THE SITUATION IN CHINA
The capitalist press, which has tardily realized what was going on in 1958 in China on the plane of agricultural and industrial production, has since started to talk about the "people's communes" and the apprehensions caused by this gigantic experiment of "militarization" of the life of a whole people, of the "abolition of the family," etc. When it learned of the decisions of the last meeting of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party concerning the projected resignation of Mao from the post of President of the Repudiscered therein major difficulties which had suppo blic and the resolution on the " it thought it sedly arisen in the Chinese experiment, and which had led to a discreet withdrawal of the Central Committee "ultras," led by Mao himself.
Supposedly well-informed or clear-sighted journalists, like Alsop and Lippman, did not hesitate to prophesy gigantic "blood baths" in China in case Mao should persist in carrying on his "anti-human" experiment of the "communes" against the inevitable revolt of millions of peasants.
The capitalist press and leaders are becoming more and more conscious of the colossal new factor which is little by little emerging on the world stage, and do not
"yeced peril. Being headed to te anshis dan the in sing
other way, they are cherishing the hope of a possible Russo-Chinese conflict in the future, or else a dislocation through the internal contradictions and difficulties of the regime.
It is quite useless to insist on the emptiness of such hopes. The great Chinese revolution runs no risk of foundering either in a war with the US S R, which the geophysicist seers prophesy, in search of "living space for the country's "overpopulation, or under the weight of the regime's internal contradictions. Granted, it will experience major crises due to its "uninterrupted" evolution, to the complexity of the problems to be solved, starting from a still very low economic and cultural level, and to the limited nature of outside help; due also to its leadership's education, which was, after all, Stalinist. But the roots that it has sunk in the Chinese masses and in the world revolutionary context are deep and immovable.
The economic balance-sheet for 1958 in China confirms and surpasses the optimistic predictions issued by the Chinese leaders. Steel production has reached 1l million tons (of which 80% was produced in big plants). Machine-tools have reached 90,000 units, ie, three times those of 1957. Coal, 270 million tons, or more than double that of 1957; electric power, 27,500 million kilowatt-hours, that is, 42 % more than in 1957 ; grains, 375 million tons, or 190 million tons more than in 1957 ; cotton, 3,350,000 tons, i e, 1,700,000 tons more than in
With this phenomenal agricultural production, the Chinese leaders argue, China question of the quantity of grain per capita nis real upsurge in agriculture is due above all 1 e greater productivity of lana as a resuit ot coloss: irrigation works, a more rational technique of cultivating, and a considerable effort in the use of natural fer-
The results achieved by intensive deep-plowing are such that it is already planned in certain parts of the country to limit cultivated areas, by cutting off from them a third to be used for pasturage, reforestation, construction of industrial plants, or various public works (roads, gardens, lakes, etc).
On the basis of such economic results, the goals set for 1959 are 'nonetheless impressive : steel, up from 11 to 18 million tons; coal, from 270 to 380 million tons ; grains from 375 to 525 million tons; cotton, from 3,350,000 to 5,000,000 tons.
It is possible, furthermore, that in the middle of the current year these objectives will be upped even more, as was the case last year.
There is no longer any doubt about both China's colossal productive effort and its spectacular results. Obtained, however, on the basis above all of the fierce labor of millions of men and women, they raise the.question of the conditions and rhythm of this labor.
The experiment of the "people's communes" is closely linked with this aspect of the question. The Eighth Central Committee of the Chinese CP, at its VIth Plenum, on 10 December 1958 adopted a long resolution summing up the situation since the stormy launching of the campaign for the "people's communes" last
August. * Some people have tried to perceive in this document a sketchy selt-criticism by the Chinese leadership, it not an indirect censure of Mao, the of the campaign. It is only a step from this to the supposition that Mao's projected resignation from the post of the initial plan of the "com-
This time again, however, as at the time of the cammains or the ile divize on of an culture fic t956, and as at the time of the campaign in 1957,, everything takes place in the usual style of the Chinese CP and of Mao himself in particular: a lightning start, only to slow down the rhythm later, to proceed to setting things in order, to adjusting the aim better, to vary a little, to balance up notions and accents, to criticize, without sanctioning, the inevitable "excesses" of the activists, before starting off again with a new spring forward
Thè 10 December resolution on the "communes" is suffused with this spirit of work and éven seems to be written by Mao's own hand, as might be indicated by its quite poetic opening sentence: "In 1958 a new social organization appeared fresh as the morning sun above the broad horizon of East Asia."
This organization is, of course, that of the "people's communes." The resolution repeatedly emphasizes the "historic" importance and the irrevocable character of this institution that already includes 99% of the Chinese peasants, 740,000 farm coöperatives fused into 26.000 "people's communes." For the peasants, the resolution declares, the economic and social achievements of the "communes" "are epoch-making
The system of the "communes" has furthermore pointed out, the resolution adds, the way to the gradual industrialization of the rural areas, the way to the gradual transition from collective ownership to ownership by the whole people in agriculture, the way to the gradual transition from the socialist principle of to each according to his work, to the communist principle of to each according to his need, the way to the gradual diminution and final elimination of the differences between rural and urban areas, between worker and peasant, and between mental and manual labour, and the way to the gradual and final elimination of the domestic functions of the state.
insistence on the gradual evolution toward all these goals is noteworthy.
"misunderstandings" and "excesses" in the campaign for the communes having been pointed out, the resolution applies itself to dissipating the former and to criticizing and correcting the latter. First of all, there is no question of "hastily" extending the system of communes to the cities, especially the big cities. The structure of cities is more complex, property there is already state-owned (and not collective), bourgeois mentality is more deep-rooted. Time will be necessary in order adequately to prepare the ground in the big cities for the experiment of the communes.
What is more, the communes themselves hastily built in the countryside are neither correctly understood nor correctly organized and administered. The communes at 1 See "'Uninterrupted' Revolution in China," by J-P Martin, in our last issue, Autumn 1958.
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL the present stage, where collective and not state property prevails, are a form of pre-socialist organization.
Fifteen to twenty years, if not more, will be necessary for all property to be transformed into state ("socialist) property and for the country to possess a truly socialist advanced economy. Then it will be necessary to pass "s a gly" amd extremely complex task, says the resolution, which this time tries to warn against childish exaggerations on the matter, and admits :
There are good-hearted people from our ranks who think that ownership in the rural People's Communes is even now of the nature of ownership by the people as a whole, and that very soon or even now they can dispense with the socialist principle of distribution according to work and adopt the communist principle of distribution according to needs.
The resolution insists on the long duration of the socialist period, including in the term socialist both the phase preparatory of socialism and the socialist phase proper.
From this estimate of the period, the resolution endeavors to draw practical conclusions. The system of distribution throughout the whole "socialist period" be based fundamentally only on the "socialist" principle of "to each according to his labor."
"For this reason", the resolution specifies, in the income of commune members that portion of the wage paid according to work must occupy an important place over a long period, and will, during a certain period, take first place.
Hence the salary in cash will remain the dominant form of distribution, with a wide spread of remunerations which might reach four times the minimum wage.
"Egalitarianism" will be reached and then surpassed only to the degree that society becomes, by the abundance of production, truly "socialist" advancing toward communism.
Market production, with merchandise, money, market, values, and prices, is also characteristic of the whole "socialist" period. - a Those who have already abolished these notions, thinking that they have already entered, in the "communism" of the rural communes, into a more than rudientary egalitarianısm, strike a blow against the cor ruction of socialism and the prestige of true commu nist society.
The resolution then criticizes the various excesses committed by activists ill informed about the exact character of the communes at the present stage, and lays down certain rules that must henceforth be observed. The confiscation of objects of private use for the protit of the collective property of the communes is forbidden, as well as pushing work beyond eight hours plus two hours of study, except at the harvest season. In general "eight hours of sleep plus four hours tor eating and recreation" must be guaranteed to everybody day. It is necessary to think about men, not merely about things.
The places of use in common - restaurants, crèches old people's homes, etc, must be well arranged and kept up. Food should be more carefully prepared, more more varied, and better presented. Particular attention must be paid to the labor of women and to the care they deserve before and after their pregnancies, etc.
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL
The resolution blazes up against the "calumnies poured out by the enemies of the popular power concerning the abolition of family life in the communes, "militarization" and the crushing uniformity in the comfort and setting of living, etc. It promises that the inhabitants of the communes will have a more comfortable and agreeable collective and private life on every point, in a varied and carefully prepared setting of new rooms, etc.
The empiricism of the Chinese leadership no longer requires emphasizing, and once more the resolution on the experiment of the "communes" is a striking demonstration of this.
Several of the remarks and criticisms that it formulates a postiori might have been brought forward at the time the campaign was launched, so elementary are they. The lacks and excesses of the campaign, furthermore, are only too apparent through the letter and the spirit of the resolution itself.
There is great danger, if the rhythm of labor speeds - up and if the material conditions of the masses (food, housing, etc) do not improve perceptibly - while the constraint of the party and the administration are weighing on them - that the peasants may lose their confidence in the proletarian state, openly revolt, or go over to obstinate sabotage of the economy, as they did in the U S S R after forced collectivization.
It must be hoped that the empirical prudence of the Chinese leadership may once more avoid excesses and
11 carry out literally the rules and prescriptions of the resolution.
The grounds for a reasonable optimism about such a result are to be found in the fact that Mao, unlike Stalin, did not begin by a forced collectivization which caused the level of agricultural production to fall considerably and made the peasant poorer, but by a main effort on agriculture which considerably raised the level of production and the living level of the peasants. Thus the experiment of the "communes" is associated, in the minds of the Chinese peasant masses, with a conkin coring it the cor the graton md earable dition which permits a better period for functioning of the
Any analogy, concerning living standards and the time and conditions of labor, between China and other more developed countries, must be rejected. For the Chinese peasants, setting out from a very low level, the experiment of the "communes" roughly represents what so far been a positive gain. For the cities, question is quite different, hence the hesitation of the Chinese leadership to extend the "communes" thereto.
But in the long run the contrast between the cities and the countryside can only undermine the experiment of the "communes" if the cities enjoy a higher material, cultural, and political level.
Once more, China will not escape major jolts, in its
"massive mated aid from toe arder walkers states at d
from the world revolution.