the national economy deteriorated steadily and increasing numbers of people lost their jobs. They trudged the streets and lived a wretched life. Even the more fortunate ones who had jobs were constantly menaced by hunger and unemployment.
This situation has been fundamentally changed since the founding of the People's Republic. With the rapid development of production and construction, the ranks of the working class expanded quickly as the following table shows.
Number of Workers (in millions) 1949 1952 1957 1958 8 15.8 24.51 45.32
In nine years following liberation, the number of Chinese workers rose more than fivefold. This increase met the demand for labour power arising from rapid economic growth and, at the same time, satisfied the urgent desire of the mass of the people for employment. The right to work laid down in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China has thus been realized.
One of the serious problems New China faced at the moment of its birth was the problem of unemployment left over by the old society. The number of unemployed in the cities exceeded 4 million, about half the number of employed at that time.
With the rapid rehabilitation and development of the national economy since liberation, and as a result of effective measures taken by the People's Government, the number of unemployed declined steadily. As far back as 1952, about half the unemployed had found jobs. By 1956, when the economy forged ahead at great speed under the impetus of virtual completion of the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce, the problem of unemployment was essentially solved. When the economy made a big leap forward and people's communes were established throughout the countryside in 1958, the remaining unemployed were entirely absorbed. The fact that serious unemployment was solved in less than a decade in an economically backward country of more than 600 million people eloquently demonstrates the incomparable superiority and vitality of the socialist system.
In New China today, not only has unemployment been solved, but the millions of young people who grow up every year are also given jobs in accordance with the needs of planned economic development and their personal inclinations.
Worthy of special note is the fact that in 1958, about 55 million housewives were relived of the drudgery of their household chores and given gainful employment. In old China, few women had remunerative jobs. They were socially oppressed and, since they were not independent economically, their position in the family was a subordinate one. With the establishment of such welfare institutions as community dining-rooms, nurseries and creches, sewing and laundering groups, the women were able to get out of the kitchens and take part in social labour. They are now making splendid contributions in socialist construction. This is an important landmark in the history of the emancipation of Chinese women.The increase in employment has a direct bearing on the improvements in the people's livelihood. A sample study shows that in industrial Tientsin, one out of every seven and a half people had a job before liberation. The proportion was one out of every three and a half in the latter part of 1958. Because there are more bread-winners in the family, per capita income rose even more than average wages.
The children of working people had little chance of getting a decent education in the old days. Most of them were illiterate. Now the doors of the schools and universities are wide open to them. At the same time, the industrial and mining enterprises also run spare-time schools of many types. In 1949, the year of liberation, 276,000 workers attended such schools. The number rose to 7 million by 1958. There were only 164,000 engineers and technicians in the country in 1952. By 1958, the number shot up to nearly 620,000.
To meet the needs of the growing economy, 5.6 million skilled workers have been recruited in the decade since liberation by 12 branches of industry and communications: metallurgy, machine-building, railway, communications, building construction, water conservancy and [p. 14] electric power, coal-mining, petroleum, chemical industry, geology, textile, and light industry. Most of them were trained within the enterprises. They learnt on the job with the help of the technical personnel and the veteran workers. The rest were trained in technical schools. They acquired a general education, a political education and a theoretical foundation as well as technical skills. They are capable of performing both mental and manual labour and are in a better position to serve socialist construction. As a result of the implementation of the principle of combining study with productive labour, the technical schools became fully or partially self-supporting in 1958.
Production in old China was at a low level and the workers and employees lived on starvation wages. Towards the last years of Kuomintang rule, runaway inflation and soaring commodity prices reached such heights that the workers and the bulk of the working people were at their wit's end to keep the wolf from the door.
Following the founding of the People's Republic, the Communist Party and the People's Government did a great deal to stabilize market prices. Since 1950, except for a certain number of commodities the prices of which fluctuated slightly, the prices of most of the staple commodities such as grain, cloth and sundry goods for daily use remained stable all along. For the first time in many years the working people in China were relived of the anxiety of soaring prices.
The wages of the workers and employees also increased steadily with the restoration and development of production after liberation. Average wage increases between 1950 and 1952 were as high as 70 per cent. The rise in the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957) was 42.8 per cent. Average wages of those who were in the labour force in 1957 registered a further increased in 1958 of 3 per cent.
In addition, labour insurance and collective welfare services were introduced. Before liberation workers and employees were quite helpless in the face of difficulties caused by childbirth, old age, sickness, death, injury or disablement. In 1950, the Communist Party and the People's Government, with a view to freeing the workers and employees from these worries, decided to introduce labour insurance in all enterprises employing more than 100 workers and clerks. Those working in the smaller enterprises were also given similar benefits through the signing of collective agreements in the spirit of the labour insurance regulations. Free medical services were extended to government functionaries and workers in the fields of education and culture who may also receive special subsidies in case of need. Nurseries, sanatoria and rest homes for workers and employees also multiplied. The labour insurance fund is paid entirely by the administration and no deduction is made from wages. Expenditures by the state on labour insurance, free medical services, subsidies for individuals, and welfare services amounted to 14,100 million yuan between 1952 and 1958.
Housing for workers and employees built during the First Five-Year Plan had a total floor space of 94,540,000 square metres and an additional 26,240,000 square metres in 1958.
The improvements in the workers' material life can be seen from the rise in the consumption of some principal goods by the urban population in the last few years:
Per Capita Consumption by Urban Residents in 1958 (1952 = 100) Grain 140 Edible vegetable oils 143 Meats 155 Fresh eggs 167 Sugar 195 Cotton cloth 116 Knitwear 267 Woollen fabrics 245 Bicycles 181
This gives the lie to the slanders of the reactionaries at home and abroad who try to make the world believe that the national construction in our country is carried out at the expense of the people at large. In actual fact, the only things the Chinese working class have lost since liberation are the unemployment and poverty imposed on them by these same reactionaries in the past. And an even better and fuller life for our workers and people is in the offing.
In dealing with questions of wages and welfare, the Communist Party and the government have always adhered to the following principles: "To improve the living standards of the workers and employees on the basis of developing production and raising labour productivity"; "overall planning and all-round consideration for the interests of the six hundred million people of the country." It is thanks to these principles that we have correctly solved the relations between the workers and employees as individuals and the state, between consumption and accumulation, and correctly combined the immediate and long-term interests of the workers and employees, the improvement of living standards with the development of production. The implementation of these policies has also properly solved the relations between workers and peasants in the sphere of living standards and accordingly strengthened the worker-peasant alliance.
The Communist Party and government have also done a great deal to reform the wages system in the past ten years. The irrationality of the wage system of old China has been done away with and the socialist wage system of "to each according to his work" has been set up. This has aroused the great enthusiasm of the workers and employees in labour and their initiative to study culture and technique.
In the past ten years, a reasonable difference in the wages of different workers and employees is maintained. We oppose equalitarianism as well as too large a difference in pay, both being harmful to the enthusiasm of the workers and employees as a whole and to production.
Before liberation, working hours in the factories and mines were extremely long and the intensity of labour was very high. Even the simplest safety devices and installations did not exist. Occupational diseases prevailed and accidents were everyday occurrences. The health of the workers was greatly endangered and life hung by a thread.
It is the consistent policy of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Government to improve working [p. 15] conditions, to protect the safety and health of the working people. This is embodied in the Constitution of our People's Republic. Many regulations on labour protection have been drawn up and promulgated by the state and various industrial branches in the past ten years and large special funds for labour protection have been appropriated to improve working conditions.
Today safety devices are installed on practically all machinery and power equipment. Where smoke, dust and poisonous gas inevitably appear in the course of production, different measures have been taken to dispel, absorb, or contain these nuisances and if possible, to improve the method of production. By installing ventilation and cooling devices and providing workers with free cold drinks, practically no workers in the high-temperature workshops now suffer from heat prostration. Working conditions in the mines have also been greatly improved. In most of the coal mines, coal-cutting and underground hauling has been mechanized to a very large extent. Before liberation, only 30 per cent of the coal shafts in the country had air ventilation systems, while every miner got at most one cubic metre of fresh air per minute. Today, all miners in the state-owned coal mines benefit from the newly installed ventilation systems, which provide over four cubic metres of fresh air per minute for every miner. Illumination in the pits has also been greatly improved. On many construction sites, actual construction is mechanized or semi-mechanized. All this has reduced the intensity of labour to a very large extent.
In state-owned and join state-private enterprises, the eight-hour work day and six-day week have been introduced. For those whose work involves a risk to health, working time is six or seven hours a day. With the reduction of working hours our workers and employees now have enough time for rest and study.
According to the labour insurance regulations, our women workers are entitled to a 56-day maternity leave with pay. Expectant mothers are not given night shift assignment and do only light work. This has put an end to the misery that pregnancy and childbirth, which usually meant losing one's job, brought to women workers before liberation. With the increase in the number of women workers and the children of workers and employees, nurseries and nursing rooms for mothers spread like mushrooms in our factories, mines and other enterprises. The number of nurseries in 1958 was more than twelve times as high as in 1952. The number of children under the care of the nurseries grew more than 17-fold. All this has also given the lie to the imperialist nonsense about "slave labour" in China.
The Party's policy of safety in production has proved to be a powerful weapon in guiding and pushing forward the work of labour protection. Since the workers are the masters of the state and creators of material wealth, their safety and health must receive great care and be well protected. The policy of safety in production, one of the fundamental principles in the management of the socialist enterprises in our country, is in fact a manifestation of the socialist state's concern for both production and people. This is also one of the important marks of the difference between our country and the capitalist countries.
The outstanding achievements in labour protection in the past ten years are also inseparably linked with the implementation of the Party's mass line, which is the principal means of achieving labour protection. By following the mass line in earnest, it is easier for us to find out in time the factors causing unsafe production, to improve the safety devices with greater effectiveness and less cost, to work out effective regulations for safety operations and have them carried out thoroughly. The mass campaign of checking up on safety measures and devices in production in our country in the past few years have been most rewarding.
"In the last analysis," said Lenin, "productivity of labour is the most important, the principal thing for the victory of the new social system. Capitalism created a productivity of labour unknown under serfdom. Capitalism can be utterly vanquished by the fact that Socialism creates a new and much higher productivity of labour." The rapid increase of the labour productivity and the firm base of the socialist economy in our country during the past ten years have again borne out this truth.
Taking the productivity of the workers as a whole, labour productivity of the industrial branches in our country increased by 42.7 per cent during the period of the rehabilitation of the national economy (1950-1952), an average annual rate of increase of 12.6 per cent. During the First Five-Year Plan, it increased by 61 per cent, an average annual rate of increase of 9.9 per cent. In 1958, even though the number of new workers was many times greater than in previous years, labour productivity still increased by 8 per cent while total industrial output value increased by 66 per cent. Compared with the labour productivity in 1949, the efficiency of the coal cutters in 1958 went up 3.4 times; that of iron smelters increased more than 17 times; steel workers, 8.6 times; cement workers, 5.3 (1957 as compared with 1949); cotton textile workers, 74 per cent.
The reason why labour productivity in our country has grown so rapidly is that we have, under the guidance of the Party and People's Government, brought about the socialist ownership of the means of production, that we have persistently placed politics in command, adhered to the mass line, raised the cultural and technical level of the people, carried on the movements of technical innovation and technical revolution, improved the material well-being and working conditions of the labourers, carried out the principle of "to each according to his work" and distributed and used labour power properly. But since our original economic foundation was weak and mechanized production in our country is still not well developed, the labour productivity we have attained thus far is still comparatively low. Almost inexhaustible potentialities in this field still remain untapped. We are certainly not satisfied with the achievements we have made so far. Under the banners of the general line, the big leap forward and the people's communes, we are continuing to forge ahead with the high-speed development of the productive forces and further improvements in the living standards of the workers and employees.