Collectivisation

1. Collectivisation By Oliver Hudson

2. Increasing Production Land reform had given the peasants ownership of the land. However, food production was low and not ready to feed the people of China. With this in mind in 1951 Mutual Aid teams, that had always been a part of agriculture, were encouraged furtherso that each household was a member. A Mutual Aid team was usually composed of ten or fewer households, and it gave the ability for the Peasants to still be in control of their land but be assisted by neighbors and others at crucial times of the year, such as harvest. Mutual Aid teams really only formalised a link that had always been present in communities, of sharing between neighbors. Mutual Aid teams were successful as it gave the peasants the sense of ownership but allowed resources to be shared and production to be stimulated. By the end of 1952 40% of households were a part of a Mutual Aid team.

3. The Next Step: APCs Once Mutual Aid teams had been established Mao wanted to furtherexpand food production. APCs stand for = Agriculture Producers Cooperatives. They consisted of 30 – 50 households and it meant that there was a central management of the land but each family owned their sector of the land. It now stood that the peasants land was being rented out to the cooperative, and in doing so the families received rent for what they put in. Rich peasants were persuaded to join as they had a higher number of resources to add to the cooperative. Also, they would receive their rent in installments which meant they had a continuous wage. Peasants accepted the terms of APCs as they still had land ownership but they resented the fact the Government was taking an increased role in agriculture. These had first been seen in 1951 but it was not until 1953 when Mao declared that more were needed to increase production. It was then that he removed the idea of Mutual Aid teams being established before joining APCs. It was argued that Mao was moving too fast and was going to make the same errors as the Soviets idea of Collectivisation.

4. A Push for APCs In1953 the push began for peasants to immediately join the cooperatives. This led to resistance from peasants and even members of the committee in the CCP.Rich peasants refused to join the APCs as they would lose their animals and tools and believed they were not making enough money as they could be selling their products individually to others. Instead they slaughtered their animals rather than surrender them to the cooperatives. In January 1955 there was also resistance to the cooperatives within the government. Liu Shaoqi declared the disandandment of a quarter of the 670,000 APCs. This resistance began to worry Mao and he declared a new change in tactics, he removed the idea of freedom for socialism.

5. Party and the Peasants The conference of Local Party Secretaries in July 1955 marked a great change in the relationship between the Communist Party and the Peasants. In 1955 16.9 million households were members of APCs out of the 110 million in China. This meant that production was not effiecent enough to build Mao's China as production was not feeding industrialisation or the people. There had only been a 2% growth in production rate. This was not fast enough to keep up with the volume of people that needed feeding. It was declared that the owning of private land would end. This was the only way forward to increase production. The once precious link that enabled Mao to power, between peasants and Party was now broken.

6. What Happened Next? By January 1956, 88% of peasants were members of APCs and only 3% farmed privatley. The new era was upon China and the peasants were to face a deeper level of control, even more than that of the previous dynastys. They were soon to be split up into communes were no ownership was entitled and where they would be controlled by communism in every inch of their lives.