In the first three years of the “Cultural Revolution”, socialist education became the top priority in the country’s rural work. I have participated in rural social education in three counties successively, and have done dynamic collection, situation synthesis and summary research work in the office, so that I have the opportunity to know the whole picture of the local sports. At that time, from top to bottom, everyone was serious and serious about social and educational movement. Now that I think about it, there was something funny about the stage performance.
(a)
The first is to participate in their own work in Hunan Zixing County social education pilot. The pilot was chosen in the chengxiang commune around the county seat. The county Party Committee assigned 206 cadres to form a task force, with the county Party secretary and a deputy secretary in charge, the rural minister and a group of bureau chiefs participating, and stationed in 12 battalions, 96 production teams and all units affiliated to the commune. A team of 37, headed by the Secretary-General and an Office of the Ministry, came to participate in the operation. It lasted more than four months from January 28, 1964, to June 5, 1964.
According to the instructions of the central government, social education is a struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between socialism and capitalism. In May 1963, the Central Committee enacted the Draft Decision on Certain Issues concerning Current Rural Work (known as the first ten Articles), which asserted that a serious and acute class struggle had emerged in Chinese society. If we do not engage in rural social education, there will inevitably be a national counter-revolutionary restoration, the Communist Party will certainly become a revisionist, fascist party, and the whole of China will have to change color. The revolutionary class ranks should be reorganized to beat back the rampant attacks of capitalist and feudal forces. The key point is to solve the problem of “four unclear” of grassroots cadres by clearing accounts, warehouses, property and work, so “social education” is also called “four clear”.
Exercise has strict steps. First, training team members, learning social education documents, clear sports practices. All working party members must live in rural areas and grass-roots units and “eat, live and work together” with farmers. The team is located in the leading organ of the commune, which is less than 200 meters away from my county party committee organ. Although I did not have to live in a caravan, I was not allowed to go home to eat and sleep. I moved the quilt to the commune, where I had meals and worked. The battalion has a working group headed by the director of the section. Each production team has staff members stationed, and some have several.
The specific procedure of a brigade is divided into five steps. The first step is to preach the social and educational documents of the CPC Central Committee, mobilize the cadres and the masses, and organize the ranks. By means of land reform, the peasants’ association of poor and lower middle school was established to expose the “four inscrutable” problems of cadres. At the same time check accounts, warehouse, property, work points. The second step is to implement the “four unclear” problems of cadres. Organize the members’ meeting to criticize the cadre face to face (the cadre who has a big problem should face the struggle), the cadre will show his burden (talk about his own problems) in the members’ meeting, make a review, and then implement the refund and compensation plan and cash. The third step is to carry out the struggle against the enemy. We will review and approve the use of land by landlords, rich farmers, rebels and bad farmers, and strengthen measures to ensure that land is not corrupted. The fourth step is to rectify the organization. Deal with errant party members, recruit new party members, adjust party branch and brigade, production team leadership. The fifth step is to deal with “public-private relations” (mainly to educate members to care for the collective, to stop “capitalist tendencies” such as not actively leaving collective work, paying less domestic manure, privately expanding private plots, and not paying more or more income from sideline work), to improve the management system, and to establish collective production plans.
In the second step to solve the problem of “four unclear”, we have also adopted the method of “evaluating the merits and putting them in order” to urge cadres to “consciously make revolution”. It is to organize the peasants and members of the poor and low middle schools to talk about the merit, hard work and advantages of each cadre, and the cadres themselves to recall the process, achievements and progress of their participation in the revolution. After doing so, it is said that the cadres will be deeply moved, consciously make a thorough explanation of their “four unclear” problems. The antics had little effect, but were briefly fashionable and soon stopped. Or adhere to the back, book check, face to face approval of the method. According to statistics at that time, there were 709 cadres in the brigade and production team, of whom 494 were “unclear”, accounting for 69.7 percent.
There’s something funny about thinking about it. In the process of connecting with each other, organizing the ranks and exposing the “four unclear”, Xianqiao Brigade, the party secretary of the county party Committee, held a field visit exhibition, and organized the whole brigade’s members, cadres and poor peasants to see the poor life of a poor peasant in The Caojia production team. The poor peasant was over 30 years old, with his wife and child and a family of five. His family had nothing at all, and he was short of food and overspent. He was dressed in rags and his house was leaky. The working group took this family as a typical example, and publicized to the masses of the whole brigade that the “four ambiguities” of cadres hindered the development of the collective economy and caused the poor and lowly peasants to lead a miserable life, so as to arouse everyone’s enthusiasm for “four Qing”. Many members of the social education team and the masses were moved by the visit. Some cursed the “four unclear” cadres, and some donated clothes and money and food to the poor peasant. At that time, However, I heard members of Cao’s team say that the poor peasant was lazy and did too little work. At that time, the members were generally poor, even food is not enough to eat, the new country has been founded for more than ten years, the whole brigade has not a single family has a new house. This poor peasant family, with a large population, small children and lazy attitude, was naturally more difficult than other families. Rural poor, how much does the responsibility of team cadre have? It is wrong to blame the root cause and the main responsibility of poverty on team cadres. I didn’t understand why the countryside was so poor for so long, and I’m afraid the county party secretary didn’t either. Later, it became clear that equalitarianism, the communal system of integrating politics with economy, the practice of directing production by administrative orders, the single structure of agricultural industry and the long-term allocation and purchase of major agricultural products at low prices were the main causes of poverty.
Fight against the enemy, judge 4 kinds of element is everybody pass a test, the key receives a fight, also have a lot of funny method. There was a former Kuomintang teacher, Cao Chengxu, who was about sixty years old. Because of his age, he did not go out as a collective worker every day, and he did not talk with others, so he did not know anything about him when collecting the “enemy situation”. The solution was soon worked out. Xie Yun, a poor peasant youth who lived in the same house with Cao and became sworn brothers with his son, was asked to “stand firm” and expose Cao’s sabotage activities. Otherwise, he would not be allowed to join the poverty association and would have to trace the petty theft he had engaged in. Xie Yun really restored the nature of the poor peasant, cao uncovered the three LIDS: Once Xie’s mother was ill, Cao took the opportunity to send noodles, want to win over, corrupt the poor peasants; On one occasion, cao heaved a sigh and repeatedly said, “Exhausted to death”, venting his discontent with collective production and trying to restore his paradise of parasites; More importantly, Cao kept photos of himself in uniform to change the weather. At the general meeting of the member struggle of the whole brigade, a group of activists who had been trained in advance came on the stage to expose and then went after Cao, asking him why he wanted to enlist and corrupt the poor and lower-middle peasants. Why do you yearn for the oppressive and exploitative life of the past? Why do I keep photos of reactionaries? He also forced Cao to answer, “How many people have you arrested as civilian husbands or cannon fodder? How many civilians? How many Communists and PLA men have you killed? Stumbling and sweating, Cao finally admitted that he “dreamed of Chiang Kai-shek counterattacking the mainland and riding high over the people again.” The working group summed up the struggle against the enemy and said: the members brightened their eyes, raised their consciousness, loved Chairman MAO and the Communist Party more, and strengthened their confidence in taking the socialist road.
(2)
After the chengxiang commune, I participated in the social education organized and deployed by the province and the region for two years successively in Chen County and Yongxing.
In accordance with the instructions of the central Government, the provinces and localities concentrated their efforts under unified command, and the whole country completed social and educational programs in five to six years. Under the provincial Communist Party Committee and chenzhou Prefectural Communist Party Committee social and Education general regiment, Zexing, headed by the county Party secretary and deputy secretary, formed a social and education sub-regiment, and transferred a total of 657 people from ministries and commissions, departments, communes, and county and social cadres to wuli, Jiedong and Taiping communes in Chenchen County on August 5, 1964. A year later, in August 1965, the zixing social and Educational sub-group expanded to 930 people and settled in eight communes, namely, Matian, Youshi, Xiangyin, Fuhe, Civilization, Heping, Yuelai and Youma, in Yongxing County. The Chenzhou prefectural – level sub-regiment and all the other counties under it were sent to the rest of the communes in the two counties. The Central and Southern Bureau, the provincial communist Party Committee, the Chenzhou prefectural Communist Party Committee and the county Communist Party Committee all have the irregular social and educational briefing, exchanges the situation and the experience.
Chen County’s community teaching has a new spirit coming from the highest levels. Central issued “about rural socialist education movement in the regulation of some specific policy issues” (called a after ten), emphasizes the leaders to personally casing, request work team must be reliable politics, good style, said the socialisation is the education of people, to organize class, again to carry out the struggle against and solve the problem of cadres four clear, not only should play TuiZi rampant, sealing forces attack, to root out the social foundation of revisionism. In particular, it popularized the “taoyuan experience” of Liu Shaoqi’s wife Wang Guangmei. By playing the recorded report and the full report approved by the central committee, the author directly imparts to the leaders at all levels and every member of the social education team the four Qing dynasty practice which she practiced in a brigade under the support and guidance of Liu Shaoqi.
Before joining the team, the task force underwent strict training and rectification for half a month. In addition to listening to recorded reports, discussing the situation, learning policies and discussing practices, the task force also carried out self-criticism and mutual help within the task force. Each team member checked and confessed his “four unclear”, and then everyone analyzed and criticized, called “wash your hands and take a bath, light pack”. Can’t pass this “pass”, can’t be a member of the staff. I don’t have four unclear, also have to check to explain. “I want to be a writer, when the history professor” living thought “, the first outline for “bourgeois individualism” pain and self-criticism, said must “not to name”, “not to profit”, “wholeheartedly” do the Party’s “tame tool” and “screw”. This is my “reincarnated” again, regardless of black and white to give up all personal pursuit, willing to mediocre life. Before the end of the training, the discipline of the social education team was formulated and announced, including no leave during the period of social education and no meat dishes in the household.
Social education is carried out mysteriously in a stormy atmosphere. The county party secretary, deputy secretary, and county party organization minister, publicity minister, and office director resident team all took fake names like Wang Guangmei. Taoyuan will be all the commune, brigade, production team cadres stand aside, all power vested in the task force (group). Then, the team visits the poor, the class lines up, the roots of the tandem. After forming the ranks of the poor and lower-middle peasants, they complained bitterly about the “four ambiguities”, exposed the problems of the cadres, and then criticized and challenged the serious “four ambiguities” cadres.
What impressed me most was the social education of the Red Five-star brigade in Chen County Wuli commune. This brigade is the party secretary of the Communist Party Committee, the head of the county party committee secretary squat point. He will be all three commune task force team leader, dozens of brigade working group leader namely the work team county party committee leader and commune secretary, branch director people, all concentrate in the red star first pilot. Each production team has three or four teams and leaders, forming a strong “will fight the troops” formation, pressure on the brigade, production team cadres to coerce confessions. One night, several cadres of the production team stationed by the county party secretary were called into the commune and isolated in separate rooms by the brigade department. Several ministers, secretaries of departments and secretaries of communes dealt with a cadre by slating cases and using wheel tactics. Those who fail to explain clearly are not allowed to go home. Food is provided by their families. Sure enough, several cadres confessed to the private distribution of tens of thousands of kilograms of rice production team, team victory exulted. Entering the implementation stage only to find that the private distribution of rice than the production team’s annual output more than that several “four unclear” cadres put all false “burden”!
The joke was not surprising; it had a reason. At that time, the second secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, who was praised by MAO Zedong as “an expert in rural class struggle”, led the general Social and Educational Mission to huatang Commune, Chen County. Within a short period of time, he uncovered a large number of “four unclear” problems among commune and brigade cadres. The amount of private food distribution and embezzlement of public funds exceeded the actual total production and income. The second secretary of the provincial Party Committee of the guard only scolded three “bastards”, a “four unclear” cadres several thousand yuan of economic problems. The process is very simple: guard member seeks this “four not clear” cadre to talk, hit the table to scold a voice “bastard”, that cadre confessed “corrupt” how many yuan; He swore again “bastard”, and the cadre immediately added the code for corruption; After he scolded “bastard” for the third time, the money of “embezzlement” was thousands of yuan! After conveying Huatang’s experience and the “touching story” of the provincial party guard, the county Party secretary sighed with emotion and repeatedly told the team and team leaders to “eliminate the right-minded thinking” and “thoroughly check the ‘four inabilities'”. Of course, our provincial party secretaries and county party secretaries are not ignorant people after all, those who were coerced out of the “burden” were later “implemented” away. But the frightening scene is still fresh in my mind, and Many of the people involved will remember it for the rest of their lives.
More have very person, county party committee deputy secretary (also be branch regiment deputy head) the street cave commune that serves as task force head, the working member style of subordinate cow form col brigade is more brusque, unexpectedly forced dead a grass-roots cadre. After investigation and verification by superiors, an official document was issued to circulate the criticism, which was published on the Bulletin of Social Education in Central and Southern China, the internal publication of the Central And Southern China Bureau.
(3)
In January 1965, the Central Government issued the “Problems currently raised in the Socialist Education Movement in Rural Areas” (called “Article 23”), which replaced the original “Four Qing dynasties” of social education with “Qing Politics, Qing economy, Qing organization and Qing Ideology”. Defining the nature of the movement is “the contradiction between socialism and capitalism”, putting forward for the first time the concept of “the party taking the capitalist road of the establishment” and setting it as the focus of the movement. Grassroots cadres are divided into four categories: good, relatively good, many problems, serious nature, the first two are the majority. Are the majority. As for the new concept of “capitalist roaders” within the Party, the leaders of all the sub-groups and working groups cannot find it and cannot accept it. At that time, no one knew that MAO Zedong, the leader, had focused his attention on the ruling capitalist roaders in the party, and that the consolidation of grassroots cadres, though needed, was no longer the focus.
Thus, in the social education of the eight yongxing communes, the steps and practices were similar to those of Chen County, but the extortion of confessions from grassroots cadres was significantly reduced. In particular, efforts were intensified to popularize MAO zedong’s works, and a huge campaign was launched to “read Chairman MAO’s books, listen to Chairman MAO’s words and act according to Chairman MAO’s instructions”. Teams have set up study rooms, and almost everyone has selected works of MAO Zedong and books of quotations. By studying the so-called “Old three essays”, we strongly advocated destroying the private sector and transforming the world outlook to grassroots cadres and members. The task force has talented people and trained many examples to help illiterate, blind and elderly people memorize. Some of their actions, such as doing more collective work, taking good care of collective property, helping others, overcoming difficulties and exposing evildoers and bad things, are all linked together with a certain sentence or a certain point of view in the “Old Three essays” in order to reflect the “active learning and practical application”. He then presented himself at the conference to demonstrate the “power” and “magic” of Chairman MAO’s writings. Team officials should be encouraged to associate themselves with MAO’s sayings if they are not clear about the four aspects, explain their problems and criticize their own mistakes. The formalism of “reading, reciting, hanging and speaking” mainly came from the above arrangements and the propaganda of newspapers and periodicals, which fell into vulgarization and laid a spiritual foundation for the national god creation movement and the outbreak of the “Cultural Revolution”.
During the period of Yongxing social education, the task force learned nothing but to advocate hard work, contact the masses and implement the “three same”. They are not located in communes or town centres, but in remote villages. Office Five or six people in the brigade in an old public housing accommodation, office, scattered to the nearby farmers home for dinner. Several times a month, I go to eight communes to collect information from brigades and production teams. No matter how many kilometers or 20 or 30 kilometers, there are road buses connecting them. They seldom take buses, but mainly walk. I see this as “revolutionary,” preferring to spend my time walking rather than having my legs ache and my mouth dry. Due to the rules are not allowed to eat the meat of the household, not into the restaurant or extra meals, so that the social education team hungry. Once I went to a civilized commune and stayed with a poor team for three days. “Dry” is not rice, but sweet potatoes, vegetables are no oil pumpkin. I was so hungry that I had to bear it. Later, the provincial Party Committee of social education general league unified provisions, to each social education team members every month two market jin of biscuits, hungry drink water to eat a few pieces, finally solved the problem of food hunger.
In Yongxing, I felt the great Leap Forward and the Five Winds brought about great damage and sequelae. Once in yue Lei commune, “Great Leap Forward” Xingxiu Yue to reservoir during the members could not bear the hardship and hunger, there are more than 20 people in the surrounding mountains and mountains of the reservoir hanged himself. When arousing the commune members to remember their sorrows and joys, I personally heard the middle-aged and old farmers often complain about the sufferings of the great Leap Forward and the five winds. Other communes and brigades had similar situations, which embarrassed the leaders of the regiments and working groups. They had made serious studies and arrangements to reverse this situation.
In August 1966, when the staff of the Zixing sub-regiment planned to send to Leiyang County for training, the “Cultural Revolution” began to enter a climax, the Party and government were paralyzed, and social education was incorporated into the “Cultural Revolution” and vanished.
(4)
When it comes to social and educational mis-rectification of people, we must not associate the so-called democratic revolution with the landlords and rich peasants who, as emphasized in the two tenets of the Central Committee of the COMMUNIST Party of China (CPC), made up for and cleared the land reform. This supplement is found in both Chen and Yong county social education, but unfortunately the information I once learned is no longer in my hands. But I remember a sad thing happened in my hometown, Jane here.
My hometown, Liangtian Commune, is a provincial and prefectural rural social education pilot project. In addition to the provincial and local cadres, out of the need to expand the social education movement, the team also from chenzhou county, a total of 389 people. At the end of the three-month trial, 1,147 brigade and production team cadres, 78 percent of whom were “unclear”. A number of landlords and rich peasants were added to the campaign. My third uncle, Liao Kaiyu, was the Party branch secretary of Liangtian Brigade at that time. Although he had no financial problems, he had serious organizational problems. He was reclassified as a rich peasant, removed from office, expelled from the Party, and became the subject of dictatorship because his “organization” was unclear, bringing with it “ideas” and “politics”.
He used to be a cadre of the land reform Team. He wore a grey suit and an octagonal hat. At the end of the land reform, he produced the “Li Sixi thought”, which had been popular in the whole province at that time. He believed that the revolution had been a success, and yearned for “a cow for several mu of land, and his wife and children would have a hot pit.” The wife in the home is young and beautiful, he is tall and strong labor force, do not want to be a cadre to eat “supply”, quit the post to return home to continue farming, “Great Leap forward” when the commune enterprise factory director. He was a rich peasant because he adopted a maid after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. The maid was 12 years old, escaped from rural Hengyang to good farmland, and was adopted by her third uncle parents who had no children and regarded her as a “little girl” until she was married in 1954 at the age of 20. It was an act of charity. However, according to the theory of class struggle and the standard of land reform, sanshu had no houses, no land to rent, no money to lend, and no hired workers in the three years before the land reform. But if he counted the “exploitation of his handmaid for eight years”, he was a rich peasant enough!
Since then, the third uncle family into decline. The eldest son of a private teacher was rushed back home, unable to find the object of marriage, single till now; The wife who was proud to be strong and prosperous in the family, died of gas disease after three years of rich peasants; I also can not look up to life, many villagers gloat, even scold him, he was sympathetic people dare not to approach him. Only by his “exploitation for eight years” that married maid often visit, every festival will send him rice and vegetables, how many years without interruption.
Finally, in 1979, he was told that the kulak had made a mistake and resumed his party membership. Unfortunately, he was too old and sick to stand up again and died the following year. The hualing production team in the strongest labor force, the most diligent man, after 1949 was the first to build a new two-story building, support the team envy of the small family. She knocked him to the ground, shattered his dream of a prosperous team, forced him to lead 16 years of pressure, suffering, poor, suffering!
Social education is an important stage for the systematization of left-leaning theory of the CPC Central Committee, as well as a rehearsal and outpost for the “Cultural Revolution”.
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