We should also adopt a correct policy for industry and commerce. We have learned some lessons in this regard. Often you may think you are winning over the many, but in reality you are losing them. When capitalists do business, they naturally want to make money by exploiting others. If a firm goes bankrupt or we confiscate it, it will have a much more adverse effect on the lives of the people than the exploitation of the capitalist does. So in doing things we would first consider by whose side we stand and how we can better serve the masses. Prohibiting capitalist exploitation sounds like a revolutionary idea, but if we make some calculations, we shall find that it is not a revolutionary idea, but an idea that will lead our revolution to failure. Operating in the Central Plains, the hundreds of thousands of our men there need food and clothing. If we neglect industry and commerce, we shall not be able to move forward at all. We have to organize our own economy to meet the needs of war. […] Therefore, we should take advantage of existing private industrial and commercial enterprises and organize our economy step by step. This merits our attention regarding the mass movement; we cannot allow the confiscation or closing down of industrial and commercial enterprises, including those owned by landlords and rich peasants. If the masses have divided up these enterprises, we must help them resume operation as quickly as possible. at the same time, we should form a united front with the businessmen, urging them to accept the paper money we issue. We should grant loans to businessmen and allow them to buy shares. The economy cannot be organized overnight. We should constantly check tax rates and our policy concerning industry and commerce, focusing our attention on war supplies and the people’s means of livelihood. While opposing profiteering and monopoly, we should still allow businessmen to make some money. Without specific policies, practical problems cannot be solved.

  • @cfgaussian
    link
    9
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    This needs to be read in the appropriate historical context which was the still ongoing civil war at the time. Different policies are called for during and after a war or at specific points in the historical development of socialism. It would be a mistake to read texts like this as a universally applicable how-to guide. We need to study and understand our own conditions and shape our party line scientifically to fit, taking into account not only the differences in material conditions, level of development of productive forces, etc. but also the present superstructure.

    • Soviet SnakeOP
      link
      41 year ago

      Agree, but at the same time this is the beginning of policies kept implementing during his role after Mao’s death. Basically allowing different classes from the bourgeois in order to profit from their capital and providing a good position in the global market.

      • @cfgaussian
        link
        51 year ago

        Under the condition that they don’t challenge the dictatorship of the proletariat and contribute to the overall economic development of the nation and the uplifting of the masses.