Page 23 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume I.indd

ANALYSIS OF THE CLASSES SOCIETY 17

they borrow at exorbitant rates of interest and buy grain at high
prices; their plight is naturally harder than that of the owner-peasants
who need no help from others, but they are better off than the poor
peasants. For the poor peasants own no land, and receive only half
the harvest or even less for their year’s toil, while the semi-owner
peasants, though receiving only half or less than half the harvest of
land rented from others, can keep the entire crop from the land they
own. The semi-owner peasants are therefore more revolutionary than
the owner-peasants, but less revolutionary than the poor peasants.
The poor peasants are tenant-peasants who are exploited by the land-
lords. They may again be divided into two categories according to
their economic status. One category has comparatively adequate farm
implements and some funds. Such peasants may retain half the prod-
uct of their year’s toil. To make up their deficit they cultivate side-
crops, catch fish or shrimps, raise poultry or pigs, or sell part of their
labour power, and thus eke out a living, hoping in the midst of
hardship and destitution to tide over the year. Thus their life is
harder than that of the semi-owner peasants, but they are better off
than the other category of poor peasants. They are more revolutionary
than the semi-owner peasants, but less revolutionary than the other
category of poor peasants. As for the latter, they have neither adequate
farm implements nor funds nor enough manure, their crops are poor,
and, with little left after paying rent, they have even greater need to
sell part of their labour power. In hard times they piteously beg help
from relatives and friends, borrowing a few tou or sheng of grain to
last them a few days, and their debts pile up like loads on the backs
of oxen. They are the worst off among the peasants and are highly
receptive to revolutionary propaganda. The small handicraftsmen are
called semi-proletarians because, though they own some simple means
of production and moreover are self-employed, they too are often
forced to sell part of their labour power and are somewhat similar to
the poor peasants in economic status. They feel the constant pinch of
poverty and dread of unemployment, because of heavy family burdens
and the gap between their earnings and the cost of living; in this
respect too they largely resemble the poor peasants. The shop as-
sistants are employees of shops and stores, supporting their families
on meagre pay and getting an increase perhaps only once in several
years while prices rise every year. If by chance you get into intimate
conversation with them, they invariably pour out their endless griev-
ances. Roughly the same in status as the poor peasants and the small