Problems With Mao's Collectivization Program

542 Words3 Pages
By: Seung Jin Kim Under Mao’s leadership, individual wealth/interest was seen as a hindrance to the general community goals of meeting production quotas set by the government. By 1955, the Communists saw phenomenon such as peasant individualism as not only a barrier to social change in the countryside, but also as a major roadblock to the development of the general national economy. This was because it was believed that stagnation in the agricultural sector meant stagnation in the industrial development. Communist leaders had simply assumed that the organization of the peasantry into mutual aid teams and agricultural cooperatives would be sufficient to blunt capitalist tendencies in the countryside, which began to spring up soon after the land reforms were accomplished. For example, better off peasants lent money to poorer farmers and in some cases, peasants that owed debt sold their land to the creditors. To the communists, it seemed as if the rural economy, left by itself in such conditions, would generate traditional characteristics of exploitation and socioeconomic differentiation, which they had been fighting to get rid of) It was also believed that communes and collective farming would also increase productivity in general. By making more efficient use of land, labor, and things like farm tools through collective efforts, the government believed agricultural production would grow and peasants would began appreciating the virtues of collective organization. However, it was not long before the collectivization and the commune system were beset with a variety of challenges. For one, there wasn’t any incentive for the rich and better off peasants to join the communes or collective efforts. Sure, the poor had much to gain, but the rich didn’t gain anything by joining. A key feature of the commune was the total lack (non-existence) of private ownership. Within
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