Why did Yakou Village decide to hold on to the commune system? Longtime village leader Uncle Man responded to our question with a determined voice. “I am a communist,” he said. Uncle Man, whose full name is Lu Hanman, was the CPC village secretary in Yakou Village for thirty-seven years—until 2011, when he retired at the age of 73. Called the “barefoot village secretary” because he always worked in the fields with bare feet, he has insisted on protecting farming for food, and managed to obtain permission from the authorities to reclaim 40,000 mu of delta land in 2002 for agriculture. He argues that collectivized farming protects “the weak” and guarantees local food security.
When the pressure to implement the Household Responsibility System came to the village in 1979, the villagers under Uncle Man’s leadership reached a consensus not to divide up the land use among individual households. The reason was practical. From the early 1980s to 2006 (when the agricultural tariffs were formally abolished), each laborer was required to pay agricultural tax in the form of more than 600 kilograms of grain per year, as well as meat, egg products, and edible oil. The practical problem was that there was a serious labor shortage in the village. As Yakou Village is close to Hong Kong and Macao, many young people have left the village or migrated to work, do business, or run factories. Most of the people left behind are the elderly, women, and children. That meant that if Yakou Village had adopted the Household Responsibility System, it would have been difficult for households without young and strong members to pay the agricultural tariffs. In 1979, after discussions, they decided to continue with collective agricultural production through the work-point system. This not only solved the tax issue but also maintained the village’s self-sufficiency through collective grain production. To this day, Yakou calls itself the Yakou Village Commune.
The solution was to implement “One village, two systems”: those who are young and strong can go to the city to work, while those who stay behind participate in agricultural production. The village committee organizes them into thirteen production teams, collectively growing rice and distributing it according to their work. They are able to maintain the dignity of laborers with a decent income. In 2010, for example, the net income from rice cultivation was RMB 2.51 million, and the total income from land leasing business was RMB 15 million, while the total income distributed to agricultural laborers amounted to RMB 6 million, or RMB 17,000 per capita per year.
“I am a communist.” - Uncle Man | Monthly Review
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