II{A Shirley Wood Dovid Crook
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35C Far East Reporter Publications THE PAST IN CHINA'S PRESENT by Joseph Needham 609 IN SOUTHEAST ASIA TODAY; Poems by Rewi Alley 259 THE IMPACT OF US CURRENT POLICY ONPHILIPPINE'JINDEPENDENCE" 50f SOME OBSERVATIONS ON EDUCATION, TRADE & POLITICAL PROCESS IN CHINA. Dr. Oldham J. RusseII Love Anna Louise Strong 40Q SOME BACKGROT]ND ON US IN VIETNAM & LAOS 359 SOME BACKGROUND ON US IN SE ASIA: MAPHILINDO 25Q LETTERS FROM FRIENDS IN CHINA 30c ACUPUNCTURE: The Scientific Evidence Han Su-Yin 25+ SOME FACTS ABOUT TODAY'S TIBET - Stuart & Roma Gelder 309 MALAYSIA: Arena of International Conflict - Abdul Rahim Karim 300 CHINA SPEAKS FOR HERSELF: Interviews with P M Chou En-Iai 25+ ASIANS SPEAK OUT ON US "AID,' POLICY AND PROGRAMS OT Pakistan: US Aid to Pakistan: An Evaluation by Hamza Alavi IllE PROCESS Cambodia: Why Cambodia Rejected Aid by Han Suyin 309 CHINA IN TODAY'S WORLD: "Economic Failure"?! "Opposing Peaceful Coexistence"?! "Isolated"?! "Threat To Asian Neighbors"?! BvMaudRusseIl 60p llRBA}I AtlD RURAI. ECO}IO]|IY Iil C]|II{A ORIENTAL RENAISSANCE IN EDUCATION AND MEDICINE Dr. Wilder Penfield (Reprint from "SCIENCE") 25Q WHITHER INDIA - Maud Russell 359 CHINA 1963: Food Medicine People's Communes - Rewi Alley, Dr. Wilder THE ROLE OF THE PEOPTES COMfflUNES Penfield, David Crook, Anna Louise Strong 509 THE WA.R IN VIETNAM - Hugh Deane Shirley Wood A 32 page Monthly Review Pamphlet 509 ARTS & SCIENCES IN CHINA - 40 page reproduction of British-China Friendship Ass'n lst quarterly issue 609 SEIF RELIANCE CHINA.INDIA CONFLICT 609 THE ''NEW ERA,' IN THE PHILIPPINES 259 Dovid Crook NEW LIGHT ON THE KOREAN W"AR 159 REPORT FROM UN: THE CHINA DEBATE by Susan Warren 259 CHINA FACTS FOR AMERICAN READERS - Correcting Popular Tales Israel Epstein & Rewi Alley & FelixGreene 25Q AS CHINA SEES UNITED STATES POLICY - Chapter 26 of "Awakened Chinat' by Felix Greene 509 THE WORLD BELONGS TO ALL--FAMILY LIFE IN CHINA Liao Hung-Ying and Derek Bryan 259 ,.WHAT ABOUT CHRISTIANS IN CHINA?--THE YWCA,' A Canadian YWCA Member visits YWCAs in China, with photographs 259 CHINA,S PATH TO HER NEW SOCIETY 259 MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN CHINA - Compiledby Maud Russell 26Q PREMIER CHOU EN-LAI--FELIX GREENE INTERVIEW Full Text, October, 1960 25Q ..WHY DO CHINESE 'REFUGEES, 'ESCAPE, TO HONGKONG?,' Maud Russell and Anna Louise Strong 159 CHINA AND INDIA? AND INDONESIA? AND BURMA? - MAUd RUSSEII 509 NEW PEOPLE IN NEW CHINA, Maud Russell 359 I'HE REAL TIBET - Susan Warren 25Q A LOOK AT THE PEOPLE'S COMMUNES - Elsie Fairfax Cholmley 59 FAR EAST REPORTER AnnualSubscription $2.00 Making available significant facts and analyses contributed by competent writers on the Far East MAIID RUSSELL, Publisher P"O. Box 1536, New York, N.Y" 10017 ",tn -l .2 i ,J/nop{U Lomntruei --tlrr yt'' INTRODUCTION China's economic development goes steadily on, in spite of Western presentations discounting that advance. These two articles, one writing of rural economy and its relation to the industrial economy, the other of industrial economy with its emphasis on self-reliance, give some evidence of that steady advance. But the main contribution of these two articles is the demon- stration of the process by which China is advancing-onT6i chosen path of building a people's economy. It is a process that is based on the fundamental principles for achieving a socialist (and eventually a communist) economy, but taking into account the particular situation in China and applying the peculiar genius of the Chinese people - the ability to learn from others (domestic and international), the use of the formula, "WaIk on two feet" ("use everything we have, indigenous and foreign, old and new, big and. Iittle, manual and mechanical, primitive and sophisticated"), constantly study, test, revise and improve, involve the participationofthe people at all levels, and, above aII, be self-reliant. These articles are written by Westerners, one an American, Shirley Wood, and one a Britisher, David Crook. Both are long- time residents in China, working and living there; both are teachers in Foreign Language Colleges, one in the interior t city of Kaifeng and the other in the capital city of Peking. THE ROLE OF THE PEOPLES COMMUNES IN CHINA'S ECONOMY by Shirley Wood The role played by China'speople's communes inthe develop- # ment of a modern industrial nation goes deep and far. Many of China's problems are new" They do not conform to, nor i can they be predicted by the classical European pattern of ii i. industrialization. The Soviet example of rapid concentration b of rural forces through collectivization (enabling agriculture i to develop a foundation for industry in a fraction of the time It formerly required) has been stuclied and analyzed, andthe basic position of agriculture in economic development realized. But the enormous advances of modern technique, in agriculture and industry, present problems unique to newly-developing nations today. China's communes, with civic government and 1 planning placed directly in their hands, are able to deal with transformation into a propertyless labour-vendor" Nor will all facets of broad-scale problems. Their part in primary mechanization produce mass unemployment and destitution" The accumulation is immediately obvious. commune member is assured for life of a house and work suited to the strength and abilities of his family, or of commune care THE RURAL SITUATION PRIOR TO LIBERATION if completely dependent. Chief livelihood comes from the share Prior to liberation, Iand concentration was already proceed- of common field produce in return for work-days laboured, ing rapidly, even in the traditionally cottage-farm areas of part in cash and part in kind" The absence of master-hand north China, where the small holder occupied ahigh proportion relationship makes it possible to arrange labour to suit the of the land and the average landlord's holdings were small in requirements of both commune and individual. comparison with the feudal estates of the south and southwest; peasents were being bullied and cheated of their land, followed Thus the countryside has been able to provide labour for by manhunts of their kin, accompanied by conscription, beggary the cities without moving entire families. A family which loses and starvation or outright murder, so that none would remain a major part of its able-bodied labour power does not lose its to press for the debt" tenancy, or with it its own employment" This has been important in adjusting the migration of population to the cities, with its A portion of the rents from large holdings went into the estab- accommodation and welfare problems, which are concomitant lishment of businesses and industries in towns and cities. The with the industrial revolution. Engels describes these problems semi-mechanized manufactory was common inland towns, in in his introduction to Housing Problem": providing coarse products for the large country market, while "The goods from the small middle class bought finer imported period which old profits not mtrch ploughed back "The in a country with an culture Shanghai" Industrial were so makes such a transition manufacture and (developm,ent limited by from small- into trade and industry of which was scale production large-scale industry, a transition China's semi-colonial status) as reinvested in land. The slow to which moreover, accelerated such favorable growth industry and its concentration along the coast is, by cir- of - cumstances, at the predominantly a period where foreign supply was often cheaper than domestic grain is same time of shortage". On the one hand, masses and raw materials brought over poor inland communications "housing of rural - workers are suddenly drawn into the big towns, which provided no incentive for the capital development of agriculture; develop into industrial centres; on the other hand, the estates remained divided into small tenant lots with some arrangement o1d cultivated by landlord using building of these towns does not any Iarger fields directly farmer or longer conform the conditions new large- hired labour and primitive hand methods. to of the scale industry and the corresponding trafficl streets are widened and new ones cut through, and railways run RURAL SITUATION AFTER LIBERATION THE l right across. At the very time whenworkers are stream- The land reform in China was a stepin the democratic revo- + ing into the towns in masses, workers dwellings are lution, breaking feudal power in the countryside and guarantee- pulled down on a large sca1e. Hence the sudden housing ing the minimum livelihood of the peasantry. National develop- shortage for the workers and for the small traders and ment demanded capital development of agriculture, to provid.e small manufacturing businesses, which depend for their food and raw materials base for industry, and a surplus a customers on the workers"" Iabour pool. Re-polarization of land ownership alone would achieve the concentration of land and capital necessary, but slowly and at the cost of misery forthe majority of the country With regard to labour, the results of communization had not population until they could be absorbed into the towns. Instead, been fully predicted. Although all hands must turn to during the People's Government decided on planned, step-by-step certain periods in the countryside there was chronicunemploy- collectivization of agriculture, ending in the formation of the ment during much of the year. It was expected by some that people's communes. with increased mechanization, made possible by concentration of investment power under the commune system, this under- Under the rural commune system the concentration of land employment would be increased. In reality, the industrialgreat does not entail the dispossession of the small peasant and his leap in the early days, starting from scratch with boundless enthusiasm and bare hands, made heavy man-power demands for much of light industry.