Word: commune
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...works so hard that the commune...
Kanpu's Whistles. The instruments Li Fu-chun used to shape the formless multitude were the kanpus, or cadres, who carry out Peking's policies at all levels of society. They hustled China's peasant millions into people's communes, complete with mess halls, barracks, and the loss of identity common to military life. Routed from bed at dawn, the peasants lined up for roll call and marched off under red banners to the mist-hung fields. At the sound of the kanpu's whistle, they raced to their tasks of plowing, weeding or reaping...
Bricks for Jade. On the eve of the introduction of the commune system, Li Fu-chun warned that the economy was getting lopsided. Now, he said, there should be concentration on the farm problem. He was strongly supported by his fellow economists. One of them, hiding behind a pseudonym, wrote ominously: "We may gain heavy industry only to lose Man; we may even lose Man without gaining heavy industry...
...cruel rigidity of the commune system was conspicuously softened. The workday was cut to ten hours. Husbands and wives were to be permitted their own room, the unappetizing mess halls were shut down, and commune members were allowed to keep such personal belongings as "houses, bicycles, clothing, blankets, quilts, radios, watches and bank deposits." There was even a typical, doublethink explanation for this return to capitalism. "The small freedom within the big collective-this is dialectical unity...
...encompass the whole of it. While food is short everywhere, some provinces are far better off than others. Though most factories are badly run, all are not, and despite fatigue there is a slowly growing competence among skilled laborers. The Communists have even found a sunny side to the commune experience. Explained a Red official: "It wasn't production, it was education. Our people were in awe of technological processes. Now they have learned not to be afraid of 'technique.' It has lost its mystery. People who have actually poured their own steel and made things with...