Pay Attention to Economic Work and Smash the Fifth «Encirclement and Suppression» Campaign

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Pay Attention to Economic Work and Smash the Fifth «Encirclement and Suppression» Campaign 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:

• Pay Attention to Economic Work, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 1, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• Smashing the Fifth «Encirclement and Suppression» and the Tasks of Economic Construction, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 4, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 1997.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a speech delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at the Conference on Economic Construction of 17 counties in southern Jiangxi in Ruijin, Jiangxi, China on the 12th of August, 1933. It was first published in the Hongse Zhonghua, No. 102 (16th of August, 1933).

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#PAY ATTENTION TO ECONOMIC WORK AND SMASH THE FIFTH «ENCIRCLEMENT AND SUPPRESSION» CAMPAIGN

#SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE CONFERENCE ON ECONOMIC CONSTRUCTION OF 17 COUNTIES IN SOUTHERN JIANGXI

#Mao Zedong

#12th of August, 1933

#★

Comrades!

We are holding two conferences on economic construction this time — one for 17 counties in southern Jiangxi and one for 11 counties in northern Jiangxi.¹ Such conferences solely for the purpose of economic construction have never been held before, and today is the first time. The present situation is as follows:

• The enemy's fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign has been completely smashed by us, and the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign will soon follow.²
• The great storms of world revolution and world war are approaching us.
• The imperialists are madly preparing a great war and a war against the Council Union.
• The imperialists are madly oppressing China, while Japan has already occupied four and a half provinces of China and is still pursuing its bandit war against Inner Mongolia.
• The Nationalist Party of China, after the crushing defeat of its fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign, is now making arrangements for a new, fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign.
• The revolutionary struggle and the revolutionary war in China have assumed a new form and are moving forward with great strides.

If, at such a time, we hold conferences here on economic construction, this indicates clearly what it is that we want to discuss and the purposes of our economic construction. My speech today will explain this point.

#1. SMASHING THE FOURTH «ENCIRCLEMENT AND SUPPRESSION» CAMPAIGN AND THE NEW, FIFTH «ENCIRCLEMENT AND SUPPRESSION» CAMPAIGN

First of all, I shall talk about the victories we achieved in smashing the enemy's fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign.

We must state the following:

First, the enemy troops have been destroyed in great numbers. The fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign was thoroughly smashed. To sum up, in the course of a year, the Central Red Army and the local forces of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui, Sichuan, West Hunan-Hubei, Hunan-Jiangxi, Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi, and Fujian-Zhejiang Jiangxi Red Areas together destroyed a total of more than 15 enemy divisions. The victory was even greater than the smashing of enemy's third «encirclement and suppression» campaign in the past, and the enemy's armed forces suffered an extremely severe blow. All the middle- and lower-ranking officers of the enemy forces are thoroughly frightened of the Red Army and dare not fight against it. At the same time, wavering and sympathy for the revolution among the White soldiers is increasing daily.

Second, the Red Army has been strengthened and expanded. The Red Army has already become an invincible, iron-like army. Extremely great progress has been made in transforming the structure of the Red Army, raising the level of military technique, and strengthening it politically. The expansion of the Red Army has led to the doubling of its size in comparison with the past. We have already built a big, battle-ready army.

Third, the Red areas have been further consolidated. During the fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign, the class-consciousness of the masses of workers and peasants and their enthusiasm in supporting the revolutionary war were further heightened. The deepening of the movement to check up land distribution³ and the development of the workers' struggle dealt a heavy blow to the remnant feudal forces inside the Red areas. The cultural and educational movement among the masses advanced still further. The movement for economic construction entered a new situation in its development. Council work was further improved, its prestige among the masses was raised even more, and the banner of the Council Power was imprinted in the hearts of the working masses of the whole country.

Fourth, the territory of the Council Power has been enlarged. The Central Red Area of Fujian and Jiangxi has been established, a new Red area of several hundred square li in Sichuan has been opened up, and Comrade He Long has developed a big Red area in the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan region.

Fifth, the revolutionary movement in the White areas has also developed to a very great extent. The forcible occupation of four and a half provinces by Japanese imperialism, and the Nationalist Party's capitulation to imperialism in signing the agreement between China and Japan for selling out the country, have caused the movement of the broad masses against the Nationalist reactionaries to develop on a large scale. The Nationalist Party's oppression and massacres, the bankruptcy of agriculture, industry, and commerce, and the even crueler exploitation of the workers and peasants by the capitalists and landlords have greatly promoted the development of strike struggles on the part of the workers, of struggles against taxes and levies by the peasants and victims of natural catastrophes, of rural uprisings, and of guerrilla warfare.

Comrades, we have already won tremendous victories. But on what did we rely to win these victories?

I thank that everyone knows that we have relied on the following:

• The heroic and skilful fighting of the Red Army.
• The revolutionary enthusiasm of the broad masses of workers and peasants in both the Red and the White areas.
• The leadership of the Communist Party and the guidance of its correct line.

Only thanks to these three important conditions could the enemy's fourth «encirclement and suppression» campaign be shattered and the great victories mentioned above be achieved. These victories have dealt an extremely heavy blow to the Nationalist reactionaries. On the one hand, the revolutionary forces have been further strengthened, advancing boldly in an irresistible current. On the other hand, the reactionary forces have been increasingly weakened and are increasingly aware that an imminent threat to their existence lies just ahead. Thus, they have no alternative but to make arrangements once again for an attack on an even larger scale, in an attempt to salvage their doomed rule.

Therefore, the enemy is madly planning their fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign.

In order to prepare for this «encirclement and suppression» campaign, the Nationalist Party cannot do otherwise than to capitulate further to the imperialists. After selling out the three north-eastern provinces, Rehe, and northern China, Jiang Jieshi has again signed secret agreements for selling out the country with various imperialist powers, such as the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and Germany. He has borrowed large sums of money and munitions, redeployed troops, trained new soldiers, and curried favour with various warlord factions (but wars and conflicts among the warlords are inevitable), and is now actively engaged in making arrangements for the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign against the Council Power and the Red Army.

#2. PAY ATTENTION TO ECONOMIC WORK

We must strive to create every favourable condition for smashing the enemy's fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign.

The Chinese revolution is now at a critical juncture. Will the imperialists destroy China? Or will the revolutionary war eliminate the Nationalist Party, drive out the imperialists, and create a Council China? The Nationalist reactionaries have chosen the road of China's destruction. They have already adopted the method of launching a fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign, and, in the course of this campaign, they want to carve up China completely or hand it over to a condominium, turning the several hundred million Chinese people into beasts of burden and slaves, like the British and Japanese imperialists did to the Indian and Korean peoples respectively, and turning China into an out-and-out colony of imperialism. This is an extremely grave peril which is hanging over our heads. Comrades, can we let them do this? No, we cannot. We must seek a revolutionary way out. Our way out is to defeat the Nationalist reactionaries, free China from their rule, and turn it into a free, independent Council Republic of the workers, peasants, and soldiers. The important turning point for this purpose is to smash their fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign thoroughly. Winning such a victory still depends on the Red Army, the masses, and the resolute implementation of the Communist Party's offensive line. But we must exert our utmost efforts to secure more adequate conditions than those of the past. Only by doing so can we smash the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign and win greater victories than in the past.

To achieve victory this time, we must do a great deal of work. We must boldly expand the Red Army. Within a period of six to ten months, we must succeed in expanding the army by 200'000 new soldiers, recruited in the Central Red Area and the neighbouring Red areas, and send them to the front, thus further strengthening the Red Army units at the various fronts, so that they can assume the task of attacking Jiang Jieshi's White armies of several hundred thousands. The movement to check up land distribution should be promoted in breadth and depth, and an intense class struggle must be developed in the countryside to resolve the land question thoroughly and to eliminate the remnant feudal forces decisively, thus enabling the broad masses of the peasants to participate in the revolutionary war with great enthusiasm and joy. The Labour Law should be implemented everywhere, in order to stimulate the struggles of the workers and to raise still further the enthusiasm of the masses of the workers for the revolutionary war. Through the mechanism of this year's election campaign, the councils at all levels should be reelected. The new form of reelection should be adopted from the township to the central level in order to solidify the entire Council Power, so that it is as tough as iron and will be better able to take responsibility for organizing and leading the great cause of revolutionary war. Attention should be paid to the work in the border regions and the newly developed regions, so that favourable conditions may be created for the rapid development of the revolutionary war toward key cities. The cultural mass movement should be promoted in order to raise the cultural and political level of the masses and provide a powerful spiritual tool for the revolutionary war. In addition to all this, there is an extremely important item of work, upon which we should focus our attention this time. This is the work in the field of economic construction. We must vigorously promote the movement for economic construction and regard the task of economic construction as one of the most fundamental conditions for smashing the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign — an indispensable material condition for the revolutionary war. It is for this purpose that the present Conference on Economic Construction has been convened.

The great task of economic construction lies before us! The growing intensity of the revolutionary war makes it imperative for us to mobilize the masses in order to launch an immediate campaign on the economic front and undertake all possible and necessary tasks of economic construction. Why? Because all our present efforts should be directed toward gaining victory in the revolutionary war and, first and foremost, toward gaining complete victory in the fight to smash the enemy's fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign; they should be directed toward securing the material conditions which will guarantee food and other supplies for the Red Army, toward bettering the life of the people and so stimulating their more active participation in the revolutionary war, toward organizing the masses on the economic front and educating them so as to provide fresh mass strength for the war, and toward consolidating the worker-peasant alliance and the democratic dictatorship of workers and peasants and strengthening proletarian leadership by building up the economy. Such economic construction is essential for the attainment of all these objectives. This must be clearly understood by everyone engaged in revolutionary work. Some comrades have thought it impossible to spare time for economic construction, because the revolutionary war keeps people busy enough, and they have condemned anyone arguing for it as a «Right-wing deviationist». In their opinion, economic construction is impossible in the middle of a revolutionary war and is possible only in the peaceful, tranquil conditions prevailing after final victory. Comrades, such views are wrong. Whoever holds them fails to realize that, without building up the economy, it is impossible to secure the material prerequisites for the revolutionary war, and the people will become exhausted in the course of a long war. Just consider! The enemy is enforcing an economic blockade, unscrupulous merchants and reactionaries are disrupting our finance and commerce, and the trade of our Red areas with the outside is seriously hampered. Will not the revolutionary war be seriously affected unless these difficulties are overcome? Salt is very expensive, and sometimes even unobtainable. Rice is cheap in the autumn and winter, but it becomes terribly expensive in spring and summer. All this directly affects the life of the workers and peasants and prevents any improvement. And does it not affect our fundamental line — the alliance of workers and peasants? If the workers and peasants become dissatisfied with their living conditions, will it not affect the expansion of our Red Army and the mobilization of the masses for the revolutionary war? Therefore, it is utterly wrong to think that no economic construction should be undertaken in the middle of the revolutionary war. Those who think this way often say that everything should be subordinated to the war effort, but they fail to understand that to dispense with economic construction would weaken the war effort rather than subordinate everything to it. It is precisely in the interests of the war that various kinds of necessary economic construction work must be carried out, because economic construction is an extremely essential and indispensable condition for the revolutionary war. Only by extending the work on the economic front and building the economy of the Red areas can we provide an adequate material basis for the revolutionary war, proceed smoothly with our military offensives and strike effective blows at the enemy's «encirclement and suppression» campaigns; only thus can we acquire the resources to enlarge the Red Army to 1'000'000 soldiers and push our front outwards to points thousands of li away, so that, when the circumstances prove favourable, the Red Army will be able to attack Nanchang and Jiujiang free from all anxiety, and, thus relieved of much of the task of provisioning itself, give its undivided attention to fighting; and only thus can we to a certain extent satisfy the material needs of the people, so that they will join the Red Army or undertake other revolutionary tasks with even greater enthusiasm. Subordinating everything to the war effort means just this. Otherwise, not only will the interests of the war not be served, but the war will be deprived of a decisive condition for victory. Such opportunist views are entirely wrong. Among those engaged in revolutionary work in various places, many do not yet understand the importance of economic construction in the revolutionary war and have not yet truly taken upon their own shoulders the tasks of economic construction. As a result, these comrades have not exerted their full strength in carrying out the call of the Central Government, or multiplied their efforts a hundred-fold to promote the movement on the economic front. For example, there are many local governments which pay little attention to discussing the problems of economic construction. The economic departments of the local governments are not yet well organized, and some are still without a director; in others, some incompetent has been assigned simply to fill the post. The formation of cooperatives is still in the initial stage, and only in a few places has the work of regulating food supplies been started. There has been no propaganda among the people for the work of economic construction (though such propaganda is very important), and mass enthusiasm for it has not been awakened. All this is due to the failure to recognize the importance of economic construction. The present conference should begin by sternly opposing such erroneous opinions and eradicating these wrong, opportunist views of ignoring economic construction. Through the discussions at this conference and through the reports you will make when you return to your posts, we must create mass enthusiasm for economic construction among all government personnel and among all workers and peasants. The importance of economic construction for the revolutionary war should be made clear to everyone, so that they will do their best to promote the sale of economic construction bonds, develop the cooperative movement, and set up public granaries and storehouses for famine relief everywhere. Each county must establish a sub-department for the regulation of food supplies, with branch offices in important districts and market centres. On the one hand, within our Red areas, we should send grain from places with a surplus to those with a deficit, so that it will not pile up in one place and become unobtainable in another and its price will not be too low in one place and too high in another; on the other hand, we should send our grain surplus out of the Red areas in a planned way (that is, not in unlimited quantities), selling it for a high price, and bring in necessities from the White areas, thus avoiding exploitation by unscrupulous merchants. We must all do our best to develop agriculture and handicrafts and increase the output of farm implements and lime in order to ensure a bigger crop next year, and we must restore the output of such local products as wolfram, timber, camphor, paper, tobacco, linen, dried mushrooms, and peppermint oil to former levels, and market them in the White areas in quantity. For example, tungsten ore is an extremely important industry. Because of the demand of the imperialist military industries for tungsten ore, it offers great prospects for export. We should prepare thousands and tens of thousands of people to develop tungsten ore mines. To promote agricultural production, the manufacture of farm implements and lime is very essential.

Judged by volume, grain ranks first among the main outgoing commodities in our trade with the outside areas. About 3'000'000 piculs [150'000 tons] of unhusked rice are sent out yearly in exchange for necessary consumer goods, or an average of 1 picul [50 kilograms] a head of the 3'000'000 population; it cannot, surely, be less than this. But who is handling this trade? It is handled entirely by the merchants, who exploit us ruthlessly in the process. Last year, they bought unhusked rice from the peasants in Wan'an and Taihe Counties at 50 cents a picul and sold it in Zhangzhou for 4 yuan, making a seven-fold profit. Take another instance. Every year, our 3'000'000 people need about 9'000'000 yuan worth of salt and 6'000'000 yuan worth of cotton cloth. Needless to say, this 15'000'000-yuan trade in salt and cloth has been entirely in the hands of the merchants; we have done nothing about it. The exploitation by the merchants is really enormous. For instance, they go to Meixian and buy salt at 1 yuan for 7 catties [3,5 kilograms], and then sell it in our areas at 1 yuan for 12 liang [600 grams]. Is this not shocking profiteering? We can no longer ignore such a state of affairs, and from now on we must handle this trade ourselves. Our department of trade with outside areas must make a great effort in this connection.

How shall we use the 3'000'000 yuan from economic construction bonds? We plan to use it in the following way. 1'000'000 will be allotted for the Red Army's war expenses, and 2'000'000 will be loaned as capital to the cooperatives, the Bureau for the Regulation of Food Supplies, and the Bureau of External Trade. Of the latter amount, the greater part will be used for expanding our external trade and the rest for expanding production. Our objective is not only to expand production, but also to sell our products at high prices to the White areas and then purchase salt and cloth cheaply for distribution among our people, so as to break the enemy's blockade and check the merchants' exploitation. We must bring about the continued growth of the people's economy, greatly improve the livelihood of the masses, and substantially increase our public revenue, thus laying firm material foundations for the revolutionary war and for economic construction.

This is a great task, a great class struggle, and an inseparable part of the revolutionary war. But we should ask ourselves, can it be accomplished in the middle of fierce fighting? I think it can. We are not talking about building a railway to Longyan or, for the time being, even about building a motor road to Zhangzhou. We are not saying that there should be a complete monopoly of the sale of grain, or that the government should handle all the salt and cloth trade, valued at 15'000'000 yuan, to the total exclusion of the merchants. This is not the point we are making or what we are trying to do. What we are talking about and trying to do is to develop agriculture and the handicrafts, and send out grain and wolfram in exchange for salt and cloth, starting temporarily with a fund of 2'000'000 yuan plus the money invested by the people. Is there anything here that we should not undertake, or that we cannot undertake and achieve? We have already started this work and achieved some results. This year's autumn harvest is between 20 and 25% larger than last year's, or more than our original estimate of a 20% increase. In the handicraft industries, the production of farm implements and lime is being restored, and we are beginning to restore wolfram production. The output of tobacco, paper, and timber is recovering. Much has been accomplished this year in the regulation of food supplies. A start has been made on importing salt. It is on these achievements that we base our firm belief in the possibility of further progress. Is it not clearly wrong to say that economic construction is impossible now and has to wait until the war is over?

It is thus clear that, at the present stage, economic construction must revolve around our central task, the revolutionary war. Today, the revolutionary war is our central task, which economic construction should serve, centre on, and be subordinated to. It would likewise be wrong and opportunist to regard economic construction as the centre of all our present work to the neglect of the revolutionary war, or to conduct it apart from the revolutionary war. Not until the civil war is over will it be possible and necessary to regard economic construction as the centre of all our work. The revolutionary war demands that the Council Power carry out necessary economic construction. In the middle of a civil war, it is sheer delusion to try to carry out such peacetime economic construction as can and should be done in the future, but not at present. The tasks for the present are those urgently demanded by the war. Every one of them should serve the war; none is a peacetime undertaking separate from the war. If any comrade entertains the idea of carrying out economic construction apart from the war, they should correct this mistake at once.

#3. CONCERNING QUESTIONS OF LEADERSHIP AND METHODS OF WORK

It will be impossible to get a rapid campaign going on the economic front without a correct style of leadership and correct methods of work. This, too, presents an important problem which this conference must solve. For the comrades here will have a great deal to do as soon as they return, and will have to give guidance to the many people who will be working with them. In particular, the comrades who are working at the township and city levels and in the cooperatives, the food departments, the trade departments, and the purchasing offices, are personally engaged in the practical work of mobilizing the people to organize cooperatives, regulating and transporting food supplies, and managing our trade with the outside areas. If their style of leadership is wrong and if they do not employ correct and efficient methods, the work will be immediately affected, we shall fail to win mass support for the various tasks, and, during the coming autumn and winter and next spring and summer, we shall be unable to carry out the whole of the Central Government's plan for economic construction. For these reasons, I want to direct our comrades' attention to the following.

Firstly, mobilize the masses by various organizational means. In the first place, comrades on the presidiums and in the economic and financial departments of the government bodies at all levels must regularly put on their agenda and discuss, supervise, and check up on such items of work as the sale of bonds, the formation of cooperatives, the regulation of food supplies, and the promotion of production and trade. Next, the mass organizations, chiefly the trade unions and poor peasant leagues, must be moved into action. The trade unions should mobilize all their members to join these economic struggles. The poor peasant leagues are powerful bases for mobilizing the masses to build up cooperatives and subscribe to bonds, and they should be given vigorous leadership by district and township governments. Furthermore, we must conduct propaganda for economic construction at village or household meetings, explaining clearly how it is related to the revolutionary war and discussing in the most practical terms how to improve the livelihood of the masses and increase our strength for the struggle. We should appeal to the people to subscribe to bonds, develop cooperatives, regulate food supplies, consolidate finances, and promote trade; we should call upon them to fight for these slogans and should heighten their enthusiasm. Our objectives cannot be attained unless we use various organizational means to mobilize the masses and conduct propaganda among them in the manner described, that is to say, unless the presidiums and the economic and financial departments of the government bodies at all levels actively attend to discussing and checking up on the work of economic construction, unless they spur the mass organizations into action and hold mass propaganda meetings.

Secondly, we must not be bureaucratic in our methods of mobilizing the masses. Bureaucratic leadership cannot be tolerated in economic construction any more than in any other branch of our revolutionary work. The ugly evil of bureaucracy, which no comrade likes, must be thrown into the cesspit. The methods which all comrades should prefer are Majoritarian methods that appeal to the masses, that is, those which are welcomed by all workers and peasants. One manifestation of bureaucracy is slacking at work due to indifference or perfunctoriness. We must wage a stern struggle against this phenomenon. Commandism is another manifestation. To all appearances, persons given to commandism are not slackers; they give the impression of being hard workers. But, in fact, cooperatives set up by commandist methods will not succeed, and even if they appear to grow for a time, they cannot be consolidated. In the end, the masses will lose faith in them, which will hamper their development. To push the sales of bonds in a commandist way and impose arbitrary quotas, regardless of whether people understand what the bonds are for and of how much they can afford, will ultimately awaken the people's displeasure and make it impossible to achieve good sales. We must reject commandism; what we need is energetic propaganda to convince the masses, and we should develop the cooperatives, promote the sales of bonds, and do all the work of economic mobilization in accordance with the actual conditions and the real feelings of the masses.

Thirdly, large numbers of cadres are needed to extend the campaign of economic construction. This is not a matter of scores or hundreds of people, but of thousands and tens of thousands whom we must organize, train, and send to the economic construction front. They will be the commanders and the broad masses the soldiers on the economic front. People often sigh over the shortage of cadres. Comrades, is there really a shortage? Innumerable cadres have come forward from among the masses who have been tempered in the agrarian struggles, the economic struggles, and the revolutionary war. How can we say there is a shortage of cadres? Discard this mistaken view and you will see cadres all around you.

Fourthly, economic construction today is inseparable, not only from the general task of the war, but from other tasks as well. Only if there is a thorough check-up on land distribution will it be possible to abolish feudal and semi-feudal ownership of land completely, enhance the peasants' enthusiasm for production, and swiftly draw the peasant masses into economic construction. Only if the Labour Law is resolutely enforced will it be possible to better the life of the workers, bring them speedily into active participation in economic construction, and strengthen their leadership of the peasants. Only if there is correct leadership in the elections and in the exposure campaigns⁴ which accompany the check-up on land distribution will it be possible to strengthen our government bodies, so that they can give more vigorous leadership in the revolutionary war and in all our work, including economic work. The raising of the political and cultural level of the people through cultural and educational work is also a most important task in the development of the economy. That the expansion of the Red Army must not be neglected for a single day goes without saying. Everybody understands that, without Red Army victories, the economic blockade would be still tighter. On the other hand, economic growth and a better life for the masses will undoubtedly be of great help to the work of expanding the Red Army and inspiring the masses to march eagerly to the front. To sum up, if we achieve all the above tasks, including the very important new one of economic construction, and if we make them all serve the revolutionary war, then victory in the revolutionary war will undoubtedly be ours, and the fifth «encirclement and suppression» campaign will undoubtedly be smashed. [Warm applause.]