Only the Council Power Can Save China

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Only the Council Power Can Save China has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

• Our Economic Policy, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 1, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• Report of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Chinese Soviet Republic to the Second National Soviet Congress, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 4, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, 1997.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a report delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong on behalf of the First Central Executive Committee and the First Council of People's Commissars to the Second National Congress of Councils of the Council Republic of China in Ruijin, Jiangxi, China on the 24th and 25th of January, 1934. It was first published as part of the Minutes of the Congress in March 1934.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#ONLY THE COUNCIL POWER CAN SAVE CHINA

#REPORT TO THE SECOND NATIONAL CONGRESS OF COUNCILS

#Mao Zedong

#24th and 25th of January, 1934

#★

#1. THE CURRENT SITUATION AND THE VICTORY OF THE COUNCIL MOVEMENT

Comrades!

Two whole years have passed since the convening of the First National Congress of Councils. Developments in the situation over the past two years have thoroughly demonstrated the further wavering and collapse of the rule of the Nationalist reactionaries and the vigorous development and victory of the council movement.

The period we are in today is actually the period of the further intensification of the Chinese revolutionary situation as well as the transitional period for the whole world to enter into a new, second era of war and revolution.

The contradiction between the socialist world and the capitalist world has now become extremely sharp. On the one hand, the socialist economy of the Council Union has achieved final consolidation. Its First Five-Year Plan was completed within only four years, and last year, the Second Five-Year Plan made great achievements in its first year. The phenomenon of unemployment has long since been eliminated in the Council Union, and the standard of living and cultural level of all the working masses have been dramatically raised. The Council Union's national defence has been greatly consolidated. With the support of the revolutionary masses of the whole world, the Council Union's policy of peace has met with success everywhere, and even the most obstinate US imperialists had no choice but to establish diplomatic relations with the Council Union.

The capitalist world, on the other hand, is something else entirely, where the economic crisis has reached an extreme. Throughout the capitalist world, production is at an unprecedented low and unemployed workers number in the tens of millions. The temporary stability of capitalism has come to an end, and its general crisis has entered a new phase. The various imperialist countries are in a mad frenzy preparing for war. As a result of the occupation of Manchuria by the Japanese imperialists, the contradictions among the various imperialists, and between the Japanese and US imperialists in particular, have developed further on a new basis. The imperialist bandit wars for redividing the world are an extremely grave menace to the people of the world. The imperialists, however, are trying to alleviate their internal contradictions for the time being and to find a way out by sacrificing the Council Union and China. Preparations for war against the Council Union have not stopped for a moment, and the war to carve up China and attack the Chinese revolution is already clearly and flagrantly underway.

Nevertheless, the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and the oppressed nations of the world is also growing and expanding under the impact of the successes of the socialist construction of the Council Union and the threat of imperialist economic crisis and war. Fierce class struggle and national revolutions are underway in all capitalist, colonial, and semi-colonial countries. The flames of war and revolution in the whole world are pressing toward us.

The Chinese revolution is part of the world revolution. The deepening of the national crisis, the general collapse of the national economy, and the victory of the council movement have further promoted the development of the Chinese revolutionary situation, pushing it to an especially prominent position in the world revolution.

The focus of the current political situation in China is the widespread civil war, the life-and-death struggle between the revolution and the counter-revolution, and the sharp contradiction between the council regime of the workers and peasants and the Nationalist regime of the landlords and bourgeoisie.

On the one hand, the Nationalist Party of China, representing the landlords and bourgeoisie, has completely capitulated to the imperialists, guiding the imperialists in their occupation of China's vast territory, monopolizing all significant political and economic rights in China, leading the national economy to complete collapse, and bringing unprecedented misery to the lives of the working people. They are taking away all freedom from the revolutionary masses, suppressing all revolutionary activities, and carrying out a mad, fascist terror. Under the leadership of the imperialists, they are organizing all reactionary forces in launching desperate attacks on the Red areas and the Red Army. All of this has one single objective: to fuse the interests of the Chinese landlords and bourgeoisie with those of the imperialists, so as to lead China onto the road to total colonization.

On the other hand, the Council Power calls together, organizes, and leads the revolutionary masses of the entire country in waging a resolute national-revolutionary war. It organizes and leads the Red Army and the masses in the struggle for the defence and expansion of the Red areas. Resolute offensives are launched to destroy the Nationalist reactionaries' repeated «encirclement and suppression» campaigns. The counter-revolutionary attempts of all exploiters within the Red areas are severely suppressed. All land is given to the peasants and Red soldiers. The workers work an eight-hour day and earn higher wages. There is relief for unemployment and a social security system is in effect. Complete freedom of assembly, association, speech, the press, and strike are granted to all the revolutionary masses. The broad masses of workers and peasants are drawn into the administration of their own State bodies; only exploiters are excluded from participation. The economic life of the masses of the people is organized to enable the masses to move from a position of suffering their fill of hunger and cold under the rule of the landlords and bourgeoisie in the past to a position that is not only completely free from hunger and cold, but improves day by day. With regard to organizing the cultural life of the masses, the broad masses, who did not have any educational opportunities under the rule of the landlords and bourgeoisie in the past, are advancing to a position of being able to raise their standard of culture day by day. All of this also has one single objective: to overthrow the rule of the landlords and bourgeoisie in the whole country, expel the imperialists from China, liberate hundreds of millions of people from the oppressive and exploitative rule of the imperialists and the Nationalist Party, block the road to colonization that would be the destruction of China, and establish a free and independent Council China with territorial integrity.

The increasingly sharp polarization between the two regimes cannot but intensify the increasingly fierce life-and-death struggle between them. The present time is actually the historical period in which victory and defeat are about to be determined by the struggle between the two sides. The counter-revolutionary fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign is advancing against us on a large scale, following after the defeat of the fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign. The historical task of the Council Power is to call together, organize, and lead all the revolutionary people of all Red areas and the whole of China to participate in this great, final struggle; to mobilize the broad masses of workers and peasants to join the Red Army; to strengthen the political education and military training of the Red Army; to expand local armed forces and guerrilla troops; to promote guerrilla warfare widely; to enhance the concentrated and unified leadership of the Red army in the various Red areas by the Council Power; to improve the speed and quality of the work of the Council Power in all spheres; to strengthen the work of the financial and economic bodies of the Council Power, so as to ensure that the material needs of the revolutionary war are met; to unfold the class struggle of the workers by channeling the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses of workers to the struggle of defeating the enemy; to promote the agrarian struggle of the peasants by mobilizing the broad masses of peasants in fighting for the conquest and defence of the land; and to call upon all the working people in all Red areas and throughout China to make all sacrifices and efforts for the war. This is the way to thoroughly smash the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign of the imperialists and the Nationalist Party, to block the road to China's colonization, and to win initial victories for the Council Power in one or several provinces, leading to victory throughout the whole of China.

#2. THE IMPERIALIST OFFENSIVE AND THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST MOVEMENT BY THE COUNCIL GOVERNMENT

Over the past two years, since the founding of the Provisional Central Government, the biggest developments inside the country have been the imperialist offensives and the counter-revolutionaries' fourth and fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaigns against the revolution.

The Japanese imperialist bandit war, which began on the 18th of September, 1931, resulted in the occupation of the three north-eastern provinces and Rehe and the control of Beijing and Tianjin through barbarous massacres with aeroplanes and cannons. Preparations are further being made to launch murderous warfare on an even larger scale toward Inner Mongolia and all of northern China. The British imperialists are attacking Sichuan from Tibet, and the French imperialists are preparing to invade Yunnan and Guizhou. Meanwhile, the US imperialists are attempting to put the Yangzi River Basin and Fujian under their direct rule. All these imperialists are spreading their pernicious grasp and conspiracies across China's vast territory for the purposes of enslaving the Chinese people, destroying the Council Republic of China, preparing to attack the Council Union, and, at the same time, preparing for a Second World War among the imperialist bandits themselves. But the Chinese landlords and bourgeoisie, represented by the Nationalist Party of China, and abiding by the principle of surrendering everything to the imperialists, have handed over several million square li of land, practised shameful non-resistance to Japan and the other imperialists attacking China, and traded all the interests of the working people for the political, economic, and military aid of the imperialists in order to facilitate the concentration of their forces for attacks against the Red areas and the Red Army, who are the only reliable force for the survival of the Chinese nation.

In this national crisis of unprecedented gravity, the anti-imperialist movement of the revolutionary masses of the whole country is developing most vigorously. The heroic fighting of hundreds of thousands of volunteer army soldiers in the three north-eastern provinces, the bloody battles of the 19th Army and the masses of workers in Shanghai, and the anti-imperialist movement that has spread throughout the country have reached a high tide never seen before.

At present, before the revolutionary masses of all of China stand opposing actions of the two political regimes: the Nationalist Party has totally surrendered to the imperialists and makes every effort to oppress the anti-imperialist masses, whereas the Council Power resolutely opposes the imperialists and makes every effort to aid and lead the anti-imperialist movement.

Over the past two years, the Provisional Central Council Government has repeatedly issued telegrams opposing the bandit war of the Japanese imperialists and the capitulation and betrayal of the Nationalist Party. On the 14th of April, 1932, the Provisional Central Government officially declared war against Japan and simultaneously issued an order of mobilization for war against Japan, calling upon the people of the whole country to wage a national-revolutionary war against the imperialists who enslave China and the Nationalist Party that betrays China. The Provisional Central Government and the Revolutionary Military Commission have already issued a declaration calling upon all Nationalist troops attacking the Red areas and the Red Army to:

• Immediately cease attacking the Red areas.
• Guarantee democratic rights for the people (freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, strike, and so on).
• Arm the people and establish an anti-Japanese volunteer army.

Under these three conditions, the Council Government is willing to conclude an agreement regarding military operations with any armed force to fight against the Japanese and all other imperialists. When the Nationalist Party signed the Tanggu Agreement with Japan and recently made direct representations to Japan, the Provisional Central Government repeatedly declared to the whole country and the whole world that it represented the people of the whole country in the sternest condemnation of such policies and actions, which sell out the national interests. The Council Government aids the anti-Japanese struggle of the masses everywhere and contributed 16'000 yuan in support of the anti-Japanese strike movement by the workers of Huxi Textile Mill in Shanghai alone. In addition, the masses of the Red areas have given donations and assistance to the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army of North-Eastern China and provided much moral and material support to other struggles against the imperialists.

Within the Red areas, imperialist privileges have long since been eliminated and imperialist influence eradicated. Pastors and priests have been driven out by the masses, the people's property seized by the churches has been taken back, and missionary schools have been abolished. Within China's borders, the only places free of imperialist rule are the Red areas.

All these facts clearly show that the Council Government is the sole government in China opposing imperialism. The Council Government should point out to the masses of the whole country that it is the greatest responsibility of the Council Power and of the whole people to defeat imperialism through direct wars of national defence. The fulfilment of this responsibility, moreover, depends entirely on the broad masses of the people developing the anti-imperialist struggle. The first priority is to unite all forces in defeating the Nationalist Party, the lackey of the imperialists, because it is the biggest obstacle to the struggle of the Council Power and the masses against imperialism. The masses should be made to understand that it is only because of obstruction by the Nationalist Party — it lies across the area between the regions of imperialist offensives and the Red areas, and concentrates all its forces on attacking the Red areas, so that the Red Army has no way to engage in battle directly against the imperialists, and the Council Power and the Red Army are forced to clear the road with resolute attacks — that smashing the Nationalist «encirclement and suppression» campaign is the first step.

But a direct and large-scale clash between the Council Power and the imperialists grows closer every day. This demands that the Council Power energetically strengthen its leadership of all anti-imperialist struggles — the Council Power should become the organizer and leader of the anti-imperialist struggle of the people of the whole country. Only by using all its might to make the masses understand the current crisis and the crimes of the Nationalist Party, and by relying on the strengthened anti-imperialist and anti-Nationalist awareness and organizational strength of the broad masses, can the Council Government smoothly carry out its own sacred task — overthrowing the rule of imperialism and of the Nationalist reactionaries in China through national-revolutionary war and revolutionary civil war respectively.

#3. THE «ENCIRCLEMENT AND SUPPRESSION» CAMPAIGNS OF THE NATIONALIST REACTIONARIES AND THE STRUGGLE OF THE COUNCIL GOVERNMENT AGAINST THEM

Because the Chinese Red areas are revolutionary base areas of opposition to imperialism in the whole country, because the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is the main force opposing imperialism in all of China, and because of the vigorous forward development of the council movement and the revolutionary war, the Nationalist Party of China, with direct assistance from the imperialists, has gathered all its forces and launched one, two, three, four, and even five desperate attacks against the Red areas and the Red Army in an effort to destroy the Chinese revolutionary forces and carry out the task of clearing the way for the imperialists to carve up China.

Each attack by the Nationalist reactionaries has, however, met with severe defeat. The Council Republic of China and the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, with the support of the people of the whole country and thanks to the correct leadership of the Communist Party of China, have become an invincible force. At the same time, the victories of the Council Power and the Red Army have further inspired the working masses of the whole country and made them realize that only the Council Power and the Red Army are truly fighting for national independence and freedom, and that only the Council Power and the Red Army can save China.

The enemy began their fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign right after the Nationalist Party had sold out the three north-eastern provinces and signed the Shanghai ceasefire agreement. Not only does the traitorous Nationalist Party fail to resist the Japanese imperialist invasion with a single soldier, and not only does it ignore the repeated declarations by the Central Council Government and the Red Army regarding their willingness to reach an agreement on military operations against the Japanese with any armed force genuinely resisting Japan, but, on the contrary, the Nationalist arch-traitor Jiang Jieshi concentrated hundreds of thousands of troops to attack the Hubei-Henan-Anhui and West Hunan-Hubei Red Areas to force the Red Army to leave the area surrounding Wuhan. For our part, although due to having to avoid doing battle with an overwhelmingly strong enemy force and due to certain of our own subjective tactical errors, the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army was forced to retreat from the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Red Area, and embark on a famous expedition, the Fourth Field Army has created broad new Red areas around Nanjiang, Xuanhan, and Suiding in Sichuan. The Fourth Front Army's expedition has led to the development of broad revolutionary mass struggle in the vast remote areas of north-western China, spreading the seeds of the Council Power to places where the revolutionary situation is relatively undeveloped. Within less than a year, the Fourth Front Army, through valiant and skilful fighting, has already established Red areas in more than ten counties, increased more than ten-fold its troops, called upon the working masses as well as the White soldiers of the whole of Sichuan Province to lean toward the council revolution, and established new, powerful base areas for the council revolution in China's north-eastern region. The Sichuan-Shaanxi Red Area is the second largest Red area in the Council Republic of China, and has many advantages with regard to geography, natural resources, strategy, and social conditions. The Sichuan-Shaanxi Red Area forms a bridge for the development of the council revolution between the northern and southern banks of the Yangzi River and the northern and southern parts of China. The Sichuan-Shaanxi Red Area has a tremendous role and significance in the great battle to win a new Council China. All this has made Jiang Jieshi and the Sichuan warlords begin to tremble before the great triumphs of the Fourth Field Army. At the same time, not only has the Second Army Group of the Red Army, which retreated from the Lake Honghu Red Area, not suffered heavy losses, it has also been taking vigorous action in coordination with the Fourth Front Army through the areas of Sichuan, Hubei, and Hunan, and has won new victories. Even in the area around Lake Honghu, there are still guerrilla forces. In the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Red Area, not only have our base areas not suffered very great losses, they have actually achieved a stable position and spread guerrilla warfare toward the surrounding areas.

The Central Red Area is the site of the Central Council Government, the headquarters of the council movement in the whole country, and also the main target of attack by the imperialists and Jiang Jieshi. The enemy has gathered most of their military forces and waged a tenacious battle against us, dispatching the so-called «Central Army», the warlord armies of Jiang Guangnai and Cai Tingkai, the warlord armies of the Guangdong and Guangxi cliques, and the warlord armies of the Hunan clique to encircle the Central Red Area and its various neighbouring Red areas from all four sides. After a year of arduous struggle, however, we have won unprecedented victories. The biggest victory was achieved in the first half of 1933. Within that half year alone, the Central Red Army destroyed 24 divisions, six battalions, and two companies of the White army; routed three divisions, 12 regiments, five battalions, and two companies of the White army; and captured approximately 20'000 rifles and around 1'000 machine guns and handguns. Especially in the Battles of Dongpi and Huangpi, the enemy's toughest basic column was destroyed, thus bringing about the final defeat of the enemy's fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign.

In the course of the great victory of smashing the fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign, the Red Army not only expanded in numbers, its quality was also strengthened. The combat skills and political resolve of the Red Army commanders and fighters have improved greatly as compared with the case before the fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign. The Red area has expended. Apart from the big Red area in Sichuan, big Red areas have been expanded in north-western Fujian and eastern Jiangxi, increasing the population by close to 1'000'000, and a new Fujian-Jiangxi Province has been set up. The old Red areas have been further consolidated; this is manifested in improved work by the councils. The revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses of workers and peasants has been heightened, the class struggle has developed in the cities and the countryside, and the remnant reactionary forces in the Red areas have been strictly suppressed. At the same time, this victory has had a tremendous impact on the White areas. Under the influence of this victory, the masses of workers and peasants in the broad White areas have heightened their determination to fight. Among all the Nationalist forces taking part in «encirclement and suppression» campaigns, not only is vacillation prevalent among the soldiers, but feelings of panic have even arisen within the ranks of the leadership. Things have reached the point that Jiang Jieshi has been forced to make public the following desperate order: «All those without exception who refuse to suppress the bandits and ask to fight the Japanese shall be summarily executed.»

The achievement of these victories is, however, certainly no accident. It depended on the correctness of the political line of the Communist Party of China, the consolidation of the leadership of the Council Government, and the proper implementation of its policies. It also depended on the valiant and skilful fighting of the Red Army, the enthusiastic support of the broad masses of workers and peasants in the Red areas, and the growing daily struggle and unfolding anti-imperialist and anti-Nationalist movements of the masses of workers and peasants in the White areas. It further depended on the sympathy and aid of the proletariat and the oppressed masses in colonial countries all over the world. All these are fundamental conditions for defeating the enemy, and victory could certainly not have been won without these conditions.

After their thorough defeat in the fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign, the Nationalist warlords' only way out is to capitulate even more shamelessly to the imperialists, obtain quantities of loans and military equipment from the imperialists, hire large numbers of foreign advisors, gather together all old forces in existence, and organize new forces (train new soldiers, new pilots, Blueshirts, officers, and so on). In sum, by concentrating all counter-revolutionary forces to carry out, under the command of the imperialists, a fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign against the Council Power and the Red Army.

The struggle of the Council Power against the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign is, exactly as pointed out by the Party's Central Committee, «at once a struggle to block the way out for crisis-ridden imperialism and a struggle to win a free and independent Council China». The process of smashing the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign will determine whether China is «carved up and jointly ruled by the imperialists and completely becomes a colony, or is a free and independent Council China with territorial integrity».

The Council Power should call upon all the masses participating in the struggle in the Red and White areas alike to understand clearly the importance of this struggle. Complete victory in this struggle can be won only by uniting all revolutionary forces under the leadership of the Council Power with a spirit that is a hundred times more active and resolute.

The Council Power should instruct all the masses participating in the struggle as follows: Especially after smashing the fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign, we possess all the fundamental conditions for defeating the current «encirclement and suppression» campaign. The correct leadership of the Party and the Council Power, the strength and expansion of the Red Army, and the enthusiasm for struggle of the broad masses of workers and peasants in the Red and White areas alike all constitute the basis for us to defeat the enemy.

Because of our efforts and the sharpening internal contradictions within the ruling classes, the new, massive attacks of the imperialists and the Nationalist Party have met with severe blows from us. The enemy's original plan has failed, forcing them to launch desperate attacks against us from new positions and with new plans. We are faced with the final and decisive battle: the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign. Although the blockhouse tactic and the economic blockade policy of the Nationalist warlords are extremely brutal, they are not, after all, insurmountable obstacles to our victory. Quite the contrary; these policies of the enemy indicate their own weakness. Let us raise our military skills, strengthen our mass work, including among the soldiers, improve our military tactics, and concentrate all our forces to overcome these difficulties, and victory will be ours.

We must point out that the enemy's difficulties are far greater than ours. Vacillation among the White soldiers; hatred and resentment on the part of the broad masses of workers, peasants, and urban small bourgeois under enemy rule; infighting and disintegration among the various warlord factions in the ruling class; contradictions and conflicts among the various imperialists assisting the Nationalist Party; and the financial and economic bankruptcy of the Nationalist Party — all of these constitute the objective conditions for the triumph of the revolution.

It should be pointed out here that, at a time when the Nationalist reactionaries are carrying out their fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign, a People's Revolutionary Government has appeared in Fujian. The appearance of the People's Revolutionary Government manifests further splits in the Nationalist system. The great victory of the council movement and the bankruptcy of the Nationalist Party before the people of the whole country have forced a part of the Chinese reactionary ruling classes to adopt new methods in their attempt to find a third way, other than the Nationalist way and the Communist way, in order to preserve the reactionary ruling classes from their doom. This attempt, however, is in vain. This is because, if such organizations as the People's Revolutionary Government do not proceed from the genuine interests of the working people, do not carry out many fundamental policies, such as those that have already been carried out by the Council Power, do not firmly recognize the three conditions of the Council Government that were announced as early as April of last year, and do not sign and carry out anti-imperialist and anti-Nationalist agreements with the Council Government, but rather confine themselves to deception and empty talk, then the broad revolutionary masses will not take a different attitude toward the People's Revolutionary Government than the one they hold toward the Nationalist government, and the inevitable tragic defeat of the People's Revolutionary Government is altogether predictable. The Council Government, on the other hand, amidst the daily increasing faith in it among the people of the whole nation and the daily increasing bankruptcy of the deceptions perpetrated by the Nationalist Party and all other reactionary factions, will resolutely crush the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign, thereby blocking the road to the colonization of China by the imperialists, and, from an initial victory in one or several provinces, attain victory in the whole country, thus verifying the saying: «Only the Council Power can save China!»

#4. OUR FUNDAMENTAL POLICIES

When it comes to talking about the various fundamental policies of the Council Power, we must first ask: What are the starting points of these policies? To answer this question, we must understand the environment in which the Council Power found itself in the past and finds itself at present, and the tasks produced by such an environment.

In the past, the Council Power was born and developed amidst guerrilla warfare. It sprang up in many very small places. These places were each independent and not allied with one another. Surrounding each Red area was the enemy's world, and the enemy at every moment wreaked destruction and oppression on the Red areas. Yet they were able to triumph over these enemies, and it was through defeating the enemy's incessant oppression that they grew and developed. This was the past environment of the Council Power.

The present environment of the Council Power is different from that of the past in many respects. It has vast Red areas, broad mass support, and a strong Red Army. It has brought together many scattered forces (although they have not yet been completely consolidated). It has already become organized as a State, which is our Council Republic of China. This State has already formed its local and central bodies and set up a Provisional Central Government. This government is a centralized body of political power that relies on the broad masses and on their armed forces — the Red Army. This government is a workers' and peasants' government, which exercises the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants. It offers broad democracy to the workers and peasants, and permits absolutely no participation by landlord and capitalist elements. It is a dictatorship, a dictatorship that already wields tremendous political power over the warlords, bureaucrats, landlords, evil gentry, and bourgeoisie, who constitute an extremely small proportion of the population. This dictatorship has expanded its influence throughout the whole country and enjoys great prestige among the broad masses of the people. Its situation is very different from that during the previous era of guerrilla warfare. Warfare, however, is still a fact of daily life and has become more widespread and violent. This is because the contradiction between this dictatorship and the Nationalist dictatorship of the landlords and bourgeoisie sharpens day by day. Now is the time when victory hangs in the balance between the two sides, and we are faced by a large-scale «encirclement and suppression» campaign on the part of the Nationalist reactionaries. Such is the present environment of the Council Power.

This environment has determined the tasks of the Council Power, that is to say, that it must use all its might to mobilize, organize, and arm the masses and incessantly attack the enemies of the masses, so as to smash the enemy's «encirclement and suppression» campaigns directed against it. Its task is to wage a revolutionary war, bringing together all forces in carrying out the revolutionary war and using the revolutionary war to defeat the enemy. They must also defeat the powerful rule of the imperialists, because the imperialists are the supporters and commanders of the enemy's dictatorship. Its purpose in overthrowing the rule of the imperialists and the Nationalist Party is to unify China, carry out a bourgeois-democratic revolution, and make it possible for this revolution to be transformed into a socialist revolution in the future — to liberate the Chinese people; to liberate China's 400'000'000 people from enslavement and suppression by the Japanese and other imperialists; to enable hundreds of millions of Chinese working people to escape the oppression of the warlords, bureaucrats, evil gentry, landlords, and bourgeoisie; and to make it possible, in the future, for the Chinese people to emulate the workers and peasants of the Council Union in successfully establishing, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, a bright, happy, new way of life for humanity in a socialist society. This is the fundamental task of the Council Power.

From this, we can understand why, given this kind of environment and this fundamental task, the Council Power is carrying out our various fundamental policies. The Council Power must carry out these policies to consolidate the already triumphant workers' and peasants' democratic dictatorship and to mobilize, organize, and arm the working people in all the Red areas and throughout all of China, so as to overthrow the rule of the imperialists and the Nationalist Party by means of a resolute revolutionary war, consolidate and develop this dictatorship, and make preparations for the transformation of the current workers' and peasants' bourgeois-democratic dictatorship into a future socialist dictatorship of the proletariat. This is the starting point for all our policies.

Acting on the guidelines of the First National Congress of Councils, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars have, over the past two years, adhered to the general orientation of these policies and achieved extremely great results. Experience has already proved to all revolutionary people in China that only the policies of the Council Government actually serve the political power and interests of the people, resolutely oppose the counter-revolutionary policies of the Nationalist reactionaries, and can overthrow the rule of the Nationalist reactionaries throughout the country, save the nation from destruction, and liberate all the working people from untold misery.

Needless to say, in a China where there is a sharp contradiction between two different regimes, every concrete administrative action taken by the Council Power should serve to immediately win the support of the broad masses of the people. The people who have suffered their fill of oppression and exploitation under the reactionary policies of the Nationalist Party are attracted to each concrete administrative action taken by the Council Power like metal filings to a magnet. This situation has caused extreme panic among the reactionary ruling classes, who have therefore not hesitated to fabricate all sorts of shameless rumours to slander the Council Government. Ironclad facts have, however, provided a forceful reply to such shameless rumour-mongering. Every Chinese who has eyes in their head, except for the mad, unscrupulous Nationalist landlords and capitalists, cannot but recognize the immeasurably wide gap between the policies of the Council Government and those of the Nationalist government!

#4.1. OUR POLICY OF ARMING THE MASSES AND BUILDING THE RED ARMY

In order to oppose the enemy's «encirclement and suppression» campaign and to wage revolutionary war in defence of the Chinese people and their State, the first task of the Council Power is to arm the masses, organize a strong and iron-like Red Army, organize local armed forces and guerrilla troops, and organize supplies and transportation for conducting the war. Over the past two years, in the firm struggle against the enemy's fourth and fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaigns, the Council Power has achieved great success through efforts on these fronts.

First of all, the establishment of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission unified the leadership of the Red Army throughout the country, enabling the Red Army units of the various Red areas and various fronts to begin to coordinate their actions and cooperate with each other under the guidance of strategic centralization. This is an important turning point from scattered guerrilla action to regular, large-scale mobile warfare by the Red Army forces. Over the last two years, the Revolutionary Military Commission has led the Red Army throughout the country, and mainly in the Central Red Area, in carrying out a glorious, victorious war, having smashed four of the enemy's «encirclement and suppression» campaigns and won victory in the first stage of the struggle against the fifth one.

The Red Army has expanded rapidly over the last two years. It is several times larger than it was two years ago. Success in this regard is due to the enthusiastic participation by the broad masses of workers and peasants in the revolutionary war, improvement in the methods of mobilization, and the implementation of the laws and guidelines of the Council Power granting preferential treatment to Red Army soldiers. During the Red May of 1933 alone, nearly 20'000 new soldiers were added in a few counties of the Central Red Area. In many places, the masses of workers and peasants poured into the Red Army like tidewater. Facts have proven erroneous all the opportunist statements, such as the notion that the masses are not willing to join the Red Army, or that it is impossible to expand the Red Army in new or remote Red areas. The correctness of the methods of mobilization and the thorough implementation of council laws and guidelines giving preferential treatment to Red Army soldiers have, however, been crucial to the speedy completion of the mobilization plans. Important components of the methods of mobilization are dispensing with all coercive orders, carrying out thoroughgoing propaganda and persuasion, and punishing alien-class elements who undermine the expansion of the Red Army and lead desertions. Necessary and important steps in guaranteeing that Red Army soldiers will enthusiastically rush to the front lines and in consolidating their determination for battle at the front are to raise the social status of Red Army soldiers to the most prestigious status, to provide for all possible and necessary psychological and material needs of Red Army soldiers, to distribute land to Red Army soldiers from other regions and mobilize the masses to cultivate the land on their behalf, to tend the land well for the dependents of every Red Army soldier, to give Red Army soldiers' dependents a 5% discount in the consumers' cooperatives, to operate special shops with daily necessities for dependents of Red Army soldiers, to offer 10% of the profits of State-run enterprises and cooperatives to dependents of Red Army soldiers, to call upon the masses to make donations for relief of dependents of Red Army soldiers who are sick and have difficulties, to call upon the masses to provide psychological and material comfort to Red Army soldiers and their dependents, and to actually and thoroughly implement all laws, decrees, and methods for granting preferential treatment to Red Army soldiers and their dependents. There are many models for these tasks all over the Red areas. The broad masses of workers and peasants in these places regard as their own sacred duty taking up arms to defend and develop the Red areas, and large numbers of them constantly rush to the front. For example, in Changgang Township in Jiangxi, among the total of 407 young and adult men between the ages of 16 and 45, 320 left to join the Red Army and to work, and 87 stayed in the township; in other words, 80% left. In Upper Caixi Township in Fujian, among the total of 554 young and adult men, 485 left to join the Red Army or to work, and only 67 stayed in the township; in other words, 88% left. With such large numbers of able-bodied men in these townships having heroically gone to the front, what about village production and family life? Not only have they not been adversely affected, they have instead undergone expansion and improvement. What is the reason for this? It is because labour mutual-aid teams, field-cultivation teams, and various other measures have regulated labour-power in the countryside in an organized and planned way, thereby solving all difficulties and problems for Red Army dependents. I think such glorious lessons are worth learning throughout the Red areas.

The iron-hard consolidation of the Red Army should be closely linked with the expansion of the Red Army, and, during the last two years, considerable success has likewise been achieved in this aspect of our work. The present Red Army has already embarked on the road to becoming an iron-like regular revolutionary armed force. This is manifested in the following ways:

• The composition has been improved, ensuring that only workers, peasants, and other working people have the glorious right to bear arms, and that alien-class elements who have wormed their way into the Red Army are resolutely expelled.
• Worker cadres have increased in number, and the system of political commissars has been universally instituted, so that control of the Red Army is in the hands of reliable commanders.
• Political education has made progress, thus strengthening the determination of Red soldiers to fight to the end for the Council Power, raising discipline as related to class-consciousness, and furthering close ties between the Red Army and the broad masses of the people.
• Military skills have been raised. Even though, at present, the Red Army still lacks the use of the latest-model weapons and practice in handling them, general military skills have made great strides in comparison with the past.
• The authorized strength of the units has been changed, thereby enhancing the organizational strength of the Red Army.

All this has very greatly increased the fighting capacity of the Red Army, making it an invincible Red armed force.

Extensive expansion of the Red Guards, Young Pioneers, and guerrilla forces is an extremely important task for the Council Power in the armament of the masses to wage the revolutionary war. The Red Guards and Young Pioneers are ready-made reserve armies for the Red Army at the front lines, and are local armed forces for the defence of the Red areas. They also constitute a bridge in the process of transforming the present voluntary recruitment system into the future compulsory conscription system. The guerrilla troops, for their part, are the creators of the new Red areas and constitute an indispensable detachment of the Red Army's main forces. Over the last two years, such forces have been developed in all Red areas. Their military training and political education have also been considerably strengthened. Their joining the Red Army, defence of the local areas, attacks on and harassment of the enemy, and the great achievements they have demonstrated in the successive battles to smash the «encirclement and suppression» campaigns have all caused a tremendous shock to the enemy and become huge obstacles to the enemy's invasion of the Red areas. Their effect has been particularly manifest in the Central Red Area and the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Red Area. An important task of the Council Power is to spread this system to all new Red areas, to expand their organizations in a big way, and to strengthen their training and education, so as to turn these troops into the Red Army's most reliable revolutionary comrades-in-arms.

Replenishing provisions and supplies for the Red Army, organizing military transportation linking the front lines with the rear, and organizing a military medical system are, likewise, tasks of decisive significance for the revolutionary war. Given a situation in which we still have not taken several central cities, and the enemy maintains their economic blockade, carrying out this task is extremely difficult. Over the past two years, however, by relying on the enthusiasm of the broad masses of workers and peasants in both the Red and the White areas, we have laid a considerable foundation for these tasks as well. In this regard, we have already secured supplies and provisions and their transportation to the Red Army over a long period of time in the past, and this must be considered a tremendous achievement. But the present decisive battle to smash the enemy's fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign and the even wider war in the future demand that we make greater efforts to increase our strength in this respect and guarantee more ample provisions.

Revolutionary war on an even larger scale lies ahead of us. Our policy of arming the masses has further demonstrated its paramount importance. The fundamental fighting task of the Council Power is to arm the masses without a moment's slackening and to realize as quickly as possible through effective work the creation of a 1'000'000-strong iron-like Red Army.

The fundamental task of the Council Power is to wage revolutionary war and to mobilize all the people's forces to carry out the war. Around this fundamental task, there are numerous other urgent tasks. We must pursue a policy of extensive democracy for the broad masses of the people; resolutely suppress counter-revolutionaries within our ranks; awaken the class struggle among the workers; develop the agrarian revolution of the peasants and heighten the activities of the workers and peasants under the principle of a workers' and peasants' alliance led by the working class; pursue correct financial and economic policies to ensure that the material needs of the revolutionary war are met; and carry out a cultural revolution to arm the minds of the working masses. These and many other fundamental policies are all aimed at once goal: to overthrow the rule of the Nationalist reactionaries by means of revolutionary war, to consolidate and develop the workers' and peasants' democratic dictatorship, and to prepare for the transition to the stage of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

#4.2. OUR POLICY OF COUNCIL DEMOCRACY

The Council Power, the workers' and peasants' democratic dictatorship, is the political power of the masses of the people themselves and relies directly on the masses of the people. It can play its role only when it maintains the highest degree of closeness in its ties with the masses. The Council Power is endowed with tremendous strength. It has already become the organizer and leader of the revolutionary war, and it is also the organizer and leader of the people's lives. The greatness of its strength cannot be matched by any historical State system until now. Its strength, however, rests entirely on the masses of the people, and it cannot be separated from the masses of the people for even a moment. The Council Power must use violence to deal with all class enemies, but toward its own ruling classes — the working people — it may not use any violence whatsoever. What is manifests is nothing but the broadest form of democracy.

The broadness of council democracy is manifested first and foremost in its own election. The Council Power grants to all the exploited and oppressed masses full rights to vote and to be elected; moreover, women have exactly the same rights as men. This is the first time in Chinese history that the working people have attained such rights. To sum up the experience of council elections in various places over the past two years, generally speaking, the achievements have been great.

First, concerning voter registration, a strict distinction was made between residents with the right to vote and those without the right to vote by use of the red-and-white poster method. The policy of holding the elections at electoral assemblies, which all exploiting elements are forbidden to attend, replaced the previous method of holding the elections at mass meetings.

Second, concerning the balance of class composition, to guarantee that the proletariat will be the leading force within the Council Power, we applied the method under which 13 workers and their dependents elected one deputy, and 50 peasants or poor people elected one representative, and the same composition is used to organize congresses of deputies at the municipal and township level. At all levels of congresses of deputies and executive committees from the district to the central level, an appropriate ratio of workers' and peasants' deputies was established. This has guaranteed that the workers' and peasants' alliance is the organization of the Council Power, and ensured that the workers occupy the leading position.

Third, concerning electoral units, to ensure that the majority of voters participate in elections, and to enable workers to elect the appropriate deputies to the councils, the new Electoral Law promulgated by the Central Executive Committee in September 1933 stipulates that each township or municipal council be divided into several electoral units for the purpose of holding elections. That is to say, elections are held with the village as the unit among the peasantry, and the workers hold elections as a separate unit. This makes it very convenient for the masses to participate in elections.

Fourth, concerning the number of people participating in elections, the development of the council electoral movement has to a great extent made clear to the masses of voters the relevance of elections to their own lives. Many of the masses who did not actively participate in elections in the past have now become active. In the two elections held in 1932 and the elections held in the latter half of 1933, many places had over 80% voter participation, and, in some places, the only people who did not participate in electoral assemblies were the sick, the pregnant, and those on guard duty.

Fifth, concerning lists of candidates, in the elections held in the latter half of 1933, a system of lists of candidates' names was adopted, which allowed voters to be prepared prior to the elections as to whether or not to vote for certain candidates.

Sixth, concerning the election of women, in most of the municipal and township councils at present, over 25% of the deputies elected are women. In some places, such as Upper Caixi Township in Shanghang, 43 of the 75 deputies are women, which makes 60%. Among the 91 deputies in Lower Caixi Township, 59 are women, which makes 66%. The broad masses of working women are taking part in managing the nation.

Seventh, concerning work reports, that is, township and municipal councils convening meetings of voters before the elections to report on the work of the councils and guide the workers in criticizing such reports, this method was more widely applied in the elections held in the latter half of 1933 than in the previous year.

All of these constitute basic steps enabling the masses to exercise their right to manage the State bodies. Thus, there are satisfactory methods for council elections, which guarantee a foundation for consolidating the Council Power.

Next, council democracy manifests itself in municipal and township congresses of deputies. The system of municipal and township congresses of deputies constitutes the organizational basis of the Council Power and the bodies through which the councils maintain close relations with the broad masses. Progress over the past two years has further perfected this system of ours. Its most outstanding characteristics are as follows:

• For the purposes of forging close relations between township and municipal council deputies and local residents, facilitating the solicitation of residents' opinions, and facilitating leadership work, all residents are to be appropriately assigned to be under the responsibility of the various deputies, according to the proximity of living quarters between deputies and residents (generally speaking, 30 to 70 residents are placed under the responsibility of one deputy), thereby causing the various deputies to develop permanent personal relationships with the residents under their responsibility. In this way, the masses of the people and their councils are organizationally joined together.
• Among township and municipal council deputies, a responsible deputy is to be elected out of every three to seven deputies, based on the proximity of their living quarters. This person's tasks are, under the guidance of the presidium of the township or municipal council, to assign and lead the work of the various deputies under their responsibility, to transmit notices from the presidium to each deputy, to hold meetings of residents under their responsibility, and to resolve minor problems among the residents under their responsibility. In each village, there must also be a deputy who is generally responsible for leading the work of the whole village. This fosters close links between the presidiums of the municipal and township councils and the deputies, and provides strong leadership for the work in the villages.
• Under the township and municipal councils, various sorts of standing committees and provisional committees are to be organized — for example, committees on preferential treatment for the Red Army, water conservancy committees, educational committees, grain and food committees, public health committees, and so on. There may be as many as dozens of them, and large numbers of activists among the masses may be drawn in to participate in the work of these committees. Not only do townships have committees, but there should also be certain necessary committees in the villages. In this way, the work of the councils forms a network, and the broad masses become directly involved in council work.
• It is now stipulated that elections to township and municipal councils be held once every six months (district councils also hold elections every six months, but county and provincial councils hold elections once a year). In this way, the fresh opinions of the masses of the people easily emerge and get transferred to the councils.
• Deputies who have committed serious errors in the interim between two elections may be recalled by a proposal from ten or more voters and the approval of more than half the total number of voters, or expelled by the resolution of a congress of deputies. This makes it impossible for bad elements to linger for long periods of time in council bodies.

All of these things are characteristics of the current practice of the municipal and township councils in many places throughout the Red areas. Everyone can see that council democracy has developed to a level that is truly unprecedented in any historical political system. And the Council Power relies on this system to unite with the broad masses of the people, thereby becoming the instrument most able to develop the creativity of the masses and to mobilize the masses of the people to cope with civil war and revolutionary construction. This is also something that no historical government system, except that of the Council Union, has ever been able to accomplish. All bodies of the Council Power above the district level are built entirely on the foundation of the municipal and township councils, and consist of assemblies and executive committees of workers', peasants', and soldiers' deputies at all levels. Government cadres are elected to their posts, and those who prove unqualified are recalled in accordance with the will of the people. Discussion and resolution of all problems are based on the will of the people, and therefore the Council Power is the genuine power of the broad masses of the people.

Next, council democracy is also manifested in the granting to all the revolutionary people of full freedoms of assembly, association, speech, the press, and strike. At a time when, in the areas under Nationalist rule, the revolutionary people are being stripped of all freedoms and rights and a mad, fascist reign of terror is underway, every revolutionary person under the Council Government has the right to express their own opinions; moreover, the Council Power provides all possible material facilities (meeting places, paper, printing houses, and so on). The Council Power unfailingly makes every effort to lead all assemblies, associations, and publications of opinion that are undertaken to oppose the Nationalist reactionaries. The only thing the Council Power prohibits is the freedom of exploiters to oppose the revolution.

In addition, to consolidate the workers' and peasants' democratic dictatorship, the Council Power must encourage the broad masses of the people to supervise and criticize their own work. Every revolutionary person has the right to expose the mistakes and shortcomings of council staff members. At a time when corrupt Nationalist officials are spread out over the whole country, and the people are angry, but dare not speak out, such phenomena are absolutely forbidden under the council system. If elements among council staff workers are discovered who practise corruption and embezzlement, are passive and go slow in their work, or act in a bureaucratic manner, the people may at once expose such people's mistakes, and the Council Power will immediately punish them and certainly not show any indulgence. This kind of full democratic spirit is also possible only under the council system.

Finally, the spirit of council democracy can also be observed in the demarcation of administrative divisions. The Council Power has abolished the old, bureaucratic administrative divisions, which were big and inappropriate, and has made the council areas of jurisdiction smaller at all levels, from the province down to the township. What is the significance of this? It is to keep the Council Power in close contact with the masses of the people, to enable the Council Power to be fully informed of the demands of the masses of the people, because the areas of jurisdiction are not too big, to allow the opinions of the masses of the people to be reflected rapidly in the councils and quickly discussed and resolved, and to make extremely convenient the mobilization of the masses of the people for the war and construction. The Nationalist warlords use the system of big provinces, big counties, and big districts and townships from the feudal era. This only serves to divorce them from the masses of the people, and the Council Government has no use for it. It should be pointed out there that the demarcation of villages is an important matter, because the most convenient method of carrying out council work below the level of the township councils is to mobilize the masses by using the village as the unit. Only by relying on appropriate demarcation of villages, the establishment of people's organizations in the villages, and strong leadership of the whole village by village deputies and responsible deputies will the work of the township councils be able to attain the best results.

#4.3. OUR POLICY ON THE LANDLORDS AND THE BOURGEOISIE

The Council Power has realized the world's most successful democratic system, which enables the broad masses of the people to participate directly, grants the broad masses of the people all democratic rights, and absolutely does not use or need to use any kind of violence against the masses of the people.

Toward the landlords and the bourgeoisie, that is to say, toward all those exploiting elements who have been overthrown by the revolutionary people, the Council Power has, on the other hand, a different kind of attitude.

Because they are exploiters, and because they were the rulers in the past, the landlords and the bourgeoisie harbour extremely deep hatred toward the Council Power. Because, although they have been overthrown, they have not yet been eliminated, and they still have a solid and deep-rooted social basis and superior knowledge and skills. Thus, even though they have been overthrown, they constantly attempt to stage a comeback, and to overthrow the Council Power and restore the former system of exploitation. Especially during a period of civil war, when the enemy repeatedly launches military offensives against the Red areas, these overthrown exploiters constantly strive to carry out counter-revolutionary actions in concert with the attacking enemy. For this reason, the Council Power cannot refrain from meting out harsh punishment and repression against these elements in every possible respect.

The first item in our policy of punishing exploiting elements is to exclude them from political power. As stipulated in the Council Constitution, the landlords, bourgeoisie, and all other enemies of the revolution are completely stripped of the right to vote and of the right to serve in the Red Army and local armed forces. But these elements always try by hook and by crook to sneak into the council bodies, into the Red Army, and into the local armed forces. Especially in the new Red areas, where the mass struggle has not developed fully, it has been easier for these elements to seize opportunities to worm their way in. Past experience has fully demonstrated that to wage a brutal and merciless struggle against the activities of these alien-class elements to work their way into the revolutionary regime is a very important task of the Council Power.

The second item is to strip away freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and association from all landlords and bourgeois. The Council Power grants such freedoms only to the revolutionary people and not to any landlord or bourgeois elements. Because the landlord and bourgeois elements will inevitably use such freedoms as their counter-revolutionary instruments, it is absolutely necessary to deprive these elements of such freedoms. One of the important reasons why the Council Power has been moving toward consolidation day after day also lies in having deprived these class enemies of their rights and reduced their opportunities for action.

The third item is to use revolutionary violence and revolutionary tribunals to suppress all counter-revolutionary activities. Based on the task of arming the masses, the Council Power has established a mighty Red Army and widespread local armed forces. These constitute an iron-like strength upon which the Council Power directly depends. Only by relying on them can the Council Power defeat the military power of the Nationalist reactionaries and suppress counter-revolutionary activities within the Red areas. The Council Power has, however, another important weapon for suppressing counter-revolutionaries in conjunction with this one, which is the council courts. Relying directly on armed force and on the activities of the State Political Security Bureau and the class struggles of the broad masses of the people, the council courts see to it that all attempts at counter-revolution within the Red areas are firmly suppressed. Over the past several years, serious counter-revolutionary activities have appeared in all the various Red areas. For example, the Anti-Majoritarian Corps in the Central Red Area, the Hunan-Jiangxi Red Area, and elsewhere; the Social-Democratic Party in Fujian; the Reorganization Clique in places such as West Hunan-Hubei, Henan-Hubei-Anhui, Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi, and Fujian-Jiangxi; the Trotskijite and Chen Duxiu-ite Liquidators in Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi; and others — all of these have attempted to carry out, or even succeeded in carrying out, counter-revolutionary uprisings. In the end, however, they all met with stern repression by the council courts, their rebellious plots were overcome, and the Council Power was consolidated. In this respect, the Political Security Bureau and the council courts have already accumulated rich experience and corrected the mistake of failure to carry out a clear-cut class line, which occurred in the past in many places. There has also been progress lately in lending more of a mass character to the council courts, which means that their suppression of counter-revolutionaries should be linked with the struggles of the broad masses to eliminate counter-revolution. The widespread use of the mobile council courts is proof of this.¹

In sum, the Council Power exercises an extremely extensive revolutionary democracy toward the broad masses of the people. At the same time, however, it is in the midst of such democracy that its tremendous power is constituted — power built on the firm faith and conscious needs of the hundreds of millions of workers and peasants. Putting such power to use, the Council Power has formed the dictatorship of the workers and peasants, organized the revolutionary war, organized the council courts, and carried out fierce attacks against class enemies on all fronts. The council courts, for their part, have played a great role in suppressing counter-revolutionary activities within the Red areas.

If one compares the council courts under the dictatorship of the workers and peasants with the Nationalist courts under the dictatorship of the landlords and bourgeoisie, an extraordinary picture emerges.

The purpose of the council courts is to suppress the landlords and bourgeoisie, so they generally go lightly in dealing with crimes committed by workers and peasants. The purpose of the Nationalist courts is to suppress the workers and peasants, so they generally go lightly in dealing with crimes committed by landlords and bourgeois. The role of the courts is entirely determined by the class character of the political power.

On the one hand, the council courts sternly suppress the activities of counter-revolutionary elements, and the Council Power should certainly not show any leniency whatsoever toward such elements. But, on the other hand, all inhumane treatment of criminals already under arrest is forbidden. The Central Council Government has already issued a clear decree to abolish corporal punishment. This, too, represents a tremendous, historic reform. The Nationalist courts, on the other hand, to this day remain permeated by cruel, inhumane, and mediaeval torture.

Toward criminals other than those given the death penalty, council prisons practise thought reform, which means using the Communist spirit and labour discipline to reeducate criminals and transform their intrinsic criminal nature. Nationalist prisons, on the other hand, go in for out-and-out barbarous feudal murder by maltreatment and cruel fascist punishment, and constitute Hell on Earth for the working masses and the revolutionaries.

Destroying the counter-revolutionary conspiracies of hostile classes, establishing revolutionary order within the Red areas, and eliminating all remnants of barbarism and feudalism in the administration of justice are the goals of the council courts. Each of the reforms of the Council Power in this sphere similarly has its own historic significance.

#4.4. OUR LABOUR POLICY

On the basis of the class character of its political power, and the great task of arming the working masses to overthrow the Nationalist reactionaries by means of revolutionary war, the Council Power must resolutely awaken the class struggle of the workers, guarantee the daily demands of the workers, develop the revolutionary enthusiasm of the workers, organize such enthusiasm on the part of the workers for use in the great revolutionary war, and turn the workers into active leaders of the revolutionary war and cornerstones of the consolidation and development of the Council Power. This is the starting point of our labour policy.

Under our labour policy, the workers' interests are thoroughly protected. Comparing this with the Nationalist Party's rule in the past and with the Nationalist-controlled areas at present, there is truly a difference like that between Heaven and Hell.

In the period when the Red areas were still under Nationalist rule, workers functioned as slaves of their employers. No worker could ever forget the long hours, the low pay, the brutal treatment, and the fact that the workers had no legal protections whatsoever. All of this not only continues to be the case in the White areas at present, but has been exacerbated many times over. Lately, the situation in the White areas is that the workers' real wages have gone down by more than 50%, and cutting back working hours, reducing the workforce, and closing workplaces have become the capitalists' commonplace methods for attacking the workers. As a consequence, unemployment has become widespread. Among industrial workers alone, the number of unemployed has reached over 60%. In all areas under Nationalist rule, to go on strike is a criminal act. In March 1933, the Nationalist Party made a public declaration in Hankou that strikers would be punished by death. In all disputes between workers and capitalists, the Nationalist Party invariably stands by the capitalists to oppress the workers.

These crimes, however, have been completely eliminated in the Red areas. Under the Council Power, the workers are the masters. Leading the broad masses of peasants, the workers have shouldered the great responsibility of consolidating and developing the Council Power. Therefore, the principle of our labour policy is to protect the interests of the working class and to consolidate and develop the Council Power. In line with this principle, the Labour Law was promulgated in December 1931. In 1933, it was revised and promulgated once again. The Labour Law as revised on this occasion is applicable to both the cities and the countryside and to both big and small enterprises.

In the Red areas at present, the eight-hour workday has been generally instituted, and labour contracts and collective agreements have been concluded. Labour inspection units and labour inspectors have been introduced widely in cities and in many villages, with the aim of checking whether or not employers have taken any actions that violate the Labour Law of the Council Republic. Punishment of employers who violate the law is the province of the specially established Labour Court. To prevent the capitalists from controlling labour and to protect workers who are unemployed as a result of the protracted «encirclement and suppression» campaign of the Nationalist reactionaries, the Council Power has monopolized the right to job referral, and all capitalists wishing to hire workers must go to employment agencies set up under the councils. The establishment of relief agencies for the unemployed is also becoming daily more widespread, and concrete relief is generally available to unemployed workers. Workers in rural areas have also been given redistributed land. A social security system has been set up and a social security bureau has been established in each municipality in the Red areas. None of this is available in any way to workers under the Nationalist regime. On the other hand, the Council Power considers the application of these policies to be its own greatest responsibility.

Because the Council Power has firmly carried out its own policies, the lives of workers in the Red areas have seen tremendous improvement.

This is true, first of all, with regard to wages. Real wages in various places in the Red areas have generally risen in comparison with the period before the revolution. The example of Tingzhou is shown below:

According to this table, compared to the period before the revolution, the wages of workers in Tingzhou Municipality went up by a minimum of 32% (carpenters) and a maximum of what amounts to 1'450%, or an increase of 14,5 times (textile workers). This sort of startling increase fully reflects how startlingly low wages were in the Nationalist era. Of course, the wages of workers in Tingzhou in particular are somewhat higher than wages in other cities in the Red areas (and the workers' meals are included), but wages in other municipalities have also risen. For example, in the most recent period, the pay for construction workers in Ruijin Municipality has risen from 25 cents per day before the revolution to 45 cents per day, an 80% increase.

Not only in the cities, but in the countryside, wages have risen as well. A comparison, for various periods, of pay for odd-job work in Tiancun District, Gan County is given below:

This table contains data for a single rural area, but in other rural areas as well, wages have generally risen. As for wages in State-run enterprises, over the past two years in various enterprises under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Government, wages have generally risen by 20%, the highest increase being 40%.

Generally speaking, wages have been paid on time. Because of supervision by the Council Power, cases of employers delaying the payment of wages are rare. Even the small number of obstinate capitalists, having been sanctioned by the labour courts, no longer dare to make trouble for the workers.

As for the legally stipulated workday, over the past two years, the eight-hour day has been widely instituted in all municipalities in the Red areas. In the countryside, too, the time actually worked by farmworkers rarely exceeds eight hours a day, and working hours for farmworkers between 16 and 18 years of age are generally shorter than for adults.

Protective measures for women and minors, such as equal pay for equal work, maternity leave before and after childbirth, and prohibition against the use of the labour of children under the age of 14, have also been generally applied.

As for protection of apprentices, generally speaking, the number of years for apprenticeship has been reduced, treatment of apprentices has been improved, and feudal oppression of apprentices has been eliminated. The lives of apprentices have been considerable improved, and their pay has risen. (For example, in Jiangxi, apprentices get an allowance of at least 15 yuan a year, and some get as much as 3 yuan a month.)

As for general conditions, in cities and in State-run enterprises in particular, workers' health and hygiene and their meals have been greatly improved. Generally speaking, workers' meals in various cities cost over 6 yuan a month. Meals for workers in the countryside are at least on a par with those of the employers.

Workers in the Red areas have organized strong, class-conscious trade unions. Such unions are pillars of the Council Power and strongholds for the defence of the workers' interests. At the same time, they become schools in which the broad masses of workers may study Communism. The Council Power has provided legal guarantees for the rights of the unions, and, as a result, union membership has greatly developed. According to statistics of the National Federation of Trade Unions, the number of trade-union members currently in the Red areas, calculated on the basis of those in the Central Red Area and its several neighbouring Red areas alone, is 209'000 persons, whose distribution is as follows: 110'000 in the Central Red Area, 23'000 in the Hunan-Jiangxi Red Area, 40'000 in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Red Area, 25'000 in the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Red Area, 6'000 in the Fujian-Jiangxi Red Area, and 5'000 in the North Fujian Red Area. According to materials of the Central Red Area, there are only 3'676 workers who have not joined trade unions, which is less than 5% of the total of all workers. In other words, 95% of all workers have joined trade unions. In some places, such as Xingguo, as many as 98% have joined unions. One might ask whether such a thing can be dreamed of in the White areas. Not only in China, but throughout the world, except for the Council Union, where is there such a situation, even in any imperialist country?

In sum, in the past two years, the Labour Law of the Council Republic has already been in effect in all cities of the Red areas, and its main provisions have also been carried out in the countryside. During these two years, although many capitalists and rich peasants have resisted the Labour Law, active struggle by the masses of workers and strict supervision by the Council Power have rendered such resistance ineffectual. At the same time, those independent producers, middle peasants, poor peasants, and farmworkers who occasionally violate the Labour Law should be sincerely warned and advised, so that they may understand and of their own accord support the Labour Law. Because of all this, the workers' lives have greatly improved, the revolutionary activism of the workers has been greatly encouraged, and the workers have played their tremendous role in the revolutionary war and in the construction of the Red areas.

According to statistics from the 12 counties in the Central Red Area of Gonglue, Wantai, Longgang, Xingguo, Shengli, Xijiang, Yudu, Xunwu, Shanghang, Ninghua, Changting, and Xinquan, among the 70'580 trade-union members, 19'960 persons now serve in the Red Army and the guerrilla forces, a figure equivalent to 28% of the total membership. Those who work in the councils and other revolutionary organizations number 6'752, or 10% of the total membership. Most of them hold responsible posts in the council bodies. These two groups make a total of 26'712 people, which amounts to 38% of the total membership. There are at present 43'868 trade-union members who still live at home. The trade-union members living at home from these 12 counties have been paid back the second batch of public bonds worth 43'855 yuan, and they have recently purchased economic construction bonds worth 197'803 yuan, with each member living at home having purchased on average 4,50 yuan worth. Among members living at home, there are currently 12'435 Party or Youth League members, making up 28% of the total number of union members living at home. These statistics prove the enthusiasm of the masses of workers in joining the Red Army, in participating in and supporting the revolutionary war, and in cherishing the Communist Party of China. All of this, on the other hand, stems from the fact that the Council Power has protected the interests of the workers and developed their enthusiasm. Those who say that the workers have gained nothing since the revolution and that the workers have not been mobilized can only be said to be talking nonsense.

#4.5. OUR AGRARIAN POLICY

The Chinese Red Army and the Council Republic of China were born and developed out of the agrarian revolution. The broad masses of peasants under the brutal oppression and exploitation of the landlord class and the Nationalist warlords can be liberated only through the agrarian revolution. The principle of our agrarian policy is to completely overthrow all feudal and semi-feudal exploitation and oppression by the landlord class and the Nationalist warlords.

In all White areas, past and present, the ground rents are frightful (60 to 80%), interest rates are frightful (30 to 100%), and taxes and levies are frightful (as many as over 1'700 kinds in the whole country). As a result, the land is concentrated in the hands of the landlords and the rich peasants, and the vast majority of the peasants have lost their land and been thrown into the tragic state of being hard-pressed either to live or die. Because of the ruthless plunder of the land, peasants have lost their ability to fend off disasters. Consequently, the calamities of floods and droughts occur throughout the country. In 1931, as many as 809 counties and 44'000'000 people were hit by natural disasters. Because of layer upon layer of plunder, the peasants lack the ability to produce more, and much arable land has gone barren, a lot of it becoming virtually wasteland. At the same time, what little the peasants do manage to produce is overwhelmed by the imperialists' dumping of agricultural commodities. Because of this, the Chinese rural economy has fallen into a state of total bankruptcy. It is on such a basis that the flames of the agrarian revolution have exploded with force in the countryside.

The power of the agrarian revolution in the Red areas has made a clean sweep of all feudal remnants. Hundreds of millions of peasants have suddenly awakened from a prolonged period of darkness, seized all the land and property of the landlord class, confiscated the good land of the rich peasants, abolished usurious interest rates, done away with exorbitant taxes and levies, defeated all enemies of the revolution, and set up their own political power. The masses of peasants have for the first time come out of Hell and attained the status of masters. This is the fundamental difference between the situation in the countryside under the Council Power and under the Nationalist regime.

The First National Congress of Councils promulgated the Land Law, which provided a correct basis for the solution of the land question throughout the country. Because the class struggle in the countryside has become ever sharper, many disputes have arisen over the question of class analysis. Based on past experience in the agrarian struggle, the Council of People's Commissars issued the document How to Analyse the Classes in the Rural Areas, which provided correct solutions to many questions, such as those of the landlords, rich peasants, middle peasants, poor peasants, and lumpen-proletarians, so that the struggle in the countryside will develop more effectively. Many questions concerning methods of land distribution, such as distances, poor and rich land, green crops, mountains and forests, ponds, and so on, urgently await the gathering of experiences from various places, so as to make the necessary decisions. This is crucial to the leadership of land redistribution in new Red areas.

To thoroughly destroy the remnant feudal forces and see to it that the fruits of the agrarian revolution fall entirely into the hands of the farmworkers, poor peasants, and middle peasants, the Central Government launched a broad and thoroughgoing movement to check up land distribution. On the basis of statistics for the three months of July, August, and September 1933, in the three Central Red Area provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong, a total of 6'988 landlord families and 6'638 rich-peasant families were discovered. From the landlords and rich peasants thus discovered, land with a notional yield of 307'539 dan [30'753'900 litres] was taken, and cash confiscated from landlords and donations from rich peasants amounted to a total of 606'916 yuan. The revolutionary activism of the masses of peasants has been heightened, and farmworkers' unions and poor peasant leagues have become pillars of the Council Power in the countryside. The fact that such great results were achieved in the space of three months proves that the rural class struggle still requires full attention from the Council Power and also demonstrates completely that the movement to check up land distribution is a powerful method of continuing to develop the rural struggle and completely eliminating feudal remnants.

The class line in the agrarian struggle is to rely on the farmworkers and poor peasants, unite with the middle peasants, restrict the rich peasants, and eliminate the landlords. Correct application of this line is the key link in securing the victorious development of the agrarian struggle and the basis for all our concrete policies toward the countryside. Therefore, the Council Government should severely punish the erroneous tendencies of encroaching on the interests of the middle peasants (mainly those of the well-to-do middle peasants) and of eliminating the rich peasants. At the same time, the attitude toward the mistakes of attempting to compromise with the landlords and rich peasants should not be relaxed, for only by opposing all of these mistakes can the agrarian struggle get onto the correct path.

Mass work in the agrarian struggle has gained a great deal of experience over the past two years. Its main points can be summed up as follows:

• In both the movement for land redistribution and the movement to check up land distribution, all efforts must be made to mobilize the broad masses of poor and middle peasants and of farmworkers to fight on their own initiative against the landlords and rich peasants. Both land redistribution and checking up on land distribution must have the consent of the masses. All decisions on how to handle a certain class must be made through mass meetings. Where a few council staff members on their own carry out land redistribution and check up on class status, there is the danger of lowering the fighting enthusiasm of the masses.
• Aside from land, most of the property confiscated from the landlord class and the surplus draft animals, farm implements, and houses of the rich peasants must be distributed to the poor masses. If this is not done and they are assigned instead for use by a few individuals, it will likewise lower the morale of the masses and facilitate resistance on the part of exploiting elements.
• It is not good to let the matter of land redistribution remain unsettled for a long period of time; it should be properly redistributed within a rather short period of time and remain firmly in the hands of the peasants. In the future, unless by request of the majority of the local masses, the land should not be redistributed again rashly. Not doing things in this manner goes against the views of the peasants and will not only have an effect on the peasants' enthusiasm for the land and production, but will also be used by exploiting elements to obstruct the development of the agrarian struggle.
• The objective of the movement to check up land distribution is to clarify and determine exploiting-class status, not to clarify and determine exploited-class status. Therefore, checking up should not be done household-by-household and field-by-field. Rather, the broadest masses should be mobilized to ferret out hidden landlords and rich peasants.
• Strong measures should be taken against counter-revolutionary elements who disrupt land redistribution and land check-up. With the consent of the masses, they are to be treated by the harshest measures, such as arrest, imprisonment, trial by the masses, and even execution. This is entirely necessary. If this is not done, the agrarian struggle will be greatly hindered.
• Great efforts should be made to develop the class struggle, but to avoid conflicts among localities and clans. The landlords and rich peasants, for their part, make fervent attempts to substitute struggle between localities and clans for class struggle, so as to obstruct the advance of the agrarian revolution. Council staff members should not be duped by the landlords and rich peasants.
• The development of the agrarian revolution depends on raising the class-consciousness and the degree of organization of the fundamental masses in the countryside. For this reason, council staff workers must carry out extensive propaganda in depth in the countryside and perfect the organization of the poor peasant leagues and farmworkers' unions.

The agrarian revolution has not only given land to the peasants, but should also enable them to develop the productive capacity of the land. Because of council leadership and the heightened enthusiasm for labour on the part of the peasants, agricultural production has recovered in vast portions of the Red areas and in some places has been even further developed.

On this basis, the peasants' lives have greatly improved. Because the peasants have done away with exploitation by the landlords and the Nationalist Party, the fruits of their production remain in their own hands. For this reason, the peasants' lives are at least twice as good as during the Nationalist period. In the past, the vast majority of peasants did not have enough to eat during much of a given year, and in hard times, some even had to eat tree bark and grain bran. Now, on the other hand, not only is starvation generally non-existent, but there is greater abundance each year. In the past, the vast majority of peasants could eat meat only a few times a year, but now there are more chances to eat meat. In the past, the vast majority of peasants were clothed in rags, but now there has been general improvement in the amount of clothes, in some cases by 100%, in other cases even 200%.

What kind of life and what kind of political power do the masses of peasants desire? Let the peasants of all White areas answer this question for themselves.

#4.6. OUR FINANCIAL POLICY

Our financial objectives are to guarantee supplies and provisions for the revolutionary war and to ensure payment of all revolutionary expenses for the Council Power. Given, however, that the Council Republic must meet enormous expenses for the revolutionary war and revolutionary work, while it still occupies a relatively small area within the whole country, consisting moreover of economically rather backward places, and considering also the fact that it applies taxation policies beneficial to the broad masses, many outsiders cannot understand how the Council Power gets by financially. The Nationalist Party, on the other hand, occupies vast regions and voraciously feeds on the flesh and blood of the people, so why should it have fallen into bankruptcy?

There is nothing strange in this. Our financial policy and use of financial resources are fundamentally different from those of the Nationalist Party.

Our financial policy is built on the principle of the interests of the people and the revolution. Therefore, the financial resources of the Council Power come from the following sources:

• Carrying out confiscation or imposing levies on all feudal exploiters.
• Taxation.
• Developing the enterprises of the national economy.

What is meant by confiscation and levies from feudal exploiters is raising money from landlords and rich peasants in both the Red and the White areas. According to past experience, this source of income often occupies a prominent position. This is the opposite of the Nationalist Party's financial policy: the Council Power imposes the main financial burden on the exploiters, whereas the Nationalist Party places the main financial burden on the working people.

Council taxation is unified and progressive. At present, it is carried out through two simple components, a commercial tax and an agricultural tax. The fundamental principle of taxation is likewise to place the heavy burden on the exploiters.

Commercial tax levies are divided into tariffs and business taxes. Tariffs are aimed at uniformly regulating the import and export of commodities in light of the needs of the Red areas. Therefore, the tariff rate runs from total exemption to as high as 100%. Within China's borders, only the Red areas have carried out an entirely independent tariff system without interference from any foreign government. All commodities go throughout the entire area of the Council Republic after paying the tariff at border customs points, and there is no second levy of tariffs, thus doing away at one stroke with the Nationalist Party's abusive policy of taxing commodities moved within the country's borders, which involves layer upon layer of extortion.

The business tax is a commercial income tax (no industrial tax is levied at present). A unified progressive tax is levied according to the size of a merchant's capital and their rate of profit. A small amount of capital and a low rate of profit is lightly taxed, and larger amounts of capital and higher rates of profit are heavily taxed. Capital of under 100 yuan, cooperatives of the masses, and surplus commodities sold directly by peasants themselves are all exempt from taxation.

Agricultural taxation relies on the revolutionary enthusiasm of the peasants, which causes them to pay their taxes voluntarily, and it is likewise in principle a progressive method of taxation. Families with fewer members and less land are taxed lightly, and families with more members and more land are more heavily taxed. Poor and middle peasants are lightly taxed, and rich peasants are taxed more heavily. Farmworkers and dependents of Red Army soldiers are exempt from paying taxes. Areas struck by natural disasters pay reduced taxes or are exempt from taxation, depending on the extent of damage suffered.

The unified, progressive taxation system adopted by the Council Power is the most excellent tax system in the world, one that all capitalist countries dare not use or dare not use to its full extent. As for taxation under the Nationalist Party, it is one huge, muddled account. Its principle of taxation is to take mainly from peasants and other small bourgeois. In addition to regular taxes, there are countless supplementary taxes. According to figures in the Tianjin Dagong Bao [Impartial News] of the 22nd of March, 1933, there is a total of as many as 1'756 categories of taxes in the White areas, land taxes in Sichuan have been collected in advance all the way up to 1987, and the land tax in Shaanxi is 25 times higher than it was before the Nationalist Party arrived. This is the Nationalist Party's «benevolence» toward the working masses!

To increase our revenue by developing the economy is a fundamental principle of our financial policy; it has already brought tangible results in the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Red Area and is beginning to do so in the Central Red Area, too. It is the duty of our financial and economic organizations to apply this principle conscientiously. 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 expenditure. 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 our economic construction. Our methods of spending State revenue must be strictly different from those of the Nationalist Party.

It is not that council finances are free of hardships. Expansion of the Red Army and development of the war have given rise to financial difficulties for the Council Power. But solutions to these difficulties are contained within the difficulties themselves. The unfolding of our revolutionary war, improvement in our council work, expansion of our sources of revenue into all White areas, placing the financial burdens of the Council Power on the shoulders of all exploiting elements, and increasing the income of the Council Power through developing the national economy — all these are solutions to the difficulties.

#4.7. OUR ECONOMIC POLICY

Only the Nationalist warlords, who have brought the areas under their own rule to the brink of bankruptcy, have the utter shamelessness to spread the rumour, day in day out, that the Red areas are in a state of total collapse. The imperialists and the Nationalist Party are bent on wrecking the Red areas, the work of economic construction now in progress there, and the welfare of the millions of workers and peasants who have achieved liberation. For this purpose, they have pursued a ruthless policy of economic blockade, in addition to organizing forces for military campaigns of «encirclement and suppression». But, leading the broad masses and the Red Army, we have not only smashed one enemy «encirclement and suppression» campaign after another, but have also been doing all the essential work of economic construction within our power in order to defeat this vicious economic blockade. In this respect, too, we have scored one success after another.

Because the central task of the Council Power is to win victory in the war against the Nationalist reactionaries, and because the Red areas are at present economically rather backward areas that are, on top of that, under the enemy's economic blockade, the principle governing our economic policy is to proceed with all the essential work of economic construction within our power and concentrate our economic resources on the war effort, and at the same time to improve the life of the people as much as possible, consolidate the worker-peasant alliance in the economic field, ensure proletarian leadership of the peasantry, and strive to secure leadership by the State sector of the economy over the private sector, thus creating the prerequisites for our future advance to socialism.

The focus of our economic construction is to increase agricultural and industrial production, expand our trade with the outside, and develop the cooperatives.

Agriculture in the Red areas is obviously making progress. As compared with 1932, the 1933 agricultural output was 15% higher in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian and 20% higher in the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Red Area. The Sichuan-Shaanxi Red Area has had a good harvest. After a Red area is established, farm output often declines in the first year or two.² But it picks up again as the peasant masses work with greater enthusiasm after the land is redistributed and ownership is settled, and after we have given encouragement to production. Today, in some places, farm output has reached and even exceeded the pre-revolution level. In others, not only has land that lay waste during the revolutionary uprisings been reclaimed, but new land has been brought under cultivation. In many places mutual-aid groups and ploughing teams³ have been organized to adjust the use of labour-power in the villages, and cooperatives have been organized to overcome the shortage of draught oxen. Moreover, the women are taking part in production in great numbers. None of this could have happened in the Nationalist days. With the land in the hands of the landlords, the peasants then were neither willing to improve it, nor did they possess the means to do so. Only since we have distributed the land to the peasants and encouraged and rewarded production has their labour enthusiasm blossomed forth and great success in production been achieved. It should be pointed out that, in the present conditions, agriculture occupies first place in our economic construction; it is by agriculture that we solve both the most important problem of food, and the problem of raw materials, such as cotton, hemp, sugarcane, and bamboo, which are needed for the making of clothes, sugar, paper, and other necessities. The care of forests and the increase of livestock are also an important part of agriculture. Within the framework of small-scale peasant economy, it is permissible and indeed necessary to draw up suitable plans for the output of certain important agricultural products and to mobilize the peasants to strive for their fulfilment. We should pay closer attention and devote greater efforts to this. We must actively lead the peasants in solving such difficult and essential problems in production as labour-power, draught oxen, fertilizer, seed, and irrigation. In this connection, our fundamental task is to adjust the use of labour-power in an organized way and to encourage women to do farmwork. The necessary measures to solve the problem of labour-power are organizing mutual-aid groups and ploughing teams and mobilizing and encouraging the whole rural population to help during the busy spring and summer ploughing seasons. Another big problem is that quite a large proportion (about 25%) of the peasants are short of draught oxen. We must attend to organizing draught oxen cooperatives, encouraging the peasants without oxen to buy them for their common use through voluntary subscription to shares. Irrigation, which is the lifeblood of agriculture, also merits close attention. Of course, we cannot as yet bring up the question of State or collective farming, but it is urgently necessary to set up small experimental farms, agricultural research schools, and exhibitions of farm produce in various places to stimulate the development of agriculture.

The enemy blockade has made it difficult for us to market commodities outside our areas. There has been a decline in production in many handicraft industries in the Red areas, notably tobacco-curing and papermaking. But the difficulties of sending commodities out are not entirely insurmountable. We have an extensive market of our own because of the mass demand in our areas. We should systematically restore and develop handicrafts and also certain industries, firstly to supply our own needs and secondly for trade with the outside. In the last two years, and especially since the first half of 1933, many handicrafts and a few industries have begun to look up because of the attention we have begun to devote to them and the gradual development of producers' cooperatives by the people. The most significant fields are tobacco, paper, wolfram, camphor, farm implements, and fertilizers (such as lime). Moreover, in our present circumstances, we should not neglect the manufacture of our own cotton cloth, medicines, and sugar. In the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Red Area, some industries have been set up which were previously non-existent, such as papermaking, cloth-making, and sugar-refining, and they are doing well. To relieve the shortage of salt, people have begun to extract it from nitre. It requires proper planning to keep industry going. With a scattered handicraft industry, detailed and comprehensive planning is of course impossible. But fairly detailed production plans are absolutely essential for certain important enterprises, and first and foremost for State and cooperative enterprises. Every one of our State and cooperative industrial enterprises must pay attention from the very beginning to making accurate estimates of raw material output and marketing prospects in both the enemy areas and our own.

At the present time, it is particularly necessary for us to organize private external trading according to plan and for the State to handle certain essential commodities directly, for instance, the import of salt and cotton cloth, the export of grain and wolfram, and the adjustment of grain supply within our own areas. Such work was first undertaken in the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Red Area and was started in the Central Red Area in the spring of 1933. With the establishment of the Bureau of External Trade and other agencies, initial successes have been achieved in this connection.

Our economy is made up of three sectors: State enterprise, cooperative enterprise, and private enterprise.

At present, State enterprise is limited to what is possible and essential. State-operated industry and commerce have begun to grow, and they have boundless prospects.

As regards the private sector of the economy, we shall not hamper it, indeed we shall promote and encourage it, so long as it does not transgress the legal limits set by our government. For the development of private enterprise is essential to the interests of the State and the people at the present stage. Needless to say, private enterprise is now preponderant and will inevitably continue to occupy a dominant position for a considerable time. Today, private undertakings in the Red areas are small in scale.

Cooperative enterprise is growing rapidly. There are altogether 1'423 cooperatives of various kinds, with a total capital of over 300'000 yuan, according to the September 1933 figures for 17 counties in Jiangxi and Fujian. Because of promotion at rallies for economic construction, in counties such as Ruijin and Xingguo, for example, within a month or more after the rallies, the development figures caught up with those of the entire period before the rallies. Consumers' cooperatives and grain cooperatives head the list, with producers' cooperatives coming next. Credit cooperatives have just started functioning. The development of the cooperative movement will doubtless become pivotal in the economic development of the Red areas. When the cooperative and the State enterprises become coordinated and grow over a long period of time, they will become a tremendous force in our economy and will gradually prevail and assume leadership over the private sector, thereby creating the conditions for the economy in the Red areas to evolve into a socialist economy. Therefore, the greatest possible development of State enterprise and the extensive development of cooperative enterprise must go hand in hand with encouraging the development of private enterprise.

With the support of the masses, we have issued economic construction bonds to the value of 3'000'000 yuan in order to develop State enterprise and assist the cooperatives. Such reliance on the strength of the masses is the only possible way to solve the problem of funds for economic construction at this time.

At a time when the country is plunged in economic disaster, when hundreds of millions of people are suffering the terrible hardships of hunger and cold, the people's government in our areas is staunchly pressing ahead with economic construction for the sake of the revolutionary war and in the interests of the nation, regardless of all the difficulties. The situation is perfectly clear: only by defeating imperialism and the Nationalist Party and by undertaking planned, organized economic construction can we deliver the people of the whole of China from unprecedented economic disaster.

#4.8. OUR CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY

With a view to victory in the revolutionary war, the consolidation and development of the Council Power, the mobilization of all the people's forces to participate in the great revolutionary struggle, and the rearing of a new revolutionary generation, the Council Power must carry out cultural and educational reform to remove the spiritual shackles imposed on the masses of workers and peasants by the reactionary ruling classes and create a new, Red culture of the workers and peasants.

Everyone knows that, under Nationalist rule, all cultural and educational institutions are in the hands of the landlords and bourgeoisie. Their education policy is, on the one hand, to engage in reactionary militarist propaganda, so as to wipe out all revolutionary thinking by the oppressed classes, and, on the other hand, to carry out a policy of keeping the people in ignorance, excluding the masses of workers and peasants from education. The Nationalist reactionaries use financial resources intended for education to finance military action against the revolution. Under Nationalist rule, as a consequence, the people have become benighted and ignorant. Over 80% of the total population of the country as a whole is illiterate. An extremely brutal White terror has been launched against revolutionary culture and thought. All Left-wing writers and social scientists and any revolutionary elements within the cultural and educational institutions are subject to persecution by the Nationalist fascists. Turning all educational institutions into dark dungeons is actually the educational policy of the Nationalist Party.

Anyone who comes to visit our Red areas will immediately find this to be a brand new world of freedom and light.

Here, all cultural and educational institutions are in the hands of the workers, peasants, and working people. The workers, peasants, and their children have priority in obtaining an education. The Council Government uses every means to raise the cultural level of the workers and peasants. For this purpose, it has provided all possible political and material assistance to the masses. For this reason, even though, at present, the Red areas face the extremely brutal conditions of civil war and are mostly in places that used to be culturally very backward, they are already carrying out revolutionary cultural construction at a rapid pace.

According to figures for the three provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong-Jiangxi, in 2'932 townships, there are 3'052 Lenin primary schools with 89'710 pupils; 6'462 evening schools for higher education with 94'517 students; 32'388 literacy groups (these figures were gathered only for the two provinces of Jiangxi and Guangdong-Jiangxi, leaving out Fujian) with 155'371 members; 1'656 clubs; and 49'668 staff members. These are partial figures for the Central Red Area.

The majority of school-age children in many parts of the Red areas have entered Lenin primary schools. For example, out of a total of 20'969 school-age children in Xingguo (12'076 boys and 8'893 girls), 12'806 are in Lenin primary schools (8'825 boys and 3'981 girls), and 8'163 are not in school (3'251 boys and 4'912 girls), making 60% attending school and 40% not attending school, whereas, in the Nationalist period, less than 10% of the children attended school. In many places in the Red areas, the children spend most of their time receiving education and playing, and only a small amount of time working for their families. This is exactly the opposite of what happened during the Nationalist period. At the same time, children are organized into the Red Children's League, which also serves as a school where children can learn Communism.

The demand of the masses of women for education has never been so intense. Of the 15'740 students at the evening school in Xingguo, 4'988, or 31%, are men, and 10'752, or 69%, are women. Of the 22'519 members of the literacy groups in Xingguo, 9'000, or 40%, are men, and 13'519, or 60%, are women. In places such as Xingguo, women have attained initial liberation from illiteracy, and, as a result, women's activities have become very vigorous. Not only are women receiving education themselves, they are also taking charge of education. Many women serve as heads of primary schools and evening schools and have become members of educational and literary committees. Congresses of female workers' and peasants' deputies are common organizations in the Red areas. They pay attention to the overall interests of the masses of working women, so that women's education is naturally part of their concern.

The number of literates among the masses is rapidly increasing. Ways to acquire literacy are through evening schools, the literacy movement, and literary billboards. Evening schools have fixed locations, literacy groups meet in people's homes, and literacy billboards are along the sides of the roads. The leading bodies of the literacy movement are the village literacy movement committees. In Xingguo, for example, the whole county has general literacy movement committees in 130 townships, branches of literacy movement committees in 561 villages, and 3'387 literacy groups under these branches with 22'529 members having joined these small groups. This is an enormous mass movement for wiping out illiteracy. Such a movement should be extended to all cities and rural areas throughout the Red areas.

The rapid development of the cultural movement among the masses in the Red areas can be noted as well by observing the circulation of newspapers. The Central Red Area currently has 34 different newspapers, big and small. Among them, for example, the circulation of the Hongse Zhonghua [Red China] has increased from 3'000 to 40'000, that of the Qingnian Shihua [Truth for Youth] is 28'000, that of the Douzheng [Struggle] is 27'100, and that of the Hongxing [Red Star] is 17'300. All of this shows that the cultural level of the masses is being rapidly raised.

In the Red areas, revolutionary mass art is also beginning to be created. The movements of worker and peasant performing companies and song-and-dance troupes and the club movement in the countryside are all developing rapidly.

The Red sports mass movement is also developing quickly. Even remote villages now have track and field races, and sports courts have been built in many places.

The Red areas still lack adequate establishments for higher education. But, in order to educate directors for the revolutionary struggle, we have already set up the Red Army University, the Council University, the Karl Marx Communist University, and various cadres' educational schools under the leadership of the Commissariat for Education. A component of the plans for education should doubtless be that intermediate and higher education develop in conjunction with basic education, so as to foster its development.

In order to educate worker and peasant intellectuals and develop culture and education, another point that our cultural policy cannot neglect is the use of intellectuals of landlord and bourgeois class origins to serve the Council Power.

Wherein lie the general guidelines of Red culture and education? They are in using the Communist spirit to educate the broad masses of working people, in making culture and education serve the revolutionary war and the class struggle, in linking education with manual labour, and in enabling the entire Chinese people to enjoy the blessings of social development.

What are the central tasks of our cultural construction? They are the institution of universal and compulsory education, the development of broad socialized education, the elimination of illiteracy, and the creation of large numbers of directors and cadres to lead the struggle.

Everyone understands that all of these guidelines and tasks can be realized only under the leadership of the Council Power, for they are manifestations of the extreme sharpness of the class struggle and represent our greatest victory in liberating the human spirit.

#4.9. OUR MARRIAGE POLICY

To liberate the masses of women from the barbaric feudal marriage system and to put into effect a marriage system of genuine gender equality, the Central Executive Committee promulgated council regulations on marriage as early as November 1931. Therein, complete freedom of marriage and divorce is established; the system of arranged, forced, and transactional marriages is abolished; and the practice of child marriage is prohibited. This decree has been generally applied over the past two years in all areas under council jurisdiction. All those who are not related by blood within five generations, are not mentally ill, and do not have dangerous contagious diseases, men at least 20 years of age and women at least 18 years of age, are permitted to marry by mutual consent and through registration at the township or municipal council. Divorce is effective if requested by either party, man or woman, and upon registration at the township or municipal council.

This democratic marriage system has burst the feudal shackles that have bound human beings, especially women, for thousands of years, and established a new pattern consistent with human nature. This, too, is one of the greatest victories in human history.

This victory came, however, as a consequence of the victory of the workers' and peasants' democratic dictatorship, for, in order to achieve emancipation from the marriage system for the working masses, it is first necessary to overthrow the dictatorship of the landlords and bourgeoisie and to carry out the agrarian revolution. Only when the working masses of men and women, and the women in particular, have political freedom in the first place and considerable economic freedom in the second place can freedom of marriage be finally guaranteed. Working women in the Red areas have the right to vote just as men do, and they have been assigned land and jobs, so the new system can now be fully carried out.

Because, for thousands of years, marriage relations have been barbaric to an inhuman degree, women have suffered more oppression than men. Therefore, the current council marriage laws and regulations stress the protection of women and place more of the responsibilities arising from divorce on the shoulders of men.

Because children are the new revolutionary generation, and social custom in the past paid little attention to the protection of children, the marriage regulations have separate stipulations on the protection of children. In this regard, special attention is paid to recognition of the status of children born out of wedlock and to their protection.

The application of this marriage system has won support for the Council Power from the broad masses of the people, who have gained, not only political and economic liberation, but also romantic and sexual liberation.

With respect to the marriage system itself, the Red areas and the White areas are also two completely opposite worlds.

#4.10. OUR NATIONAL POLICY

To win over all oppressed minority nationalities in the areas surrounding the Red areas, to augment the anti-imperialist and anti-Nationalist revolutionary forces, and to gain freedom and liberation for all oppressed nationalities — this is the starting point of our national policy.

Many minority nationalities within the country, such as the Mongolian, Tibetan, Korean, Vietnamese, Miao, Li, Hui, and Uighur peoples, have throughout history been exploited and oppressed by Chinese feudal emperors and warlords. The Nationalist Party has inherited this form of rule without any changes whatsoever. Its so-called «Republic of Five Nationalities» is nothing but a sinister lie designed to deceive the people, and Feng Yuxiang's massacre of the Hui people in Gansu and Bai Chongxi's massacre of the Miao people in Guangxi are indeed the most recent «rewards» granted by the Nationalist Party. In addition, the ruling classes within the minority nationalities themselves, consisting of princes, living Buddhas, lamas, chiefs, and so on, have colluded with the British and Japanese imperialists and the Han Nationalist warlords and brought to the broad working masses of these nationalities even more severe oppression and exploitation. In some cases (such as in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, for example), they have directly capitulated to the imperialists, leading the imperialists to colonize these regions rapidly and further to plunder the working masses. Such is the reality of the lives of the minority nationalities past and present.

The Council Government firmly opposes all domination and plunder of the minority nationalities by the imperialists and the Nationalist warlords. Article 14 of the Draft Constitution, promulgated by the First National Congress of Councils on the 7th of November, 1931, states:

The Chinese Council Government recognizes the right to self-determination of the minority nationalities within China's borders, to the point of each nationality seceding from China and establishing its own independent, free State. All peoples, such as the Mongolians, Hui, Uighurs, Miao, Li, and Koreans, who live within China's borders may, according to a decision based on each nationality's own will, join the Federal Council Republic of China, secede from it, or establish their own autonomous regions. At present, the Council Power in China must do its utmost to assist these small and weak nationalities in freeing themselves from the oppressive rule of the imperialists, Nationalist warlords, princes, lamas, local chiefs, and others, and enable them to achieve complete liberation. The Council Power should further develop among these nationalities their own national cultures and languages.

This is a resounding reply to the barbarous colonial policies toward the oppressed nationalities carried out by the imperialists of the whole world, including the Nationalist Party of China. The broad masses of China's workers and peasants and their Council Government are not only themselves waging a resolute national-revolutionary war to throw off the imperialist yoke, but are also calling upon all small and weak nationalities in the country to free themselves at the same from the yoke of the Chinese ruling classes and the foreign imperialists, until these nationalities have attained complete separation and independence. Article 15 of the Draft Council Constitution states, once again:

The Council Power in China offers the right of asylum within the Red areas to all revolutionary fighters of the various Chinese nationalities, and of all the countries in the world, who suffer persecution by reactionary rulers because of revolutionary activity; it will, moreover, assist them in recovering their fighting strength all the way until the total victory of the revolutionary movements of these nationalities and countries is achieved.

The truth of this declaration of ours has been proved by the residence in the Red areas of many revolutionary Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese comrades; the attendance of Korean deputies at the First National Congress of Councils; and the participation in the present Congress of several deputies from Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Common revolutionary interests have wholeheartedly united the Han working masses and the working masses of all minority nationalities.

National oppression is based on national exploitation. Overthrowing this system of national exploitation will replace national oppression with the free association of nationalities.

This is possible, however, only with the total victory of the Council Power throughout China. To help the Council Power to win victory throughout China is likewise the responsibility of all minority nationalities.

#5. THE CONCRETE FIGHTING TASKS OF THE COUNCIL POWER IN THOROUGHLY SMASHING THE FIFTH «ENCIRCLEMENT AND SUPPRESSION» CAMPAIGN AND STRIVING FOR THE VICTORY OF THE REVOLUTION THROUGHOUT THE COUNCIL

#5.1. ON THE WEAKNESSES ON THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT

Having addressed the current situation, the struggle of the Council Power against the imperialists and the Nationalist Party of China over the past two years, and our fundamental policies, it is time we drew a definite conclusion, which is that the council movement has taken great strides forward. The victories of the council movement over the past two years have clearly changed the balance of power between the enemy and ourselves. The enemy's vacillation and collapse have accelerated, whereas the council movement is developing vigorously. The revolutionary forces have grown in strength, and the revolutionary positions have been further consolidated. The national-revolutionary war and the revolutionary civil war are being waged simultaneously in vast areas across China, and the Red Army has become an invincible force. The foundation of the workers' and peasants' democratic dictatorship has been established. Council construction work has achieved great results in all spheres. The unified leadership of the Central Council Government has not only built a solid foundation in the Red areas, but has also become the revolutionary banner of the broad masses in the areas under Nationalist rule. All these things have become facts of life today and an undeniable, objective reality.

The advance of the revolution, however, demands that we take into account other circumstances, and that we examine with a thoroughgoing spirit of self-criticism the weaknesses on the revolutionary front. This is our unshirkable duty.

In taking into account our weaknesses, it must first of all be clearly understood that, although the areas in which the Council Power has won victory are vast, in relation to the country as a whole, they are still quite small and are located in economically rather backward places. The counter-revolutionaries still retain their huge areas and still occupy all the important cities. As a consequence, the task of winning victory for the Council Power throughout the country by striving for victory first in one or several provinces falls most seriously upon our shoulders. The increasingly intensified life-and-death struggle between the two systems of political power requires that we exert all our efforts to solve this problem and permits not even a trace of complacency to remain in our revolutionary ranks, nor even the slightest feeling of fatigue to manifest itself.

Second, although the anti-imperialist movement of the people of the whole country has been unfolding widely over the past two years and the Central Council Government has also achieved considerable success in leading the anti-imperialist movement, in view of the gravity of the current national crisis and the serious task of halting imperialist invasion and Nationalist capitulation and betrayal, it is clear that the presently developing anti-imperialist fighting forces remain extremely inadequate. The Council Power has not yet made use of very many methods to inspire the national consciousness and class-consciousness of the broad masses, or to organize a people's anti-imperialist struggle. And, even in the anti-imperialist struggles arising spontaneously among the masses, the direct assistance and leadership of the Council Government is still extremely inadequate. In the vast White areas, the Council Power has not yet fully assumed its responsibility for organizing and leading the struggle of the workers against the bourgeoisie and of the peasants against the landlords. Even in the White areas surrounding the Red areas, the greatest possible efforts have not been made to organize mass struggle, so that conditions are created for transforming these areas swiftly into Red areas, so that the Red Army fighting in these areas gets the benefit of more concerted actions on the part of the local masses, and especially to create a situation in which the White soldiers stage uprisings in resonance with the actions of the Red Army.

Third, although the Red Army is rapidly growing in numbers and improving in quality, it has nonetheless fallen far short of fulfilling the great tasks of defeating the entire military power of the Nationalist reactionaries and winning countrywide victory for the revolution. The work of expanding the Red Army in the rear is still unable to meet the demands of the front. The organization and training of the Red Guards and the Young Pioneers are still very poor in many places. The organization and actions of guerrilla troops are generally inadequate. Many places have done a very poor job of giving preferential treatment to the dependents of Red Army soldiers. All this has limited the development of the revolutionary war to its past achievements and prevented us from making direct advanced upon the heels of victory in breaking through each of the enemy's «encirclement and suppression» campaigns and achieving even greater victory.

Fourth, faced with the task of giving everything for the war, we have still been unable to adjust all council work completely to the demands of the revolutionary war. Weaknesses exist, whether we are talking about the agrarian struggle, the labour struggle, economic construction, finance, the movement to eliminate counter-revolutionaries, or culture and education. To point out these general weaknesses is to say that the revolutionary war demands that such work should achieve great successes with the greatest possible rapidity, yet the actual accomplishments are quite uneven in different places. Many localities have actually attained the standard of what is called the highest speed and the greatest possible achievements, and the work in these places has provided tremendous assistance to the revolutionary war. In other places, however, not only has the work been carried out very slowly, but even after a long time, they have not been able to achieve the results that should have been attained. In some new areas and border areas in particular, the work is even worse. The main reason for this sort of situation is the existence within the council bodies in these areas of some elements who fail to understand or even refuse to carry out council laws, decrees, and policies. Some among these elements are serious opportunists and bureaucrats, and some are simply spies sent by the landlords and bourgeoisie. They do not advance the work of the Council Power, but rather obstruct it. Instead of making the work of the Council Power serve the war, they divorce it from the war. They refuse to promote mass struggle and instead have called a halt to it. In carrying out the work of the Council Power, they have never mobilized the broad masses nor engaged in persuasion or education of the masses, but have made use of empty talk and empty shouting or even commandism. Instead of going to find out the situation at the grassroots level, going to educate new cadres, or going to solicit opinions from the masses, all they do is opportunistically slander lower-level cadres as unfit and condemn the masses down there as lacking in revolutionary zeal. In these places, council democracy has not been fully developed, the broadest masses have not been drawn in to participate in council elections, and large numbers of mass activists have not been drawn in to take part in council work. The system of municipal and township congresses of deputies has not yet been properly established in these places, and the councils have yet to become the true political bodies of the broad masses themselves. For these reasons, much of the work of the Council Power in these places has failed to achieve the results it should have and cannot meet the urgent demands of the revolutionary war. It should be clearly pointed out that this is a most serious weakness in the work of the Council Power.

The existence of all these weaknesses provides us with a profound warning: Only by overcoming these weaknesses can the council movement adjust to all favourable objective conditions and develop on a larger scale and with a broader scope.

We already have great strength, which has become the foundation of our development. But the needs of the revolutionary situation go beyond our strength, which is inadequate and must be augmented.

In order to thoroughly smash the «encirclement and suppression» campaign of the Nationalist reactionaries and win victory for the revolution throughout the country, the Second National Congress of Councils must call upon all the revolutionary masses of the Red areas and throughout China to resolutely carry out the following concrete fighting tasks.

#5.2. ON BUILDING THE RED ARMY

Further strengthen the leadership of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission over the Red Army throughout the nation, so that the actions of the Red Army all over the country may be better coordinated and synchronized with each other under strategic centralization, and so that military bodies in various places may be more able to carry out their own tasks fully under centralized leadership.

Spread widely and deeply among the broad masses of workers and peasants in all Red areas and all over China the slogan of expanding to create a 1'000'000-strong iron-like Red Army. Call upon the masses to fight for the realization of this minimum slogan within the shortest period of time. The masses should be made to realize that the decisive struggle for victory or defeat between the Council Power and the Nationalist regime, and the direct and extensive confrontations between the Council Power and imperialism that are before us depend on our creation of a great Red Army millions of soldiers strong. Therefore, the initial creation of a 1'000'000-strong Red Army is the sacred duty of the Council Power and of every worker and peasant. The Central Revolutionary Military Commission and the councils at all levels should be responsible for gathering the rich experiences of expanding the Red Army in various areas over the past two years, and especially since Red May last year. It should be emphatically pointed out that having thoroughgoing political agitation replace coercive methods, having ruthless class struggle and council laws and decrees in this respect used to deal with alien-class elements and bad elements who undermine the expansion of the Red Army and take the lead in desertion, and having all council laws, decrees, and measures for granting preferential treatment to Red Army soldiers and their dependents fully implemented, so as to raise the social status of Red Army soldiers, provide more psychological comfort for Red Army soldiers and their dependents, and resolve all material difficulties in the lives of Red Army soldiers and their dependents, are all important methods of expanding the Red Army. It should be pointed out as well that cultivating the land of Red Army dependents and supplying them with daily necessities are important parts of the work of granting preferential treatment. All elements with a passive attitude toward the work of granting preferential treatment to Red Army soldiers and their dependents and who feign compliance should be punished under council law.

Consolidation of the Red Army should be given priority in building up the Red Army, so that the Red Army may not only expand rapidly, but grow stronger very fast as well. Political education of Red Army soldiers should be stepped up further, so that every Red Army soldier will conscientiously fight to the end for a new Council China, so that the Red Army becomes the propagator and organizer of the Council Power and carries out the creation of new Red areas, and so that there may develop closer ties between Red Army soldiers and the working masses in the broad Red and White areas alike. The conscious discipline of the Red Army should be enhanced through political education, so that it understands that this is an important weapon with which to ensure victory in the war. The system of political commissars should be set up in all Red Army units, local units, and guerrilla detachments. More people with working-class background should be promoted to posts as military and political commanders at all levels. Red Army schools should be made more capable of educating large numbers of high- and low-level military and political cadres than they were in the past. Attention should be paid to checking up family backgrounds in the Red Army, and heavy blows should be dealt to attempts by landlord and bourgeois elements to sneak into the Red Army and undermine it from within. The work of consolidating the Red Army and making it an iron-like army is equally as important as political work, and what the Red Army urgently needs at present is the raising of military skills. Faced with daily expansion of the scale of the war and the reactionary Nationalist army's constantly increasing use of new military techniques, the accomplishment of this task becomes of the utmost importance for us. The slogan of learning and improving new military skills should be deeply ingrained in every Red Army soldier, and Red Army schools should make their greatest efforts toward this goal.

The new organizational methods used for the Red Guards and the Young Pioneers should be introduced in all parts of the Red areas, and all working youth and adults regardless of gender should be armed. Every member of the Red Guards and the Young Pioneers should be made to understand clearly the role and responsibilities of the Red Army reserve forces and local defence troops. Propaganda on the need for and role of conscription in the even larger-scale civil war in the future should be appropriately disseminated, starting now, among all working people and members of the Red Guards and Young Pioneers. Great efforts should be made in carrying out all possible and necessary military training and political education. Camping and exercise techniques should be introduced as much as possible within the Red Guards and Young Pioneers in all localities. With enemy attacks and attempts to stir up trouble by exploiting elements in the Red areas, the Red Guards and Young Pioneers should be given extra responsibility for defending the local areas, and the occurrence in many places of relaxing Red martial law should be quickly redressed. One of the best ways to expand the Red Army is to get whole companies and teams of model Red Guards and Young Pioneers to join the Red Army, and to reorganize these contingents as soon as they have been so mobilized. Red guerrilla forces in the new Red areas, border areas, and White areas are indispensable to Red Army fighting and play the role of one of its great detachments. Strengthening and expanding the existing guerrilla forces; multiplying new guerrilla forces as widely as possible; gathering the rich experience of past guerrilla warfare; greatly strengthening education and training as regards guerrilla tactics; moving hundreds and thousands of guerrilla detachments into White areas and into the enemy's flanks and rear; attacking the enemy and developing mass struggle in those places; creating guerrilla zones and even new Red areas, especially doing this work in all the Red areas that are not yet connected with each other; and coordinating actions with those of the Red Army's main forces — these are all the very urgent tasks of the Council Power.

All measures should be taken to safeguard the supply and transport of Red Army provisions. Council financial and economic bodies and supply, transportation, and medical units in the military system should make efforts toward this common objective. Past shortcomings in the mobilization of transportation teams should be overcome, so that the Red Army's movements and combat are not hampered by a shortage of transport personnel. All sacrifices and efforts devoted to the war are the duty of every council staff worker and every revolutionary.

#5.3. ON BUILDING THE ECONOMY

In order to break down the enemy's blockade, resist the manipulation of unscrupulous merchants, secure the needs of the revolutionary war, and improve the lives of the masses of workers and peasants, the Council Power must carry out, in a planned way, all sorts of necessary and possible economic construction.

First and foremost is the development of massive agricultural production in the Red areas. The Council Power should take all measures to raise enthusiasm for production on the part of the masses of peasants. During various important phases of the farming season, such as spring ploughing, summer ploughing, and the autumn harvest, every opportunity should be used to carry out a widespread, universal movement to raise productivity and to mobilize all the rural masses to enter the production front together. To organize labour mutual-aid associations and cultivation teams on a wide scale, regulate the rural labour force in a planned way, and mobilize the broad masses of women to take part in production are all important ways to expand production. The peasants should be guided and helped in solving specific and significant problems in agriculture, such as draught oxen, farm implements, fertilizer, seeds, water conservancy, and pest control. Draught-oxen cooperatives should be formed everywhere. In view of the experiences of last year's movement for spring and summer ploughing, completely eliminating wasteland and increasing this year's harvest by 20% should become the battle slogans. Cotton-growing experience should be gathered, and cotton production developed in the Red areas. A movement to plant trees should be launched, calling upon each person in the countryside to plant ten trees. The Council Power should pay attention to the growth of animal husbandry. Regarding certain important agricultural sectors, such as grain, cotton, and so on, the Central People's Commissariat for the National Economy and the various provincial departments for the national economy should draw up specific plans for implementation. The Commissariat for Food and Grain, the Food and Grain Adjustment Bureau, and mass food and grain cooperatives should establish close working relations and strive toward totally guaranteeing food and grain supplies for the Red Army and the masses.

The recovery of the broad handicraft industry in the Red areas and the establishment of a military essentials industry are important tasks of economic construction in the Red areas. Council plans for the recovery and development of industry should be based on the needs of the war, the needs of the masses in the Red areas, and the possibility of export to White areas. Tungsten ore, coal, iron, lime, farm implements, tobacco, paper, cloth, sugar, medicine, salt, camphor, timber, and so on should be the main sectors. Great efforts should be made to develop production cooperatives of the masses in these industries, and, as much as possible, unemployed workers, independent labourers, and peasants should be organized into production cooperatives. At the same time, investment by private capitalists should be allowed and encouraged to expand production of these things in the Red areas. The Council Power should not attempt to monopolize all production enterprises at present, but to set up and develop some especially needed and especially beneficial State-owned enterprises is something that might be done and indeed should be done. Raising enthusiasm for labour, promoting production emulation, and rewarding those who have made remarkable achievements on the production front are all important methods of increasing production.

Breaking down the enemy's economic blockade, developing the Red areas' trade with the outside, and exchanging surplus commodities produced in the Red areas (rice, tungsten ore, timber, tobacco, paper, and so on) for industrial commodities from the White areas (table salt, cloth, kerosene, and so on) are pivotal to developing the national economy. The Bureau of External Trade and the various commercial bodies must be further strengthened. At the same time, rewarding private commerce allows them to make efforts for the import and export of various necessary commodities. The extensive development of consumer cooperatives and organization of the broad masses of workers and peasants into these cooperatives make it possible for the masses to purchase necessities from the White areas at reasonable prices and to sell commodities produced in the Red areas at high prices. Thus, they occupy an especially important position in council trade and in economic construction as a whole. Council leadership of the Central General Association and the various provincial and county general associations of consumer cooperatives should be greatly strengthened. In places where provincial and county general associations have not yet been established, they should be set up quickly.

The solution to the problem of capital in economic construction lies primarily in absorbing capital from the masses and organizing the masses into production, consumer, and credit cooperatives. Attention should be paid to the development of credit cooperatives, so that, after usurers' capital is overthrown, they may take its place. Absorbing the capital of the masses into the building of State enterprises; developing external trade; aiding cooperative enterprises and other projects by means of public economic construction bonds, bank shares and deposits, and so on — these are also important measures. Within the scope of council laws, private capitalists should be encouraged as much as possible to make investments, so that capital in the Red areas may be more flexible. Council banks should be given the fullest play possible. Based on the principle of the needs of the market, issuing appropriate amounts of paper currency, gathering savings deposits from the masses, making loans to profitable production enterprises, readjusting in a planned manner the entire finances of the Red areas, and leading the mass cooperatives in struggle against speculative merchants are all tasks of the banks.

#5.4. ON BUILDING THE COUNCIL POWER

The establishment of the Central Council Government provided the nationwide council movement with an overall leading organization, which is of tremendous significance to the Chinese revolution. Over the past two years, it has won great and glorious victories in leading the struggle against imperialism and the Nationalist Party. We must point out that the Central Government still has many imperfections and deficiencies in its own organization and work. In order to strengthen the Central Government's overall leadership of the Red areas and the national revolution, the work of the Central Executive Committee must be separated from that of the Council of People's Commissars, the organization and work of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee must be improved, and the staffs of the various people's commissariats must be further strengthened and their methods of work reformed. Additional people's commissariats must be established as necessary, such as the Commissariat for Food and Grain, and so on, so that, in the face of further development of the revolutionary situation, the Central Government can fully play its role as overall driving force.

The provincial councils are the highest leading bodies of local political power and are the connecting links between the Central Government, on the one hand, and the various county and district councils, on the other. The Central Government's leadership over the provincial councils must be greatly strengthened, communication made closer between the Central Government and the provincial councils (various provinces within the Central Red Area and various provinces outside the Central Red Area), and inspection of the work of the provincial councils done strictly. Great efforts must be made to improve the methods of work of the provincial councils and to institute a system of collective discussion, precise division of labour, and individual responsibility. Inspection of the work of the areas under the jurisdiction of the county councils must be intensified, and great efforts made to correct past manifestations of laxity and lack of focus in the work of some councils.

The township and municipal councils are the fundamental council organizations, and therefore the greatest efforts must be made to improve their work. In all places where the system of congresses of deputies has not yet been set up, this system should be instituted. The work of the congresses of deputies in the various localities must be further strengthened and their presidiums should be established, as well as many committees under them. In fact, the committee system should be introduced in the villages, and large numbers of worker and peasant activists drawn in to participate in the work of the committees. A system should be established whereby each deputy has a personal relationship with a certain number of residents. A system of responsibility should be set up in which each village has a deputy responsible for the work of the whole village, and they should be allowed to call meetings of village deputies and residents to discuss the work of the village. The township and municipal councils are the bodies directly responsible for mobilizing the masses to carry out council work. The heart of their work is how to mobilize the masses of the whole municipality and the whole township most effectively and fully to fight for the successful realization of every task and all work of the councils. The township, municipal, and district councils must pay the greatest attention to the actual work in the villages and neighbourhoods. They must carry out a system of periodic inspection of village and neighbourhood work. Emulation of revolutionary work between villages and neighbourhoods is an effective method of achieving greater speed in the work. Practical and rapid improvements in township, municipal, and district councils depend on correct and concrete leadership by district and municipal councils. District and municipal councils should focus all their attention on improving the work of the various township, municipal, and district councils. Ample explanation, frequent tours and check-ups, effective inspection, and tests among the masses are key methods of leadership for district and municipal councils. These same standards should be used in the county councils' inspection of the work of district councils as well.

The provincial councils must devote a great part of their attention to the new Red areas, and regard as their own important duty the work of establishing and strengthening revolutionary committees in the new areas. The organizational form and the content of the work of these revolutionary committees are different in many respects from those of municipal and township councils. All White areas that are transformed into Red areas should go through the process of establishing revolutionary committees. Therefore, all provincial and county councils in the new areas and border areas should pay a great deal of attention to perfecting the organization and work of the revolutionary committees and enabling them to shoulder the tasks of arming the masses, launching mass movements, and eliminating reactionary forces, so as to proceed rapidly to the establishment of the Council Power. Although council democracy has been developing, it should be pointed out that it is still extremely inadequate in many respects. A harsh struggle against bureaucracy must be waged, so as to get rid of all the trash that stands between the councils and the masses. This trash is bureaucracy and commandism. Council staff members should carry out council work through mobilizing and persuading the masses, not by means of coercion and orders. Council staff workers should pay attention to every request and suggestion from the masses, and should not take lightly such requests and suggestions. Council staff workers, and workers' and peasants' inspections in particular, should involve the broad masses in carrying out extensive criticism and struggle against bad elements within council organizations, to the point of harshly punishing them according to council laws, so as to ensure good relations between the councils and the masses. For the purpose of improving the composition of the councils, it is necessary to lend more of a mass character to council elections. The significance of elections must be explained to the masses, and the greatest possible number of voters drawn in to participate in the elections. All alien-class elements and all corrupt, wasteful, and bureaucratic elements must absolutely be barred from elections. Large numbers of worker and peasant activists should be elected to manage State affairs. Here, according to the stipulations of the Electoral Law, a key link in improving council work is to involve large numbers of worker cadres and strengthen the leading position of the workers in the Council Power. For the purpose of lending a mass character to council work, the councils must establish close ties with the trade unions, poor peasant leagues, congresses of deputies of female workers and peasants, cooperatives, and all other sorts of mass organizations, and carry out council work by mobilizing the broad masses through these organizations.

With a view to striving for speed and quality in council work and making all council work serve the demands of the revolutionary war, it is necessary to make great efforts to eliminate laxity and an individualist attitude on the part of council staff members, to enhance greatly the enthusiasm for labour of council staff workers, and to make each staff member conscientiously exert themself in working for the State, the workers' and peasants' democratic dictatorship. At the same time, labour discipline must be tightened. Harsh struggle should be waged against all elements such as those who are unenthusiastic about labour and those who take lightly, neglect, or shirk their duties and treat council work as unimportant, to the point of firing them from their jobs. Corruption and waste must be opposed, for these phenomena are not only financially and economically harmful to the councils, but also constitute factors that are liable to corrupt council staff workers and undermine their enthusiasm for labour and high morale. It is necessary to put forward to every council staff worker the slogans: «All work must serve the war!» and «Strive for speed and quality in work!» In this regard, the people mainly responsible for the councils at all levels, and the workers' and peasants' inspections in particular, should conduct thoroughgoing persuasive and educational work among council personnel.

Responsibility for thoroughly and faithfully carrying out council laws, decrees, and policies should be shifted onto the shoulders of the entire council staff. Violations of council laws, decrees, and policies, first and foremost violations by council personnel themselves, should be subject to severe penalties.

The Labour Law must be fully applied, and each article of the Labour Law explained to the broad masses of workers. The institution of the eight-hour workday and the stipulation of a minimum wage are its central and minimal provisions to safeguard the workers' interests. Labour inspection units and labour courts must be made to play their full roles. Firm struggle must be waged against staff members who neglect the interests of the workers and attempt to compromise with the capitalists. Concrete and timely relief must be provided to unemployed workers, and unemployment relief committees must be organized wherever there are unemployed people. A system of social security must be adopted and effectively administered wherever it is possible to do so. Due attention must be paid to the work of the Social Security Bureau, and past mistakes in some places with regard to the disbursement of insurance money must be avoided. To carry out these tasks fully, the Commissariat for Labour should be strengthened and develop close relations with the trade unions.

One of the central tasks of the Council Power is to carry out fully the Land Law and all regulations and decrees concerning the agrarian struggle, and to unfold the broad agrarian revolution on a nationwide scale. The struggle to confiscate the land of the landlord class and big private owners should be launched emphatically and forcefully in all areas that are newly incorporated into the domain of the Council Power. Much past experience in methods of land redistribution should be gathered and generally applied in all new Red areas. The movement to check up land distribution should be unfolded wherever the land question has yet to be completely settled, so as to eliminate rapidly the feudal remnants in those places. A correct class line and adequate mass work are prerequisites for ensuring thorough victory of the agrarian revolution.

To carry out council cultural and educational policies, unfold a cultural revolution in the Red areas, arm with Communism the minds of the masses of workers and peasants, raise the cultural level of the masses, institute a system of compulsory education, and further mobilize the masses for the revolutionary war are likewise important tasks for the Council Power.

The council policy of punishing exploiters and suppressing counter-revolutionaries must be resolutely carried out. The State Political Security Bureau and the council courts must heighten their vigilance and impose harsh punishment and repression on exploiting-class elements who violate council laws and all elements who engage in counter-revolutionary activities. In this regard, lending a mass character to the work of the Political Security Bureau and the council courts and mobilization of the broad masses to engage in the struggle to eliminate counter-revolutionaries are crucial.

The general direction of council work is to strive for speed and quality and to have all council work completely conform to the demands of the revolutionary war.

#5.5. ON LEADING THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE AND ON WORK IN THE WHITE AREAS

In order to resolutely oppose imperialist aggression, vigorously promote the struggle of the workers and peasants throughout the country, and enlarge the Red areas throughout the country, the Council Government must strengthen its leadership of the anti-imperialist struggle all over the country and the revolutionary struggle of workers and peasants in the White areas. Passivity in this regard amounts to indulging the bandit aggression of imperialism, prolonging the life of reactionary Nationalist rule, and restricting the speed and scope of development of the Red areas. The Central Council Government and the various provincial councils must project their vision into the vast White areas. Not only should they lead every spontaneous anti-imperialist mass movement, they should also make use of every concrete incident of imperialist aggression and Nationalist capitulation and betrayal to inspire the national consciousness and class-consciousness among the broad masses of workers, peasants, and urban small bourgeois, and call upon them to get organized and armed, so as to fight for the expulsion of imperialism and the defence of China's territory. Particularly in areas under attack by the Japanese imperialists, such as the three north-eastern provinces, Rehe, Chaha'er, northern China, and so on, people's armies and volunteer armies should be organized and the old volunteer armies should be guided to shake off the reactionary influence of the Nationalist Party and resolutely fight against Japanese imperialism. The Council Government must provide all possible moral and material support to every anti-imperialist workers' strike and every anti-imperialist struggle of the peasants and urban small bourgeois.

The Council Power must use all possible means to organize, aid, and lead the workers' struggle against the bourgeoisie, the peasants' struggle against the landlords, and all revolutionary mass struggles against imperialism and the Nationalist Party in the White areas. All council staff members should understand that it is necessary to pay tremendous attention to the White areas if we are to extend the council movement throughout the country, to create the conditions for transforming the White areas, which are several times bigger, into Red areas, to create new Red areas, and to be able to gain the support of the masses in the White areas during the struggle against the massive «encirclement and suppression» campaign of the Nationalist reactionaries. People must be sent out from the Red areas to prepare all necessary material support and to organize and lead the mass struggle in the White areas. Passivity in this respect amounts to passivity toward the expansion of the Red areas and the development of the revolutionary war. Particularly in White areas near Red areas, the masses are under the greatest influence of the Council Power and suffer the greatest oppression of Nationalist military slavery, State monopoly on table salt, and so on. The councils, especially the provincial councils and the county and other councils in border areas, must make use of every opportunity to establish links with these masses, organize their daily struggles, and develop these struggles into guerrilla warfare and mass uprisings, until the new Red areas are joined together with the old Red areas. Here, the work on the borders between the Red and the White areas should be viewed as extremely important. In these areas, the councils (or revolutionary committees) and guerrilla forces must strictly adhere to our fundamental policies, and all arbitrary beating of local tyrants without class distinction is forbidden. Property confiscated from the landlords and reactionaries must be distributed to the local masses in big quantities. Furthermore, excellent solutions must be applied, according to the class line and the mass line, to the problem of the opposition between Red and White, the problem of flight by the masses, the problem of the blockade on table salt, the problem of people struck by natural disasters, and so on. The causes of the opposition between Red and White and flight by the masses must be eliminated. Improvement of the work in the border areas is the key link in turning the White areas into Red areas.

#6. CONCLUSION

Comrades, the Council Power and the Red Army are shouldering the heavy responsibility of saving the Chinese nation from doom. If we are to fulfil this responsibility, we must accomplish the tasks raised and stipulated by the Second National Congress of Councils. At the same time, as the comrades all know, the victory of the Chinese council revolution represents, not only the liberation of China's 400'000'000 people, but also the precursor to all the oppressed nations of Asia throwing off the shackles of imperialism, a fatal blow to the plan of the Japanese and other imperialists to wage an imperialist Second World War in the Pacific, and destruction of the plan of the Japanese and other imperialists to attack the Council Union on the eastern front. It will bring the moment of victory for the proletarian world revolution very much closer. How great and glorious is our task!

Comrades! Forge ahead! Final victory belongs to us! [Thunderous applause. All deputies rise to salute Comrade Mao Zedong and to sing The International.]