Theme 2 - Agriculture and industry, 1949-65

How and why did the system of land ownership change during 1949-57?

Attacks on landlordism and the redistribution of land

• 1950 Agarian Reform Law - taking land from landlords and redistributing to peasants
  
• Would restrain over-zealous activists seen in civil war
• PLA played crucial role - silencing hostile people, helping local officials
• Calculated amount of land owned to be taxed
• Meetings where people were labelled - landlords publicly humiliated, accused of exploitation
• Lots of anti-landlord paranoia 
• Put power in peasant's hands - could blame them, showed peasant-led revolution

Moves towards agricultural co-operation

• Didn't want peasants to own land either - moved towards collectivisation
• Mao wanted to take it slow - also experimented over years
• 1951 - MATs - 10 families pooled equipment, animals, labour, still private ownership. Voluntary
• 1952 - APCs - 40/50 families, pooled land aswell, some personal land, profits shared. Voluntary

The change from voluntary to enforced collectivisation

• Mao frustrated at slow pace
• Some APCs rushed, in debt, so Mao called for slowdown in spring 1953
• 1954 - peasants begin capitalist methods. Mao angry, renewed pressure to join APCs
• Richer peasants killed livestock in protest. Requisitioning to cities causes protest. Mao called for slowdown
• July 1955 - Mao chooses all-out collectivisation. Doesn't want peasants revolting
• Almost everyone joins APCs
• HPCs - 200/300 households, rewarded work with work points
• Ideological success - state owned means of production of food
• Showed Mao's power in party
• Increased local party power
• However, meant peasants were now servants, not allies
• Made Mao over-confident, ignored economic sense
• Productivity very low - insufficient food to feed industrial population
• People lacked motivation, no capitalist incentives

What was the impact of the people's communes after 1958?

• Mao's answer to catching Britain was to make collectives larger and responsible for industrial production, education, welfare provision and local defence

Reasons for launching the communes

• Thought more resources pooled together woud lead to higher food yields and leave peasants more time for industrial work
• Mao impressed with APCs (on tour). Able to get through politburo with evidence
• Mao wanted to continue revolution

How the communes were organised

• May 1958 - Great Leap Forward announced - 'walking on two legs'
• Grain and steel production given equal priority
• Mao keen to decentralise so power with enthusiastic local officials, not technical experts
• First People's Commune in Henan - 9,000 households
• Not possible to move out of commune without internal passport

Communal living

• Communal canteens and dormitories. Couples only slept together when allowed
• Management teams - directed labour, tractor stations, backyard furnaces, mills etc.
• Provided education, healthcare, police, army, childcare, canteens, 'happiness homes'
• Managers deployed free workers in construction projects
• Mao wanted 'utopian socialism'
• 10 guarantees - meals, clothes, housing, school, medical, burial, haircuts, entertainement, heating, money for weddings.

The abolition of private farming

• Communes were compulsory - all private property surrended
• No work points, because state provided everything anyway. Lack of incentives
• Strict management - 6 hours sleep every 2 days. Villagers tried to do as little as possible
• Large military presence…