How to Differentiate the Classes in the Rural Areas

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of How to Differentiate the Classes in the Rural Areas has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

• How to Differentiate the Classes in the Rural Areas, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 1, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• How to Analyse Classes, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 4, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 1997.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a decree drafted by Comrade Mao Zedong for the Workers' and Peasants' Democratic Central Government of the Council Republic of China. It was first published in the Hongse Zhonghua, No. 89 (29th of June, 1933) and officially promulgated on the 10th of October, 1933.

This document was written to rectify the deviations that had occurred in the work of land reform and to provide a correct solution for the land problem. It was adopted by the Workers' and Peasants' Democratic Central Government of that time as establishing the criteria for determining class status in the rural areas.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE THE CLASSES IN THE RURAL AREAS

#DECREE OF THE WORKERS' AND PEASANTS' DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL GOVERNMENT OF THE COUNCIL REPUBLIC OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong

#Before the 29th of June, 1933

#★

#1. THE LANDLORD

A landlord is a person who owns land (no matter how much), does not engage in labour themself, or does so only to a very small extent, and lives by exploiting the peasants.

The collection of ground rent (including the collection of rent from school land) is their main form of exploitation; in addition, they may lend money, hire labour, or engage in industry or commerce. But their exaction of ground rent from the peasants is their main form of exploitation. The administration of communal land and ancestral temples and the collection of rent from school land¹ are included in the category of exploitation through ground rent. Among the landlords, the exploitation by the small landlords is the most ruthless.

A bankrupt landlord shall still be classified as a landlord if they do not engage in labour, but live by swindling or robbing others or by receiving assistance from relatives or friends, and are better off than the average middle peasant.

Warlords, officials, local tyrants, and evil gentry are political representatives and exceptionally ruthless members of the landlord class. Minor local tyrants and evil gentry are also very often to be found among the rich peasants.

The landlord class is the main enemy of the revolution; the policy of the Council Power toward the landlords is to confiscate all their property and to eliminate them as a class.

Persons who assist landlords in collecting rent and managing property, who depend on landlord exploitation of the peasants as their main source of income, and are better off than the average middle peasant shall be put in the same category as landlords.

Usurers are persons who rely on exploitation by usury as their main source of income, are better off than the average middle peasant, and shall be put in the same category as landlords. Although usurers are not landlords, usury is feudal exploitation. All of their property should be confiscated and they should be eliminated as a class.

#2. THE RICH PEASANT

The rich peasant,as a rule owns land. But some rich peasants own only part of their land and rent the remainder. Others have no land of their own at all and rent all their land (these two categories constitute the minority). The rich peasant generally has rather more and better instruments of production and more liquid capital than the average and engages in labour themself, but always relies on exploitation for part or even the major part of their income.

Their main form of exploitation is the hiring of labour (long-term labourers). In addition, they may let part of their land and practise exploitation through ground rent, or may lend money or engage in industry and commerce. Most rich peasants also engage in the administration of communal land. A person who owns a fair amount of good land, farms some of it themself without hiring labour, but exploits other peasants by means of ground rent, loan interest, or in other ways, shall also be treated as a rich peasant. Rich peasants regularly practise exploitation and many derive most of their income from this source.

The policy of the Council Power toward the rich peasants is to confiscate their land, but to confiscate only the surplus portion of their draft animals, farm implements, and houses, and yet to distribute to them land which is relatively hard to work.

#3. THE MIDDLE PEASANT

Many middle peasants own land. Some own only part of their land and rent the rest. Others own no land of their own at all and rent all their land. All of them have a fair number of farm implements. A middle peasant derives their income wholly or mainly from their own labour.

As a rule, they do not exploit others, and in many cases, they themself are exploited by others, having to pay a small amount in ground rent and in interest on loans. But, generally, they do not sell their labour-power. Some middle peasants (the upper-middle peasants) do practise exploitation to a small extent, but this is not their regular or their main source of income. All these people are middle peasants.

The policy of the Council Power toward the middle peasants is to unite firmly with them. The land of the middle peasants may not be redistributed without the consent of the persons concerned. Middle peasants with insufficient land should have land distributed to them in the same way as poor peasants and farmworkers.

#4. THE POOR PEASANT

Among the poor peasants, some own part of their land and have a few odd farm implements, while others own no land at all, but only a few odd farm implements. As a rule, poor peasants have to rent the land they work on and are subjected to exploitation, having to pay ground rent and interest on loans and to hire themselves out to some extent.

In general, a middle peasant does not need to sell their labour-power, while the poor peasant has to sell part of their labour-power. This is the main criterion for distinguishing between a middle and poor peasant.

In the redistribution of land, poor peasants should gain the same benefits as middle peasants and farmworkers. None of the land and farm implements owned by them originally should be confiscated.

#5. THE WORKER

The worker (including the farmworker), as a rule, owns no land or farm implements, though some do own a very small amount of land and very few farm implements. Workers make their living wholly or mainly by selling their labour-power.

In the agrarian revolution, workers in the rural areas should receive the same share of land ass poor and middle peasants. The small amount of land and farm implements owned by some of them originally should not be confiscated. If a family member works in the city, they are a worker. If their family in the rural areas has land to let and money to make loans, and if their family does not depend on the collection of rent and interest as its main source of income, its land should not be confiscated. In addition, their family should receive a share of land like that of ordinary peasants. If their family relies on the collection of ground rent and loan interest as its main source of livelihood, its land should be confiscated. Their spouse and children should, however, be given land. They themself do not receive land, since they are in the city.