| The CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee held its three session of the thirteen plenary session in Nanjing (expanded) from November19th to December9th in1960. This meeting was held to carry out the urgent instructions of the current rural people’s communes policy from Central Committee of the CPC because of the serious difficulties caused by Great Leap Forward and the people’s Commune Movement.There’s a grave situation of economy and society in Jiangsu before the meeting. All kinds of economic indicators are on a slippery slope, especially the agricultural production. Farmers are short of grain ration, which brought in death because of the underproduction and the high rate of grain collection. Take Bao Yin as an example,6.2%of the rural population (35391persons) died of hunger from the winter of1959to April1960. Cadres differed on how grave the situation was and the contradiction in the party increased, especially in the party committee and between the superior and the subordinates, which impeded a rapid change in the situation.Against this background, the Twelve-Article from the Central Committee led to this meeting. The meeting can be divided into three stages. From November19th to28th, they studied documents, raised questions, analyzed advantages and disadvantages, looked for reasons and preliminarily summed up experiences From November29th to December2nd, Liu Shunyuan and Ke Qingshi made a report successively, then the committee discussed about it. From December3rd to9th, all the regions discussed about the details in implementing the central committee’s decision and some supplement opinions to it according to Twelve Article and the reality. They also listened to Jiang Weiqing’s report..This meeting achieved fruitful results for its thorough exposure of the problems caused by Great Leap Forward including the "Five Wind" and its causes, the impurity of the Party spirit and the democracy in the Party. This essay introduces all the discussion in detail especially the whole process of Yang Zhou’s.The most serious mistake in the "Five Wind" is the Communist Wind. In Jiangsu, its process can be divided into three stages. In1958, almost all the communes, production teams and even every member was suffered from it during the movements of "pumping out steel", building water conservancy and reforming tools. It paused for a while after the Accounting convention in1959and then restarted, especially in building commune’s factory and developing pig raising. In1960, after the six-level cadres convention held by the Jiangsu Committee, most regions got rid of the Communist Wind while some continued in popularizing higher-yielding crops.The meeting presented a summary of the cause of the continuing Five Wind as two aspects, one was the pressure from the top, the other was the low level of their economic theory and making policy, subjectivism, bureaucratism, individualism and the lack of mass viewpoint.The meeting responded enthusiastically to Ke Qingshi’s talk about the superior and subordinate united so that the impurity of the Party spirit and the lack of democracy in the Party received much attention. The impurity of the Party’s spirit reflected in three respects. Firstly, formalism of cheating in the check became a common situation. Secondly, lots of local Party Committees hided their problems and cared too much about their own gains and loses. Thirdly, some local cadres not only hit and abused people, but also corrupted, ignoring the suffering of masses. Their behaviors were horrible and some of them even against the laws and discipline.The lack of democracy in the Party showed in several aspects. Some arbitrary local committee’s first secretary put themselves on top of the collective. They directly commanded the subordinate group and cadres without consulting. They didn’t trust the grassroots cadres and treated them rudely. Those Secretaries only listened to good news and allowed to report high production and achievements, ignoring bad news and problems. The meeting exposed many examples of undermining democracy in the party and came up with some concrete suggestions for restoring democracy.The unnatural death in Yangzhou was the most serious in Jiangsu province. Two issues are mainly narrated:the reason of the problem and who should hold the responsibility. Concerning the former, they thought that there were three reasons: firstly, they were overburdened in food and labor. Secondly, many fundamental policy were failed to seriously implement. Thirdly, the cadres bungled the production.. They agreed that the provincial, prefectural and county party committee should be blamed for the death. Cadres at all levels were named and shamed.This meeting is of great historical significance. Firstly, it become an important turning point of Great Leap Forward in Jiangsu province. Secondly, the situation was recognized,mind was united and solution was found out. Thirdly, it set up a democratic and realistic model in the party.To some extent, this meeting and other similar meeting in Jiangsu contributed to the successful holding of Seven Thousands People’s Meeting. There is a relationship of inheritance and actuation between them. But as a part, this meeting is far more thorough to solve the problem. So the meeting has important historical value, not only in Jiangsu’s CPC party,but also in the whole party. |
PDF Full Text Request