MATs, APCs

Question 1

Why did peasants support agriultural cooperation?

Answer 1

support from peasants for argicultural cooperation came from the pratical benefits
* like higher crop security against natural threats.

Question 2

How did the CCP’s beliefs differ from the peasants

Answer 2

Peasants werent supportive for the same ideological reasons of the party
* such as socialism or modernised economny.

Vice chairman Liu Shaoqi said the objective of land reform in order to ‘develop agricultural production and and open the way for the new chinas industrialisation

Question 3

Reasons for Mutual aid teams

Answer 3

December 1951 the CCP decided to introduce a gradual approach to collectivisation in order to bridge the gap between richer and poorer peasants.

Question 4

MATs
How did they work?

Answer 4

Peasants pooled reasources such as
* tools, labour, experience, knowledge and animals.
* Households with more land than labour could combine with families that had more labour than land

They consisted of 10 or fewer housheold
* richer peasants were excluded.

Question 5

MATs
Why were they welcomed?

Answer 5

MATs reflected the common pratice in vililages where families helped each other for the benefit of the whole community.
* particullarly benefited the poorest of peasants.

• 1952 an estimated 40% of all peasant households belonged to a MAT

Question 6

APCs

How did they work?

Why were they introcduced?

Answer 6

In order to reduce economic freedoms, in 1953 APCs were set up.
* land reorganised into a single unit
* peasanst compensated by a points system according to the land, labour and tools the contributed.

Once the harvest was collected and the state had taken its share peasanst recieved either grain or money in payment.

Question 7

APCs

Where they as popular as MATs?

How big were they?

Answer 7

• Comprised of 3 to 5 MATs joined together (30-50 households).
• less popular than MATs as peasants did not want to share thier newly aquired land.
• By June 1955 they were only 16.9 million peasant households in APCs out of a total of 110 million

Question 8

faliure of APCs

Production levels?

Who resisted joining?

Answer 8

Rich peasants resisted joining APCs
* espcially when cadres tried to skip organising families into MATs first.
* Some cadres undervalued poroperties and richer peasants killed animals rather than contribute them to the APC

production levels disspointing,
* first five year plan assumed a 23% increase in agirultual production, but output was fell far short.
* 1953-54 production has risen less than 2%

Question 9

The groth of APCs
How much did they grow?

Answer 9

APCs formed rapidly
* in December 1955 63.3% of peasants household were part of APCs,.
* 4% of which were high level APCs compirising of 2-3 hundred households. Somtimes encompassing whole villiages.

Question 10

CCPs approach to the growth of APCs

Answer 10

Mao was impressed by the enthisiasm of peasants for agricultural cooperation.
* ‘we must guide the movement boldy’
* ‘must not fear dragons ahead and tigers behind’.

Mao believed peasant support meant it wasnt necessary to wait for agirulcutal mechinisation before moving to large-scale production.
* announced it was ‘possible that socialism will be realised in 1959’

Question 11

Enforced collectivisation

Answer 11

• By Jan 1956 80.3% of households were in APCs, 30.7% of those were higher level APCs.
• Private ownership was completley abolished, members would only be compensated for thier labour
• thier land and equipment taken over by the state.
• By the 1956 almost 88% of peasants were in higher level APCs.