Be Concerned with the Well-Being of the Masses, Pay Attention to Methods of Work

This is a part of the concluding speech made by Comrade Mao Zedong at the Second National Congress of Workers' and Peasants' Representatives held in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province in January 27, 1934. The work was entitled as " Concerned with the Well-being of the Masses, Pay Attention to Methods of Work", which is included in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 1. Between January 22 to February 1, 1934, the Second National Soviet Congress was held in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province. In those days, the KMT army stepped up its fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the Red Army. The central task facing the Communist Party of China was to mobilize the broad masses to take part in the revolutionary war, and beat back the "encirclement and suppression" campaigns of the KMT. However, some leading cadres “only talked about expanding the Red Army, enlarging the transport corps, collecting the land tax and selling bonds issued by the revolutionary governments in the base areas; as for other matters, they neither discussed nor attended to them, and even ignore them altogether.”

In terms of working methods, they are not willing to adopt practical, concrete tasks and ignore patient persuasion of the people, instead they adopt the commandist methods and issue coercive orders. These kind of thinking and mistaken practices have negatively affected the relationship between the Party and the masses and hindered the enthusiasm of the masses to participate in the revolution. At that time, Mao Zedong attached great importance to the investigation and study of the conditions at the grassroots level. Before this National Congress , he made a special survey of Changgang Township in Xingguo County of the Jiangxi Province and Caixi Township in Shanghang County of Fujian Province, which demonstrates the close relationship between caring for the well-being of the people lives and supporting the revolutionary war. At the same time, he also investigated and paid attention to the working methods adopted by several other local Soviet governments in mobilizing the masses and their relations with people at the grassroots level.

Mao Zedong said: after discussing and summing up the positive and negative experiences, problems concerning the well-being of the masses should be placed higher in our agenda, we should, pay more attention to the working methods, we should convince the masses that we represent their interests, so that they respond to our political appeals and fight to the end for victory in the revolution.” The article pointed out that a revolutionary war is a war of the masses, and millions of people who sincerely support the revolution are the true iron bastions. If we want to win, we must arouse the enthusiasm of the masses and mobilize them to support the revolution.

Mao Zedong said: If we only mobilize the people to carry on the war and do nothing else, we cannot succeed in defeating the enemy. We must do a great deal more. We must lead the peasants' struggle for land and distribute the land to them, heighten their labour enthusiasm and increase agricultural production, safeguard the interests of the workers, establish co-operatives, develop trade with outside areas, and solve the problems facing the masses—food, shelter and clothing, fuel, rice, cooking oil and salt, sickness and hygiene, and marriage. The concluding speech clearly pointed out that "the true iron bastion" is "the masses, millions of people who genuinely and sincerely support the revolution". The article also vividly compared the working method to "bridge or boat" and compared the completion and realization of the tasks to “crossing the river”, it emphasized: It is not enough to set tasks, we must also solve the problem of the methods for carrying them out, and we should oppose the bureaucratic methods of leadership, abandon the commandist working method, instead we should use the patient persuasive working method and adopt practical, concrete measures to solve the problems and use the method of patient persuasion.

The article is one of Mao Zedong's early works on the “mass line” policy of the CPC during the Agrarian Revolutionary War, and an important mark of the initial formation of mass line thought of Mao Zedong, and has important guiding significance for the Party to do a good job in the mass work.