We Must Rely on Agriculture as the Foundation and Industry as the Leading Factor in Developing the National Economy
Return to Fundamentals of Political Economy
17. We Must Rely on Agriculture as the Foundation and Industry as the Leading Factor in Developing the National Economy
The Relations among Socialist Agriculture, Light Industry, and Heavy Industry 1
Agriculture and light and heavy industry are the three major material production sectors in the socialist national economy. To understand correctly the importance and role of these sectors in the national economy and to handle correctly their relations are instrumental in consolidating and developing the worker-peasant alliance and promoting rapid and planned development of the socialist national economy.
Agriculture Is the Foundation of the National Economy
We Must Rely on Agriculture as the Foundation in Developing the National Economy
To live, to produce, and to engage in cultural and social activities, people must first solve the problem of eating. Agricultural production is a precondition for the survival of the human race and all production activities. Agriculture (including gathering, planting, hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry) was the only production sector in the early period of human society. At that time, because labor productivity was very low, the whole labor power of the primitive society had to participate in agricultural labor to keep the commune members alive. Only when labor productivity in agriculture was raised such that a portion of the labor force could grow sufficient agricultural products to support all the members of society could labor be spared to engage in other activities. Thus, the handicraft industry was separated from the agricultural sector to become an independent production sector, the other new sector — commerce — appeared, and sectors that were concerned with spiritual production such as culture and education also emerged. The higher the labor productivity was in agriculture, the more developed were the sectors outside of agriculture that were concerned with material and spiritual production. Marx observed, “The shorter the time required by society to produce wheat and livestock, the longer is the time available for other production — material and spiritual production.” 2 He continued, “Agricultural labor productivity beyond what is required for the personal needs of the laborer is the basis of all societies.” 3 Therefore, in essence, agriculture is the basis of human survival and the basis for the independence and further development of the other sectors of the national economy. This is an economic law applicable to all historical periods in human society.
The role of agriculture as the foundation in the national economy is especially pronounced in socialist society as compared with any past society. In capitalist society, the objective law of agriculture as the foundation of the national economy plays its role under competition and chaotic production. Some imperialist countries whose domestic agriculture was underdeveloped plundered their colonies and semi-colonies for agricultural products by paying low prices to satisfy the development needs of monopoly capital. In those countries, it was not domestic agriculture, but foreign agriculture, that served as a foundation of the national economy. In socialist society, it is not permissible to plunder the agriculture of backward countries. Even if exchanges are made according to equal values, it is still not permissible to rely on foreign countries for food or to develop the socialist economy on the basis of foreign agriculture. To do so would be contrary to the principles of independence and self-reliance. In organizing the development of the national economy, the socialist country must consciously apply the objective law of agriculture as the foundation of the national economy.
In concrete terms, the primary reason that the development of the socialist national economy must rely on agriculture as the foundation is that the development of the various departments of the socialist economy depends on agriculture to provide the means of subsistence. Regardless of the enterprise, be it industry, transportation, or education, it always boils down to the prerequisite that agriculture has to provide a certain number of commodities and grain.
Another reason that agriculture is the foundation for developing the socialist national economy is that it is the source of industrial raw materials, with the exception of a portion of the supply which comes from industry itself. Raw materials for light industry in particular are essentially provided by agriculture. At present, approximately 70 percent of the raw materials for our light industry is provided by agriculture. Heavy industry also needs certain agricultural products as inputs. If agriculture could not increase its supply of raw materials, industrial development would be gravely affected. Chairman Mao pointed out: “Light industry and agriculture are closely related. There will be no light industry without agriculture.” 4 Agriculture is directly related to industrial development, particularly to light industry.
Another reason why agriculture is the foundation for developing the socialist national economy is that the rural areas constitute a vast market for industrial products. The rural population, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the total, forms a major market for industry. The more developed agricultural production is, the more commodity grains and industrial raw materials will be produced, and the higher the peasants’ purchasing power will be. The peasants’ need for both light and heavy industrial products continuously grows. Soon after the victorious implementation of China’s cooperativization, Chairman Mao observed: “At present, people have not yet clearly realized the point that heavy industry must take agriculture as its primary market. With the steady advancement of agricultural technology and its ever-increasing modernization, such that more and more machinery, fertilizers, water conservancy, and power and transportation facilities will be available for agriculture and more fuels and construction materials will be available to private consumption, then people will comprehend that agriculture is the primary market for heavy industry.” 5
Another reason why agriculture must be relied on as the foundation in developing the socialist national economy is that agriculture is the reservoir of labor power for industry and other sectors of the national economy. To develop socialist industry, commerce, and transportation, additional labor is required. In addition to trying hard to raise labor productivity in these sectors in order to use the labor force thus saved for new needs, additional labor conies partly from the urban areas and partly from the rural areas. Chairman Mao pointed out, “The peasant is the predecessor of the Chinese worker.” 6 However, how much of the rural population can be transferred as labor force to support the development needs of other sectors of the national economy is not determined by these development needs, but by the level of development of agricultural production and by how much agricultural labor productivity can be increased. Only under the conditions that agricultural labor productivity is continuously being raised and the output of agricultural and sideline products is continuously increasing is it possible to transfer an appropriate amount of labor force to support the development of other sectors of the national economy.
Another reason why agriculture must be relied on as the foundation in developing the socialist national economy is that agriculture is an important source of state capital accumulation. In addition to directly providing the state with capital accumulation through agricultural taxes, it indirectly provides capital accumulation to the state by supplying agricultural products to light industry as raw materials. Therefore, the development of agriculture also assumes significance in increasing the state revenue, expanding capital accumulation, and supporting socialist construction.
Viewed from the above several aspects, the importance and role of agriculture in the national economy determine that the development of the national economy cannot be separated from the development of agriculture. If agriculture is not properly developed, other sectors of the national economy will not prosper either. The experience of China’s socialist construction has demonstrated that if there is a bumper harvest in a particular year, the development of the national economy will accelerate in the same year or in the following one. Conversely, if there is a lean year, the development of the national economy will slow down in the same year or the next one. This tells us that in socialist construction we must firmly establish the idea of relying on agriculture as the foundation for developing the national economy.
The Ultimate Solution for Agriculture Lies in Mechanization
Since agriculture is the foundation of the national economy, it is necessary to treat the development of agriculture as a priority in developing the national economy. Only when agriculture is developed as the foundation of the national economy can light industry, heavy industry, and other economic, cultural, and educational enterprises be developed.
How can agriculture be developed? The socialist country cannot adopt agricultural mechanization before agricultural collectivization. Agricultural collectivization must precede the use of large machines. But after the realization of agricultural collectivization, it is very important to realize agricultural mechanization on the basis of agricultural collectivization. On the eve of China’s upsurge in agricultural cooperativization, Chairman Mao had already pointed out that China’s countryside required not only the realization of the social reform of converting the individual ownership system to the collective ownership system, but also the realization of the technical innovation of converting hand labor to mechanical production.
“Only when the socialist transformation of her social economic system is thoroughly completed and machine operation is fully adopted in all sectors and areas where machine operation is feasible in her technology can China’s social economic outlook be completely transformed.” 7
After the victorious realization of China’s agricultural cooperativization and rural people’s communes, Chairman Mao opportunely proposed the grand task of steadily realizing agricultural mechanization. He clearly pointed out, “The ultimate solution of the agriculture problem lies in mechanization.” When the stimulative role of socialist production relations with respect to the productive forces is fully exploited and with the support of socialist industry, especially heavy industry, the pace of achieving agricultural mechanization will be quickened.
Before liberation, old China was a very backward agricultural country. In 1949, the food grain output of the whole country amounted to only 216.2 billion Chin. After liberation when socialist production relations were established and developed in the rural areas through agricultural cooperativization
The output of food grain in 1971 reached 492 billion Chin, and the people’s communes, agricultural production developed substantially. more than twice the amount of 1949. But the level of mechanization in China’s agriculture is not high. Agricultural labor productivity is still relatively low. Compared with other countries where the level of agricultural mechanization is relatively high, China’s agricultural production is still in a relatively backward condition. This condition is not in line with the development of China’s industry and other sectors of the national economy. Therefore, it is necessary to further realize agricultural mechanization and promote a rapid development of agricultural production on the basis of continuously consolidating and developing socialist production relations in the rural areas.
When machines are used in plowing, sorting, harvesting, and transportation, agricultural labor productivity will be raised tens and hundreds of times. If he plows by hand, a veteran worker can only plow one mou a day. With an ox, a man can plow four mou a day. With a medium or large tractor, several tens to several hundreds of mou can be plowed in a day, thus raising agricultural labor productivity by tens to hundreds of times. The labor power thus saved through agricultural mechanization can be used to increase production both intensively and extensively by raising the per unit area yield and promoting the rural development of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, and fishery. It can also be used to support the development needs of other sectors of the national economy.
The realization of agricultural mechanization can also raise the capacity to combat natural calamities and change the situation of depending on the weather for food. China is a country of vast area. Some degree of drought and flooding occurs every year. With electric drainage and irrigation machines, water can be controlled readily. The resulting reduction in damage due to possible droughts or floods will guarantee a steady and high yield in agricultural production. The poor and lower-middle peasants put it well: “The sound of machines in the river brings joy to the crops in the field. With no fear of drought and flooding, good harvests and high yields are guaranteed.”
Under the guidance of Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line, and especially after the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, there has been a rapid development in China’s agricultural mechanization. Comparing 1970 with 1965, the electricity consumption in the rural areas increased by 1.6 times, electric drainage and irrigation machines more than doubled, the ownership of large and medium tractors increased by more than 70 percent, the ownership of handheld tractors increased by nearly 20 times, and the machine-plowed area represented nearly 20 percent of the cultivable area. With the gradual realization of agricultural mechanization in China, the drought control and drainage capacity of agriculture will continuously increase. The people’s ability to combat natural calamities will continuously be strengthened. And the steady growth of agricultural production will be more assured. From this we can see that the further realization of agricultural mechanization on the basis of agricultural collectivization is a necessary path for developing agricultural productivity.
In the process of gradually realizing agricultural mechanization, the material basis of the collective economy will grow daily, and the three-level ownership system of the rural people’s commune will be further consolidated and developed. The experience of agricultural mechanization has demonstrated that large and medium-sized agricultural machines can be fully exploited only if they are owned by the commune and the production brigade. 266
Consequently, with the development of agricultural mechanization, the scale and role of the collective economy at the commune and brigade levels will gradually expand, and the superiority of the people’s commune will be further revealed. Thus, the poor and lower-middle peasants will love the people’s commune all the more and will be all the more resolute in following the socialist road. The poor and lower-middle peasants used a vivid language to depict the necessity for agricultural mechanization: “The people’s commune is full of power. The collective economy blooms with a red flower. With agricultural mechanization, even a class-twelve typhoon will fail to overpower.”
In Agriculture. Learn from Tachai
It is an inevitable trend in the development of socialist agriculture to gradually realize agricultural mechanization on the basis of collectivization. But agricultural mechanization must be under the command of revolutionization. Chairman Mao teaches us, “Once the correct thought representing the advanced class is in the hands of the masses, it becomes a material strength to transform society and the world.” 8 When the broad masses of poor and lower-middle peasants who are the masters of socialist agriculture have studied Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought and have mastered Chairman Mao’s line and general and specific policies, they possess overwhelming strength and are powerful enough to tame mountains and harness rivers. They can transform unfavorable natural conditions into favorable ones, transform low yields into high yields, advance from a condition of owning no agricultural machines to owning various agricultural machines and fully realizing the superiority of agricultural mechanization. This is how Tachai Production Brigade of Tachai Commune in Hsi-yang hsien, Shansi Province, was transformed.
Tachai Production Brigade is situated in the Taihang Mountains. Before agricultural collectivization, it was a poor mountainous area with plenty of rocks and little soil. The poor and lower-middle peasants of Tachai described it as: “The mountain is high, and rocks are plentiful. When you go outside, you have to clamber up slopes. There are less than 3.5 mou of land for each family. Natural disasters are commonplace.” When the primary cooperative was started in 1953, the average per mou yield of food grain was 250 Chin. In the process of developing from the primary cooperative to the advanced cooperative and then to the people’s commune, the Party branch of Tachai Production Brigade firmly adhered to the principle of putting proletarian politics in command. It issued the slogan of “transform the people, transform the land, and transform the yield,” used Mao Tsetung Thought to educate the cadres and the masses, and carried out a big transformation in agricultural production through an ideological revolution among the people. The cadres and the masses of Tachai Brigade smashed the sabotage of the landlord, the rich peasant, the counterrevolutionary, and the bad elements and resisted interference from the revisionist line pushed by the Liu Shao ch’i and Lin Piao clique. Under the guidance of Chairman Mao’s great policy of self-reliance through arduous struggle, Tachai Brigade engaged in capital construction for water control and transformed the “three lost fields” in which water, fertilizers, and soil were lost because of poor construction into “three retained fields” in which water, fertilizers, and soil were retained after the fields had been leveled and terraced. The average per mou yield of food grain in Tachai Brigade was gradually raised from 250 Chin in 1953 to 543 Chin in 1958, 802 Chin in 1964, and 1,096 Chin in 1967. Simultaneous with the rapid growth of foodgrain production, Tachai Brigade realized an all-round development of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and sideline production. In this process of “transforming the people, transforming the land, and transforming the yield,” the Party branch of Tachai Brigade also led the commune members to use their own hands to combine indigenous and foreign technology to substantially advance the mechanization of plowing, cultivating, threshing, transporting, and processing food grain and fodder and to advance on the road of putting mechanization under the command of revolution. The heroic attitude of the poor and lower-middle peasants to fight Nature and farm for revolution is a powerful criticism and repudiation of the reactionary fallacies of Lin Piao who slandered the worker-peasant laboring people saying, “All they think about is how to make money, get rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and firewood, and take care of their wives and children,” and who championed the Confucian thought that “the little people can only be persuaded by self-interest.”
Tachai Brigade is a model of how to develop socialist agriculture according to Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line. “In agriculture, learn from Tachai” is a great call from Chairman Mao. If only we can firmly adhere to arming the cadres and the masses with the great thought of Mao Tsetung, then, like Tachai Brigade, we will have activism, organizational discipline, and the revolutionary spirit of suffering hardship. We will certainly be able to overcome unfavorable conditions and create favorable conditions to transform drastically the outlook of agricultural production.
Because of the interference and sabotage of Liu Shao-ch’i’s revisionist line before the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Hsiyang hsien . where Tachai Brigade is situated, did not unfold the mass movement of learning from Tachai. Its agricultural production developed very slowly. The total output of food grain in the hsien as a whole hovered around 70 to 80 million Chin. The annual maximum sale of food grain to the state was only 7 million Chin. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution transformed the outlook of Hsiyang hsien. Starting from 1967, the whole hsien unfolded the mass movement of learning from Tachai in a big way. It also resisted the interference and sabotage of Lin Piao’s revisionist line. The people of the whole 268 hsien fought heaven and earth, transformed mountains and rivers, and greatly transformed the land acreage of Hsiyang hsien. Agricultural production developed rapidly. The output of food grain doubled in three years and tri
chin, pled in five years. The total output of food grain in 1971 reached 240 million three times as high as the peak output before the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Commodity food grain sold to the state reached 80 million Chin, an increase of more than ten times over the record harvest before the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
The experience of Hsiyang Hsien’s learning from Tachai demonstrates that any difficulties in the human world can be overcome and any miracle in the human world can be created if the innovative power of the masses armed with Mao Tsetung Thought is relied upon. To deeply unfold the mass movement of learning from Tachai and to let the Tachai flower bloom all over the country will certainly accelerate the development of agricultural production, further consolidate the socialist base in the rural areas, and permit agriculture to play a greater role as the foundation of the national economy.
All Trades and Industries Must Support Agriculture with Their Efforts
The development of socialist agriculture must primarily rely on the efforts of the cadres and the poor and lower-middle peasants, the staff and workers of the state farms, and other laboring peasants who fight on the agricultural point. But this does not mean that the development of socialist agriculture has nothing to do with other trades and industries. Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy. Agricultural production affects the development of the whole socialist national economy. If agriculture is not properly developed, other trades and industries cannot hope to develop either. If agriculture is properly developed, everything else will do well too. The development of socialist agriculture is related to all trades and industries. All trades and industries must put the support of agriculture in an important position and actively perform the job of supporting agriculture. The industrial sectors must above all regard the support of agriculture and the promotion of agricultural mechanization as a major task. They must resolutely orient their work toward the objective of treating agriculture as the foundation. Small local industries such as iron and steel, machine building, chemical fertilizer, and cement must all the more firmly adhere to the correct orientation of serving agricultural production.
The support of agriculture by all trades and industries is an important characteristic of the socialist economy. In capitalist society, industry exploits agriculture, and the urban areas exploit the rural areas. Therefore, the relationship between the industrial capitalist and the laboring peasant is one of class antagonism. In the socialist economy, after the urban and rural areas have undergone socialist transformation and on the basis of the socialist public ownership system, the antagonism between the urban and rural areas and between industry and agriculture is eliminated. But there are still two forms of the socialist public ownership system. And because the economic, cultural, and technological level of the rural areas is still below that of the urban areas, there still exist substantial disparities between them. The great program of the proletariat to build socialism and communism requires that in the process of continually developing agricultural production and extending social reform and technical innovation in agriculture, these essential disparities be gradually narrowed and finally eliminated. Therefore, it is an objective necessity that in developing the socialist economy all trades and industries lend their support to agriculture and to raising the economic, cultural, and technical level of the rural areas. The proletarian party calls on all trades and industries to firmly establish the thought of treating agriculture as the foundation of the national economy and to render their assistance to developing socialist agriculture from all aspects.
Out of their need to restore capitalism, the bourgeoisie and its agents inside the proletarian party not only will not narrow the disparities between the urban and the rural areas, but introduce the capitalist method of letting industry exploit agriculture and the urban areas exploit the rural areas. The process of restoring capitalism in the Soviet Union is also the process of increasing the control and exploitation of the rural areas by the bureaucratic monopoly bourgeoisie headed by Brezhnev. The revisionist line of “emphasizing industry at the expense of agriculture” and “squeezing agriculture to benefit industry” advocated by the Liu Shaoch’i clique was also a line that sought to widen the disparities between the urban and rural areas and between industry and agriculture and finally to restore capitalism.
Among the people, it is not an easy job to firmly establish the idea of treating agriculture as the foundation and resolutely carry through the policy having all trades and industries support agriculture. Under the influence of the revisionist line, people often develop the idea of upgrading industry and downgrading agriculture. After agriculture has reaped bumper harvests for several years in succession, the idea of treating agriculture as the foundation loses ground in people’s minds. They give lip service to “agriculture, light industry, heavy industry” but act according to “heavy industry, light industry, agriculture.” The tendency to neglect agriculture in the allocation of capital funds and the supply of material goods is obvious. These conditions demonstrate that to firmly establish the idea of agriculture as the foundation, it is necessary to study seriously the Chairman’s theories about the interrelations among agriculture and light and heavy industry, study seriously the general policy of developing the national economy with “agriculture as the foundation and industry as the leading factor,” and further criticize and repudiate the various reactionary fallacies of modern revisionism that look down on agriculture.
Under the guidance of Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, tens of millions of educated youths in China have answered his great call that “educated youths must go to the villages and receive reeducation from the poor and lower-middle peasants” and have gone to the rural areas and mountainous areas to fight in the forefront of agricultural production. This is a social revolution that changes the established customs of society and a strategic measure for training a large number of successors to the proletarian revolutionary enterprise. Confucius, the spokesman for the declining slave owning class, greatly despised agricultural labor. His student Fan Ch’ih asked him how to grow crops and vegetables. He scolded him for being “a small man.” Lin Piao, the faithful disciple of Confucius, completely inherited this reactionary idea. He maliciously attacked the idea of having educated youths go to the rural and mountainous areas as being “equivalent to disguised labor reform.” All exploitative classes despise both agriculture and the peasants. The hopeless intention of these classes is to ride as long as they can on the shoulders of the laboring people and exploit them. Chairman Mao thoroughly criticized and repudiated the reactionary ideas of people like Confucius. He pointed out that “it is correct in political orientation and work method” 9 for the revolutionary youth to study revolutionary theories, participate in production, and join the worker-peasant masses. The rural areas are wide open. It is extremely important for the maturation of the educated youths themselves, the construction of a new socialist countryside, the criticism of Lin Piao and Confucius, and the narrowing of the essential disparities between the worker and the peasant and between mental and physical labor that the educated youths go to the rural areas to accept reeducation from the poor and lower-middle peasants, to participate in class struggle, production struggle, and scientific experiments in the rural areas, and to be exposed to various tests and experiences.
Industry Is the Leading Factor in the Socialist Economy
Fully Exploit the Role of Industry as the Leading Factor
Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy. Industry is the leading factor of the national economy. Industry is not only a sector which produces the means of livelihood, but is also a sector which manufactures the means of production. The improvement of the means of production plays a significant role in the development of social production. From the historical aspect, the evolution from stone implements to metal tools to various machines represents not only milestones but also benchmarks for the various economic epochs of human society. That industry is the leading factor of the national economy means that the development of industry will certainly bring forth advanced tools for the various sectors of the national economy, promote technical innovations in the national economy, and consequently increase labor productivity and social production.
Industry is divided into light industry and heavy industry. Light industry is primarily concerned with producing the means of livelihood. Heavy industry is primarily concerned with producing capital goods and manufacturing the means of production [tools]. To play the role of the leading factor in the national economy, it is necessary to give full scope to heavy industry which produces capital goods and manufactures the means of production. In socialist society, the role of heavy industry as the leading factor in the national economy is described as follows: to provide various modern agricultural machines, motive power, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and other means of production for agriculture; to produce various light industrial machines and light industrial raw materials and promote technical innovation and labor productivity in light industry so that light industry can provide ever-richer and more varied industrial products for daily use; and to provide modern equipment for transportation, construction, and national defense industries in order to promote technical innovation and development in these fields. From these, we can see that the role of heavy industry as the leading factor is not only manifested as the necessary condition for realizing agricultural mechanization, but is also manifested as a necessary condition for realizing technical innovation for the whole national economy and is a necessary condition for consolidating national defense, guaranteeing national security, strengthening proletarian dictatorship, and supporting world revolution. Just as Chairman Mao pointed out, “Without industry, there will be no strong national defense, no welfare for the people, and no rich and strong country.” 10 The role of industry as the leading factor is determined by its important role in the above-mentioned aspects.
That the role of industry as the leading factor is primarily realized by heavy industry does not mean that light industry is not important. Although light industry does not produce production tools, it is still an important sector of the socialist national economy. It is basically a sector for the production of the means of livelihood. Like agriculture, it is an indispensable sector for reproduction of labor power. Light industry is a necessary complement to agriculture. It processes agricultural and sideline products, produces various necessary means of livelihood for the laboring people of the urban and rural areas, and assists agriculture to play better the role of the foundation in the national economy. Compared with heavy industry, light industry is characterized by small investment and quick returns. Light industry provides capital accumulation for the state and is an important source of capital funds for building heavy industry. Chairman Mao paid special attention to the position and role of light industry in the national economy. He pointed out, “When agriculture and light industry are developed, heavy industry will develop faster with the availability of markets and capital funds.” 11 Chairman Mao clearly pointed out that the development of heavy industry depends not only on agriculture, but also on light industry. He pointed out the important role of light industry which people easily forget. Gradually Realize Socialist Industrialization
The important role of industry in the national economy objectively requires the socialist country to pay attention to the development of socialist industry. For countries in which industrial development is relatively backward, an important task facing the proletariat after it seizes political power is rapidly to develop modern industry, realize socialist industrialization, and build the originally economically backward country into a strong socialist country with modern agriculture, modern industry, modern national defense, and modern science and technology.
In addition to more fully bringing into play the role of industry as the leading factor and thus guaranteeing the independence of the national economy and consolidating national defense, the realization of socialist industrialization has a more far-reaching significance. The gradual realization of socialist industrialization will certainly increase the proportion of the sector of the economy under state ownership and strengthen the leading capacity of the state economy in the whole national economy. The development of socialist industrialization will accelerate the development of industry in areas where industry was formerly backward and change the irrational distribution of industries. At the same time, the ranks of the working class will expand, which will be favorable to strengthening the leadership of the working class over the whole country. The gradual realization of socialist industrialization will also certainly accelerate agricultural mechanization and raise industry’s capacity to support agriculture, thus creating favorable conditions for gradually narrowing the disparities between the urban and rural areas and between the worker and the peasant. It is precisely because of the significance of the realization of socialist industrialization that Chairman Mao, in personally directing the formulation of the Party’s General Line in the 1953 transition period, stipulated that gradual socialist industrialization is an important task which the whole Party and the whole people should strive to achieve.
Old China was a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country. Under the oppression of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism, the level of production was extremely backward. There were very few modern industries. The few modern industries that existed consisted primarily of light industry and textile industry. When the country was liberated in 1949, the annual output of steel was only 158,000 tons. There was nothing to speak of in many important industrial sectors.
Faced with this “poor and blank” condition inherited from old China, to rapidly realize socialist industrialization was a very pressing problem for the Chinese proletariat who wielded political power. In the past more than twenty years under the brilliant leadership of Chairman Mao, significant measures have been taken to accelerate the realization of socialist industrialization.
To realize socialist industrialization in China, it is necessary to build a complete socialist industrial system which combines large, medium, and small enterprises, which is distributed geographically in a comparatively rational manner, and in which the iron and steel industry and the machine building industry are the center. This national industrial system is built on the foundation of existing industrial systems in various coordinated regions and provinces. Once modern industrial systems that are complete and relatively independent but which all vary according to local conditions have been established in a planned fashion and step by step in every coordinated region and within the framework of many provinces, the formation of the national industrial system will take place very quickly.
How to realize socialist industrialization? Chairman Mao pointed out to us that “the problem of what path to follow in industrialization refers primarily to the interrelation among heavy industry, light industry, and agriculture.” 12 To realize socialist industrialization, it is of course necessary to give priority to developing heavy industry. But, giving priority to developing heavy industry does not mean that agriculture and light industry can be ignored. Chairman Mao pointed out: “China’s economic construction is centered around heavy industry. This point must be affirmed. But at the same time, we must pay full attention to developing agriculture and light industry.” 13 Based on the interrelations among agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry, Chairman Mao formulated a revolutionary line to realize socialist industrialization with greater, faster, and better results at lower costs, namely, to develop heavy industry by developing more light industry and agriculture. Through this method, agriculture and light industry have developed. They not only can provide ever-greater amounts of the means of livelihood and improve people’s lives, but can also solve the problem of capital accumulation and markets for heavy industry in order to make the development of heavy industry more stable and reliable. From a long-range viewpoint, this method will lead to greater and better development of heavy industry.
In opposition to Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, there was the revisionist line advocated by the Liu Shaoch’i and Lin Piao clique which had fewer, slower, and poorer results at higher costs, namely, developing heavy industry at the expense of agriculture and light industry. Because it neglects the development of agriculture and light industry, this line of lopsidedly developing heavy industry does not meet the requirements of the peasants to strengthen the collective economy; it does not take care of the livelihood of the broad masses and will certainly result in discontent among the people and the improper development of heavy industry. 274
Under the guidance of Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, the revisionist line of Liu Shaoch’i and Lin Piao has been criticized and repudiated, the interrelations among agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry have been correctly handled, brilliant results have been achieved in China’s socialist industrialization, and the rudiments of an independent and modern industrial system have been developed.
In Industry, Learn from Tach’ing
The process of socialist industrialization is a process of intense struggle between two classes, two roads, and two lines. In the process of leading China to realize socialist industrialization, Chairman Mao advocated, in addition to scientifically pointing out a road for socialist industrialization based on the interrelations among agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry, important policies such as independence, self-reliance, arduous struggle, and “smash foreign conventions and follow our own road to develop industry.” It was a pointed criticism and repudiation of the “slavish submission to foreign conventions” and the “snail’s pace” advocated by the Liu Shaoch’i and Lin Piao clique. Following Chairman Mao’s teaching, China’s working class displayed the revolutionary spirit of daring to think, daring to speak up, and daring to act and gave impetus to the rapid development of China’s industrial construction. The Tach’ing Oil Field is an industrial model for building socialism with greater, faster, and better results at lower costs. In the struggle between the two lines, it firmly adhered to Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line.
The new Tach’ing Oil Field was formerly a barren plain. When several hundreds of thousands of staff and workers arrived there in 1960 to construct the oil field, it was “a blue sky above and a grass plain below.” The weather was cold and the ground was frozen. There were no houses, no beds, no cooking equipment. Production conditions were also very difficult. Several dozen giant drilling machines were soon set up on the grass plain. But the equipment was incomplete; there were not enough trucks or cranes and no highways. Roads were muddy. Water and electricity supplies were grossly inadequate. Under such difficult conditions, the heroic Tach’ing workers firmly adhered to putting proletarian politics in command and repeatedly studied Chairman Mao’s works, especially “On Practice” and “On Contradictions.” They armed their minds with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, fought heaven and earth, fought class enemies, and displayed the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and arduous struggle. In just a little over three years, a big, first-class oil field had been established in China with high speed and high quality. China has been basically self-sufficient in oil products since 1963. The Tach’ing workers also conducted a large amount of scientific research and solved several important technical problems concerning world oil field exploitation. Following Chairman Mao’s teaching concerning how to run an enterprise with diligence and thrift, the total state investment was recovered in 1963. On the eve of “May Day” in 1974, the capital it had accumulated for the state amounted to eleven times the state investment, achieving greater, faster, and better results at lower costs. Even more important, the Tach’ing Oil Field has trained a worker corps that has class consciousness, drive, a good style of work, organization, and discipline and which can endure hardship and fight hard battles. It is because of this revolutionized corps that the Tach’ing Oil Field develops continuously and rapidly and embodies a great victory for Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line.
The Tach’ing Oil Field is a red banner on China’s socialist industrial front. “In industry, learn from Tach’ing” is Chairman Mao’s great call. There is a basic similarity between the Tach’ing Oil Field and the Tachai Brigade. Comrade Chou Enlai pointed out in his Political Report to the Tenth National Party Congress: “The basic experience of our socialist construction over the past twenty years is to rely on the masses. To learn from Tach’ing in industry and Tachai in agriculture, it is necessary to adhere firmly to putting proletarian politics in command, launch mass movements in a big way, and fully exploit the enthusiasm, wisdom, and creativity of the broad masses.” The experience of Tach’ing demonstrated that to educate people with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and to build a workers corps is the most basic thing in socialist enterprise construction. With such a corps of iron and steel armed with Mao Tsetung Thought, there is no fear of hardship or difficulties. The harder it is, the further the corps will advance, overcoming all difficulties in order to build socialist industries with greater, faster, and better results at lower costs. People like Lin Piao slandered the working class as being merely interested in “livelihood.” The Tach’ing experience is a slap in their faces. In building socialist industry, whether the political and ideological education of the staff and workers is given priority, whether we trust the masses, whether we dare to mobilize the masses, whether we insist on following the mass line, and whether the road of self-reliance and arduous struggle is followed are important indicators of whether the banner of “In industry, learn from Tach’ing” is truly upheld and whether Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line has been truly executed.
Chairman Mao’s call for “In industry, learn from Tach’ing” indicated the direction for China’s industrial development. It greatly aroused the working class of China to be self-reliant, strive hard, and rapidly transform the outlook of China’s industry. The penetrating unfolding of the mass movement to “Learn from Tach’ing in industry” will certainly accelerate the pace of China’s socialist industrialization and build China into a great socialist country with modern agriculture, modern industry, modern national defense, and modern science and technology.
The National Economic Plan Must Follow the Order of Agriculture. Light Industry, and Heavy Industry
Promote the Rapid Development of the National Economy Following the Order of Agriculture. Light Industry, and Heavy Industry
That agriculture is the foundation and industry is the leading factor of the national economy is an objective necessity. The general policy of “agriculture as the foundation, industry as the leading factor” formulated by Chairman Mao to develop the national economy correctly reflects this necessity and is a model for developing the socialist national economy.
Under the guidance of the General Line for building socialism and the general policy for developing the national economy, China’s national economic plan is arranged in the order of agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry which Chairman Mao suggested. That is to say, in arranging the national economic plan, we must start from agriculture and place agriculture in the primary position. Whether it is in the allocation of capital funds or the supply of material goods, the needs of agriculture cannot be neglected. At the same time, we must also take care that the development of heavy industry and other sectors of the national economy cannot exceed the amount of food grain, raw materials, capital funds, and labor force that can be provided by agriculture. The development of heavy industry must be based on the foundation of developing agriculture and light industry. In China, as a result of the implementation of this policy, the relations between industry and agriculture are relatively harmonious. Agricultural production and industrial production steadily increase. The market is thriving, and prices are stable. A prosperous and lively scene prevails over industrial and agricultural production. Historical experience demonstrates that the development of the national economy in the socialist country must take agriculture as the foundation and industry as the leading factor and correctly handle the relations among agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry. This is an indisputable truth. Unlike China, Soviet revisionist social imperialism exploits and oppresses its laboring people at home and engages in aggression and expansion abroad. It frantically militarizes its national economy, develops the armament industry at all costs, destroys the development relations among agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry, and leads its national economy into severe crises. These measures of the Brezhnev clique that wants “more guns at the expense of butter” lead to severe inflation, commodity shortages in the market, and short supplies. The laboring people are impoverished.
The Order of Agriculture, Light Industry, and Heavy Industry Will Certainly Promote the Consolidation of the Worker-peasant Alliance
The problem of the development relations among agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry in the socialist national economy is not only a question of the proportional relations among these national production sectors; it is also a question of the interrelations between the workers and the peasants and a question of the worker-peasant alliance.
Under the socialist system, the basic interests of the worker and the peasant are identical. Under the leadership of the working class, the mutually supporting and promoting worker-peasant alliance is established for a common struggle to build socialism and realize communism. But certain disparities still exist between the urban and rural areas and between the worker and the peasant with respect to economics, culture, technology, and material livelihood. These disparities are the remnants of the old society. To allow these disparities to exist for a long time, or even to expand, and not to create conditions to narrow or eliminate the disparities is detrimental to the consolidation of the worker-peasant alliance.
In his analysis of the relations between the leading class and the class which is led, Chairman Mao pointed out: “The leading class and Party, in order to exercise leadership over the class, stratum, political party or people’s organization to be led, must possess two characteristics: (A) lead the one which is led (the ally) to fight a determined battle against the common enemy and win and (B) provide material welfare to the one which is led; at least, do not hurt their interests and give them political education.” 14 After the working class has seized political power, led the peasants to overthrow the landlord class, and realized land reform and agricultural collectivization, it is still necessary to lead the peasants to fight a determined battle against the class enemy in the rural areas, conduct socialist education to help them further realize agricultural mechanization on the basis of collectivization, raise their material and cultural living standards gradually on the basis of production development, and lead them to follow resolutely the socialist road. This way, the disparities between the urban and rural areas can be narrowed and the worker-peasant alliance can be further consolidated.
Therefore, the arrangement of the national economic plan according to the order of agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry is basically an important aspect in the correct handling of the relations between the worker and the peasant. The essence of this problem is the issue of consolidating the leadership of the working class, consolidating the alliance between the worker and the peasant, having the working-class struggle with the bourgeoisie for the allegiance of the peasants, and a new issue of class struggle under the socialist system. Chairman Mao’s theory concerning the interrelations among agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry, the general policy of developing the national economy with “agriculture as the foundation and industry as the leading factor,” and the arrangement of the national economic plan according to the order of agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry indicated the road to solving these problems.
Major Study References
Marx, Capital. Vol. 3, Chapter 37.
Chairman Mao, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People,” Sections 3 and 12.
Review Problems
- Why do we say that agriculture is the foundation of the national economy? How can the job of supporting agriculture be done well?
- Why do we say industry is the leading factor of the national economy? Why must attention be paid to the development of agriculture and light industry while developing heavy industry?
- What is the immense significance of correctly handling the relations among agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry?
14 Footnotes
