i RE SR > a rn ili as tan Ba - STORY OF CHINA IN 1960 - Big Problems, | Big Victories PT State Correspondent : Hibane Staff Correspondent aay —The 650,000,000 RS ketie of China fought a S of unprecedented nat- U ca 5 Calamities in 1960. It was e aa of big achievements a big difficulties. Steel, iron i hs Production advanced x ture mighty strides; agricyl- 1g : declined to the level of industry, depend- ee large degree upon agri 4 Pp ree te failed to reach. its Strict; Well es food 800ds) latter mo Belts Stim fect rationing (as rationing of many ame the rule in the Months of the year. Were tightened in the Struggle against the ef- Re. droughts and floods. as a was avoided: but food a8 ae in many districts. and she al Policy of “share hrow pe alike” was adopted S a Cut the country. aDpare Ugust. when it became tig nt that the food situa- the oe become critical, onder ° of the cities re- 2dpeal Magnificently to an o to plant cabbages, car- ables °nions and other veget- groung unused plots of - Parks became trans- Into gardens; even ne barren-looking ground . Curbs were spaded, sult: h and sown.. The re- fo0g ends of tons of Volunteers srown. by. urban duct tes Speeded~ up _ pro- help Nof farm implements to thei, 4 Peasants. carry on ae Tuggle against nature Mps C ° ? 1 OMbj es, eat tractors, Ag; F ~_ €antic transfer of man- meng ont'd from pg. 6 ae Canadian industry 8n trade in an _all- Ura}, > 80 that the immeas- Tesources of Canada of a Proven productivity Ure adian workers can se- Uhitieg he tremendous oppor- the Tadicnt 2te Presented by “Ondition Uy new economic sae There Sin the world today. “Onseaiie ‘S expressed the full isis j ‘ce of the structural omy. the Canadian econ- Teas se is the immediate Naga, Cf the failure of Ca- trieg pent Production indus- Nereag *xpand fast enough to the pp, °™Ployment. This is €y o¢ of the suicidal poli- fon dian-United States nN and the ‘sell-out of Ada ~ for which it is the power took place—some 20, 000,000 city workers trekked to the countryside. Included in this mass migration were 10,000 cadres to stregthen leadership in rural areas. About 10,000 of these left im- portant positions in central organizations. Their task in 1961: to help strengthen agri- culture’s economic founda- tions, heighten its technical level and increase its. ability to fight natural calamities... INDUSTRY Meanwhile, the leap for- ward in heavy industry con- tinued. Though flash floods and hurricanes knocked out railway lines and forced: some mines and steel plants to slow down or halt production for days at a stretch, the workers never for one moment weak- ened in their determination to achieve the high targets for steel, coal and iron set for the year. Their successes in fulfilling and topping their objectives must be recognized as a tre- mendous victory for social- ism. Here is the bright pic- ture: e STEEL: Target, 18.4 mil- lion tons; exceeded by a mar- gin of 50,000 tons. This repre- sents a net increase of more than five million tons over last year. e PIG IRON: Target, 27.5 million tons, an increase of 34 per cent over 1959. Fulfilled. @ COAL: Target, 425 mil- lion tons, an increase of 22 per cent over 1959. Fulfilled. These succeses were achiev- ed -in the face of great odds. Last August, for example, floods caused a suspension of iron, steel and coal produc- tion. in . Liaoning, Shantung and Hopei provinces. In addi- tion, some small. industrial firms servicing heavy. industry were forced to lower their or- iginal targets. when workers were shifted from.industry to agriculture. AGRICULTURE For two successive years agriculture has taken it on the chin. In 1959 some 80 million acres were affected by natural calamities, and in 1960 about 120 million acres—more than half the total farmland. “Natural calamities of this order have been unknown for the last century,’ commented a New Years Day editorial in Renmin Ribao. Drought was the main ene- my. Tibet was not affected; the Sinkiang area had abnor- mal weather but avoided cal- amity. All other provinces and Manpower and machines unite to overcome the difficulties of drought and floods beseti- ing Chinese agriculture. The better tillage made possible by power machinery is being achieved by the Chienming People’s Commune in Hopei province with its new tractors (left). Up in Kansu province in the far north-west, the peasants are working by hand to level terraced, fields which were but recently desolate hills (right). autonomous regions suffered heavily. - During the most serious period of the drought last spring and summer eight riv- ers (like the Wen and the Wei) out of the 12 main rivers in Shantung province had no flow of water. Even the iower stream of the Yellow River was almost dry—ior more than a month peasants could walk across the river. In the dark past, such nat- ural calamities inevitably meant mass hunger, ~'starva- tion, and millions. of deaths. Today, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, people fight back. Un- daunted by difficulties, they have launched mass move- ments to increase winter sow- ing, to accumulate manure, to develop irrigation, to protect their livestock during the cold winter—in short, to do everything possible to combat the effects of the natural cala- mities and to prepare to wrest a good crop from the land in 1961. Long range weather fore- casts predict that 196i will also be an unfavorable year, with nature again on the ram- page. Consequently, every- thing is being thrown into the vital battle of production. Says Renmin Ribao: “As early as 1959, the cen- tral committee of the Commu- nist Party and Chairman Mao Tse-tung put forward the policy ‘stipulating that China’s national economic, develop- ment must confirm agriculture as the foundation and industry as the leading factor, and combine priority to heavy in- dustry with the rapid develop- ment of agriculture. “Provided we concentrate on strengthening agriculture, overcoming the difficulties arising from natural calami- on events (A PT reader who has been in France for some weeks sent us an interesting letter from which the following excerpts are taken). “As. you’re doubtless aware, things - are happening in France. There was a general strike called yesterday by all the unions for one hour to show support for the Repub- lic (not DeGaulle) and to show -the Ultras what te expect if they tried to make a. landing in’ Paris — or anywhere else in France. “As for DeGaulle himself he can’t trust: any-of the military brass, and the workers -are now. demanding to be armed to. save the Republic from a | “coup de Militaire’. Yester- day> L’Humanite issued a spe- cial edition dealing with all the questions of the Putsch and sold 1 million copies in 24 hours in the city of Paris. “One interesting fact dug up by L’Humanite from govern- ment official files — 45% of the foreign legion, who were used to make the Putsch are ex-S.S. members — and 45% ex-Hungarian emigres. “Committees for the Defence of . the formed in every village. In Dax the list: of affiliates is im- pressive: G.G.T. (the big un- ties, and greatly push forward the growth of agricultural output, we shall certainly be able to lay a more solid found- ation for our national econ- omy and so enable it to stride forward - still more — success- fully.” May 12, Republic —are being | Vancouver man writes in France ions), Organizations of ex-re- sistance fighters, organizations of the rights of man, French Communist Party, Socialist Party, Young ..Communists, Young Socialists, Committee of the Peace in Algeria, Cath- olic Action Group. ex-P.O.W.s and concentration camp de- portees, “If anything prevents the Generals in Algiers from mov- ing to the mainland it will be the sure knowledge that the mass of the workers, regard- less of their religion of politi- cal beliefs, are united as one to smash them. : “In Algiers today young na- tional servicemen, — soldiers and sailors together held «a demonstration against the Putsch, all the while surroun- ded by the Foreign egion and professional parachutists, who support the rebels. = “DeGaulle will do nothing about it, but will wait for it to collapse of its own accord That is the only way open for him. After its over the cries for ‘peace in Algiers’ and ‘ne- gotiate with the F..N.’ will be so loud from the French peo- ple . that. I can see Freshat Abbas proclaimed Prime Min-- ister this year and the coun- try eventually turned over to the Algerian people.” PUBLIC MEETING| “COMMUNISTS & THE NEW PARTY”} Sun., May 14, 8 pm 2115 Grant St. Everyone Welcome 1961—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7 | ee ||) | 1! y : eB i i. ee