The Wage Grade System--The Breeding Ground of Revisionism
By “A Fictitious Old Man”
[Note: This article is available on the Internet in Chinese. It is a defense of the supply system and an attack on the wage system in the China. The author says that the main attacks on the supply system came from the army and from people returning from the USSR and trying to imitate Soviet methods. The article says that the data on the supply system comes from the works of Yang Kuisong, a well- know historian in China. The Chinese text appears to have been OCRed, and has some errors. Some doubtful translations are marked in the text.]
In dealing with the Gao-Rao incident [of 1953]1, cratic system, and forming its own political Liu [Shaoqi] and Deng [Xiaoping], Zhou Enlai, power base. In the Cultural Revolution an un- and Chen Yun made up the first-line party dying fight took shape, continuously cutting off leadership, and Chairman Mao retired to the all kinds of corpses [doubtful translation]. second line, concentrating his attention on Chairman Mao launched the Great Proletarian studying the question of opposing and prevent- Cultural Revolution, which opposed their vest- ing revisionism from reaching China's imple- ed interests, thus of course moving back the mentation of socialist revolution. In his old age direction of the Liu-Deng side. Mao Zedong said that the greatest mistake of his life had been setting up these two head- Two years before his death, Chairman Mao quarters, the first and second lines. He published a series of sayings about wage stressed that this was the central reason for grades, such as: "China is a socialist country, the Cultural Revolution, but opposition to the about the same as capitalism before liberation. country's President [Liu Shaoqi] was also a Now it still implements an eight-grade wage motive. scale, distribution according to work, and mon- etary exchange. These follow past society and The first-line team seized political power in or- do not have much difference". He even warned: der to meet the demands of the cadres. They "Compared with the Guomindang [Chinese Na- moved immediately, first to implement grades tionalists] this is not as good." [quoted from in the army, and made military ranks and im- Mao Zedong, "About the key points of a talk on plemented a job grade salary system among theoretical questions," December, 1974] the cadres. This work was entirely completed in 1955. The adoption of expanded rank differ- Just before his death Chairman Mao said: "All ences, higher pay for higher work and material- my life I did two [mistaken] things [The first was ly higher "special supply", as well as forming to let Chiang Kaishek escape to Taiwan, some- privileged strata, made the party's senior cadre thing everyone agreed with.] …. The other breed pleasure seeking and a style of life di- thing was to start the Cultural Revolution, vorced from the masses. which few (leading cadre) approved of and many opposed." Grades and graded wages, With this move Liu Shaoqi gained support which formed the bureaucratic system, are the among the military and the cadres, especially basic cause that created this result. among the higher level cadres, gradually form- ing a bureaucratic regime, producing a bu- Loss of supervision by the masses, concentra- reaucratic capitalist class, setting up a bureau- tion of power, and high wages and benefits, once they are combined, will inevitably restore the whole society to the traditional "bureaucrat- 1 In 1953 Gao Gang and Rao Shushi were accused ic organization" which incubates and brings of a conspiracy to divide the party and seize control about a gradual political tendency to bureau- of the party and the government. In March 1954, cracy. In China's 2000-year-old society, de- the Communist Party of China National Delegate spite emperors subsiding one after another, Assembly adopted a resolution expelling them from more court changes continually took place. the party. 1 Under the Confucian ethical code's cultural in- The main reason was Chairman Mao's persis- fluence, a private, autocratic system of gov- tence in maintaining the policy of keeping his ernment was unalterable, and its characteristic independence and initiative, setting up anti- feature was precisely the privileged grade sys- Japanese base areas in the enemy's rear, and tem of highly concentrated power. China's rev- developing guerrilla warfare. Very seldom did olution occurred in this kind of environment. coordination with the Guomindang army take Some people inside the group taking part in place. Furthermore, a change of dynasty took the revolution received this kind of deep-rooted place, and whenever a new dynasty is set up, influence. Privilege very much caters to their those who have rendered outstanding service appetites, hence they consciously and uncon- want rewards to be dispensed according to sciously become captives of the capitalist- merit, and the share allotted to the king's past roaders, using their coming transformation of princes to be cast aside. the Chinese Communist Party's character, and carrying out restoration. Capitalist-roaders, in Chairman Mao marched into Beiping on the order to consciously carry out this legacy, road through Xibaipo, and declared that [a pol- made this become China's distinguishing fea- icy that that of] Li Zicheng [(1606-1645), a mili- ture. They began by energetically carrying out tary leader of a Ming dynasty peasant uprising] a military rank system and a graded wage sys- was inappropriate. Naturally he was not likely tem. to dispense rewards according to merit. All those who have rendered outstanding service The establishment of the military rank sys- [“heroes”] expected to profit by it. Capitalist tem. The military rank system is also pre- roaders who had served well took advantage cisely the typical example of a grade sys- of this mentality and pursued implementation tem. of a military rank system and a cadres' grade wage system in order to buy popular sympathy. Installing the military rank system can be traced back to Yuan Chong Northern New Ar- Evaluating the top 10 generals from this point my, the school established in imitation of the of view, only Luo Ronghuan and Chen Yifei military system of the Western powers. The came up from the ranks. Other people had dif- whole Guomindang army, including the local ferent levels of attachment to the military rank areas, practiced this system, formed separate system. Their grade wage and military rank not Chinese historical warlord armed regimes, and only determined lifelong wages and benefits. also produced new Chinese characteristics. They were equivalent to the nobility of the feu- Only Chairman Mao established the Workers dal system except for not being hereditary, and and Peasants Red Army and abolished this in their uniforms they displayed unparalleled system. After the War of Resistance to Ag- dignity. Thus they were vigorous practitioners gression broke out [in 1937], the Communist of the military rank system. No one reported Party's military reorganized the national revolu- the story of the process of the policy decision tionary armed forces’ Eighth Route Army and to pursue the military rank system. But Chair- the New Fourth Route Army. man Mao chose to adopt a historical course that led from passivity to opposition. To cooperate with friendly forces and fight, the Eight Route Army headquarters set up a liai- First, he refused to accept the title of "general- son mechanism, and prepared to carry out a issimo" and he did not accept ceremonial dress, military rank system. But thanks to the War of but he was not able to ward off comparatively Resistance to Japan, it was too busy to take high army pay grades. Not involved in the this into account. After the Southern Anhui In- evaluation process, Mao only said that high- cident, the Guomindang suspended supplies to ranking officers should use Su Yu as the head. the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth In examining and approving the name list, he Route Army, and carried out an economic said that Lu (Zhengcao) has a wound, Pi blockade. The military rank system was (Dingjun) needs a raise, etc., and was regard- shelved. ed as a judge of reputation. [doubtful transla- tion] 2 Up to 1964, under repeated criticism, he took In 1948, Zhu De, as the Chinese Communist charge of Lin Biao's work in Military Commis- party began to prepare to enter the cities, also sion of the CPC Central Committee, and over- definitely spoke about this: came the first-line group. The decision was made to abolish the armed forces military rank "We are under the supply system. Making war system, which received Chairman Mao's sup- does not ask for cash, cooks do not want cash, port. Deng Xiaoping from 1980 put forward and nothing needs cash. The revolution's success restored the military rank system, in order depends on this system, and the future con- strive for the support of the armed forces. In struction of a new nation also depends on this 1984 this succeeded. system."
From 1941 forward, the grade wage system After Ren Bishi came back from the USSR, consisted of Red Army and border area im- Yan'an's mess hall produced food divided into plementation of a supply system which did not an ordinary dining room and a special dining have grade differences. In the War of Re- room. Because Ren Bishi worked for the sistance Against Aggression period, Mao Communist International for several years, he Zedong had made a comparison of the Chi- was subject to the USSR's influence, adopted nese Communist Party cadre and their privi- the USSR's grade system, and introduced it leges with those of Guomindang officials. into the border area supply system, so that a [Making fun of Confucius practices], he proudly ranked supply system resulted. For leaders, claimed: "We encounter the Confucian under- various supply subsidies increased differences standing very little, we write essays and cannot of rank. This made Yan'an produce competition write long ones", the Duke of Zhou [a political and discontent. Wang Shiqiu wrote an essay and literary figure thought to have influenced describing the condition at that time as "clothes Confucius] and Confucius do not come here, divided into three colors and food divided into and writing is not often done. Still our county five grades." Chairman Mao was very disgust- magistrates, area chiefs, village chiefs, each ed about this, and in March 1947, when Hu month have a two Yuan allowance, They are Zongnan's [a Guomindang general] troops oc- also democratic, they can conduct difficult cupied Yan'an, Mao Zedong indicated: This is struggles and can help ordinary people. Cer- a good thing. At least it "smashed a huge or- tainly Duke Zhou and Confucius did not have ganization and stopped bureaucratic degen- border area government's honest county mag- eration, and forced us to get past that kind of istrates like this, who are democratic like this, ‘clothes divided into three colors and food di- and help the common people like this. But how vided into five grades’ supply system standard about the Guomindang country magistrates? and to change it.”
“Each month they take a salary of 180 Yuan, In the seventh central committee second ple- and they can only marry concubines, play num, Mao said: "the supply standard is pretty mahjong, take opium, and even practice cor- good so that Nanjing and Shanghai aren't hit ruption, extortion, oppression of the common by a further increase. In 1949, the very day af- people, otherwise they would not succeed. ter Tianjin was liberated, it emerged after en- Why can there be such a difference? This is tering the town that the cadres carried out a precisely because we and the Guomindang are system of payments partly in kind and partly in different. We all come to revolution and revolu- cash, and took over the personnel practice of a tion is life-threatening. [We are different be- wage system, which formed a "two track sys- cause] we are prepared to sacrifice our lives, tem." Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan en- not to mention the very small matter of sala- gaged in a "small treasury", which resulted in ries?" Therefore Mao openly predicted: China's corrupt degeneration. The completion of the only hope depends on the honest, democratic transformation of the supply system into a cadre of the communist party. wage system was accelerated.
In September, 1948, when the central commit- tee of the Communist Party of China began to 3 consider general work focal points and senior cadre increase was a maximum of changed direction toward the cities for the first 95.67, which differ by a factor of 416 times. time, Bo Yibo put forward a clear and definite proposal: "The present system is wasteful in all It is obvious that the wage adjustment once respects, but cadres still think everywhere that again widened the gap between the distribution insufficient support is given to them, that there grades. This naturally initiated some problems. is great disparity between the livelihoods of In each area of the whole country this wage democratic personages [who had higher in- scale reform encountered the problem of "a comes] and cadres, and so on, and this has large decrease in income and also a harder become a problem." It is necessary to put the job". Noting the various situations emerging in salary system into practice, and this side of the June 1956 full implementation of wage reform, problem can be solved. the State Council once more in 1955 conduct- ed some adjustment to the scheme of staff Becoming the first new Chinese Ministry of Fi- wage standards. One of the most important nance chief, Bo Yibo undoubtedly carried out initiatives was to allow only small subsidies for the new salary system vigorously. He carried a large number of township cadres who were out the "new system" and received criticism. enrolled as government staff, that is, to be Deng Xiaoping replaced Bo Yibo and acceler- compensated in the grade wage system. ated the implementation work on the salary [doubtful translation] At the same time, the system. On August 31, 1955, the State Council lowest grade of wages in the state staff officially promulgated an order on a national scheme was raised from 18 Yuan up to 20 Yu- scheme for work personnel, which completely an, but the highest wages and the lowest still put into practice a wage system and changed differed by 28 a factor of times. the temporary cash wage system. It gave clear and definite directions: There were two main characteristics that re- sulted from the transformation of the supply "The national scheme for staff supply (or full system into a salary system. responsibility) system treatment methods at one time played an excessively large function The first was that from wage labor one kind of in the past revolutionary period. But in the pre- system resulted and from the fixed grade wage sent socialist construction period, [the supply level cadre rank another kind of system result- system] does not agree with the principles of ed. A rising government official did not make a 'distribution according to labor' and 'equal pay lot (assuming he was not promoted), a situa- for equal work'. Therefore, the State Council tion which was temporary, since naturally a decides that from July 1, 1955, the portion of raise in salary goes with a rise in rank. Wages the existing contract system practiced by the and grade level became a cadre's lifelong sys- staff shall be replaced by compensation tem. Compared to feudalism's salary system, it through wage benefits, to unify the treatment of was more reactionary. state personnel system, and facilitate the con- struction of socialism." On these grounds the Second was the increasingly large size of the State Council also decreed a new wage stand- grade differences. The higher the job level, the ard, not only going a step further to increase larger the difference. The lowest wage and the the wage standard of the senior cadres, but highest wage (not including the army senior bringing wage grades a step further and in- officers) ratio was 31.11. The absolute value of creasing up to a 30 level scale, with a highest the increase is 416 times as much. Compared wage of 560 Yuan and a lowest of 18 Yuan. To with the Guomindang and post-war Nationalist the highest wage was added a Beijing-area government officials' salary standard, besides price subsidy of sixteen percent, for a total of the president and 5 other department heads, 649.6 Yuan, and a lowest wage of 20.88, with there were 37 grades. Each grade's salary a gap between the highest and lowest wage of number differed by at least 5 Yuan and at most 31.11 times as much. From an absolute num- 120 Yuan, with the difference between adja- ber viewpoint, the lower staff smallest monthly cent levels being fairly equal. The ratio of the income increase was only .23 Yuan, and the highest and lowest level was only 14.5 to one. 4 In '56, the Communist Party drafted and im- most genuinely socialist distribution, the Chi- plemented a standard whose ratio of grade dif- nese Communist Party at all levels of leader- ferences was 2.2 times as much as the ship, after entering into each big city quickly Guomindang's. It also greatly exceeded the found themselves established the new distribu- disparities in the capitalist countries’ public tion system, and had to enlarge the grade dif- servants' income distribution in Europe, Ameri- ference coefficients of all the different grades ca and Japan. In each capitalist country like so that it could conform to the Soviet method England, France, and Germany, for civil serv- which furnished a "rational" distribution stand- ants, including magistrates, the highest and ard. lowest wage difference is ordinarily only 8 to 10 times from highest to lowest, and America If the expansion of a big grade compensation and Japan also have around 20 times as much. gap was supposed to encourage the desire of Afterwards Chairman Mao commented that in work personnel to do better and work actively, comparison with the Guomindang it was still then there was an obvious problem with this not as good. new 1956 standard. This problem was that such a low difference in grades only motivated Third was that high-ranking cadres preserved far less than the larger differences in the work- the differences of the Soviet high-ranking ca- er salary scheme of the Nationalist government dres system. They continued to have and to period. Among the 1956 lowest 4 minimum constantly expand the "special supplements" of grades, every grade differed only by 2 Yuan, the supply system. For example, there were then after than successively by 2.5 Yuan, 4 chauffeurs, secretaries, housekeepers, hous- Yuan, 4.5 Yuan, 5 Yuan, and 5.5 Yuan. In the ing and all kinds of supply subsidies. In com- 1956 standard, at least in the lower 10 grades, parison, senior cadres carried out a system of such grade differences were even smaller and high salaries and special supplements. Lag- provided even less so-called stimulus to ad- ging behind the capitalist wage system and vance, to encourage the effect of policy of the following the situation the Soviet revisionists, more one works the more he gets. an armed bureaucratic ruling class was creat- ed. They began by imitating the Northern Warlords and carried on the military system up to the Why can this kind of situation emerge? The present, combined with consulting their great basis of the government officials' regal magnif- disparities of the grade difference and fixed icence was emulating Soviet experience. Be- standards. In order to grab power and bribe cause of the Soviet experience, the Com- those who had rendered outstanding service, munist Party of China finance and economics the first-line leadership of the new regime put staff, in fact, from the beginning of the Yan'an the military rank system into effect, and con- period understood the wage system of produc- sulted the old type army grade differences to tion under capitalist conditions as the realiza- fix salaries. This was the reincarnation of feu- tion of socialist "distribution according to work" dalism and of the Northern warlords. and regarded it as the most rational form of distribution. Marx and Engels on worker and cadre sala- ries Furthermore, they were convinced that be- cause of the principle of distribution according In 1848 Marx and Engels clearly put forward to work, it was necessary to smash the popular that even under the capitalist governmental egalitarian idea and distribution form among system, in the struggle for the proletariat's communist party members. Simultaneously, on most basic political rights, the communist party the grounds of encouraging progress, they be- members also should persist in putting forward gan to come over to the Soviet national the political demand that "all official salaries scheme of work personnel implementation and should be the same," in order to restrict to the copied the Soviet job grade wages system in- biggest extent the grade system which creates discriminately. Convinced that the Soviet dis- all sorts of degenerate abuse. tribution system could be the most rational and 5 In "The Civil War in France" book, Marx After 1953, Mao devoted himself to the coop- thought that "under proletarian state power, erative transformation, and laying down and public servants should implement a low salary carrying out the "general line". But he seldom system, because of the so-called "starting with took a specific interest in the implementation of each commune member, from highest to low- the wage system and the question of differen- est, all public servants all only can receive the tiating cadres’ income according to grade. Cer- equivalent of workers wages." In the past, tainly after the Gao-Nao incident, he had al- states' high government office holders and il- ready retired to the second rank. The military lustrious officials enjoyed all privileges as well rank system and grade wage system were as public subsidies, which disappear and die then firmly and definitely the most urgent is- away along with these personages them- sues for the first-line leaders Liu Shaoqi and selves." Deng Xiaoping.
After this, in European states all socialist par- Mao did not want to intervene very much [in ties or labor parties in their periods in power this issue]. Even building on Soviet experience made great efforts to promote similar distribu- was not criticized. In this period Mao Zedong tion means. In the 1980s, Poland’s Solidarity seemingly did not understand everything very leader Walensa, started a worker movement well, and he did not realize at that time there and restored the old capitalist order. Later he would be such serious consequences. Looking was elected President of Poland. He did not at his study situation at the beginning of the act to establish privileges for himself. After 1950s it is obvious that he still had not read leaving office, he still worked as an electrician. through Marx's and Engels' above-mentioned book. Then also it was perhaps not possible for This kind of viewpoint of Marx and Engels was him to indicate objections about grade wage adopted by the workers' movement and influ- system's establishment for some important enced most European capitalist countries' gov- reason. ernments’ public officials up to now. Usually the difference in wage income is not very wide. About this question Mao Zedong appears to In this side, Soviet methods and Marx and En- have attempted nothing and accomplished gels envisaged that under revolutionary state nothing. He had no choice but to understand power, public servants deserve compensation, the problem as a problem about money itself. but acted in a way that defeat the purpose. He spoke this way: "Money is a thing that is [doubtful translation] The USSR, which estab- very disagreeable, but I take it, too, but do not lished the job grade wage system as well as have a method for handling it. Today, everyone party policy of a cadre internal distribution gap, takes it, but also does not have a method for created a huge special class, a bureaucratic handling it. Lenin also did not have a method class. This class was the social origin of for handling it. Anyway, we still must have it." Khrushchev's revisionist practice. It brought However, Mao Zedong in the end was a con- about the split in the international communist vinced communist, whether or not he was clear movement. Finally it brought about the change about regarding socialism as the first phase of of flags [restoration of capitalistm] in Eastern communism, at least [he realized that] the Europe and the disintegration of the USSR. principle should be established that income distribution should be on a relatively equal ba- Comments on the wage grade system's revi- sis. Moreover, his background was in a peas- sion and Mao Zedong's reflections in "Mao's ant family, and he lived early on in a relatively Manuscripts Since the Founding of the State", free and simple way. All his life "money was which included Mao Zedong's instructions and the most disagreeable thing" and all his life he cables from this period, show that he obviously did not take money home. paid quite a lot of attention to land reform, the “anti-town” campaign, the “three antis” cam- Besides throughout his life Mao wanted to ex- paign, the “five antis” campaign and other polit- pel Chinese traditional society, that kind fate of ical movements and political ideological prob- the feudal system bureaucratic political organi- lems. 6 zation expressed by … [translations of tradi- 1956, he announced a wage standard that had tional phrases are omitted here]. no different trend from the previous one. Mao Zedong was obviously not satisfied with this. A He was even more reluctant to leave the Red heavy curtain fell over wage reform, and in the Army period's supply system, and was not at eighth central committee second plenum he all enthusiastic about implementing the wage put forward a criticism. In the plenary session system itself. But he consistently paid attention he concluded and specifically indicated his to his own experience, having gone through own view on this point : "Now comparing the the revolutionary war years and tried out the salary that senior cadres take with the people's supply system. At the heart of the Soviet stress living standard, there is a great disparity at the on the importance of using the method of ma- highest level. In the future we can also consid- terial incentives and relying on increasing the er decreasing some salaries." gap between grades in income distribution to motivate people to the maximum production He also mentioned that it is not only the ques- activity, some could have doubts, and there tion of salaries, in fact, but also questions of should be no doubts. Still, in the Yan'an period, special treatment of senior cadres. "One ques- Mao Zedong expressed concern about the tion is the material supply, another is too many grade trends in the supply system, as well as security guards. We must pay very close atten- about the huge bureaucratic organization it tion to additional changes, to set an example produced, and advocated streamlining the ad- and call on the people to struggle hard, and ministration. share comforts and hardships."
At the beginning of 1949 the Central Commit- In beginning to reflect on the experience of the tee of the Chinese Communist Party moved to gains and losses from the indiscriminate imita- Beijing, and held a meeting in the Zhongnanhai tion of the USSR in the previous few years, he Huairen meeting hall, where a high-ranking did not hesitate to begin to clearly put forward army officer proposed: for capitalists' meals 5 that the present wage standard makes the in- or 6 bowls are needed, while PLA meals are come gap too large. In 1956, the first wage brine and a little pickled cabbage. This won't system reform was comprehensively carried do. The army should have higher salaries. out, he particularly pointed out that within the Many participants at the conference expressed party's upper level: "We always advocate hard support. Mao Zedong however, at once put struggle and oppose individual material inter- forward a different idea. He straightforwardly ests above everything else." "Wages can in- refuted this principle: "This is just meddling. crease some, but the main additions are need- You have 5 bowls while we eat pickled cab- ed at the bottom, to add to the workers side so bage. There is politics in this cabbage. There is that the distance between the highest and low- a fine example in it. The PLA gets popular est is reduced." support from this cabbage. Naturally there are also other foods. Now the army's meals have After accepting Mao Zedong's criticism of the improved, and they are already somewhat dif- '55 reform scheme, small adjustments were ferent from pickled cabbage. But basically we included in the '56 reform. After Mao saw this, need to advocate hard struggle, and hard it was still proposed that the relative size of po- struggle is the distinctive character of our poli- litical staff wages differ by a factor of 25, which tics." still appeared to large to Mao.
After the Soviet Communist Party convened Mao Zedong once again proposed that the the Twentieth Party Congress [in 1956], and question was not only high wages, but also later publicly admitted that Stalin's methods about special privileges. In the administration, had serious problems, Mao was gradually able there were more than 10 grades of senior ca- to speak up. dres, who although they no longer enjoyed the privileges of the supply system, they were still This warning about the role of wages obviously enjoying discounted high-demand goods and a did not have any effect on Mao Zedong, and in special supply of high-quality goods (some- 7 times called "special supplies"), and besides the old society, which is a consequence Mao most, in accordance with their work relations, did not foresee. enjoyed secretaries, security guards, drivers, service, housekeepers, and cooks, as well as About the wage system reform which brought medical treatment and special vehicles, hous- about the grade system, Mao publicly said ing, etc., and every kind of special privilege, more than once: "The supply system changed which other lower-level cadres did not have into a wage system. Was that a necessary step? access to. In any case that change had tremendous de- fects, and led to a grade system that had strict Implementing the military rank system and the grades, too many grades, and evaluation grade system, with expanded wage gaps, can which established 30 steps. This was a con- only bring about very abnormal phenomena. It cession, and it was incorrect. Not only are sen- was precisely in the senior cadre evaluation ior cadres salaries very high, but even because process where all kinds of problems occurred. of someone's high salary, someone else has a Mao Zedong found that senior cadres' wages low salary, so big differences put some people and privileges rose so high that all kinds of into 'father-child [that is, unequal] relationships, problem not only did not decrease, but instead or cat-and-mouse relationships'." they emerged in an endless stream. Because of small differences of grade and some dispari- When all party traditions have been thrown ty of privileges, some people had quarrels and away, the combined power of a highly concen- complaints, and even burst into tears. trated grade system and wage system and creates high privileges, and cannot avoid mak- Mao Zedong was extremely disgusted about ing society revert to promoting the implementa- this. More than once he publicly criticized the tion of the traditional "government official party and said: Of course wages should in- standard" and establishing a bureaucratic polit- crease, but "now it looks as if wages are not ical system. very suitable and already give rise to people's resentments. But even more surprisingly, high This led to a gradual growth of bureaucratic grades and wages, disputed positions, striving policies. About this kind of tendency, Mao for reputation, and competing for advantages Zedong repeatedly criticized and many times are increased by this thing. In the past, in the initiated movements, developed rectifications, drive to do the utmost, in past times of class and even started the Cultural Revolution. Cer- struggle and in struggle against the enemy, we tainly after changes in the wage system, he had that kind of spirit of defying death, but now constantly advocated carrying on the revolu- that spirit has disappeared in some comrades. tionary spirit, and criticized the idea that "rash They are particular about food, particular about advance" is what develops that spirit. He drew clothes, comparing high salaries, crying ones up the general line of constructing socialism, eyes out at low-grade evaluations? It is said whose two main expressions were "going all that they also do not eat for a few days. To fast out and striving for the best" [rather than "rash and shed tears to support individual benefit, advance"] and using revolutionary spirit as mo- what is that? ” tivation. Time and again he stressed politics in command, in order to eliminate the negative Under the efforts of the evaluation team and effects of the wage system. He initiated the resolute implementation, wage grades became "Great Leap Forward", which fully aroused the a irreversible reality. But as time passed, Mao people of the whole nation to the activity of Zedong more and more firmly believed that this building socialism. might not necessarily be a kind of progress. He stated with certainty that communist party Over and over again Chairman Mao proposed members had no choice but give in and act like reducing the privileges of high-ranking cadres, this only because they wanted to accommo- even stressing the supply system's benefits, date themselves to reality [of the wage system]. and going so far as once approving attempting But the result of making concessions is a a partial resumption of the supply system. Be- grade system that is not much different from cause of the mass campaigns of the Great 8 Leap Forward against the wage system, Mao trend, which was based on the knowledge that definitely affirmed in October 1958 Zhang the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's staff Chunqiao's essay praising the supply system had already been transformed to enjoy high and criticizing the grade wage system, and wages and high bureaucratic privileges. thought that "Zhang's essay is mainly correct." This is why "People's Daily and the "PLA Re- Over and over again Mao warned: "A high sal- porter" both launched an enthusiastic discus- ary stratum definitely has a low salary stratum, sion, and most people thought that the supply even if the latter is in the majority. Therefore, system tradition should not have been sus- inside this society a high salary stratum is dan- pended, affirmed that the supply system is gerous". As a result of Mao Zedong's personal revolutionary, and is the best kind of distribu- revisions, the "Nine Comments" to the open tion system to advance toward the transition to letter from the Central Committee of the Com- communism. munist Party of the Soviet Union [in 1963-4], prominently stressed this point. The open letter, Some places started implementing the supply after a detailed analysis of all sorts of manifes- system approach. But thanks to the group of tations of the USSR's privileged stratum, clear- first-line leaders, who were Left in form but ly showed the path: "There should be no salary Right in essence, the communist wind blew up. system with high salaries for a small number of [Note: this seems to mean that the Right pro- people. Salaries should be rationally reduced moted excessive or inappropriate "communist" gradually and should not expand party, state, policies as a kind of sabotage.] business or commune disparities in individual income between staff and the popular masses. The supply system was practiced in the peo- All staff should be prevented from using their ple's communes, and the magpie cry arose to power to enjoy privileges." abolish the "wage system". In the first 10 days of November [1958], Chairman Mao made a Mao Zedong attached great importance to the sober analysis and said for the first time at the emergence of the privileged stratum inside the Zhengzhou meeting: "We want to resume the Chinese Communist Party and tried hard to supply system, but we want to continue to adopt measures that would guard against it. In have a proper wage system, and retaining part 1966 at the start of the "Cultural Revolution," it of the principle of working more to get more is appeared to Mao Zedong, who opposed the essential." "revisionist line" and the "group in power taking the capitalist road," that group was precisely Under this kind of pressure from Mao Zedong, the representatives in China of this type of bu- in February 1959, and again in October, the reaucratic privileged stratum. He for a time en- Central Committee of the Chinese Communist visioned and promoted that "cadres take part in Party twice ordered a reduction in the salaries labor" and "57 work school" would change the of senior cadres. In 1959, an explicit order to decision, but these were without effect. Mao reduce one to three grade party member ca- Zedong tried to use the Cultural Revolution to dres' wage standard, and leaders’ 3rd level change everything. But he met with strong op- wage standards were merged, later reducing position from senior cadres, and regretted the one to three grade wage standards to leaving this world, looking on helplessly. 404.8 Yuan, and the highest to the lowest wage grade was a factor of 20.24 to one. Extracted from
http://wengewang.org/read.php?tid=25132 )
“The Wage Grade System--The Breeding Ground of Revisionism,” translated by Thomas Weston. From the website http://marxistphilosophy.org This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at [email protected].
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